FERDINAND II OF PORTUGAL

Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

'Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha' (October 29 1816 - December 15 1885) was king consort to Maria II of Portugal from their marriage in 1836 to her death in 1853. In keeping with Portuguese law, only after the birth of his son in 1837 was he styled 'Ferdinand II of Portugal'. He was regent for his son Pedro V from 1853 to 1855. He was born a German prince, of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Contents

Early life

King-Consort of Portugal

Later life

Marriages and descendants

See also

Early life

Ferdinand was the son of Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, Prince of Kohary and his wife, Princess Maria Antonia Koháry, heiress of Čabrad and Sitno, both in modern Slovakia, a Catholic noblewoman who inherited her family's position as Magnate of Hungary. (Because of the inheritance of Kohary, this branch of the previously fully Protestant Coburg family became Roman Catholics, and good marriage material to Roman Catholic royalties). Prince Ferdinand grew up in several places: the family's lands in modern day Slovakia, the Austrian court, and Germany. He was a nephew of Leopold I of Belgium, and a first cousin to his children Leopold II of Belgium and Empress Carlota of Mexico, as well as Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert.

King-Consort of Portugal

According to the Portuguese laws, the husband of a Queen Regnant could only be titled King after the birth of any child from that marriage (that was the reason the Queen's first husband, Auguste of Leuchtenberg, did not have that title). After the birth of the future Peter V of Portugal, he was proclaimed 'Ferdinand II of Portugal'.
Although it was Maria to whom the ruling power belonged, they were a good team and together resolved many problems in Maria's reign. The King-Consort had a very important part in Portuguese political history, acting frequently as regent during his wife's pregnancies.
When Ferdinand's father died in 1851, he received the titular position as Prince of Kohary, but because already in Portugal, he left the Kohary possessions Čabrad and Sitno (both in the today Slovakia) to be administered by his mother and next brother. In 1865, upon the death of his mother, King Ferdinand became Prince of Kohary, of Čabrad and Sitno, but he left the princely holdings under the care of his brother August, who also was entrusted with the Kohary family's positions (seat and vote) as magnates of Hungary and princely members of the Austrian upper house.
Eventually, Maria died as a result of the birth of their eleventh child and Ferdinand had to assume regency of Portugal (1853-1855) because his son King Peter V was only 13 years old.

Later life

In 1869 he rejected an offer to the Spanish throne.
Late in his life Ferdinand married the opera singer Elisa Hensler, Countess of Edla.
He was an intelligent and artistically-minded man with modern and liberal ideas. He was adept at etching, pottery and painting aquarelles. He was the president of the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Arts, lord-protector of the university of Coimbra and Grand-Master of the Rosicrucians.
In 1838 he built near Sintra the Pena National Palace, a wild phantasy in an eclectic style, full of symbolism that could be compared with the castle Neuschwanstein of king Ludwig II of Bavaria. He spent his last years in this castle with his second wife, receiving the greatest artists of his time.

Marriages and descendants

Ferdinand married to Maria, Queen-regnant of Portugal, daughter of Peter I of Brazil (IV of Portugal). Later in his life, after the death of Maria, he married Elisa Hensler.

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
'By Maria II of Portugal' (April 4 1819-November 15 1853; married on April 9 1836)
Peter V	September 16 1837	November 11 1861	Who succeeded his mother as Peter V, the 31st (or according to some historians 32nd) King of Portugal.
Luís I	October 31 1838	October 19 1889	Who succeeded his brother Peter as the 32nd (or according to some historians 33rd) King of Portugal.
Infanta Maria	October 4 1840	October 4 1840
Infante João	October 4 1840	December 27 1861
Infanta Maria Ana	August 21 1843	February 5 1884	Married King George of Saxony and was mother of King Frederick August III of Saxony.
Infanta Antónia	February 17 1845	December 27 1913	Married Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Singmaringen and was the mother of King Ferdinand I of Romania.
Infante Fernando	July 23 1846	November 6 1861	Died of cholera in 1861.
Infante Augusto	November 4 1847	September 26 1889	Duke of Coimbra.
Infante Leopoldo	May 7 1849	May 7 1849
Infanta Maria da Glória	February 3 1851	February 3 1851
Infante Eugénio	November 15 1853	November 15 1853
'By Elisa Hensler' (1836 - 1929; married in 1869)

See also

★ List of Portuguese monarchs