House Braganza

The House of Braganza (in Portuguese notation Bragança ) is a Portuguese noble family who provided the kings of Portugal from 1640 to 1853 and the emperors of Brazil from 1822 to 1889 . The family is named after the city of the same name in northern Portugal.

Schematic representation of the various Port. Dynasties and lines of the House of Braganza

Beginnings up to the accession to the throne in Portugal

Alfons of Braganza († 1461) was born in 1377 as the illegitimate son of King John I of Portugal , the founder of the House of Avis . Although he was not called to the throne because of his illegitimate birth (after the death of his father, the crown fell to Alfons half-brother Edward I and the other kings of the house of Avis), he was still held in high honor by his father. In 1401 he married Beatrice, the heir to the blessed Nuno Álvares Pereira , the hero of the Battle of Aljubarrota . He inherited large estates through them. In 1442 Peter of Portugal , who was then regent of the kingdom, made him the first Duke of Braganza. By the time he died, the House of Braganza had risen to become the most powerful aristocratic dynasty in Portugal after the royal family .

As dukes under the House of Avis

Family tree of the House of Braganza - from the beginnings to the takeover of the Portuguese throne

Palace in Vila Viçosa , residence of the Dukes of Braganza from 1500

In the following generations, the House of Braganza maintained its close proximity to the ruling House of Avis. In practically every generation there were marriages between the two families. Nevertheless, under Ferdinand II (1430–1483), the third Duke of Braganza, the family initially fell profoundly. In Portugal, King John II ruled since 1481. He tried to expand the power of the royal family at the expense of the large noble families. In particular, the king overthrew the Cortes , the aristocratic parliament through which the nobility had previously been involved in the government of the country. This policy inevitably had to put the king in opposition to the Duke of Braganza, who represented the most powerful aristocratic family in the country. Ferdinand opposed the king, he is even said to have allied himself with his Castilian opponents (historically controversial). The king won the power struggle. Ferdinand was convicted of high treason and beheaded in Évora in 1483 . The possession of the House of Braganza was confiscated in favor of the royal family. The Duke's underage son and heir, Jakob (Jaime), had to leave the country and went into exile in Castile.

King Emanuel I rehabilitated the House of Braganza and returned his possessions to him. Jacob then returned from his Castilian exile. He was even declared heir to the throne in 1498 because Emanuel I did not yet have an heir. In 1502 a son was born to the king, who later became King John III. so that the House of Braganza could not yet ascend the Portuguese throne.

Cardinal Heinrich, the last Portuguese king of the house of Avis, died in 1580 . Johann I (1543–1583), the sixth Duke of Braganza, made claims to the throne for his wife Katharina, a granddaughter of Emanuel I, but could not prevent the throne from being passed to the Spanish Habsburgs, who were also closely related to the house of Avis fell. The Spanish King Philip II ascended the Portuguese throne as Philip I.

Under the Spanish Habsburgs

From 1580 to 1640 Portugal was ruled together with Spain by its monarchs in personal union. The dukes of Braganza were loyal to the respective Spanish / Portuguese monarch at this time. In return, they gave the dukes great freedom, so that the Duchy of Braganza was ruled almost like an autonomous unit within Portugal.

For Portugal itself, however, the government of the Spanish Habsburgs was no good. While Philip I (II) still respected the autonomy promised to the country , his successors restricted it more and more, so that Portugal became de facto a Spanish colony. The Spanish superpower, closely chained to Austrian relatives in the family, was involved in all the great wars of that time. In addition to the Habsburg-French antagonism , there were the problems of the Austrian Habsburgs with the Ottomans and the Protestant imperial estates, which culminated in the Thirty Years War . In order to pay for all these wars, the Spanish kings taxed their land heavily; these taxes naturally also affected Portugal. The European enemies of the Spaniards and the Habsburgs, in addition to the French, especially the English and the Dutch , held themselves harmless in the Portuguese colonies . All this led to a great dissatisfaction in Portugal with the Spanish kings, which erupted in several uprisings.

Theodosius II died in 1630 and his son, born in 1604, became the eighth Duke of Braganza as John II. In 1640 there was another uprising against the Spaniards in Portugal. Cardinal Richelieu , who did everything possible to weaken the Habsburgs, supported the uprising and encouraged John to stand at its head. After the expulsion of Duchess Margaret of Mantua , the Spanish governor in Lisbon, the Cortes proclaimed him as John IV as the new king of Portugal. Embroiled in other European conflicts, Spain was initially unable to react.

The Braganza House on the Portuguese and Brazilian Thrones

John IV was able to quickly consolidate his rule against the Spaniards. His successor Alfonso VI. succeeded through his victories in the Restoration War to finally fend off Spanish claims on Portugal.

Family tree of the House of Braganza II

Paço da Ribeira Royal Palace in Lisbon (destroyed in the 1755 earthquake)

Palácio Real de Queluz

Palácio das Necessidades , Lisbon

Palácio Real da Ajuda , Lisbon

The Palácio Real da Pena

From 1706 to 1750 Portugal was ruled by King John V , known as "the Magnanimous" (o Magnânimo), the son of Peter II and his second wife, Marie Sophie of the Palatinate. Johann V, who took Louis XIV of France as an example, was considered a capable, highly educated and versatile statesman. Under him, absolutism was introduced in Portugal after the Cortes, the Portuguese assembly of estates through which the nobility originally participated in government, had not been convened since 1696.

In 1808, Prince Regent Johann, who later became Johann VI. who had ruled for his mentally ill mother Maria I since 1792 , left Portugal while fleeing from Napoleon's troops . The royal court moved to Rio de Janeiro . In 1815 Brazil became its own kingdom, which was linked to Portugal in personal union. After the English had liberated Portugal from Napoleonic troops, Johann returned to Portugal in 1821, following the urgent request of the Cortes. He left his eldest son and heir to the throne, Peter , as governor in Brazil. When the Cortes also wanted to force Peter to return to Portugal and also wanted to reintroduce colonial status for Brazil, Peter declared Brazilian independence in 1822 and himself, as Peter I, Emperor of Brazil . Since then, the Braganza house has been split into a Portuguese and a Brazilian line.

Meanwhile in Portugal a struggle broke out between the liberals , supporters of a constitutional monarchy , and the absolutists, who advocated an absolute monarchy . Johann inclined to the liberals, while his wife and younger son Michael advocated absolutism. When Michael put on a coup d'état against his father , Johann succeeded with English help in defending himself against Michael and forcing him into exile in Vienna .

As John VI. In 1826 he died, the Portuguese crown fell to his son Peter, the Emperor of Brazil, who also ascended the Portuguese throne as Peter IV. However, Peter was not prepared to return to Portugal and therefore resigned in the same year in favor of his underage daughter Maria da Glória . Peter wanted to reunite the two warring lines of the House of Braganza and planned that his exiled brother Michael should marry his daughter Maria. He appointed Michael as regent for the minor Maria. He therefore returned to Portugal in 1826.

Michael had other plans, however. In 1828 he dethroned Queen Maria and allowed the Cortes to proclaim himself king. He was the last king to rule Portugal as an absolute monarch. