The Most Serene House of Braganza (Sereníssima Casa de Bragança; Portuguese pronunciation: [bɾɐˈɣɐ̃sɐ]) is an important Portuguese noble house that ruled the Kingdom of Portugal and its colonial empire, from 1640 to 1910. In 1822 a branch of the house proclaimed independence of the Portuguese colony of Brazil, founding and ruling the Empire of Brazil from 1822 to 1889, as the Brazilian Imperial Family.
The house of Braganza forms a collateral line of the House of Aviz, which ruled Portugal from 1385 until 1580. Therefore it is also a branch of the Portuguese House of Burgundy (also called Afonsine Royal House), and thus of the House of Burgundy. The Afonsine Royal House founded Portugal in 1139, when it proclaimed independence of the County of Portugal from the Kingdom of León. The Afonsine Royal House ruled until 1385, when a branch of the house, the House of Aviz, succeeded the throne, as result of the 1383–1385 Crisis.
In 1853, due to the marriage of Queen Dona Maria II of Braganza to Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the dynastic heirs of House of Braganza would, according to European tradition, become the House of Braganza-Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, though use of the designation Braganza-Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, or just Braganza-Coburg, however, predominates mainly in the writings of non-Portuguese historians and genealogists, or in writings that are not contemporary to the rule of the Braganza-Saxe-Coburg and Gotha monarchs in Portugal, since they still continued to style and refer to themselves as members of the House of Braganza, as opposed to Braganza-Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Contents |
Royal Houses of Portugal |
|---|
| Houses |
|
of Burgundy House of Aviz House of Aviz-Beja Portugueuse House of Habsburg House of Braganza House of Braganza-Saxe -Coburg and Gotha |
Dom Afonso, count of Barcelos, was an illegitimate son of King D. João I of Portugal - founder of the House of Aviz, the second Portuguese royal house - and Inês Pires.[1] In 1442, Afonso's nephew, King D. Afonso V created the Duchy of Braganza, a royal dukedom, for his uncle. The Duchy included the important town of Braganza in northeastern Portugal, which gave the house its name. It is the third-oldest dukedom in Portugal, after Viseu and Coimbra.
Count D. Afonso, an expert intriguer, won the favor of his father King D. João I, his brother King D. Duarte I, and his nephew King Dom Afonso V. In 1442, King D. Afonso gave him the dukedom, and in 1445, when the King came of age, Duke Afonso was the wealthiest and most powerful man in the kingdom.
The third Duke, D. Fernando II, married Dona Isabella, granddaughter of D. Duarte I, thus bringing the House of Braganza into the legitimate succession to the throne. However, his power and intrigues led to the suppression of the Braganzas by King D. João II. In 1483, D. João II had Fernando executed in Évora for treason. Later D. João seized the Braganza lands and exiled the four-year-old heir, D. Jaime, to Castile.
Dom João II's successor, King D. Manuel I was D. Jaime's uncle. In 1500, he recalled his nephew to Portugal, returning to him the titles and (part of) the lands of Braganza. The house was once again one of the highest and mightiest in the country. D. Jaime ordered the construction of a ducal palace at Vila Viçosa, which would later become one of the royal palaces in the 17th century.
The sixth Duke, D. John I of Braganza, married Infanta Dona Catarina of Portugal, daughter of Infante D. Duarte, sixth son of King D. Manuel I, again linking with the royal line. Their son was the courageous seventh Duke D. Teodósio II, who allegedly fought in the Battle of Ksar El Kebir (1578) when only ten years old.
Meanwhile, the Portuguese kingdom had a succession crisis. King D. Sebastian went missing in battle in Morocco in 1578. He was a childless bachelor and the crown passed to his elderly great-uncle, Cardinal Henry I, who of course was also childless. On Henry I's death in 1580, there were several claimants to the throne, all in some way weak. The Duchess of Braganza had a claim, through her father, but was denied, mostly due to her gender. Her husband had a claim descending from the third Duke. Other claimants included Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma and King Don Philip II of Spain. Philip was the most powerful contender, and became King D. Philip I of Portugal, establishing a union of crowns. Portugal was thereafter ruled by Habsburg governors appointed by Philip and his successors.
The Duke D. Teodósio II did not press his claim; he supported Philip II, from whom the Braganzas gained more land and titles.
By 1640 the wise policies of Don Philip II in respect of Portugal were long past. The country was overtaxed, Portuguese colonies were left unprotected, and the Habsburg king, Don Philip IV of Spain (III of Portugal), no longer had the trust or support of most Portuguese nobility. He was especially loathed by the powerful Portuguese guild of merchants. Portugal, like the rest of Philip's kingdoms, was on the verge of rebellion. The eighth Duke of Bragança, D. João IV, had inherited the claim of his grandmother, Infanta Dona Catarina of Portugal, and the remoter claim through of his grandfather João I. The rebels asked him to lead their uprising.
According to court historians, D. João IV was a modest man without particular ambitions to the crown. Legend says that his wife, Dona Luisa de Guzmán, daughter of the duke of Medina-Sidonia, urged him to accept the offer, saying "I'd rather be Queen for one day than duchess for a lifetime." He accepted the leadership of the rebellion, which was successful, and was acclaimed João IV of Portugal on December 1, 1640.
After the accession of the Braganzas to the throne, the duchy was linked to the Crown. "Duke of Braganza" became the traditional title of the heir to the throne, together with or alternate to the heir to the throne's title, much as Prince of Wales is in the United Kingdom or Prince of Asturias in Spain.
