Ferdinand II of Portugal

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 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 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 Ferdinand had to assume regency because his son King Peter V was only 13 years old.

Late in his life Ferdinand married the opera singer Elisa Hendler, and they had one daughter, Alice. Elisa inherited most of his possessions after his death in 1885.

See also: Kings of Portugal family tree