site.btaOctober 3, 1918: Tsar Ferdinand I Renounces Bulgarian Throne in Favor of His Son Boris III

Bulgaria’s Tsar Ferdinand I signed a manifesto renouncing the throne in favor of his son Boris on October 3, 1918.

Ferdinand was required by the Entente to abdicate and leave the country under the Armistice of Salonica signed on September 29, 1918, which ended Bulgaria’s participation in World War I.

Ferdinand’s son, whose full name was Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislaus Xaver, ascended the throne as Boris III and ruled until his death on August 28, 1943.

Boris III was born on January 30, 1894. During his reign, he strengthened the role of the monarchy. He ruled during a time of intense political and social conflict, following two national catastrophes and a global economic crisis. He managed to stabilize the country and implemented a careful foreign policy.

Under his rule, Bulgaria entered the Tripartite Pact on March 1, 1941, but he refused to send troops to the Eastern Front. He also played a crucial role in the return of Southern Dobrudzha to Bulgaria in the autumn of 1940.

Tsar Boris III was three-times Knight of the Legion of Honour (France), a Knight of the Royal Victorian Order (Britain), a Knight of the Order of Leopold (Belgium). He was also awarded the Order of the Red Eagle (Prussia), the Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle the First-Called, the Order of St Alexander Nevsky, and the Order of Saint Anna (Russia), among others.

He died of apparent heart failure in 1943 after returning to Sofia from a meeting with Hitler. The circumstances of his death remain controversial to this day. The monarch was initially buried in the South Chapel of the Rila Monastery Cathedral on September 5, 1943, in accordance with his own wish. By order of the communist authorities, on April 24, 1946, the remains of Boris III were removed from the holy monastery and reburied in the chapel of the Vrana Royal Palace near Sofia. That grave was blown up in 1954, and the royal remains disappeared. On October 18, 1991, the heart of Boris III was found preserved in a glass jar when archaeologists dug up his second grave in Vrana Park. His heart was buried in his restored grave at Rila Monastery on the 50th anniversary of his death, August 23, 1993.