Chapter 330 Balkan Situation (4)

In addition to inheriting from their parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, close relatives and distant relatives, the kings of European countries can also be selected from other countries.

Among them, Germans are particularly popular. The former Tsarist Empire, the British royal family, the Romanian royal family, the Bulgarian royal family, the Greek royal family, the Finnish royal family, the Swedish royal family (the later Swedish royal family Bernadotte Dynasty is a descendant of the French), the Second Mexican Empire outside Europe (Maximilian I, the younger brother of Franz Joseph I of the Habsburg family), the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, the Grand Duke of Liechtenstein, and the Danish royal family are all royal families with German ancestry.

In 1886, a coup took place in the Principality of Bulgaria, and Prince Alexander I was overthrown. The Bulgarian National Assembly selected suitable people from all over Europe to serve as their prince. The candidate list included the Danish prince, the Romanian king, etc. In the end, they chose the German prince Ferdinand.

Ferdinand was originally a prince of the Saxe-Coburg family in Germany, and his mother was the daughter of King Louis Philippe I of France. His father's family produced 1 King of Belgium, 4 Kings of Portugal, and 3 Kings of Bulgaria. His godfather was Maximilian I, the younger brother of Emperor Joseph I of Austria-Hungary and Emperor of Mexico. His family was very close to the British royal family, the French royal family, the Russian royal family, and the Austro-Hungarian royal family.

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Tsar Alexander III of Russia were surprised that he was chosen as the Prince of Bulgaria, saying that this was a big joke. Because Ferdinand was too weak and willful and lacked political talent, Queen Victoria even wanted to prevent this from happening.

However, Ferdinand I achieved great success in the first 20 years of his rule over Bulgaria. In October 1908, Ferdinand I announced at the Church of the 40 Martyrs in Veliko Tarnovo that Bulgaria had completely separated from the Ottoman Empire and became a sovereign and independent kingdom, and named himself "Tsar". Turkey and other European countries soon recognized Bulgaria's independence.

Bulgaria joined the Allied Powers in World War I. The war was not yet completely over. The Allies, together with the forces in Bulgaria, forced Ferdinand I to abdicate and pass the throne to his son Boris III. Unlike other kings or emperors who were forced to abdicate, Ferdinand I was very happy that he could pass the throne to his son in this way. He was not depressed and miserable because of being deposed and exiled.

After abdicating, Ferdinand first went to Vienna, and then returned to Coburg, Germany, the birthplace of his family. Since he took all his personal wealth with him when he left Bulgaria, he could live a leisurely and comfortable life. He became a writer, botanist, entomologist and philatelist, traveling around to collect stamps, artworks and botanical entomological samples.

Today, Ferdinand came to the Berlin Palace to find Yannick.

The old man, who was almost 80 years old, was still in good health, walked vigorously, and was in good spirits. "Thank you, Your Highness Yannick, for taking the time to see me, an old man, in your busy schedule."

Yannick smiled. "Grandpa Ferdinand, you are too polite. Just call me by my name."

It is well known that the royal families of European countries are related to each other. Take Ferdinand for example. His mother is Princess Clementine, the daughter of King Louis Philippe of France. His father, Prince August, is the younger brother of King Ferdinand II of Portugal. He is also the first cousin of Prince Albert, Queen of Mexico, Princess Charlotte of Belgium and King Leopold II of Belgium, and the first cousin of Queen Victoria of England. Among them, Princess Louise, the mother of Charlotte and Leopold II, is the sister of Ferdinand's mother...

The relationship is so confusing that Yannick thinks that Ferdinand and William II should be cousins.

And many interesting things happened between the two of them.

Perhaps it was congenital brain damage, perhaps it was the sequelae of a nightmare childhood, or it was the psychological imbalance caused by the disability of his left arm. William II had some mental problems.

Not long after William II ascended the throne, the British Embassy in Berlin reported to London that "strange rumors about the emperor's mental illness are circulating in Berlin." Bismarck also told his followers at the time that he knew about William's "mental condition" and hoped that he could save the nation from the catastrophe. Of course, he did not do it.

In essence, William II never walked out of the shadow of his disastrous childhood. One of his close ministers once described him as a "childish little emperor" in his 30-year imperial career. So, William logically "inflicted" his childhood abuse on others.

Once, William II suddenly lost his composure at a banquet for Ferdinand and slapped him on the back without warning. Ferdinand was humiliated and left Berlin immediately with hatred, causing a diplomatic disaster.

Another time in 1909, Ferdinand visited William II. In the new palace in Potsdam, Ferdinand leaned out of the window to look around, and William II, who came over, slapped him on the buttocks as a sign of affection.

Ferdinand I regarded this as a great humiliation. Kings should not fight each other, and William refused to apologize (another version is that William II apologized, but it did not make Ferdinand calm down). In anger, Ferdinand canceled the order originally prepared for the German arms giant Krupp and instead handed over the production of this large batch of weapons to the French Schneider Company.

This is what happened, but many years later the king still "complained with Germany", joined the German side in World War I, and was forced to abdicate.

Of course, William II's pranks were not aimed at Ferdinand alone.

He once hit a Russian Grand Duke on the back with a marshal's baton; he once beat up another grandson of Queen Victoria in the library, and once rode on the belly of this grandson to bully others; during a cruise in the North Sea, William summoned senior generals to do "collective fitness exercises", and hit their ribs with sticks while doing it. These famous generals who were powerful on the battlefield had to smile and pretend to enjoy the emperor's "game"; the most outrageous time was that he secretly cut the belt of a general under his command with a pencil sharpener in the gym, making the general embarrassed in public...

Fortunately, he was a supreme emperor, otherwise he would have been beaten to death.

Fortunately, William II was still normal most of the time. The problem is that for an emperor, especially for the emperor of the first military power in Europe like the German Empire, William II's mental problems are undoubtedly fatal. In this regard, there is no more accurate evaluation than that of British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey, who said that William II reminded him of "a warship with steam engines running and propellers turning, but without a helmsman", and warned that one day the emperor would cause a terrible disaster.