SIMEON II

born June 16, 1937, Sofia, Bulg. the last king of Bulgaria, reigning as a child from 1943 to 1946. On Aug. 28, 1943, his father, Boris III, died under mysterious circumstanceshis death being reported variously as due to a heart attack, to poisoning, and to shootingand the six-year-old crown prince ascended the throne, overseen by a three-man regency comprising Boris' brother Prince Cyril, former war minister Lieutenant General Nikolai Michov, and former premier Bogdan Filov. After Bulgaria quit the Axis Powers and was overrun by the Soviet Red Army, the regents were arrested, and on Feb. 2, 1945, all three were executed as enemies of the state and as collaborators with the Germans. A second regency was established, but on Sept. 8, 1946, the monarchy was voted out of existence, and Simeon and his mother, Queen Ioanna, went into exile. Simeon eventually settled in Madrid, marrying a Spanish heiress.