Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Alexander I., Prince of Bulgaria
ALEXANDER I., Prince of Bulgaria, is the son of Prince Alexander of Battenberg (Hesse), brother of the late Empress of Russia, and was born April 5, 1857. His mother, born Countess von Kauck, was the daughter of a former Polish Minister of War, and was raised to the rank of Princess on her morganatic marriage with the ruler of Hesse. The Prince of Bulgaria is a second son of this union, an elder brother serving in the English Navy. Prince Alexander served with the Russian army during the war with Turkey. Part of the time he rode in the ranks of the 8th Regiment of Uhlans, and he was also attached to the staff of Prince Charles of Roumania, as well as to the Russian head-quarters. He was present with Prince Charles at the siege of Plevna, and crossed the Balkans with General Gourko. Soon after returning to Germany from the Russo-Turkish campaign he was transferred from the Hessian Regiment of Dragoons, to which he had belonged, to the Prussian Life Guards, and did garrison duty in Potsdam. He was elected hereditary Prince of Bulgaria by the Assembly of Notables at Tirnova, April 29, 1879, and by a vote of the Grand National Assembly on July 13, 1881, he was invested with extraordinary legislative powers for seven years. He was appointed an honorary Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath in June, 1879.