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Prince Imperial (Princess Imperial when the holder is female) is the title created after the proclamation of independence of the Empire of Brazil, in 1822, to designate the heir apparent or the heir presumptive to the Brazilian imperial throne. Even after the proclamation of the Republic in 1889, the title was kept in use by the Brazilian Imperial Family.
According to article 105 of the Brazilian Constitution of 1824, the title Prince Imperial should be used to designate the first in line to the imperial throne of Brazil. The Constitution also specifies that the eldest son of the Prince Imperial should be designated Prince of Grão-Pará, indicating the second in line of succession. [1] [2]
The last Emperor of Brazil, Pedro II, died in 1891, two years after the abolition of the Brazilian monarchy. His daughter, Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, was the last holder of the title during the existence of the Empire. Since then, the title has been used by the heir to the head of the Brazilian Imperial House.
All the Brazilian princes (the Prince Imperial, the Prince of Grão-Pará and the other princes) were guaranteed a seat in the Senate after they reached the age of 25. However, for various reasons, including premature death and marriage with foreign dynasts, only Isabel actually sat in the Senate, becoming the first Brazilian woman to be a senator. [1]
Finally, according to the Constitution and some later rules created by the Brazilian Imperial House, the princes in the line of succession must marry with members of other dynastic houses in order to keep the égalite de naissance to maintain their imperial titles. A princess who marries the head of another dynastic house would not transmit her Brazilian titles to their offspring, and the princes could not assume a foreign throne and keep their Brazilian titles. These restrictions are aligned to Portuguese and French royal traditions, although the Brazilian rules of succession are not directed by Salic law.
| Image | Name | Lifespan | Tenure | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Princess Maria da Glória | 4 April 1819 – 15 November 1853 | 12 October 1822 – 2 December 1825 7 April 1831 – 30 October 1835 | Heir presumptive from 1822 to 1825, due to the birth of her brother Pedro, and from his ascension until her exclusion from the Brazilian line of succession by law no. 91 of 30 October 1835. |
 | Prince Pedro de Alcântara | 2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891 | 2 December 1825 – 7 April 1831 | Imperial heir from 1825 until his accession to the Brazilian throne in 1831 |
 | Princess Januária | 11 March 1822 – 13 March 1901 | 30 October 1835 – 23 February 1845 | Princess Imperial from 1835 to 1845, until the birth of her nephew Afonso |
 | Prince Afonso | 23 February 1845 – 11 June 1847 | 23 February 1845 – 11 June 1847 | Elder son of Emperor Pedro II |
 | Prince Pedro Afonso | 19 July 1848 – 10 January 1850 | 19 July 1848 – 10 January 1850 | Younger son of Emperor Pedro II |
 | Princess Isabel | 29 July 1846 – 14 November 1921 | 11 June 1847 – 19 July 1848 9 January 1850 – 5 December 1891 | Princess Imperial from the death of her elder brother until the birth of her younger brother, and from his death until the death of the Emperor |
The Most Serene House of Braganza, also known as the Brigantine dynasty, is a dynasty of emperors, kings, princes, and dukes of Portuguese origin which reigned in Europe and the Americas.
Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza was the consort of the Orléanist pretender to the French throne, Henri, Count of Paris, and the daughter of Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, pretender to the throne of the Empire of Brazil.
The Imperial House of Brazil is a Brazilian dynasty of Portuguese origin that ruled the Brazilian Empire from 1822 to 1889, from the time when the then Prince Royal Dom Pedro of Braganza declared Brazil's independence, until Dom Pedro II was deposed during the military coup that led to the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889.
The Head of the Brazilian Imperial House is a title used by the leader of the Brazilian imperial family, currently the House of Orléans-Braganza, a descendant branch of the House of Braganza. The title of the head of the imperial house is "Emperor de jure". The current head of the imperial house is Prince Bertrand of Orléans-Braganza, who took over as head of the imperial house on July 15, 2022, after the death of his brother, Prince Luiz of Orléans-Braganza.
Princess Januária of Brazil was a Brazilian princess and Portuguese infanta (princess). She was the second daughter of Pedro I of Brazil and IV of Portugal and his first wife, Archduchess Maria Leopoldina of Austria.
Imperial and Royal Highness is a style possessed by someone who either through birth or marriage holds two individual styles, Imperial Highness and Royal Highness. His/Her Imperial Highness is a style used by members of an imperial family to denote imperial – as opposed to royal – status to show that the holder is descended from an emperor rather than a king or queen. Holders of the style Imperial Highness generally rank above holders of the style Royal Highness.
The United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was a pluricontinental monarchy formed by the elevation of the Portuguese colony named State of Brazil to the status of a kingdom and by the simultaneous union of that Kingdom of Brazil with the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of the Algarves, constituting a single state consisting of three kingdoms.
Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza was the Head of the Petrópolis branch of the House of Orléans-Braganza and a claimant to the defunct Brazilian throne in opposition to the Vassouras branch claim led by his cousins Princes Pedro Henrique and Luiz.
Prince Pedro Henrique of Orléans-Braganza, nicknamed The Expected Prince was the eldest son of Prince Luís of Orléans-Braganza and Princess Maria di Grazia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and head of the Vassouras branch of the Imperial House of Brazil from 1921 until his death in 1981.
DomPedro de Alcântara of Orléans-Braganza, Prince of Grão Pará was the first-born son of Dona Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil and Prince Gaston of Orléans, Count of Eu, and as such, was born second-in-line to the imperial throne of Brazil, during the reign of his grandfather, Emperor Dom Pedro II, until the empire's abolition. He went into exile in Europe with his mother when his grandfather was deposed in 1889, and grew up largely in France, at a family apartment in Boulogne-sur-Seine, and at his father's castle, the Château d'Eu in Normandy.
The House of Orléans-Braganza is by legitimacy, the imperial house of Brazil formed in 1864, with the marriage of the heir to the Brazilian throne, Isabel of Braganza with Prince Gaston, Count of Eu. The House of Orléans-Braganza never reigned, as Brazil's pure Braganza monarch, Emperor Pedro II being deposed in a military coup d'état, under the pressure of the civilian republicans, in 1889. However, with the death of Isabel in 1921, as the last Brazilian pure Braganza, her descendants inherited the dynastic rights of the Brigantine dynasty over the defunct Brazilian throne.
The Prince of Grão-Pará was the title bestowed on the eldest son of the Prince Imperial of Brazil. It was inspired by the title of Prince of Beira, bestowed on the eldest son of the Prince Royal of Portugal. The title holder was the second in the line of succession to the throne of the Empire of Brazil, after the Prince Imperial. The title was established by article 105 of the 1824 Brazilian Constitution, which read:
Dom Afonso was the Prince Imperial and heir apparent to the throne of the Empire of Brazil. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was the eldest child of Emperor Dom Pedro II and Dona Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies, and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza.
DonaMaria Francisca was the daughter of Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, head of the Petrópolis line of the House of Orléans-Braganza. She married Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza, pretender to the Portuguese throne, with whom she had three sons, the eldest of whom, Duarte Pio, is the current pretender.
The Palace of the Grand Pará is a royal palace located in the city of Petrópolis, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was a secondary palace of the Brazilian Imperial Family, serving to allocate the servants and guests of the Palace of Petropólis. It is currently the only palace still belonging to the Brazilian Imperial Family, being the only royal palace in the Americas occupied by a royal family.
Dom Pedro Afonso was the Prince Imperial and heir apparent to the throne of the Empire of Brazil. Born at the Palace of São Cristóvão in Rio de Janeiro, he was the second son and youngest child of Emperor Dom Pedro II and Dona Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies, and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza. Pedro Afonso was seen as vital to the future viability of the monarchy, which had been put in jeopardy by the death of his older brother Dom Afonso almost three years earlier.
Prince of Brazil was an imperial title of the Empire of Brazil bestowed upon the members of the Brazilian imperial family who were not the heir apparent or heir presumptive to the throne, by the 1824 Brazilian Constitution. After the overthrow of the Brazilian monarchy in 1889, the title was officially abolished by the First Brazilian Republic's 1891 constitution. Nevertheless, the title continues to be used as title of pretense by members of the House of Orléans-Braganza, the cadet branch and successor of the deposed Imperial House.
Prince Peter August of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza, known in Brazil as Dom Pedro Augusto, was a prince of the Empire of Brazil and of the Saxe-Coburg and Braganza branch of the Brazilian Imperial Family. The favorite grandson of Emperor Pedro II, he was known as "the Preferred".
Diretório Monárquico do Brasil was a monarchical institution established in Rio de Janeiro in 1890, one year after the proclamation of the republic, by Afonso Celso, Viscount of Ouro Preto, the last Prime Minister of the Empire of Brazil, entrusted by the former Princess Regent Isabel, to whom they considered Empress of Brazil after the death of her father Pedro II, in 1891, to organize the actions of Brazilian monarchists. The organization was constituted as an unofficial representation of the deposed heiress to the throne of Brazil and also functioned as a council.
Prince of Orléans-Bragança is a noble title informally attributed to all direct and legitimate agnatic descendants of Louis Philippe Gaston de Orléans, count d'Eu and Imperial Prince Consort of Brazil, as consort of the last Imperial Princess of Brazil, Isabel of Braganza.
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Line of succession to the former Brazilian throne - Brazilian nobility | ||
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Consorts are in italics - * member of the Portuguese royal family | ||