would bear him children. Under pressure from his subjects and looking to be recognized as Bulgaria's sovereign by the Russian emperor, Ferdinand wanted to have their eldest son, Boris, converted to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the summer of 1895. Marie Louise, who was pregnant at the time, argued bitterly against her husband's actions, with the support of her father and her mother-in-law. Marie Louise and Ferdinand's second child received baptism with Roman Catholic rites. However, unable to avoid Boris's conversion, Marie Louise, who had threatened to leave the country, left Sofia that same day for Beaulieu. In May 1896, Marie Louise returned to Bulgaria. In the summer, she went to London with her husband for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, giving birth the following January to Princess Eudoxia. In July 1898, with her husband and their four-year-old, Boris, they visited St Petersburg at the invitation of Nicholas II of Russia . Death Disillusionment in her private life and bearing four children in five years affected her frail health. Suffering from pneumonia, Marie Louise died in Sofia, twenty four hours after giving birth to her fourth child. Aged just 29, she was buried in the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Louis of France in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Children Prince Boris of Bulgaria (1894–1943), Prince of Turnovo and Tsar 1918–1943 (as Boris III) Prince Kiril of Bulgaria (1895–1945), Prince of Preslav Princess Eudoxia of Bulgaria (1898–1985) Princess Nadezhda of Bulgaria (1899–1958), married Duke Albrecht Eugen of Württemberg Honours and arms House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Koháry: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St Alexander. Arms See also Royal Consorts of Bulgaria References Aronson, T. (1986) Crowns in conflict: the triumph and the tragedy of European monarchy, 1910–1918, John Murray Publishers, London; Constant, S. (1979) Foxy Ferdinand, 1861–1948, Tsar of Bulgaria, Sidgwick and Jackson, London; Ancestry 1870 births 1899 deaths Nobility from Rome Deaths in childbirth Bulgarian consorts Princesses of Bourbon-Parma House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Bulgaria) Princesses of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Daughters of monarchs 19th-century Italian people 19th-century Bulgarian women