Prince of Brazil (Portuguese : Príncipe do Brasil) was the title held by the heir-apparent to the Kingdom of Portugal, from 1645 to 1815. Tied with the title of Prince of Brazil was the title Duke of Braganza and the various subsidiary titles of the Dukedom of Braganza.
The title's name has its origins in the State of Brazil, a colony of the Portuguese Empire. The term "Principality of Brazil" is anachronistic, having never been used as the official title of Brazil in the period in question, in the same way that the "Principality of Beira" related to the nobiliarchic title Prince of Beira never existed. During this period, Brazil was officially designated as the State of Brazil.
The title was abandoned and changed to that of Prince Royal in the wake of Brazil's elevation from the status of a colony to the rank of a Kingdom united with Portugal in the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.
Brazil would later break from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves and become the independent Empire of Brazil. The heirs presumptive of Brazil were known as The Prince Imperial of Brazil or The Princess Imperial of Brazil, with the style of Imperial Highness. Other members of the Brazilian Imperial Family were known by the title of Prince or Princess prefixed to their given names, with the style of Highness. The Portuguese title of Prince of Brazil, that existed as a title of the Portuguese heir apparent only while Brazil was still a colony of Portugal, should therefore not be confused with the later ranks of Brazilian Prince or Brazilian Princess, that stem from the era of the Empire of Brazil.
Until the reign of King John IV of Portugal, the heir-apparent to the throne of Portugal had used the title of Prince of Portugal. After his succession to the throne, John IV sought to give his heir a more prestigious and noble title, Prince of Brazil, alongside granting the heir of Portugal the title of Duke of Braganza. The title was created by King John IV of Portugal on 27 October 1645 in favor of his eldest son and heir Teodósio, to replace the title Prince of Portugal . The eldest son and heir of the Prince of Brazil was styled Prince of Beira and Duke of Barcelos.
When Brazil was elevated to the status of a Kingdom within the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, the title was replaced by Prince Royal of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves . When Brazil broke away from the United Kingdom to become an independent Empire, the title of the Portuguese heir apparent was again changed to Prince Royal of Portugal and the Algarves .
Name | Lifespan | Tenure | Notes | Parents | Image | Heir to |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Teodósio | 8 February 1634 – May 13, 1653 | 27 October 1645 – May 13, 1653 | Premature death | João IV of Portugal Luisa de Guzmán | ![]() | João IV of Portugal |
Afonso | 21 August 1643 – 12 September 1683 | 13 May 1653 – 6 November 1656 | Later: King Afonso VI of Portugal and the Algarves | João IV of Portugal Luisa de Guzmán | ![]() | João IV of Portugal |
João | 30 August 1688 – 17 September 1688 | 30 August 1688 – 17 September 1688 | Premature death | Pedro II of Portugal Maria Sophia of Neuburg | ![]() | Pedro II of Portugal |
João | 22 October 1689 – 31 July 1750 | 22 October 1689 – 9 December 1706 | Later: King João V of Portugal and the Algarves | Pedro II of Portugal Maria Sophia of Neuburg | ![]() | Pedro II of Portugal |
Pedro | 19 October 1712 – 29 October 1714 | 19 October 1712 – 29 October 1714 | Premature death | João V of Portugal Maria Anna of Austria | ![]() | João V of Portugal |
José | 6 June 1714 – 24 February 1777 | 6 June 1714 – 31 July 1750 | Later: King José I of Portugal and the Algarves | João V of Portugal Maria Anna of Austria | ![]() | João V of Portugal |
Maria | 17 December 1734 – 20 March 1816 | 31 July 1750 – 24 February 1777 | Later: Queen Maria I of Portugal and the Algarves | José I of Portugal Mariana Victoria of Spain | ![]() | José I of Portugal |
José | 20 August 1761 – 11 September 1788 | 24 February 1777 – 11 September 1788 | Premature death | Maria I of Portugal Pedro III of Portugal | ![]() | Maria I of Portugal |
João | 13 May 1767 – 10 March 1826 | 11 September 1788 – 16 December 1815 | Title changed | Maria I of Portugal Pedro III of Portugal | ![]() | Maria I of Portugal |
A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title, crown princess, is held by a woman who is heir apparent or is married to the heir apparent.
