Isabelle, Countess of Paris

Isabelle, comtesse de Paris

Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza became by marriage duchess of Orléans, of Valois, of Chartres, of Guise, of Enghien, of Vendome, of Penthievre, of Aumale, of Nemours and of Montpensier, dauphine of Auvergne, princess of Joinville, princess of Condé, etc., titular Countess of Paris. She was born on August 13, 1911 and died on July 5, 2003.

She was the eldest daughter of Prince Pedro de Alcantara of Orléans-Braganza, Prince of Grão Pará, heir of the Empire of Brazil (1875-1940) and of his wife (in contravention to House Laws of the Brazilian Imperial Family) the Countess Elisabeth Dobrzensky of Dobrzenicz (1875-1951). Therefore she was the eldest sister of the present head of the non-dynastic Petrópolis Branch of the imperial family of Brazil. She was christened as namesake of her grandmother, the then Titular Empress. Her father had become in 1891 Prince Imperial of Brazil to the royalists, as his grandfather Pedro II died and his mother, the Princess Imperial of Brazil, became the pretender. However, in 1908 prince Pedro wanted to marry a noblewoman whom his mother did not approve as sufficiently royal to become a member of the imperial dynasty. Therefore, dom Pedro renounced his rights to succession and to his title Prince Imperial of Brazil. He and his issue continued to use the family titulary Prince/ss of Orléans-Braganza. At the death of the deposed Manuel II of Portugal in 1932, her father became a possible heir to the defunct kingdom of Portugal, as he had not renounced such rights.

For those who deny the validity of the renunciation of Isabelle's father from his rights to Imperial Brazil in 1908, she was a Princess of Brazil with the title of Imperial and Royal Highness.

Her paternal grandparents were Louis Philippe Marie Ferdinand Gaston, comte d'Eu (1842 - 1922) and Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil. Gaston was the eldest son of Louis Charles Philippe Raphael, duc de Nemours and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duchess in Saxony. Isabella was the eldest daughter of Pedro II of Brazil and Teresa of the Two Sicilies.

In 1931 Isabelle married her cousin Henri, comte de Paris(1908-1999), pretender to the throne of France since 1940. They had eleven children, including his successor Henri, comte de Paris, duc de France.

Princess Isabelle, called Madame, and her husband used the French Royal coat of arms. She survived her late husband by four years.

Ancestry

Louis-Philippe of the French

Louis, Duke of Nemours

Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies

Gaston, Count of Eu

Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince of Kohary

Princess Victoria of Kohary

Princess Antonia of Kohary

Prince Pedro de Alcantara of Orléans-Braganza

Pedro I of Brazil

Pedro II of Brazil

Maria Leopoldina of Austria

Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil

Francis I of the Two Sicilies

Teresa of the Two Sicilies

Maria Isabella of Spain

Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza

Count Johann Wenzel Dobrzensky de Dobrzenicz

Count Johann Nepomuk Dobrzensky de Dobrzenicz

Maria Anna Pergler von Perglas

Count Johann Dobrzensky de Dobrzenicz

Josef Joachim Wanczura von Rzehnicz

Maria Friederike Wanczura von Rzehnicz

Maria Friederike La Motte von Frintropp

Countess Elisabeth Dobrzensky de Dobrzenicz

Josef Johann Kottulinsky von Kottulin

Josef Kottulinsky von Kottulin

Josefa Katzianer von Katzenstein

Elisabeth Kottulinsky von Kottulin

Franz Anton von Attems-Heiligenkreuz

Adelheid von Attems-Heiligenkreuz

Countess Ernestine Khuen of Belasi of Lichtenberg and Gandegg