Boris III of Bulgaria

File:FieldMarshallVonMackensenAndCrownPrinceBorisReviewingBulgarianRegiment.jpeg reviewing a Bulgarian regiment accompanied by the Commander in Chief General Zhekov and the Chief of Staff Army General Zhostov during World War I]]

Boris was born on 30 January 1894 in Sofia to Ferdinand I, Prince of Bulgaria, and his wife Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma.

In February 1896, his father paved the way for the reconciliation of Bulgaria and Russia with the conversion of the infant Prince Boris from Catholicism to Eastern Orthodoxy, a move that earned Ferdinand the frustration of his wife, the animosity of his Catholic Austrian relatives (particularly his uncle Franz Joseph I of Austria) and excommunication by Pope Leo XIII. In order to remedy this difficult situation, Ferdinand had his subsequent children baptised in the Catholic Church. Nicholas II of Russia stood as godfather to Boris and later met the young boy during Ferdinand's official visit to Saint Petersburg in July 1898.

He received his initial education in the so-called Palace Secondary School, which Ferdinand had founded in 1908 solely for his sons. Later, Boris graduated from the Military School in Sofia, then took part in the Balkan Wars. During the First World War, he served as liaison officer of the General Staff of the Bulgarian Army on the Macedonian front. In 1916, he was promoted to colonel and attached again as liaison officer to Army Group Mackensen and the Bulgarian Third Army for the operations against Romania. Boris worked hard to smooth the sometimes difficult relations between Field Marshal Mackensen and Lieutenant General Stefan Toshev, the commander of the Third Army. Through his courage and personal example, he earned the respect of the troops and the senior Bulgarian and German commanders, even that of the Generalquartiermeister of the German Army, Erich Ludendorff, who preferred dealing personally with Boris and described him as excellently trained, a thoroughly soldierly person and mature beyond his years.{{cite book|title=Ludendorff's Own Story, August 1914 – November 1918: The Great War from the Siege of Liège to the Signing of the Armistice as Viewed from the Grand Headquarters of the German Army|author=Ludendorff, E.|date=1919|issue=т. 2|publisher=Harper|isbn=9780836959567|url=https://archive.org/details/ludendorffsowns00ludegoog|access-date=15 September 2015}} In 1918, Boris was made a major general.

File:Boris III Manifesto.jpg

File:Scepter of Tsar Boris III.jpg

In September 1918, Bulgaria was defeated in the Vardar Offensive and forced to sue for peace. Ferdinand abdicated in favour of Boris, who became Tsar on 3 October 1918.

A year after Boris's accession, Aleksandar Stamboliyski (also Stambolijski) of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union was elected prime minister. Though popular with the large peasant class, Stambolijski earned the animosity of the middle class and military, which led to his toppling in a military coup on 9 June 1923 and assassination. On 14 April 1925, an anarchist group attacked Boris's cavalcade as it passed through the Arabakonak Pass. Two days later, a bomb killed 150 members of the Bulgarian political and military elite in Sofia as they attended the funeral of a murdered general in the Saint Nedelya Church terror assault. Following a further attempt on Boris's life the same year, military reprisals killed several thousand communists and agrarians, including representatives of the intelligentsia. Finally, in October 1925, there was a short border war with Greece, known as the Petrich Incident, which was resolved with the help of the League of Nations. File:Tsar Boris III 1934.jpg during the opening session of the IV International Congress of Byzantine Studies (Sofia, 9 September 1934)]]

In the coup on 19 May 1934, the Zveno military organisation established a dictatorship, abolished political parties, and reduced Boris to a puppet figurehead.[https://web.archive.org/web/20080112210309/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788521,00.html Tsar's Coup] Time, 4 February 1935. retrieved 10 August 2008. The following year, he staged a counter-coup and retook control of the country. The political process was controlled by the Tsar, but a semi-parliamentary system was re-introduced without restoration of political parties.[http://www.sofiaecho.com/balkans-and-world-war-1/p_31/ Balkans and World War I] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070712083123/http://www.sofiaecho.com/balkans-and-world-war-1/p_31/ |date=12 July 2007 }} SofiaEcho.com

With the rise of the "King's government" in 1935, Bulgaria entered an era of prosperity and astounding growth, which deservedly qualifies it as the Golden Age of the Third Bulgarian Kingdom. It lasted nearly five years.King of Mercy, by Pashanko Dimitroff, Great Britain, 1986 According to Reuben H. Markham, former Balkan correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, writing in 1941, "As a ruler, Boris is competent; as a citizen exemplary; as a personality inspiring.... His country is to a large extent indebted to him for the comparatively favorable situation it has held in the Balkans, during the last two decades."{{cite news |last1=Markham |first1=Reuben |title=Can Boris Sidestep Axis Challenge? |publisher=The Christian Science Monitor|date=25 January 1941}} Markham added, "King Boris is very accessible. He constantly comes into contact with persons of every sort. He drives his car up and down the country with no special guards and often stops to converse with peasants, workers or children. He gives lifts to the humblest pedestrians. Rare is the Bulgarian township that does not boast of at least one person who has ridden with the King." "He is without question one of the best kings in Europe."{{cite book |last1=Markham |first1=Reuben |title=Meet Bulgaria |date=1931 |publisher=Self published by author |location=Sofia |page=278}}

During a visit to the United Kingdom in 1937, Boris made international news for taking the throttle of a London Midland Scotland Railway Coronation Class steam locomotive.{{cite news |author= |date=5 November 1937 |title=Goes Speeding |url=https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=18742988&q=%22coronation+scot%22&sort=rel |work=Salt Lake Telegram |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |access-date=4 March 2024}}

