Family , and her siblings, circa 1905. The eldest daughter and third of four children of King
Ferdinand I of Bulgaria and his first wife, Princess
Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma, Eudoxia of Bulgaria was born at the Royal Palace in
Sofia on . Her name, Eudoxia, means "one who is valued." Eudoxia was exactly one year old when her mother died the day after the birth of her last child, Eudoxia's younger sister
Nadezhda, on 31 January 1899. Through her father, Ferdinand, who became King of the Bulgarians in 1908, she was a great-granddaughter of
Louis Philippe I,
King of the French; while through her mother, she was the niece of Empress
Zita of Bourbon-Parma and was descended from the
Dukes of Parma, the
Kings of the Two Sicilies, the
Kings of France, and many other European sovereigns. Eudoxia of Bulgaria had two brothers:
Boris, who succeeded his father to the Bulgarian throne upon his abdication in 1918, and
Kirill. She also had a sister,
Nadezhda, with whom she was raised under the authority of their stepmother,
Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz, whom King Ferdinand married in 1908. Her paternal grandmother, Princess
Clémentine of Orléans, attempted to spend as much time as possible with her Bulgarian grandchildren. The aging grandmother died on 16 February 1907.
First Lady and Personal Life From an early age, Eudoxia was interested in the fine arts. Her artistic talents allowed her to design flags for various regiments and create paintings, mostly depicting nature. In 1922, Eudoxia and her sister
Princess Nadejda became the confidants of
King Boris III of Bulgaria. A loyal confidante of her brother, Eudoxia nevertheless followed her father into exile in
Coburg in 1918. She returned to Bulgaria in 1922 and acted as First Lady of the Land until King Boris III married
Princess Giovanna of Savoy (also known as Giovanna of Italy) in 1930. In September 1946, the royal family was exiled. Eudoxia shared their fate and left Bulgaria to settle with her father in
Coburg, who died on 10 September 1948. ==Literature==