Amélie of Leuchtenberg

Amélie of Leuchtenberg (Portuguese: Amélia Augusta Eugênia de Leuchtenberg; French: Amélie Auguste Eugénie de Leuchtenberg), Duchess of Leuchtenberg, (31 July 1812 – 26 January 1873) was Empress of Brazil as the wife of Emperor Pedro I.

She was the granddaughter of Josephine de Beauharnais, Empress of the French. Her father, Eugène de Beauharnais, was the only male child of Empress Josephine and her first husband Alexandre de Beauharnais and stepson of Napoleon Bonaparte, who admired his military qualities. The mother of Empress Amélie was Princess Augusta Amélia, daughter of Maximilian I, King of Bavaria.

Biography

Marriage

Empress Amélia married Emperor Pedro I of Brazil (King Pedro IV of Portugal) in 1829. When she arrived in Brazil, in the end of the same year, in company of her brother Auguste, she received the nuptial blessings at the Imperial Chapel. The Emperor, enchanted by Amélie's beauty, created in her honor to celebrate the occasion the Imperial Order of the Rose. This marriage was a happy one, unlike his first marriage to Archduchess Maria Leopoldina of Austria.

After Pedro I abdicated the crown of Brazil in 7 April 1831, Amélie followed her husband back to Portugal, where he engaged himself in the battle against his brother Dom Miguel I (Michael of Portugal) for the Portuguese crown as the Duke of Bragança and regent, in the name of his daughter, Mary II (in Portuguese, Maria II).

After Dom Pedro's death, in the ending months of 1834, the Duchess of Leuchtenberg and Bragança dedicated herself into charities and taking care of her only child, Princess Maria Amélia of Brazil, who died from tuberculosis in the Madeira Islands.

Ancestry

External links

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