Son of King Boris III and Queen Joanna, Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha was born on June 16, 1937 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

On that day church bells and gun salutes echoed across Bulgaria to announce the arrival of the future king. The King and the Queen celebrated the joyous event by granting many prisoners amnesty and adding a mark to every school child’s exam.

A few weeks later the young prince was baptized with water flown in from the river Jordan by a Bulgarian pilot.

Upon King Boris III’s sudden death on August 28, 1943, the 6-year old Simeon II acceded to the throne. A three-member council of regency was formed to reign in Bulgaria on his behalf. Following the communist coup on September 9, 1944 Simeon II remained on the throne but the regents, including his uncle Prince Kiril, and most of the country’s intelligentsia, were executed. Two years later, in 1946, a referendum was held and forced King Simeon, his sister, Princess Maria-Luisa and Queen Joanna to flee Bulgaria. Without abdicating, the young king was to spend in exile many years. The family settled first in Alexandria, Egypt. The choice was not accidental. The Italian King Victor Emmanuel, the father of Queen Joanna, lived in exile in Egypt. Simeon was enrolled in the famous Victoria College in Egypt.

In July 1951 the Spanish Government granted asylum to the exiled Bulgarian royal family. In Madrid Simeon graduated from the Lycee Francaise and read law and political science. In 1958-1959 he enrolled at the prestigious Valley Forge Military Academy in the United States where he was known as “cadet Rylski” and graduated as second lieutenant.

In 1962 Simeon II married a Spanish aristocrat, Dona Margarita Gomez-Acebo y Cejuela. They have five children – four sons and a daughter.

In 1996 Simeon II returned to Bulgaria after almost 50 years of exile. Over the decades he has been preoccupied with developments in his country and with everything regarding Bulgaria. He has worked actively with Bulgarian emigrants worldwide and helped many fellow countrymen.

Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha maintained broad international contacts with the business community and his manifold activities have led him to travel frequently across the globe.

In addition to Bulgarian Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha speaks fluent English, French, German, Italian and Spanish and a little Arabic and Portuguese.

In 1998, the Constitutional Court in a decision returned the private properties to his family.

On April 6, 2001 Simeon II proclaimed his wish to return for good and to work actively while he draws on the experience he had amassed in exile and on his contacts in the effort to revive the country.

In a historic address to the Bulgarian nation he proclaimed his intention to found a National Movement named after him for new political morals and integrity. As the leader of the Movement and having coped with the stumbling blocks to register the Movement at court, the Bulgarian King played in the parliamentary election on June 17, 2001.

Having won a landslide victory for the National Movement, on July 24, 2001 Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha was sworn in as Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria.