Ferdinand II of Portugal Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (October 29 1819 - December 15 1885) was consort king of Portugal following his marriage to Queen Maria II in 1836. He was the son of Ferdinand, a Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and his wife, Princess Maria Antonia of Kohary, a Catholic Hungarian noblewoman. (Because of the inheritance of Kohary, this branch of the previously fully Protestant Coburg family became Catholics, and good marriage material to Catholic royalties).
According to the Portuguese laws, the husband of a Queen could only be titled King after the birth of any child from that marriage (that was the reason because the Queen's first husband, Auguste of Leuchtenberg, did not have that title). After the birth of the future Peter V of Portugal, he was proclaimed Ferdinand II of Portugal.
Although it was Maria to whom the ruling power belonged, they were a good team and together they resolved many problems in Maria's reign. The King-Consort had a very important part in Portuguese political history, acting frequently as regent during his wife's pregnancies.
Eventually, Maria died in the birth of their eleventh child and then Ferdinand had to assume regency because his son King Peter V was only 13 years-old.
Late in his life he married the opera singer Elisa Hendler, and they had one daughter, Alice. Elisa ended to inherit most of his possessions after his death in 1885.
See also: Kings of Portugal family tree
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