FInancial reasons for Boris' trip

March 16, 1929

The real reason for King Boris of Bulgaria's European sojourn was not to seek medical attention, according to a Prague newspaper, but to seek a solution to "the financial difficulties that stand in his way of his marriage to Princess Giovanna of Italy, and that of his brother, Prince Cyril, to a 'member of the New York gold aristocracy.'" Thus, was the statement in the Prager Tagblatt, and reported by the New York Times.
Prince Cyril is involved in "long drawn out legal battle" against Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Dorothea, Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein over the estate of the late Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The estate is worth $30,000,000. The "protracted legal quarrel" also now includes the Czechoslovakian government, creditors and the "prospective inheritors." All of this wrangling has taken its toll, and the legal costs "may absorb the greater part of the estate if the case persists much longer."
Prince Cyril is currently in the United States and "it is believed that he cherishes matrimonial intentions." It has been assumed that King Boris has visited his cousin, Dorothea, at her home in Primkenau, and has urged her "to make a compromise with the other two claimants."