Ferdinand II of Portugal

Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (29 October 1816 – 15 December 1885), named Prince Ferdinand Augustus Francis Anthony of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Koháry, was King of Portugal as husband of Queen Maria II of Portugal from the birth of their son in 1837 to her death in 1853.

In keeping with Portuguese law, only after the birth of his son in 1837 did he acquire the title of King, reigning as Ferdinand II of Portugal. His reign came to end with the death of his wife in 1853, but he was regent for his son Pedro V to 1855. He was born a German prince of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Early life

Ferdinand was the son of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his wife Princess Maria Antonia Koháry de Csábrág. Prince Ferdinand grew up in several places: the family's lands in modern-day Slovakia, the imperial court of Austria, and Germany. He was a nephew of King 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 of Portugal

According to Portuguese law, the husband of a queen regnant could only be titled king after the birth of a child from that marriage (that was the reason the Queen's first husband, Auguste, Duke of Leuchtenberg, never earned title of king). After the birth of the future Peter V of Portugal, Ferdinand was proclaimed King Ferdinand II of Portugal.

Although it was Maria to whom the ruling power belonged, the royal couple formed a good team and together resolved many problems in Maria's reign. The king played a very important part in Portuguese political history, reigning by himself during his wife's pregnancies.

Eventually, Maria died as a result of the birth of their eleventh child. Ferdinand's reign ended, but assumed the regency of Portugal in the years 1853–1855 during the minority of his son King Peter V.

Later life

In 1869 he rejected an offer to assume the throne of Spain.

Late in his life Ferdinand married the opera singer Elisa Hensler, Countess of Edla.

Ferdinand 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 architectural fantasy 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 Maria II, Queen-regnant of Portugal, daughter of Peter IV of Portugal (I Emperor of Brazil). Later in his life, after the death of Maria, he married in Lisbon on 10 June 1869 actress Elisa Hensler^[1] (Neuchâtel, 22 May 1836 – Lisbon, Coração de Jesus, 21 May 1929), created Gräfin von Edla, without issue.^[2]

He outlived eight of his eleven children.

Notes