KING FERDINAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14301, 22 February 1910, Page 5

KING FERDINAND.

By Telegraph.—

• - Berlin, February 20. King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, accompanied by two Ministers of State, has left Sofia on an official visit to the Tsar of Russia.

BULGARIA'S RULER. King Ferdinand I. of Bulgaria is the youngest son of the late Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and the Princess Clementine of Bourbon- the daughter of King Louis-Phillippe. Bora in 1861, he was elected as the ruling Prince of Bulgaria under the suzerainty of Turkey by the unanimous vote of National Assembly in 1887. It was always his ambition to i become King of his, country, and his dream was realised last year after nearly 22 years of labour, after having patiently, courageously, and diplomatically . worked for the improvement and greatness of the country over which he was called upon to rule. He last visited England in 1905, on a visit to King Edward, of whom he is a kinsman, being descended from the grandfather, of Queen Victoria. In 1893 he married Princess Marie Louise of Parma, who died nine years ago. His second wife, whom he married"in 1908, is the Princess Eleanora, the elder sister of Prince Henry of ReussKostritz, a principality lying between Saxony and Bavaria. Prince Ferdinand has two sons, the elder of whom, Prince Boris, is 15 of age.