him; they put him on board his yacht on the Danube and escorted him to the Russian town of Reni, in Bessarabia; telegraphic orders came from St. Petersburg, in answer to inquiries, that he could proceed with haste to western Europe, and on August 26 he found himself at Lemberg.  But those who had carried out this coup d’etat found that it was not at all popular in the country.  A counter-revolution, headed by the statesman Stambulov, was immediately initiated, and on September 3 Prince Alexander reappeared in Sofia amidst tumultuous applause.  Nevertheless his position was hopeless; the Emperor Alexander III forced him to abdicate, and on September 7, 1886, he left Bulgaria for good, to the regret of the majority of the people.  He died in Austria, in 1893, in his thirty-seventh year.  At his departure a regency was constituted, at the head of which was Stambulov.

12

The Regeneration under Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, 1886-1908

Stambulov was born at Tirnovo in 1854 and was of humble origin.  He took part in the insurrection of 1876 and in the war of liberation, and in 1884 became president of the Sobraniye (Parliament).  From 1886 till 1894 he was virtually dictator of Bulgaria.  He was intensely patriotic and also personally ambitious, determined, energetic, ruthlessly cruel and unscrupulous, but incapable of deceit; these qualities were apparent in his powerful and grim expression of face, while his manner inspired the weak with terror and the strongest with respect.  His policy in general was directed against Russia.  At the general election held in October 1886 he had all his important opponents imprisoned beforehand, while armed sentries discouraged ill-disposed voters from approaching the ballot-boxes.  Out of 522 elected deputies, there were 470 supporters of Stambulov.  This implied the complete suppression of the Russophile party and led to a rupture with St. Petersburg.

Whatever were Stambulov’s methods, and few would deny that they were harsh, there is no doubt that something of the sort was necessary to restore order in the country.  But once having started on this path he found it difficult to stop, and his tyrannical bearing, combined with the delay in finding a prince, soon made him unpopular.  There were several revolutionary outbreaks directed against him, but these were all crushed.  At length the, at that time not particularly alluring, throne of Bulgaria was filled by Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, who was born in 1861 and was the son of the gifted Princess Clementine of Bourbon-Orleans, daughter of Louis-Philippe.  This young man combined great ambition and tenacity of purpose with extreme prudence, astuteness, and patience; he was a consummate diplomat.  The election of this prince was viewed with great disfavour by Russia, and for fear of offending the Emperor Alexander III none of the European powers recognized him.