Ferdinand I

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Ferdinand I

1. known as Ferdinand the Great. ?1016--65, king of Castile (1035--65) and Le?n (1037--65): achieved control of the Moorish kings of Saragossa, Seville, and Toledo

2. 1503--64, king of Hungary and Bohemia (1526--64); Holy Roman Emperor (1558--64), bringing years of religious warfare to an end

3. 1751--1825, king of the Two Sicilies (1816--25); king of Naples (1759--1806; 1815--25), as Ferdinand IV, being dispossessed by Napoleon (1806--15)

4. 1793--1875, king of Hungary (1830--48) and emperor of Austria (1835--48); abdicated after the Revolution of 1848 in favour of his nephew, Franz Josef I

5. 1861--1948, ruling prince of Bulgaria (1887--1908) and tsar from 1908 until his abdication in 1918

6. 1865--1927, king of Romania (1914--27); sided with the Allies in World War I

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Ferdinand I

(Ferdinand I of Saxe-Coburg). Born Feb. 14, 1861, in Vienna; died Sept. 9, 1948, in Coburg, Bavaria. Prince of Bulgaria from 1887 to 1908; tsar of Bulgaria from 1908 to 1918.

Ferdinand I, a son of Prince August of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, founded the Coburg dynasty in Bulgaria. During his reign, German influence grew in Bulgarian affairs. Ferdinand I was responsible for unleashing the Second Balkan War (1913) and for drawing Bulgaria into World War I in October 1915. Forced to abdicate in 1918, he fled to Germany.

Ferdinand I

(Ferdinand the Great). Born 1016 or 1018; died Dec. 27, 1065, in León. King of Castile from 1035; king of the combined Kingdom of Castile and León from 1037.

Ferdinand I was married to the sister of Bermudo III, king of León. After the latter’s death in 1037, he united Castile and León into a single kingdom. He later recovered extensive territory from the Moors, including Coimbra in 1064, and forced the emirs of Toledo, Badajoz, Zaragoza, and Sevilla to become his vassals. By the end of his reign he controlled a large part of the Iberian Peninsula. After his death, the kingdom of Ferdinand I was divided among his three sons and two daughters, in accordance with his will.