Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz

Princess/Tsaritsa of Bulgaria from 1908 to 1917

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Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz

Princess consort of Bulgaria
Tenure| 28 February 1908 – 22 September 1908
Tsaritsa consort of Bulgaria
Tenure| 22 September 1908 – 12 September 1917

Born| (1860-08-22)22 August 1860
Trebschen, Kingdom of Prussia
Died| 12 September 1917(1917-09-12) (aged 57)
Euxinograd, Kingdom of Bulgaria
Burial|

Boyana Church

Spouse| Ferdinand I of Bulgaria
| Names

Eleonore Caroline Gasparine Louise Reuss
House| Reuss-Köstritz
Father| Prince Heinrich IV Reuss of Köstritz
Mother| Princess Luise Caroline Reuss of Greiz
Religion| Eastern Orthodox
prev. Lutheranism

Princess Eleonore Caroline Gasparine Louise Reuss-Köstritz (Bulgarian: Елеонора Българска; 22 August 1860 – 12 September 1917) was Tsaritsa (Queen) of Bulgaria, as the second wife of Ferdinand I of Bulgaria and member of an ancient House of Reuss by birth.

## Life

[edit]

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Royal Monogram of Queen Eleonore of Bulgaria

Born in Castle Trebschen, in the Prussian Province of Brandenburg (present-day Poland), the daughter of Prince Heinrich IV Reuss zu Köstritz (1821-1894) and Princess Luise Caroline Reuss zu Greiz (1822-1875), widowed Princess of Saxe-Altenburg. She was also a younger sister to Prince Heinrich XXIV Reuss of Köstritz and a first cousin to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia. Eleonore's father Heinrich IV and Marie's mother Auguste were brother and sister. She was described as "a plain but practical... capable and kind-hearted woman."

At the age of seventeen, Eleonore was engaged to Russian nobleman, Mark Alexandrovich Ospenyi. The day after the engagement he was summoned to Russia to fight in the Russo-Turkish War. Ospeni was wounded during a battle at the village of Telish and later died from these wounds.[citation needed]

Following the death of his first wife, Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma, Tsar Ferdinand sought another wife to carry out the official duties required of the consort of a head of state. As a man who was no longer required to produce heirs, Ferdinand stipulated to his assistant that he wanted a bride who did not expect affection or attention.[1]

A list of candidates was whittled down to Eleonore and she and Ferdinand subsequently married at a Catholic ceremony on 28 February 1908 at St. Augustine's Church in Coburg and a Protestant ceremony on 1 March 1908 at Osterstein Castle, Reuss family estate. Initially titled Princess of Bulgaria, Eleonore assumed the title Tsaritsa ("Queen") on 5 October 1908 following Bulgaria's declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Eleonore remained neglected by Ferdinand throughout their marriage, leaving her to raise her stepchildren and devote herself to the welfare of the Bulgarian people. Eleonore came into her own during the Balkans and First World Wars when, working tirelessly as a nurse, she was a cause of great comfort for many injured and dying Bulgarian soldiers. It was said that she had "a special gift for relieving suffering".

Tsaritsa Eleonore became seriously ill during the final years of World War I, dying in Euxinograd, Bulgaria on 12 September 1917. Her last wish was to be buried in the cemetery of a 12th-century church at Boyana, near Sofia. During the Socialist period, however, the grave was broken into, her jewelry stolen and then the memorial stone bulldozed back in the grave, with no visible marks left over the ground. However, after the democratic changes in 1989, the original memorial stone was excavated and the site was restored back to the original state.

## Arms

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| Coat of Arms of Queen Eleonore
of Bulgaria

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## Ancestry

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Ancestors of Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | 8\. Heinrich XLIV, Prince Reuss of Köstritz