The title Duke of Braganza in the House of Braganza is one of the most important titles in the peerage of Portugal. Starting in 1640, when the House of Braganza acceded to the throne of Portugal, the male heir of the Portuguese Crown were known as Duke of Braganza, along with their style Prince of Beira or Prince of Brazil. The tradition of the heir to the throne being titled Duke of Braganza was revived by various pretenders after the establishment of the Portuguese Republic on 5 October 1910 to signify their claims to the throne.
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.
Royal Highness is a style used to address or refer to some members of royal families, usually princes or princesses. Kings and their female consorts, as well as queens regnant, are usually styled Majesty.
DomLuís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal, Duke of Braganza was the eldest son and heir-apparent of King Carlos I of Portugal. He was born in 1887 when his father was still Prince Royal of Portugal and received the usual style of the heirs to the heir of the Portuguese crown: 4th Prince of Beira at birth, with the subsidiary title 14th Duke of Barcelos. After his grandfather King Luís I of Portugal died, he became Prince Royal of Portugal with the subsidiary titles 21st Duke of Braganza, 20th Marquis of Vila Viçosa, 28th count of Barcelos, 25th count of Ourém, 23rd count of Arraiolos and 22nd count of Neiva.
Prince of Beira is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the throne of Portugal. The title's original use that it be granted on the eldest daughter of the reigning monarch of Portugal. Tied with the title of Prince of Beira, is Duke of Barcelos, as heir to the Duke of Braganza and Prince of Brazil. The title's name has its origins in the Beira province in central Portugal.
Infante, also anglicised as "infant" or translated as "prince", is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain and Portugal to the sons and daughters (infantas) of the king, regardless of age, sometimes with the exception of the heir apparent or heir presumptive to the throne who usually bears a unique princely or ducal title. A woman married to a male infante was accorded the title of infanta if the marriage was dynastically approved, although since 1987 this is no longer automatically the case in Spain. Husbands of born infantas did not obtain the title of infante through marriage, although they were occasionally elevated to the title de gracia at the sovereign's command.
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.
This is a list of princesses of Brazil, from 1645 to 1815, both by marriage and birth. The title was preceded by the titles Princess of Portugal and succeeded by Princess Royal of Portugal.
DomTeodósio, Prince of Brazil, Duke of Braganza was the eldest son of John IV of Portugal and heir apparent to the Portuguese throne from 1640 until his death. In 1645, he was created Prince of Brazil and 9th Duke of Braganza.
Dom José, Prince of Brazil, Duke of Braganza was the heir apparent to the Kingdom of Portugal until his death in 1788, as the eldest child of Queen Dona Maria I of Portugal and King Dom Pedro III of Portugal, members of the House of 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.
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:
This is a list of Princesses Royal of Portugal. The title is, since 1815, carried either in her own right by the heiress to the throne, as a substantive title, or by the wife of the heir to the throne, the Prince Royal of Portugal, as a courtesy title. It was preceded by the titles Princess of Brazil and Princess of Portugal.
The Pantheon of the House of Braganza, also known as the Pantheon of the Braganzas, is the final resting place for many of the members of the House of Braganza, located in the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora in the Alfama district of Lisbon, Portugal. The pantheon's burials have included Portuguese monarchs, Brazilian monarchs, a Romanian monarch, queen consorts of Portugal, and notable Infantes of Portugal, among others.
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.
The Curse of the Braganzas is a myth, referred to in several historical chronicles, concerning the House of Braganza, that ruled the Kingdom of Portugal (1640–1910), the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves (1815–1822) and the Empire of Brazil (1822–1889) and, therefore, all the Portuguese Overseas Empire.