Boris married Giovanna of Italy, daughter of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, and as he remained Orthodox, it was a Catholic nuptial ceremony outside of Mass. It was held at the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi in Assisi, Italy, on 25 October 1930.{{cite web |title=Royal Wedding At Assisi 1930 |url=https://www.britishpathe.com/video/royal-wedding-at-assisi/query/wedding |website=British Pathe News}} Benito Mussolini registered the marriage at the town hall immediately after the liturgy.{{cite news | work= The New York Times| access-date = 8 May 2019 | date = 26 October 1930 | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1930/10/26/118391112.html | title = Boris and Giovanna Married at Assisi in a Drenching Rain| first = Arnaldo | last = Cortesi}}

Their marriage produced two children: a daughter, Maria Louisa, on 13 January 1932, and a son and heir to the throne, Simeon, on 16 June 1937.

File:Adolf-Hitler-greets-King-Boris-III-of-Bulgaria,-April-1941.jpg receives King Boris III of Bulgaria at his headquarters, 25 April 1941.]]

In the early days of the Second World War, Bulgaria was neutral, but powerful groups in the country swayed its politics towards Germany (with which Bulgaria had been allied in the First World War). As a result of peace treaties that ended the First World War (the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Neuilly), Bulgaria, which had fought on the losing side, lost two important territories to neighboring countries: the Southern plain of Dobruja to Romania, and Western Thrace to Greece. The Bulgarians considered these treaties an insult and wanted the lands restored. When Adolf Hitler rose to power, he tried to win Bulgarian Tsar Boris III's allegiance. In the summer of 1940, after a year of war, Hitler hosted diplomatic talks between Bulgaria and Romania in Vienna. On 7 September, an agreement was signed for the return of Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria. The Bulgarian nation rejoiced. In March 1941, Boris allied himself with the Axis powers, thus recovering most of Macedonia and Aegean Thrace, as well as protecting his country from being crushed by the German Wehrmacht like neighboring Yugoslavia and Greece. For recovering these territories, Tsar Boris was called the Unifier (Bulgarian: Цар Обединител). Tsar Boris appeared on the cover of Time on 20 January 1941 wearing a full military uniform.[https://web.archive.org/web/20070521191957/http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19410120,00.html Tsar Boris III] Time, 20 January 1941. Retrieved 14 April 2010.[https://content.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,772601,00.html World War: Lowlands of 1941] Time, 20 January 1941. Retrieved 14 April 2010.

Despite this alliance, and the German presence in Sofia and along the railway line which passed through the Bulgarian capital to Greece, Boris was not willing to provide full and unconditional cooperation with Germany. He refused to send regular Bulgarian troops to fight the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front alongside Germany and the other Axis belligerents, and also refused to allow unofficial volunteers (such as Spain's Blue Division) to participate, although the German legation in Sofia received 1,500 requests from young Bulgarian men who wanted to fight against Bolshevism.[http://www.trud.bg/Article.asp?ArticleId=3100075 Цар Борис III: По-добре черен хляб, отколкото черни забрадки] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140725232834/http://www.trud.bg/Article.asp?ArticleId=3100075 |date=25 July 2014 }}, Труд, 30 January 2014

But there was a price to be paid for the return of Dobrudja. This was the adoption of the anti-Jewish "Law for Protection of the Nation" (Закон за защита на нацията – ЗЗН) on 24 December 1940. This law was in accordance with the Nuremberg Laws in Nazi Germany and the rest of Hitler's occupied Europe. Bulgarian Prime Minister Bogdan Filov and Interior Minister Petur Gabrovski, both Nazi sympathisers, were the architects of this law, which restricted Jewish rights, imposed new taxes, and established a quota for Jews in some professions. Many Bulgarians protested in letters to their government.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

File:The law for protection of the nation (Bulgaria).jpg]]

In early 1943, Hitler's emissary, Theodor Dannecker, arrived in Bulgaria. Dannecker was an SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain) and one of Adolf Eichmann's associates who guided the campaign for the deportation of the French Jews to concentration camps. In February 1943, Dannecker met with the Commissar for Jewish Affairs in Bulgaria, Aleksandar Belev, notorious for his antisemitic and strong nationalist views. They held closed-door meetings and ended with a secret agreement signed on 22 February 1943 for the deportations of 20,000 Jews – 11,343 from Aegean Thrace and Vardar Macedonia, and 8,000 from Bulgaria proper. These were the territories conquered by Germany, but being under Bulgarian occupation and jurisdiction at the time, although this occupation was never recognized internationally. The Jewish people in these territories were the only ones who did not get Bulgarian citizenship in 1941–1942, unlike the rest of the population. The remaining 20,000 Bulgarian Jews were to be deported later.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

The initial roundups began on 9 March 1943, during that month, Bulgarian military and police authorities deported 11,343 Jews from the Bulgarian-occupied regions of Vardar Macedonia, Pomoravlje in occupied Yugoslavia and Aegean Thrace to Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka.{{cite web | title=Bulgaria | website=Holocaust Encyclopedia | date=11 March 1943 | url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/bulgaria| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613232557/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/bulgaria| url-status=dead| archive-date=13 June 2018}}

Boxcars were lined up in Kyustendil, a town near the western border. But as the news about the imminent deportations leaked out, protests arose throughout Bulgaria. On the morning of 9 March, a delegation from Kyustendil, composed of eminent public figures and headed by Dimitar Peshev, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, met with Interior Minister Petur Gabrovski. Facing strong opposition from within the country, Gabrovski relented. The same day, he sent telegrams to the roundup centers in the pre-war territory of Bulgaria, postponing the deportations to a future, unidentified date. In a report of 5 April 1943, Adolph Hoffman, a German government adviser and police attache at the German legation in Sofia (1943–44) wrote: "The Minister of Interior has received instruction from the highest place to stop the planned deportation of Jews from the old borders of Bulgaria". In fact, Gabrovski's decision was not taken on his own "personal initiative", but had come from the highest authority – Tsar Boris III, who decided under pressure to temporarily stop the deportation of the rest of the Jews. While Jews living in Bulgaria proper were saved, almost all the Jews from Vardar Macedonia and Aegean Thrace perished in the death camps of Treblinka and Majdanek.

{{Blockquote|text=The King has declared that up to now he has only given his consent for deportation of Jews from Macedonia and Thrace to areas in Eastern Europe. He only wants to deport a limited number of Bolsheviks-Communists from Bulgaria itself. The other 25,000 Jews will be concentrated in camps within the country.|author=|title=A telegram from Germany's foreign minister Von Ribbentrop indicates the readiness of King Boris to hand over half of the Jewish population. 4 April 1943.|source={{cite book | last1=Comforty | first1=J. | last2=Bloomfield | first2=M.A. | last3=Bartov | first3=O. | title=The Stolen Narrative of the Bulgarian Jews and the Holocaust | publisher=Lexington Books | series=Lexington Studies in Jewish Literature | year=2021 | isbn=978-1-7936-3292-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gb8lEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA347 |page=347}}|character=|multiline=|style=|class=}}

Still reluctant to comply with the German deportation request, the royal palace used Swiss diplomatic channels to inquire whether it was possible to deport the Jews to British-controlled Palestine by ship rather than to concentration camps in German-occupied Poland by boat and train.{{citation needed|reason=The claim that the King was 'Still reluctant' to comply with the German deportation requests, that this was his long-standing moral stance, is not backed up by a reliable source quoted here. For example, the book source quoted at the end of this paragraph, merely says,'The following month, Bulgaria sensed the shifting tide of the war and attempted to disassociate itself from the Final Solution.' Sounds like the King was shifting his position on Jewish deportations only cynically to save his arse.|date=August 2019}} This was blocked by the British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden.A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time by Howard M. Sachar, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2007

Aware of Bulgaria's unreliability on the Jewish matter, the Nazis grew more suspicious about the quiet activities in aid of European Jewry of an old friend of Tsar Boris, Monsignor Angelo Roncalli (the future Pope John XXIII), the Papal Nuncio in Istanbul. Reporting on the humanitarian efforts of Roncalli, his secretary in Venice and in the Vatican, Monsignor Loris F. Capovilla writes: "Through his intervention, and with the help of Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria, thousands of Jews from Slovakia, who had first been sent to Hungary and then to Bulgaria, and who were in danger of being sent to Nazi concentration camps, obtained transit visas for Palestine signed by him.""Crown of Thorns" by Stephane Groueff, London, 1987

File:Boris III Tzar of Bulgaria 1894 - 1943 sculptor Kunio Novachev architect Milomir Boganov.jpg in Sofia]]

File:Dobrich downtown - Memorial "Tzar Boris III Unifier" on the City hall.jpg

Nazi pressure on Tsar Boris III continued for the deportation of the Bulgarian Jewry. At the end of March, Hitler "invited" the Tsar to visit him. Upon returning home, Boris ordered able-bodied Jewish men to join hard labor units to build roads within the interior of his kingdom. Some claim that this was the Tsar's attempt to avoid deporting them.{{cite web|url=http://www.thankstoscandinavia.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Jews-in-Bulgaria-During-WWII-A-little-known-history.pdf|title=Jews in Bulgaria During World War II|access-date=19 November 2023|website=thankstoscandinavia.org}}

During May 1943, Dannecker and Belev, the Commissar for Jewish Affairs, planned the deportation of more than 48,000 Bulgarian Jews, who were to be loaded on steamers on the River Danube. Boris continued the cat-and-mouse game that he had long been playing; he insisted to the Nazis that Bulgarian Jews were needed for the construction of roads and railway lines inside his kingdom. Nazi officials requested that Bulgaria deport its Jewish population to German-occupied Poland. The request caused a public outcry, and a campaign whose most prominent leaders were Parliament's deputy speaker Dimitar Peshev{{cite web | url=https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/dimitar-peshev.html | title=This Politician Saved 48,000 Bulgarian Jews from Deportation | date=6 April 2022 }} and the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Stefan, was organised. Following this campaign, Boris refused to permit the extradition of Bulgaria's nearly 50,000 Jews.{{cite web|url= https://www.jta.org/jewniverse/2015/how-bulgaria-stood-up-to-the-nazis-and-saved-its-jews|title= How Bulgaria Stood Up to the Nazis and Saved Its Jews|date=31 July 2015}}

On 30 June 1943, Apostolic Delegate Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII, wrote to Boris, asking for mercy for "the sons of the Jewish people." He wrote that Tsar Boris should on no account agree to the dishonorable action that Hitler was demanding. On the copy of the letter, the future pope noted, by hand, that the Tsar replied verbally to his message. The note states "Il Re ha fatto qualche cosa" ("The Tsar did something"); and while noting the difficult situation of the monarch, Roncalli stressed once again "Però, ripeto, ha fatto" ("But I repeat, he has acted").

An excerpt from the diary of Rabbi Daniel Zion, the spiritual leader of the Jewish community in Bulgaria during the war years, reads:

Do not be afraid, dear brothers and sisters! Trust in the Holy Rock of our salvation ... Yesterday I was informed by Bishop Stephen about his conversation with the Bulgarian tsar. When I went to see Bishop Stephen, he said: "Tell your people, the Tsar has promised, that the Bulgarian Jews shall not leave the borders of Bulgaria ...". When I returned to the synagogue, silence reigned in anticipation of the outcome of my meeting with Bishop Stephen. When I entered, my words were: "Yes, my brethren, God heard our prayers ..."

Most irritating for Hitler was the Tsar's refusal to declare war on the Soviet Union or send Bulgarian troops to the Eastern Front. On 9 August 1943, Hitler summoned Boris to a stormy meeting at Rastenburg, East Prussia. Boris arrived by plane from Vrazhdebna on 14 August. The Tsar asserted his stance once again not to send Bulgarian Jews to death camps in occupied Poland or Germany. While Bulgaria had declared a "symbolic" war on the distant United Kingdom and United States, the Tsar was not willing to do more than that. At the meeting, Boris once again refused to get involved in the war against the Soviet Union, giving two major reasons for his unwillingness to send troops to Russia. First, many ordinary Bulgarians had strong pro-Russian sentiments; and second, the political and military position of Turkey remained unclear.{{citation needed|date=August 2019}} The "symbolic" war against the Western Allies turned into a disaster for the citizens of Sofia, as the city was heavily bombarded by the US Army Air Force and the British Royal Air Force in 1943 and 1944. (The bombardment of Bulgarian cities was started by the British Royal Air Force in April 1941 without declaring a war.)

Bulgaria's opposition came to a head at this last official meeting between Hitler and Boris. Reports of the meeting indicate that Hitler was furious with the Tsar for refusing either to join the war against the USSR or to deport the Jews within his kingdom.Naomi Martinez "The Rescue of the Bulgarian Jews during World War II" At the end of the meeting, it was agreed that "the Bulgarian Jews were not to be deported, for Tsar Boris had insisted that the Jews were needed for various laboring tasks including road maintenance."{{citation needed|date=August 2019}}

File:Grateful Macedonia to her Tzar Liberator Boris III.JPG

Shortly after returning to Sofia from a meeting with Hitler, Boris died of apparent heart failure on 28 August 1943, at approximately 16:22."Bulgarian Rule Goes to Son, 6. Reports on 5-day Illness Conflict", United Press dispatch in a cutting from an unknown newspaper in the collection of historian James L. Cabot, Ludington, Michigan. According to the diary of the German attache in Sofia at the time, Carl-August von Schoenebeck, the two German doctors who attended the King – Sajitz and Hans Eppinger – both believed that he had died from the same poison that Eppinger had allegedly found two years earlier in the postmortem examination of the Greek Prime Minister, Ioannis Metaxas. Allegedly, this slow poison takes weeks to do its work and causes the appearance of blotches on the skin of its victim before death.Wily Fox: How Tsar Boris Saved the Jews of Bulgaria from the Clutches of His Axis Allie Adolph Hitler, AuthorHouse 2008, p. 213 {{ISBN?}}{{Better source needed|date=July 2021}}

Rumors of the death of Boris III indicate that the Tsar was poisoned by an order of Hitler, who was greatly irritated after his last meeting with the Bulgarian ruler because of his refusal to hand over the Bulgarian Jews and send troops against the USSR.„Корона от тръни"; Стефан Груев; „Български писател" – 1991 г. According to the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Bogdan Filov, however, in their last meeting, Hitler and Boris III discussed only the sending of additional Bulgarian troops to the Western Balkans, but not against the USSR.{{cite book|last=Chary|first=Frederick B.|author-link= Frederick Chary |title=The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution, 1940–1944|url=https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt:31735057892568/viewer#page/5/mode/1up|year=1972|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|location=London|isbn=0822932512|pages=160}}

His son Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha did not deny this version, but pointed out as probable the hypothesis that the USSR was also interested in the Tsar's death, in which case the NKVD intervened.[http://www.btv.bg/video/shows/120-minuti/videos/simeon-sakskoburggotski-chovek-trjabva-da-se-gleda-v-ogledaloto-i-da-ne-se-izchervjava.html Симеон Сакскобургготски: Човек трябва да се гледа в огледалото и да не се изчервява], интервю на Светослав Иванов със Симеон Сакскобургготски, bTV, 2 юли 2017.{{Cite web|url=https://www.kingsimeon.bg/2012/09/prochit-na-istoriyata-smartta-na-tsar-bor/|title=Прочит на историята: Смъртта на цар Борис ІІІ – трагичната въпросителна оставаПетя Владимирова | Н.В. Цар Симеон II|website=Прочит на историята: Смъртта на цар Борис ІІІ – трагичната въпросителна оставаПетя Владимирова | Н.В. Цар Симеон II}} Princess Marie Louise of Bulgaria stated in an interview that there was no definite version of what had happened, but that she was convinced that her father had not been poisoned by the Nazis or the British, but by the East.[https://btvnovinite.bg/bulgaria/knjaginja-marija-luiza-pitala-sam-koj-razkopa-groba-na-bashta-mi-stena-ot-malchanie.html Княгиня Мария-Луиза: Питала съм кой разкопа гроба на баща ми – стена от мълчание], интервю на Кристина Баксанова, bTV, 1 юни 2018. Meanwhile, the American news reports stated that Hitler tried to hit him and the Tsar suffered a heart attack at the meeting; the latter died three weeks later.Facts on File World News Digest (31 August 1943)

