Ferdinand Maximilan Charles Leopold Marie, Ferdinand of Bulgaria (1861-1948) T T he son of Augustus of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1818-81) and his wife Clémentine of Orléans (1817-1907) and a grand-nephew of Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Ferdinand was born in Vienna, initially with the title Duke of Saxony, later succeeding his father as Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He was proclaimed Prince Regnant of autonomous Bulgaria on July 7, 1887 in the Gregorian calendar (the "New Style" used hereinafter), ten months after the abdication of his predecessor Prince Alexander. Bulgaria's domestic political life was dominated during the early years of his reign by liberal party leader Stefan Stambolov, whose foreign policy saw a marked cooling in relations with Russia, formerly seen as Bulgaria's protector. Ferdinand married Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma, Princess of Bourbon-Parma. The couple had four children: Boris III (1894- 1943); Kyril (1895-1945); Eudoxia (1898-1985); Nadejda (1899- 1958). Following Maria Luisa's death (on January 31, 1899), Ferdinand married Eleonore Caroline Gasparine Louise, Princess Reuss-Köstritz on (February 28, 1908). Stambolov's fall (May 1894) and subsequent assassination (July 1895) paved the way for a reconciliation with Russia, effected in February 1896 with the conversion of the infant Prince Boris from Catholicism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Ferdinand became Tsar of Bulgaria upon the country's declara-tion of independence from the Ottoman Empire on October 5, 1908. The two Balkan Wars of October 1912-July 1913 saw the partial reversal of initial Bulgarian territorial gains. Ferdinand abdicated on October 3, 1918 after Bulgaria's defeat in World War I, which she had entered (October 1915) on the side of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire in an attempt to reverse the losses of 1913. He died in Burglassschloßen in Coburg, and is buried in St. Augustin's Catholic Church.