The Imperial House of Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese: Casa Imperial Brasileira) is a Brazilian dynasty of Portuguese origin and a cadet branch of the House of Braganza. It reigned over the Brazilian Empire from 1822 to 1889, beginning with the proclamation of Brazilian independence by Dom Pedro of Braganza, then Prince Royal of Portugal, and ending with the deposition of Emperor Pedro II during the military coup that established the First Brazilian Republic.
Members of the Imperial House are dynastic descendants of Emperor Pedro I. After the abolition of the monarchy, leadership of the imperial legacy came to be claimed by descendants of Emperor Pedro II, giving rise to two competing lines within the House of Orléans-Braganza: the Direct Line called Petrópolis branch and a Cadet Line called Vassouras branch.SMITH, Peter H. Democracy in Latin America, p. 148. The Petrópolis line is headed by Prince Dom Pedro Carlos of Orléans-Braganza (born 1945) and the only descendants residing in the Imperial Palace of Grão-Pará in the Imperial City of Petrópolis, while the Vassouras branch is led by his second cousin, Bertrand of Orléans-Braganza.Les manuscrits du C.E.D.R.E. – Dictionnaire Historique et Généalogique, vol. III. Le Royaume de Portugal, L’Empire du Brésil. Cercle d'Études des Dynasties Royales Européennes, Paris, 1987, p. 51.
The rivalry between the two branches dates to 1946, when Dom Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza repudiated the statement of not making usage of his dynastic rights made by his father, Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, following the latter’s marriage in 1908. Since then, both lines have maintained competing claims to the symbolic headship of the former Brazilian imperial family.
History
Founded by Pedro of Braganza, until then Prince Royal of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, member of the House of Braganza, heir apparent to the Portuguese throne and the King's representative in the Kingdom of Brazil as Prince Regent, the Imperial House of Brazil was sovereign from 7 September 1822, when Prince Pedro proclaimed the independence of the Kingdom of Brazil from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves and was subsequently acclaimed as Emperor of Brazil on 12 October that same year until 15 November 1889, when a military coup d'état took place and the proclamation of the Brazilian republic overthrew the monarchy.
Prince Pedro, then, was acclaimed as Emperor of Brazil throughout the land. The constitution of the Brazilian Empire of 1824 – the first Brazilian constitutional charter – was organized two years after independence, with the emperor being the head of state and head of government of the Empire of Brazil, as well as head of the moderator power and the executive power. He reigned until 7 April 1831 when he abdicated due to a long ideological conflict between with a sizable parliamentary faction over the role of the monarch in the government and other obstacles. Pedro I's successor in Brazil was his five-year-old son, Pedro II. As the latter was still a minor, a weak regency was created. The power vacuum resulting from the absence of a ruling monarch as the ultimate arbiter in political disputes led to regional civil wars between local factions. Having inherited an empire on the verge of disintegration, Pedro II, once he was declared of age, managed to bring peace and stability to the country, which eventually became an emerging international power. Even though the last four decades of Pedro II's reign were marked by continuous internal peace and economic prosperity, he had no expectation to see the monarchy survive beyond his lifetime and made no effort to maintain support for the institution. The next in line to the throne was his daughter Isabel, but neither Pedro II nor the ruling classes considered a female monarch acceptable. Lacking any viable heir, the Empire's political leaders saw no reason to defend the monarchy. After a 58-year reign, on 15 November 1889 the Emperor was overthrown in a sudden coup d'état led by a clique of military leaders whose goal was the formation of a republic headed by a dictator, forming the First Brazilian Republic.
Post monarchy
With the proclamation of the Brazilian republic on 15 November 1889, the imperial family went into exile in Portugal, Spain, France and Austria-Hungary. In the party that accompanied the imperial family were included many loyal subjects and nobles, as politicians such the Viscount of Ouro Preto, the deposed last Prime Minister of the Empire, as well the Emperor's particular doctor. Prince August Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, grandson of Emperor Pedro II was the only member of the imperial family not boarded to exile because he was on board the cruiser Almirante Barroso, on a circumnavigation trip. Subsequently, upon receiving the news of the deposition of the monarchy, he was sent into exile. In addition to the ban, the Republican government confiscated and auctioned many of the assets of the imperial family. In 1890, thirteen auctions of Imperial House goods were made. Empress Teresa Cristina died in the first months of exile. Later Emperor Pedro II died in France, where he received a head of state's funeral by the French government. The imperial family settled in the Château d'Eu, former residence of King Louis Philippe of France and property of Gaston of Orléans, Count d'Eu, husband of Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, heiress of Pedro II and de jure Empress-in-Exile of Brazil.
Despite the prohibition then in force, Prince Luiz of Orléans-Braganza tried to disembark in Rio de Janeiro in 1906, but was prevented by local authorities. Finally, President Epitácio Pessoa, by presidential decree of 3 September 1920, revoked the Banishment Law. The Imperial Family was then able to return to Brazilian soil. The occasion was used to repatriate the remains of the last emperor and his consort, who would be transferred from Portugal a year later. Of the nine members of the imperial family originally exiled, only two returned to Brazil alive: Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará and his father, Prince Gaston, Count of Eu, who died the following year aboard the ship Massilia, on their way to Brazil to celebrate the centenary of independence. The State gave back possessions of the Imperial Family to the Petrópolis Branch exclusively, to Prince Dom Pedro de Alcântara, within those possessions was the Palácio do Grão-Pará in Petropolis, where the Direct Line of Descendants of the last Emperor, the Petrópolis Branch still resides until today. On the other hand, not all the family returned immediately to Brazil, and the Vassouras branch, present clamoring to the Brazilian throne, did only return after the end of World War II.