In his personal diary, Joseph Goebbels expressed doubts that the Italian government, in the person of Prime Minister Pietro Badoglio, was responsible for Boris III's death. According to Goebbels, Hitler was convinced that the Italian royal court was the organizer of the poisoning of Boris III, as Princess Mafalda of Savoy, sister of Joan of Bulgaria, was visiting Bulgaria four weeks before the monarch's death and her visit coincided with the events of 25 July 1943,{{cite book|last=Groueff|first=Stephane|title=Crown of Thorns: The Reign of King Boris III of Bulgaria, 1918 – 1943|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IsVPTsR2A_oC|year=1997|publisher=Madison Books|location=Lanham, MD|isbn=9781568331140|pages=380}}{{cite book|last=Цанев|first=Стефан|title=Български хроники: Поема. 1878–1943. Том 3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JPEhC0oXsIAC|year=2006|publisher=Труд|location=София|isbn=9545286105|pages=550}} the overthrow of the Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, supported by King Victor Emmanuel III.

Boris was succeeded by his six-year-old son Simeon II, under a Regency Council headed by Boris's brother Prince Kiril of Bulgaria.

File:Tzar Boris III Grave.JPG]]

Following a large, impressive state funeral at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia, where the streets were lined with weeping crowds, the coffin of Tsar Boris III was taken by train to the mountains and buried in Bulgaria's largest and most important monastery, the Rila Monastery. After taking power in September 1944, the Communist-dominated government had his body exhumed and secretly buried in the courtyard of Vrana Palace, near Sofia. At a later time, the Communist authorities moved the zinc coffin from Vrana to a secret location, which remains unknown to this day. After the fall of communism, an excavation was made at Vrana Palace. Only Boris's heart was found, as it had been put in a glass cylinder outside the coffin. The heart was taken by his widow in 1994 to Rila Monastery, where it was reinterred.{{citation needed|date=August 2019}}

A wood carving is placed on the left side of his grave in Rila Monastery, made on 10 October 1943 by inhabitants of the village of Osoj, Debar district. The carving bears the following inscription:

{{blockquote|To its Tsar Liberator Boris III, from grateful Macedonia.}}

==Marriage and issue==

In 1930 Boris married the Italian Princess Giovanna of Savoy, who became Queen of Bulgaria under the name "Joanna". They had two children, a daughter and a son:

• Marie Louise (born in 1933), actual head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry;
• Simeon (born in 1937), last Tsar of Bulgary as Simeon II (1943-1946).

{{clear}}

• Bulgaria: Sovereign Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius{{cite web|url=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eYUMVlRmKro/UwTIaYA4ABI/AAAAAAABJYA/Xu3XitdSrMU/s1600/Tsar+Boris+III+of+Bulgaria+with+one+of+his+army+general.jpg|title=Image: Tsar+Boris+III+of+Bulgaria+with+one+of+his+army+general.jpg, (1182 × 1600 px)|publisher=1.bp.blogspot.com|access-date=15 September 2015}}
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Saint Alexander
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Bravery
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Military Merit
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit{{cite web|url=http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/Grande_DuchesseOlga/boris3bulgaria1894-8.jpg|title=Image: boris3bulgaria1894-8.jpg, (378 × 576 px)|publisher=i618.photobucket.com|access-date=15 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150211201117/http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/Grande_DuchesseOlga/boris3bulgaria1894-8.jpg|archive-date=11 February 2015|url-status=dead}}
• Bulgaria: Sovereign recipient of the Medal for the Independence of Bulgaria{{cite web|url=http://www.kingsimeon.bg/upload/e5489e362b42af78c17ddd86480168fb0222fafc.jpg|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150211215403/http://www.kingsimeon.bg/upload/e5489e362b42af78c17ddd86480168fb0222fafc.jpg|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 February 2015|title=Image: e5489e362b42af78c17ddd86480168fb0222fafc.jpg, (640 × 410 px)|publisher=kingsimeon.bg|access-date=15 September 2015}}
• Bulgaria: Sovereign recipient of the Medal for Participation in the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913{{cite web|url=http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c152/Liudovik/boris3bulgaria1894-48.jpg|title=Image: boris3bulgaria1894-48.jpg, (252 × 399 px)|publisher=i27.photobucket.com|access-date=15 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150211195537/http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c152/Liudovik/boris3bulgaria1894-48.jpg|archive-date=11 February 2015|url-status=dead}}
• Bulgaria: Sovereign recipient of the Medal for Participation in the European War 1915–1918{{cite web|url=http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq329/lea81z/TsarBoris.jpg|title=Image: TsarBoris.jpg, (318 × 500 px)|publisher=i460.photobucket.com|access-date=15 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304061717/http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq329/lea81z/TsarBoris.jpg|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}
• Bulgaria: Sovereign recipient of the Commemorative Medal of the death of Princess Marie Louise
• Bulgaria: Sovereign recipient of the 1000th Anniversary Medal of the birth of Tsar Boris I
• Bulgaria: Sovereign recipient of the Medal for the Coronation of Tsar Ferdinand I and Queen Eleonore
• Bulgaria: Sovereign recipient of the 50th Anniversary Medal of Liberation from the Ottoman Empire
• Bulgaria: Sovereign recipient of the 1000th Anniversary Medal of the death of Tsar Simeon I
• Bulgaria: Sovereign recipient of the Medal for the Wedding of Tsar Boris III And Princess Giovanna of Italy{{cite web|url=http://www.kingsimeon.bg/upload/fbfe5e9eee9bc2a5c6faa9190883c7c7e98ac59a.jpg|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150211215327/http://www.kingsimeon.bg/upload/fbfe5e9eee9bc2a5c6faa9190883c7c7e98ac59a.jpg|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 February 2015|title=Image: fbfe5e9eee9bc2a5c6faa9190883c7c7e98ac59a.jpg, (330 × 480 px)|publisher=kingsimeon.bg|access-date=15 September 2015}}

