Alžbeta Brezáková
Alžbeta Brezáková | |
---|---|
Born | 1921 Coburg, Bavaria, Germany |
Died | 24 April 2015 (aged 93–94) Bratislava, Slovakia |
Spouse | Ferdinand I of Bulgaria |
House | Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Koháry (by marriage) |
Father | Juraj Brezák |
Mother | Anna Brezáková |
Alžbeta Brezáková (1921 – 24 April 2015) was a Slovak nurse and the third wife of Ferdinand I of Bulgaria. The daughter of a castellan employed by the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry, she served as a royal nanny and as personal assistant to the deposed Tsar Ferdinand while he lived in exile in Germany. They were secretly married in 1947. She was sixty years younger than her husband and was the first Slovak and the first commoner to marry into the Bulgarian royal family. The validity of their morganatic marriage was questioned by Slovak writer Anton Hykisch, whose family was also employed by the Tsar.
Biography
Brezáková was born in 1921 in Coburg and was of Slovak descent.[1] Her parents, Juraj Brezák and Anna Brezáková, were both employed by the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry in Coburg.[2][1] Her father was an orphan and grew up in Muráň under the care of Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, who paid for his education and brought him on hunting trips.[1] Brezáková lived with her parents in Coburg for five years before the family returned to Czechoslovakia.[1]
As an adult, Brezáková lived in the Svätý Anton manor house, where her father served as a castellan for Tsar Ferdinand.[1][2] In 1936, she began working for Ferdinand as an assistant, overseeing the administrative work of his employees, and as a nanny to his children.[1] She was responsible for arranging the transfer of Ferdinand's library in the Palais Coburg in Vienna to the Svätý Anton manor house.[1]
On 12 August 1947, she married Ferdinand in a secret ceremony in
Validity of royal marriage
The Slovak writer Anton Hykisch wrote that he doubted the validity of the marriage between the Tsar and Brezáková.[2] Hykisch wrote that Ferdinand was "very proud of his origins" and that he did not believe the Tsar would enter "into a misalliance marriage."[2] He stated that Ferdinand may have "arranged some theater with church dignitaries" but that no official documents exist regarding the marriage and that after Ferdinand's death, Brezáková did not claim rights to his estate and immediately left Germany for Slovakia, where she remarried.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Skončila v náručí cára: Príbeh slovenskej ošetrovateľky Alžbety, vydala sa za monarchu". zivot.pluska.sk. 28 April 2021. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Milan Vároš (March 2015). "Dve Slovenky: Vdova Po Cisarovi a Kralovi" (PDF). matica.sk. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
- ^ Secrete, Dosare (9 September 2021). "Ferdinand al Bulgariei, o figură tragică". Retrieved 31 May 2023.