Repatriation
Currently, the remains of five members of the imperial family are interred in the Imperial Mausoleum within the Cathedral of Saint Peter of Alcantara in Petrópolis: Emperor Pedro II and Empress Teresa Cristina, whose mortal remains were transferred from the Royal Pantheon of the House of Braganza in Lisbon in 1921, during the centenary of Brazil's independence; Princess Isabel and her husband, Prince Gaston, Count of Eu, who were moved from the cemetery of Eu, Seine-Maritime in 1953; and Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, who was transferred from the cemetery of Petrópolis in 1990 alongside his wife, Countess Elisabeth Dobrzensky of Dobrzenicz. Prince Luiz and Prince Antônio are interred in the Royal Chapel of Dreux, France, where Prince Luiz's wife, Princess Maria di Grazia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, was also interred in 1973. Princes Pedro Augusto, August Leopold, Joseph Ferdinand, and Ludwig Gaston are interred in the crypt of the St. Augustine's Church in Coburg, Germany, where their mother, Princess Leopoldina, was interred in 1871.
In 1954, the remains of the first empress, Maria Leopoldina, were transferred from the Convent of Saint Anthony in Rio de Janeiro to the Imperial Crypt and Chapel within the Monument to the Independence of Brazil in São Paulo. Several children of both emperors are interred at the Convent of Saint Anthony: Prince Miguel, Prince João Carlos, Princess Paula, Prince Afonso and Prince Pedro Afonso, and Princess Luísa Vitória. In 1972, to mark the sesquicentennial of independence, the remains of Emperor Pedro I were transferred from the Pantheon of the House of Braganza to the Imperial Crypt and Chapel in São Paulo. The body of his second wife, Empress Amélie, was transferred there from the Braganza Pantheon in 1982. That same year, the body of their daughter, Princess Maria Amélia, was transferred from the Braganza Pantheon to the Convent of Saint Anthony.
Dynastic question
The so-called Brazilian dynastic question concerns inheritance rights to the titles of Head of the Brazilian Imperial House, Prince Imperial of Brazil, Prince of Grão-Pará and Prince of Brazil, who consequently would indicate the preferred heirs to the Brazilian imperial throne. The primacy in the line of succession is disputed by some members and partisans of the dynastic branches of Petrópolis and Vassouras.
In 1908, Dom Pedro de Alcântara, then Prince Imperial of Brazil in exile, wanted to marry Countess Elisabeth Dobržensky de Dobrženicz (1875–1951), whose family had belonged to the nobility of the kingdom of Bohemia since 1339, and whose legitimate members, male and female, bore the title of baron since 1744 and of count or countess since issuance of Austrian letters patent on 21 February 1906.Enache, Nicolas. La Descendance de Marie-Therese de Habsburg. ICC, Paris, 1996. pp. 71, 80. (French). The countess did not, however, belong to a reigning or formerly reigning dynasty, as both Orléans and Braganza traditions expected of brides.de Badts de Cugnac, Chantal. Coutant de Saisseval, Guy. Le Petit Gotha. Nouvelle Imprimerie Laballery. Paris. 2002. pp. 300–306, 309–311, 316–317, 320–321. (French) Although the constitution of the Brazilian Empire did not require dynasts to marry equally, it made the marriage of the heir to the throne dependent upon the sovereign's consent.SAINT, Guy Stair. House of Bourbon: Branch of Orléans-Braganza. In: Chivalric Orders . Retrieved 2013-02-18. As Prince Dom Pedro wanted to marry with his mother's blessing, he made a statement to not make usage of his rights to the throne of Brazil at Cannes on 30 October 1908.Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh. "Burke's Royal Families of the World: Volume I Europe & Latin America, 1977, pp. 43, 48, 50–51. The statement, unsigned, was sent to the Brazilian Monarchical Directory, an official body created to manage monarchical interests in the country.BARMAN, Roderick J (2005) (in Portuguese). Princesa Isabel do Brasil: gênero e poder no século XIX, UNESPVIANNA, Hélio (1968) (in Portuguese). Vultos do Império. São Paulo: Companhia Editoria Nacional, p. 224FREYRE, Gilberto. Ordem e Progresso (1959) (in Portuguese). Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio, p. 517 and 591LYRA, Heitor (1940) (in Portuguese). História de Dom Pedro II, 1825–1891. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, vol.III, p. 300JANOTTI, Maria de Lourdes (1986) (in Portuguese). Os Subversivos da República. São Paulo: Brasiliense, pp. 255–257MALATIAN, Teresa Maria (1978) (in Portuguese). A Ação Imperial Patrianovista Brasileira. São Paulo, p. 153–159 To solemnize this, Dom Pedro, aged thirty-three, wrote the statement translated here:
This renunciation was followed by a letter from Isabel to royalists in Brazil: