Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza
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Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza (Isabelle Marie Amélie Louise Victoire Thérèse Jeanne; 13 August 1911 – 5 July 2003) 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.
Early life
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Born on 13 August 1911, Isabelle Marie Amélie Louise Victoire Thérèse Jeanne of Orléans-Braganza was the eldest daughter of Dom Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, erstwhile heir to the throne of the Empire of Brazil, and his wife, Countess Elisabeth Dobrzensky of Dobrzenicz. Her father was the eldest son of Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, the elder daughter and heiress of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, and Gaston, Count of Eu, grandson of King Louis Philippe I of France. Isabelle was born in a pavilion on the grounds of the Château d'Eu, her paternal grandfather's home in the town of Eu in the Seine-Maritime department of France in Normandy. She was named after her paternal grandmother, the Princess Imperial.<ref name="enache">Enache, Nicolas. La Descendance de Marie-Thérèse de Habsburg. ICC, Paris, 1996. p. 71. French. Template:ISBN.</ref>
In 1891, Dom Pedro de Alcântara became Prince Imperial of Brazil to royalists when his mother became claimant to the throne upon the death of the emperor in exile. In 1908, he renounced his succession rights, and those of his descendants, to marry Bohemian noblewoman Countess Elisabeth Dobrzensky of Dobrzenicz. Though his mother withheld dynastic consent, his parents attended his wedding.<ref name="pdm148">de Montjouvent, Philippe. Le Comte de Paris et sa Descendance. Editions du Chaney, 1998, Charenton, France. pp. 148–152. French. Template:ISBN.</ref> However, with the agreement of the Duke of Orléans, Head of the House of Orléans to which he belonged paternally, he and his descendants retained the right to use the title Prince/ss of Orléans-Braganza.<ref name="pdm148"/>
After the deaths of her maternal grandparents, Isabelle's parents moved from the Pavillon des Ministres on the castle grounds into the main Chateau. They spent the winter months in a townhouse in Boulogne-sur-Seine. In 1924, her father's cousin, Prince Adam Czartoryski, placed at the family's disposal, apartments in the palatial Hôtel Lambert on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris, where Isabelle and her siblings undertook their studies.<ref name="pdm49">de Montjouvent, Philippe. Le Comte de Paris et sa Descendance. Editions du Chaney, 1998, Charenton, France. pp. 49–59. French. Template:ISBN.</ref> The family travelled extensively and much of Isabelle's youth was spent visiting her maternal relatives at their large estate at Chotěboř, Czechoslovakia, Attersee, Austria, and Goluchow, Poland. With her father, Isabelle visited Naples, Constantinople, Rhodes, Smyrna, Lebanon, Syria, Cairo, Palestine and Jerusalem.<ref name="pdm49"/>
In 1920, Brazil lifted the law of banishment against its former dynasty and invited them to bring home the remains of Pedro II, although Isabelle's grandfather, the Count of Eu, died at sea during the voyage. But after annual visits over the next decade, her parents decided to repatriate their family to Petrópolis permanently, where Isabelle attended day school at Notre-Dame-de-Sion while the family took up residence at the old imperial Grão Pará Palace.<ref name="pdm49"/> Until then, Isabelle was privately educated by governesses and tutors.
Marriage
Isabelle first met her third cousin, Prince Henri of Orléans, heir to the Head of the House of Orléans, in 1920 at the home of the Duchess of Chartres, Henri's grandmother who was also a cousin of both of Isabelle's grandparents. In the summer of 1923, Henri was a guest at the Chateau d'Eu, at which time Isabelle, aged 12, resolved that she would one day marry him. However, he took no apparent notice of her at the wedding of his sister, Anne, to the Duke of Aosta at Naples in 1927. During a visit to his parents' home, the Manoir d'Anjou in Brussels, over Easter 1928, Henri began to show interest in Isabelle, and still more at a family reunion in July 1929.<ref name="pdm49"/>
Henri proposed to Isabelle on 10 August 1930 while taking part in a hunt at Count Dobržensky's Chotěboř home. The couple kept their engagement a secret until a family gathering at Attersee later that summer, but were obliged by the Duke of Guise to wait until Henri finished his studies at Louvain University before the betrothal was officially announced 28 December 1930.<ref name="pdm49"/>
On 8 April 1931, Isabelle and Henri were married at Palermo Cathedral; she was 19, and he was 22.<ref name=nyt1>Template:Citation</ref><ref name=nyt3>Template:Citation</ref><ref name=nyt4/> The wedding was held in Sicily, since the law of banishment against the heirs of France's former dynasties had not yet been abrogated.<ref name=nyt3/> The two families selected Palermo because Henri's family owned a palace there, which had been the location of three earlier weddings.<ref name=nyt3/> The wedding gave rise to several royalist demonstrations, and the road leading to the cathedral was lined with hundreds of visitors from France who viewed Henri as the rightful heir to the French throne.<ref name=nyt4>Template:Citation</ref> He was greeted with such cries as "Vive le roi, Vive la France" along with other monarchist cries and songs.<ref name=nyt4/> These supporters were joined by 1,200 guests including members of the bride and groom's families, along with representatives of other royal dynasties.<ref name=nyt4/>
Later life
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Henri became pretender to the throne of France upon the death of his father, the Duke of Guise, in 1940. In 1947, Henri and Isabel's family took up residence at the Quinta do Anjinho, an estate in Sintra, on the Portuguese Riviera.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1950, the law of banishment was repealed and the family moved to Paris. With five of their children they took part in the ship tour organized by King Paul of Greece and Queen Frederica in 1954, which became known as the "Cruise of the Kings" and was attended by over 100 royals from all over Europe.
Isabelle, called Madame, and her husband used the French Royal coat of arms. She survived her late husband by four years.
Issue
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Princess Isabelle Marie Laure Victoire | 8 April 1932 | married Friedrich Karl, Count of Schönborn-Buchheim. | |
| Prince Henri Philippe Pierre Marie | 14 June 1933 | 21 January 2019 | married Duchess Marie Thérèse of Württemberg. |
| Princess Hélène Astrid Léopoldine Marie<ref name=nyt2>Template:Citation</ref> | 17 September 1934<ref name=nyt2/> | married Count Evrard de Limburg-Stirum. | |
| Prince François Gaston Michel Marie, Duke of Orléans | 15 August 1935 | 11 October 1960 | Died fighting for France in Algeria. |
| Princess Anne Marguerite Brigitte Marie | 4 December 1938<ref name=nyt1/> | married Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria. | |
| Princess Diane Françoise Maria da Gloria | 24 March 1940 | married Carl, Duke of Württemberg. | |
| Prince Michel Joseph Benoît Marie | 25 June 1941 | married Béatrice Pasquier de Franclieu. | |
| Prince Jacques Jean Yaroslaw Marie, Duke of Orléans | 25 June 1941 | married Gersende de Sabran-Pontevès. | |
| Princess Claude Marie Agnès Catherine | 11 December 1943 | married Prince Amedeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta. | |
| Princess Jeanne de Chantal Alice Clothilde Marie | 9 January 1946 | married (Baron) François Xavier de Sambucy de Sorgue. | |
| Prince Thibaut Louis Denis Humbert | 20 January 1948 | 23 March 1983 | married Marion Mercedes Gordon-Orr. |
Selected publications
References
Further reading
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