On April 5, 1857, the first Bulgarian prince, Knyaz Alexander I, was born

On April 5, 1857, in Verona, Italy, the first Bulgarian prince, Knyaz Alexander I (1857–1893), was born.

The first Bulgarian prince, Alexander Joseph von Battenberg, was descended from the German family of Prince Alexander von Hessen-Darmstadt; his mother was the Polish-born Julia von Hauke. He was closely related to the Russian imperial court and the British royal family. He received a military education in Potsdam. As an officer in the Russian army, he participated in the Russo-Turkish Liberation War (1877–1878).

With the consent of the Great Powers and Russia, on April 17, 1879, he was elected by the First Grand National Assembly as knyaz of the newly liberated Bulgarian state, in accordance with Bulgaria’s monarchical system as established in the Treaty of Berlin and the Tarnovo Constitution. On June 26, 1879, he took the oath of office in Tarnovo.
Young, barely 22 years old, Alexander I Battenberg had no governing experience and was unfamiliar with the country, but he sought to bring order to the chaos of the nascent Bulgarian state by laying the foundations of modern state institutions. The complex domestic political situation was further complicated and fueled by the sharp contradictions between the Great Powers and Russia.

Knyaz Alexander’s seven-year reign was marked by dramatic events: he established a regency (1881–1882), then restored constitutional rule, supported the Unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia (1885), followed by the Serbian-Bulgarian War (1885); a coup was organized against him, he was briefly restored to power, and then forced to abdicate in 1886.

In the final years of his life, Alexander Battenberg lived in Graz, Austria. He entered military service and took the name Count Hartena. In 1887, he married the singer Johanna Loisinger. From this marriage, their two children were born, named with the Bulgarian names Krum-Asen and Vera-Tsvetana. Portrait photographs, objects, medals, and documents related to the reign of Knyaz Alexander I are preserved at the National History Museum (NIM); some of them are on display in the NIM’s permanent exhibition (Hall 5). Among them are the three trays with which he was welcomed in various cities across the country and which were presented to him, as well as the Manifesto of his abdication (August 26, 1886).

The first Bulgarian prince, Alexander I of Battenberg, died at the age of 36 on November 17, 1893, in Graz. In accordance with his final wishes, his body was buried in Bulgaria on January 3, 1898, in a specially constructed mausoleum in Sofia.

Text: Mariana Parvanova