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| 4\. Heinrich LXIII, Prince Reuss of Köstritz|

|  |  |
| 9\. Baroness Wilhelmine von Geuder genannt Rabensteiner

| 2\. Heinrich IV, Prince Reuss of Köstritz|

|  |  |  |  |
| 10\. Heinrich, Count of Stolberg-Wernigerode

| 5\. Countess Eleonore of Stolberg-Wernigerode|

|  |  |
| 11\. Princess Johanna of Schönburg-Waldenburg

| 1\. Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz|
|  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 12\. Heinrich XIII, Prince Reuss of Greiz

| 6\. Heinrich XIX, Prince Reuss of Greiz|

|  |  |
| 13\. Princess Wilhelmine Louise of Nassau-Weilburg

| 3\. Princess Luise Reuss of Greiz|

|  |  |  |  |
| 14\. Prince Charles de Rohan-Rochefort

| 7\. Princess Gasparine de Rohan-Rochefort|

|  |  |
| 15\. Marie-Louise de Rohan-Guéméné

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Stéphane Groueff, Crown of Thorns: The Reign of King Boris III of Bulgaria, 1918-1943, Madison Books, 1998.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eleonora of Bulgaria.

* Aronson, T. (1986) Crowns in conflict: the triumph and the tragedy of European monarchy, 1910–1918, J. Murray, London. ISBN 0-7195-4279-0
* Constant, S. (1979) Foxy Ferdinand, 1861–1948, Tsar of Bulgaria, Sidgwick and Jackson, London. ISBN 0-283-98515-1

## External links

[edit]

* Newspaper clippings about Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz

House of Reuss-Köstritz

Cadet branch of the 1917

Born: 22 August 1860 Died: 12 September

Royal titles
Vacant

Title last held by

Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma |  Princess of Bulgaria
28 February – 22 September 1908  | Title abolished
Vacant

Title last held by

Dragana of Serbia |  Tsaritsa of Bulgaria
22 September 1908 – 12 September 1917  | Vacant

Title next held by

Giovanna of Italy

* v
* t
* e

Princesses of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha by marriage

1st generation|

* Princess Maria Antonia Koháry of Csábrág and Szitnya*
* Princess Louise of Orléans

2nd generation|

* Princess Alexandrine of Baden
* Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom
* Maria II, Queen of Portugal and the Algarves
* Princess Clémentine of Orléans
* Archduchess Marie Henriette of Austria**
* Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen**

3rd generation|

* Princess Alexandra of Denmark***
* Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia***
* Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia***
* Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont***
* Princess Stephanie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
* Princess Maria Pia of Savoy
* Princess Louise of Belgium
* Princess Leopoldina of Brazil
* Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma
* Princess Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz
* Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria**

4th generation|

* Princess Victoria Mary of Teck***
* Princess Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife***
* Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg***
* Princess Amélie of Orléans
* Archduchess Karoline Marie of Austria
* Princess Mathilde of Bavaria
* Princess Giovanna of Savoy
* Princess Astrid of Sweden**
* Lilian Baels**

5th generation|

* Countess Viktoria-Luise of Solms-Baruth
* Princess Augusta Victoria of Hohenzollern
* Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela
* Fabiola de Mora y Aragón
* Paola Ruffo di Calabria**
* Léa Wolman**

6th generation|

* Miriam Ungría y López
* María del Rosario Nadal y Fuster de Puigdórfila
* Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz**
* Claire Coombs**

7th generation|

* Kelly Rondestvedt^

* *princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld by marriage until 1826
* **also a princess of Belgium by marriage
* ***also a British princess by marriage
* ^did not have a royal or noble title by birth

* v
* t
* e

Bulgarian royal consorts

First Empire (681-1018)|

* Maria
* Irene Lekapene
* Agatha
* Margaret of Hungary
* Irene of Larissa
* Maria

Second Empire (1186-1396)|

* Elena-Evgenia
* Kumankata
* Elisabeth of Courtenay
* Anna Maria of Hungary
* Irene Komnene Doukaina
* Anna of Halych
* Maria Asenina of Bulgaria
* Irene Doukaina Laskarina
* Maria Palaiologina Kantakouzene
* Irene Palaiologina
* Kira Maria Asenina of Bulgaria
* Smiltsena Palaiologina
* Euphrosyne of Bulgaria
* Theodora Palaiologina
* Ana-Neda
* Theodora of Wallachia
* Sarah-Theodora
* Kira Maria
* Dragana of Serbia
* Anna of Wallachia

Principality (1878-1908) and
Kingdom (1908-1946)|

* Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma
* Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz
* Giovanna of Savoy

Consorts to Pretenders (1946-present)|

* Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
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National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data

People|

* Deutsche Biographie

Other|

* IdRef
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