Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela | |
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Born |
Madrid, Spain |
6 January 1935
Spouse | Simeon II (m. 1962) |
Issue |
Kardam, Prince of Turnovo Kyril, Prince of Preslav Kubrat, Prince of Panagyurishte Konstantin-Assen, Prince of Vidin Princess Kalina, Countess of Murany |
Father | Manuel Gómez-Acebo y Modet |
Mother | María de las Mercedes Cejuela y Fernández |
Religion |
Bulgarian Orthodox prev. Roman Catholic |
Styles of Margarita of Bulgaria |
|
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Reference style | Her Majesty |
Spoken style | Your Majesty |
Alternative style | Ma'am |
Doña Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela (born 6 January 1935 in Madrid, Spain) is the wife of Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria, whom she married after his exile. As such, she is also sometimes styled Tsaritsa Margarita; in this context, she may be styled as Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duchess of Saxony, due to her husband's descent from those former ruling families. During her husband's tenure as Prime Minister of Bulgaria, she was sometimes referred as Mrs Margarita Sakskoburggotska. Since Simeon had been exiled as a child and Bulgaria never returned to being a monarchy, Simeon's wife and children never received any royal titles from Bulgaria.
Doña Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela was born on 6 January 1935 in Villa Alba, Collado Villalba, Madrid during the Second Spanish Republic, as the second child and only daughter of the two children of Spanish Nobles: Don Manuel Gómez-Acebo y Modet, a state counselor and lawyer of commercial and banking companies (eldest child of and his wife Doña Margarita Marta Modet y Almagro) and his wife Mercedes Cejuela y Fernández (daughter of Manuel Cejuela y González-Orduña and his wife Mercedes Fernández Molano).
In 1936, at the outset of the Spanish Civil War Margarita's parents Don Manuel and Doña Mercedes as well as her maternal grandmother Mercedes were arrested by the Communists and given a 3-month prison detention; They were executed in November (Don Manuel on the 9th) and (Doña Mercedes and her mother Mercedes on the 16th) at their farm "La Arbodela" in Collado Villalba. For the suffering in their homeland Margarita and her elder brother Don José-Luis (b. 1930 - d. 2010) both received the Suffering for the Motherland Medal by Francoist Spain.
After the death of their parents, Margarita and José-Luis continued to live at Villa Alba for some time until they were taken in by their fathers close friend The Marquess of Casa Pissaro until May 1937 where the siblings were to go to Northern Spain, but due to the war, they were forced to follow a route via Valencia to Barcelona and then France to stay with their paternal grandmother Doña Margarita Marta Modet y Almagro until her death in 1940 where they were taken in by their paternal uncle Don Juan Gómez-Acebo y Modet, Marquess of Zurgena and his family until his death, where they moved in with their other paternal uncle Don Jaime Gómez-Acebo y Modet and his wife Doña Isabel Duque de Estrada y Vereterra, 9th Marchioness of Deleitosa as well as their children, including (later husband of Infanta Pilar of Spain, Duchess of Badajoz, eldest sister of King Juan Carlos I of Spain and aunt of King Felipe VI of Spain.