The death of Princess Ferdinand

February 4, 1899

The Marquise de Fontenoy reports today on the recent death of Princess Ferdinand of Bulgaria. who died on January 31 shortly after giving birth to a daughter.    She was, "far from beautiful or elegant, narrow-minded in the extreme, and unloved by either her husband or the people of her adopted country," writes the Marquise, yet she "managed to win and retain not only universal respect but likewise sympathy.  There is not a capital in Europe here her "fate has not excited pity, and where her death will not be regarded as a release rather than a cause for regret."

The Princess was born Princess Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Parma, a daughter of the last reigning duke of Parma.  She was "reared with the utmost care at the petty court maintained by her father at Viareggio."  The duke also owned a home in Austria.  He retained great wealth, unlike other former sovereigns.  Princess Maria Luisa was "imbued with all the strict notions and prejudices of the Bourbons on the subject of religion, etiquette, and government."

In 1892, she became engaged to Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria at her home, Schloss Schwartzau in Austria.  The couple did not meet until the day of their engagement as the marriage was arranged by the Duke of Parma and Ferdinand's mother, Princess Clementine of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.   Not long after the engagement was announced, Princess Clementine wrote to Queen Victoria: "Unhappily not very pretty, it is the only thing, which is lacking, since she is charming, good, very witty, intelligent and very likable."

The wedding took place on April 20, 1893, at the Duke of Parma's home, Villa Pianore.

Life in Bulgaria proved to be a difficult transition for the sheltered princess.  Everything was "calculated to offend her sense of delicacy and propriety, as well as her religious and political principles."   The Princess was raised a devout Roman Catholic.    The "absence of manners" even among members of Prince Ferdinand's household beggared belief.

With the help of her "clever mother-in-law," Maria Luisa sought to place her husband's court "upon a respectable basis.  She brought to Sofia Count de Foras, a French nobleman long in the Bourbons' service, to bring the court "on a proper basis, and to evolve order out of chaos."

This action at first "gave great offense" to all the Bulgarian officials and statesmen.  The Prime Minister, for one, could not understand the need to show deference or could not tolerate "the idea that he, like everyone else, must yield obedience to rules of court etiquette."

The Princess was said to be shocked when her husband, obtaining "the recognition" of the Russian Czar, arranged for their three-year-old son, Boris, who was baptized in the Roman Catholic faith, to be re-baptized according to the rites of the Orthodox Church.

Maria Luisa believed that her son's second baptism "was sufficient not only to imperil the little fellow's prospects of salvation in the world hereafter but likewise those of his parents, and in her eyes, this offense against the laws of her church was the more unpardonable" because it was prompted not by political or dynastic needs, but "solely for the purpose of gratifying the extraordinary vanity of Prince Ferdinand."

The Marquise is convinced that Prince Ferdinand will remarry, and within a year will "abandon the Roman Catholic Church, which declines to have anything to do with him."  She believes he will join the Orthodox church, and marry a Princess of that faith, perhaps one of the daughters of the Prince of Montenegro.

Read more about the Bulgarian Royal family:

https://royalbooknews.blogspot.com/2011/02/read-more-about-it-bulgarian-royals.html

https://royalbooknews.blogspot.com/2021/08/king-simeons-memoirs-now-in-english.html

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