• Belgium: Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold
• French Third Republic: Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour{{cite web |url=http://www.pepatabakova.com/lang-en/Articles/view/148 |title=The Library|The most exciting travels start here! |publisher=pepatabakova.com |access-date=15 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304232720/http://www.pepatabakova.com/lang-en/Articles/view/148 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}
• Germany:
• Nazi Germany: Order of the German Eagle (Grand Cross class in gold with star) {{cite web|url=http://cache1.asset-cache.net/gc/141557364-during-a-diplomatic-meeting-the-chancellor-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=Z0zsWpN2ukUDXYqF4boPJcS6edjOUMYaZCZ2YoiIKLdFIi5FfbXgem%2FaexrnfXlK|title=Image: 141557364-during-a-diplomatic-meeting-the-chancellor-gettyimages.jpg, (430 × 594 px) – During a diplomatic meeting, the Chancellor of the Third Reich Adolf Hitler walking beside Boris III, Tsar of Bulgaria, followed by the Foreign Minister of the Third Reich Joachim von Ribbentrop. Berchtesgaden, 7th June 1941 (Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)|publisher=cache1.asset-cache.net|access-date=15 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304083708/http://cache1.asset-cache.net/gc/141557364-during-a-diplomatic-meeting-the-chancellor-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=Z0zsWpN2ukUDXYqF4boPJcS6edjOUMYaZCZ2YoiIKLdFIi5FfbXgem%2FaexrnfXlK|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}
• German Imperial and Royal Family:
• Knight of the Imperial and Royal Order of the Black EagleJustus Perthes, Almanach de Gotha (1913) [https://archive.org/details/almanachdegotha00unse_50/page/n87 p. 33]
• Knight Grand Cross of the Imperial and Royal Order of the Red Eagle
• Pour le Mérite (military), 26 October 1916{{cite web|title=Foreign Pour le Mérite Awards: Foreign Awards During World War I|url=https://pourlemerite.org/|website=pourlemerite.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031062935/https://pourlemerite.org/|access-date=12 August 2020|archive-date=31 October 2019}}
• Bavarian Royal Family: Knight with Collar of the Royal Order of St. Hubert
• Ernestine Ducal Families: Knight Grand Cross of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order, 1908[https://zs.thulb.uni-jena.de/rsc/viewer/jportal_derivate_00197795/Staatshandbuch_1912_0047.tif?logicalDiv=jportal_jparticle_00535993 Staatshandbücher für das Herzogtum Sachsen-Meiningen] (1912), "Herzogliche Sachsen-Ernestinischer Hausorden" p. 23
• Hungary:
• Hungarian Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of St. Stephen, 1912{{Cite web|url=http://tornai.com/rendtagok.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222022855/http://tornai.com/rendtagok.htm|url-status=dead|title="A Szent István Rend tagjai"|archivedate=22 December 2010}}
• Regency Hungary: Knight Grand Cross with Holy Crown and Collar of the Order of Merit, 22 June 1939{{citation|last1=Sallay|first1=Gergely Pál|year=2018|title=The Collar of the Hungarian Order of Merit|journal=A Had Tör Té Ne Ti Mú Ze um Értesítôje 18. Acta Musei Militaris in Hungaria|url=https://docplayer.hu/152550360-A-had-tor-te-ne-ti-mu-ze-um-ertesitoje-18-acta-musei-militaris-in-hungaria.html|location=Budapest|publisher=Hadtörténeti Múzeum|page=81}}
• Italian Royal Family: Knight with Collar of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation, 2 February 1911{{cite book|author=Italy. Ministero dell'interno|title=Calendario generale del regno d'Italia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KU1TIJPtKx0C&pg=PR3|year=1920|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KU1TIJPtKx0C&pg=PA58 58]}}
• Parmese Ducal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George
• Montenegrin Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Danilo I, 1910Journal De Bruxelles 25 August 1910
• Poland: Knight of the Order of the White Eagle
• Romanian Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Carol I[http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/roustchouk-king-carol-of-roumania-and-tsar-boris-of-bulgaria-received-picture-id517293852?s=612x612 Image] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220205184930/http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/roustchouk-king-carol-of-roumania-and-tsar-boris-of-bulgaria-received-picture-id517293852?s=612x612 |date=5 February 2022 }} Getty Images
• Russian Imperial Family:
• Knight with Collar of the Imperial Order of St. Andrew, 1907{{cite web|url=http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/pastroyals/Various%20Royals/Royal%20Family%20of%20Bulgaria/boris-1.jpg|title=Image: boris-1.jpg, (391 × 659 px)|publisher=i73.photobucket.com|access-date=15 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304072210/http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/pastroyals/Various%20Royals/Royal%20Family%20of%20Bulgaria/boris-1.jpg|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|author=Sergey Semenovich Levin|title=Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-called (1699–1917). Order of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine (1714–1917)|year=2003|chapter=Lists of Knights and Ladies|location=Moscow}}
• Knight 1st Class of the Order of St. Anna
• Georgian Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Eagle of Georgia[http://www.royalhouseofgeorgia.ge/es/order-history Royal House of Georgia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017210255/http://www.royalhouseofgeorgia.ge/es/order-history |date=17 October 2013 |data=17 ottobre 2013 }}.
• United Kingdom: Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
• Yugoslavian Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Karađorđe{{Cite web |url=http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/twenty-years-estrangement-between-20-000-balkan-slavs-was-officially-picture-id138587675 |title=Archived copy |access-date=18 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222120350/http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/twenty-years-estrangement-between-20-000-balkan-slavs-was-officially-picture-id138587675 |archive-date=22 December 2015 |url-status=dead}}[http://68.media.tumblr.com/2a9d4a000f2f25a2fcc2f829947edbb9/tumblr_nslilcjG2x1t3ijnxo1_1280.jpg Image] tumblr.com

• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 1st Infantry regiment of Prince Alexander I{{cite web|url=http://www.md.government.bg/en/ba.html|title=Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Bulgaria|publisher=md.government.bg|access-date=15 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110325012032/http://www.md.government.bg/en/ba.html|archive-date=25 March 2011|url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://www.kingsimeon.bg/pages/show/id/136 |title=Н.В. Цар Симеон II | Шефски полкове |publisher=kingsimeon.bg |access-date=15 September 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101215173544/http://www.kingsimeon.bg/pages/show/id/136 |archive-date=15 December 2010}}
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 4th Infantry regiment of Prince Boris{{cite web|url=http://www.shopbulgaria.com/products/5572/original-bulgarian-wwii-shoulder-boards-for-a-high-ranking-officer.html|title=Original Bulgarian WWII shoulder boards for high – ranking officer|publisher=shopbulgaria.com|access-date=15 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924101422/http://www.shopbulgaria.com/products/5572/original-bulgarian-wwii-shoulder-boards-for-a-high-ranking-officer.html|archive-date=24 September 2015|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|title=Armies in the Balkans 1914–18|author1=Thomas, N.|author2=Babac, D.|date=2012|publisher=Osprey Publishing Limited|isbn=9781780967356|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HGIyl-gI6bkC&pg=PA44|page=44|access-date=15 September 2015}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 6th Infantry regiment of Tsar Ferdinand I{{cite book|title=Armies of the Balkan Wars 1912–13: The priming charge for the Great War|author=Jowett, P.|year=2012|publisher=Osprey Publishing Limited|isbn=9781780965284|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0JrmLxkvfZUC&pg=PA19|page=19|access-date=15 September 2015}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 8th Infantry regiment of Princess Marie Louise
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 9th Infantry regiment of Princess Clementine
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 18th Infantry regiment of Tsar Ferdinand I{{cite book|title=Armies of the Balkan Wars 1912–13: The priming charge for the Great War|author=Jowett, P.|date=2012|publisher=Osprey Publishing Limited|isbn=9781780965284|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0JrmLxkvfZUC&pg=PA8|page=8|access-date=15 September 2015}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 20th Infantry regiment of Prince Krill and of Princesses Eudoxia and Nadezhda
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 24th Infantry regiment of Queen Eleonore
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 19th Infantry regiment of Prince Simeon
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 1st Cavalry regiment of Tsar Alexander I
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 2nd Cavalry regiment of Princess Marie Louise
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 10th Cavalry regiment of Queen Ionna
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 3rd Cavalry regiment of Prince Simeon
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 4th Artillery regiment of KTsar Ferdinand I
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the Life Guard regiment of The Tsar
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the Navy regiment of The Tsar
• Bulgaria: Sovereign Patron of the 1st Army Artillery regiment of Prince Simeon

• German Empire: Patron of the Balkan Infantry regiment of Emperor Wilhelm II
• Saxe-Coburg and Gotha: Patron of the 22nd Infantry regiment of Charles Edward I{{cite web|url=http://home.comcast.net/~jcviser/germany/saxcoburg_carl.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150215191651/http://home.comcast.net/~jcviser/germany/saxcoburg_carl.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 February 2015|title=Carl Eduard Herzog von Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha K.H.|publisher=home.comcast.net|access-date=15 September 2015}}
• Russian Empire: Patron of the 17th Infantry regiment of Grand Duke Vladmir Alexandrovich{{cite web|url=http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/CGSC/CARL/nafziger/877TCAA.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214203425/http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/CGSC/CARL/nafziger/877TCAA.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 February 2015|date=18 November 2009|title=Russian Army of the South, 3 March 1877|access-date=15 September 2015}}
• Russian Empire: Patron of the Azov Infantry regiment

The Los Angeles Times reported in 1994 that the Jewish National Fund's Medal of the Legion of Honor was being awarded posthumously to Tsar Boris III, "the first non-Jew to receive one of the Jewish community's highest honors".{{cite news | url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-05-23-mn-61215-story.html |title=Wartime King Honored for Saving 50,000 Bulgarian Jews | date= 23 May 1994 |access-date = 8 May 2019 |first = David | last = Haldane | work = Los Angeles Times}}

In 1996, Bulgarian Jews in the United States and the Jewish National Fund erected a monument in "The Bulgarian Forest" in Israel to honor Tsar Boris as a savior of Bulgarian Jews.{{cite journal |last1=Ofer |first1=Dalia |title=Tormented Memories: The Individual and the Collective |journal=Israel Studies |date=2004 |volume=9 |issue=3 |page=139 |doi=10.2979/ISR.2004.9.3.137 |jstor=30245642 |s2cid=142984220 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30245642 |issn=1084-9513|url-access=subscription }} In July 2003, a public committee headed by Israeli Chief Justice Moshe Bejski decided to remove the memorial because Bulgaria had consented to the delivery of 11,343 Jews from occupied territory of Macedonia, Thrace and Pirot to the Germans.{{cite web | url = http://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/12340342/clarifying-70-years-of-whitewashing-and-shelomo-alfassa |first= Shelomo | last =Alfassa | title= Clarifying 70 Years of Whitewashing and ...}}

Borisova gradina, the largest park in Sofia and one of the city's biggest boulevards are named after him.

