Ferdinand II of Portugal
Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (October 29, 1819 - December 15, 1885) was consort king of Portugal and Algarves 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 Hensler, Countess of Edla, and they had one daughter, Alice. Elisa inherited most of his possessions after his death in 1885.
Ferdinand's marriages and descendants
Ferdiand married to Maria, Queen-regnant of Portugal, daughter of Peter I of Brazil (IV of Portugal). Later in his life, after the death of Maria, he married Elisa Hendler.
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| By Maria II of Portugal (April 4, 1819-November 15, 1853; married on April 9, 1836) | |||
| Prince Peter | September 16, 1837 | November 11, 1861 | Who succeeded his mother as Peter V, the 31st (or according to some historians 32nd) King of Portugal. |
| Prince Louis | October 31, 1838 | October 19, 1889 | Who succeeded his brother Peter as the 32nd (or according to some historians 33rd) King of Portugal. |
| Princess Maria | October 4, 1840 | October 4, 1840 | |
| Prince John | October 4, 1840 | December 27, 1861 | |
| Princess Maria Ana | August 21, 1843 | February 5, 1884 | Married King George of Saxony and was mother of King Frederick August III of Saxony. |
| Princess Antónia | February 17, 1845 | December 27, 1913 | Married Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Singmaringen and was the mother of King Ferdinand I of Romania. |
| Prince Ferdinand | July 23, 1846 | November 6, 1861 | Died of cholera in 1861. |
| Prince Augustus | November 4, 1847 | September 26, 1889 | Duke of Coimbra. |
| Prince Leopold | May 7, 1849 | May 7, 1849 | |
| Princess Maria da Glória | February 3, 1851 | February 3, 1851 | |
| Prince Eugene | November 15, 1853 | November 15, 1853 | |
| Elisa Hensler (1836 - 1929; married in 1869) | |||
| Alice Hensler | 1855 | 1941 | |