Under D. João's sons D. Afonso VI and D. Pedro II, the Portuguese colonial empire, part of which was lost during the Spanish occupation, was restored and expanded, bringing new wealth to Portugal.
The zenith of the Braganza dynasty came with the long reign of D. João V (1706–1750), who ruled with grandeur and piety. The reign of D. José I, son of D. João V, was marked by the great earthquake, which struck Lisbon in 1755. The political genius of his reign was the 1st Marquis of Pombal. The end of the 18th century was characterized by stability, under the rule of Dona Maria I (1777–1816), who discharged Pombal at her accession. Unfortunately Dona Maria became psychologically unstable, displaying similar symptoms to George III of the United Kingdom in his later years.
In 1807 the Braganzas and almost all the Portuguese nobility fled to Brazil, Portugal's largest colony, as the mother country was involved in the Napoleonic Wars. Some time after they had crossed the Atlantic, a royal decree changed the status of Brazil from a Portuguese colony into kingdom alongside Portugal, and the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarve was formed.
In 1821, D. João VI, who succeeded in 1816, returned to Portugal. He demoted Brazil to a colony again, sparking rebellion there.
Dom Pedro of Braganza, Prince Royal of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, the eldest son of D. João VI and also regent in Brazil, sided with the Brazilian rebels in January 1822. He proclaimed himself Emperor D. Pedro I of an independent Brazil in 1822, founding the Empire of Brazil.
Dom Pedro I ruled Brazil until 1831, when he abdicated in favor of his young son D. Pedro II, and returned to Portugal to aid his daughter D. Maria II (see below). D. Pedro II ruled Brazil until 1889, when the Brazilian monarchy was toppled by angry landed aristocrats disagreeing with the abolition of slavery.
In Portugal, D. Pedro I of Brazil became King as D. Pedro IV (1826), but no one wanted to re-establish the union of Portugal and Brazil. Pedro abdicated the Portuguese throne (May 1826) in favor of his daughter Dona Maria da Glória, then seven years old. D. Pedro's brother D. Miguel was to act as Regent, and to marry Maria when she came of age. Miguel instead proclaimed himself King of Portugal (1828) and repudiated the liberal constitution granted by D. João VI, trying to establish an absolute monarchy.
Maria was forced into exile (1828). Her father D. Pedro returned from Brazil, and from the Azores waged a successful campaign against D. Miguel, who was defeated and exiled in 1834. She married Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Maria II was succeeded in 1853 by her son D. Pedro V, a hard-working reformer who died prematurely in 1861 due to cholera. D. Pedro V was succeeded by his brother D. Luís, as D. Pedro V had no children.
Dom Luís was succeeded in 1889 by his son D. Carlos. Carlos was assassinated in 1908 together with his eldest son, D. Luís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal, by republicans. His younger son, D. Manuel II, survived the attack on his father and elder brother, but was toppled two years later in the 1910 republican revolution. After the revolution, Manuel was forced into exile in England by the Portuguese First Republic, but he would continue to support his fatherland untill his death.
After the revolution of 1910, King D. Manuel II settled in England until his death in 1932. He was childless, and descendants of D. Miguel (the usurper of 1826) claimed the throne. In 1920–22, the two branches of the House of Braganza negotiated a pact under which D. Manuel named as his heir D. Duarte Nuno of Braganza, grandson of D. Miguel. D. Duarte Nuno, now Duke of Braganza, remained the Braganza pretender until his death in 1976. In 1942, he married a great-granddaughter of Emperor D. Pedro II of Brazil, uniting the two lines of the House.
In 1950 Portugal repealed the law of exile against the Braganzas, and D. Duarte Nuno moved to the country in 1952.
Dom Duarte Nuno was succeeded as pretender by his son, D. Duarte Pio (born 1945). D. Duarte Pio served in the Portuguese Armed Forces and took the customary oath of allegiance to the Republic, but Portuguese monarchists still recognize him as the pretender to the Portuguese throne. In 1995 he married Dona Isabel de Herédia, a Portuguese businesswoman and descendent of the Viscount of Ribeira Brava. He worked actively in support of the independence of East Timor from Indonesia.
Dona Maria Pia de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança, who claimed she was an illegitimate daughter of King D. Carlos I of Portugal, started claiming she was the heir to the throne from 1957. She supposedly adopted the Italian Rosario Poidimani and, through this, she transfered her claimed rights to the Portuguese throne to him. There is no concrete legal value in either of these claims.
| Coat of Arms | Title | Time Held | Coat of Arms | Title | Time Held |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emperor of Brazil | 1822–1889 | King of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves | 1640-1910 | ||
| King of Portugal | 1640-1910 | King of the Algarve | 1640-1910 | ||
| Prince of Portugal Prince of Brazil Prince Royal of Portugal |
1481-present [2] | Prince of Beira | 1734-present [3] | ||
| Duke of Braganza Duke of Guimarães Duke of Barcelos Marquis of Vila Viçosa |
1442-present [4] | Count of Ourém Count of Neiva |
1451-present |
|
Most Serene House of Braganza
Cadet branch of the House of Aviz
|
||
| Preceded by Portuguese House of Habsburg |
Ruling House of the Kingdom of Portugal 1640–1910 |
Succeeded by House of Braganza-Saxe -Coburg and Gotha |
| Preceded by New Creation |
Ruling House of the Empire of Brazil 1822–1889 |
Monarchy Abolished See República Velha |
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||