{{ahnentafel

|collapsed=yes |align=center

|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;

|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;

|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;

|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;

|1= 1. Boris III of Bulgaria

|2= 2. Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

|3= 3. Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma

|4= 4. Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

|5= 5. Princess Clémentine of Orléans

|6= 6. Robert I, Duke of Parma

|7= 7. Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies

|8= 8. Ferdinand, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry

|9= 9. Princess Maria Antonia Koháry de Csábrág et Szitnya

|10= 10. Louis Philippe I of France

|11= 11. Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily

|12= 12. Charles III, Duke of Parma

|13= 13. Princess Louise of Artois

|14= 14. Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies

|15= 15. Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria

}}

• History of Bulgaria
• European interwar dictatorships
• List of covers of Time magazine (1940s)

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book

| last = Palmer

| first = Alan

| author-link = Alan Palmer

| title = The Kaiser: Warlord Of The Second Reich

| publisher = Weidenfeld and Nicolson

| year= 1978

| location = London

| isbn = 0-297-77393-3

| ref=Palmer1978}}

• Bulgaria in the Second World War by Marshall Lee Miller, Stanford University Press, 1975.
• Boris III of Bulgaria 1894–1943, by Pashanko Dimitroff, London, 1986, {{ISBN|0-86332-140-2}}
• Crown of Thorns by Stephane Groueff, Lanham MD., and London, 1987, {{ISBN|0-8191-5778-3}}
• The Betrayal of Bulgaria by Gregory Lauder-Frost, Monarchist League Policy Paper, London, 1989.
• The Daily Telegraph, Obituary for "HM Queen Ioanna of the Bulgarians", London, 28 February 2000.
• Balkans into Southeastern Europe by John R. Lampe, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2006.
• A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time by Howard M. Sachar, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-394-48564-5}}

{{Commons category|Boris III of Bulgaria}}

{{Wikiquotes|Boris III of Bulgaria}}

• [http://isurvived.org/Rightheous_Folder/Tsar_Boris-III_USCongress.html Tsar Boris III Honored by the United States Congress. TsarBoris III, Savior of Bulgarian Jewry]{{Dead link|date=August 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• [http://mahatma.blog.bg/politika/2011/01/27/tzar-tsar-boris-iii-concealed-savoir-of-the-bulgarian-jews.674892 Tsar Boris III, concealed savior of the Bulgarian Jews]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20181016203321/http://bg-daily-news.eu/articles/467-the-case-of-tsar-boris-iii The Case of Tsar Boris III, Unsung Hero of the Holocaust]
• {{cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/950652/The-Rescue-of-the-Bulgarian-Jews-during-World-War-II|title=The Rescue of the Bulgarian Jews during World War II|via=Scribd|access-date=15 September 2015}}
• [http://sofiaecho.com/2003/03/13/638240_tsar-boris-iii-saviour-of-the-bulgarian-jews Tsar Boris III, Savior of the Bulgarian Jews]{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20170917121427/http://www.stara-sofia.com/dvorec.html Historical photographs of the royal palace in Sofia]
• {{IMDb title|2153626|Empty Boxcars}}
• [http://vimeo.com/25341520 Empty Boxcars] Vimeo
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20170811234636/http://www.uni-kiel.de/psychologie/ispp/doc_upload/reicher_saving_bulgarias_jews.pdf Wayback Machine] Saving Bulgaria's Jews: An analysis of social identity and the mobilisation of social solidarity
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110908140444/http://www.vagabond.bg/jewishbulgaria/ "Guide to Jewish Bulgaria"] by Dimana Trankova & Anthony Georgieff, Sofia, 2011;
• {{PM20|FID=pe/002192}}

{{s-start}}

{{s-hou|House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|30 January|1894|28 August|1943|House of Wettin}}

{{s-reg|}}

{{s-bef|before=Ferdinand I}}

{{s-ttl|title=Tsar of Bulgaria|years=3 October 1918 – 28 August 1943}}

{{s-aft|after=Simeon II}}

{{s-end}}

{{Bulgarian monarchs}}

{{Bulgarian princes}}

{{Princes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boris 03 Of Bulgaria}}

Category:1894 births

Category:1943 deaths

Category:20th-century monarchs of Bulgaria

Category:Bulgarian anti-communists

Category:Bulgarian collaborators with Nazi Germany

Category:Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Roman Catholicism

Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Bulgaria

Category:Members of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church

Category:House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Bulgaria)

Category:Nobility from Sofia

Category:World War II political leaders

Category:Burials at the Rila Monastery

Category:Eastern Orthodox monarchs

Category:The Holocaust in Bulgaria

Category:Recipients of the Order of Bravery, 1st class

Category:Grand Master of the Order of Military Merit (Bulgaria)

Category:Grand Crosses of the Order of Military Merit (Bulgaria)

Category:Sons of princes regnant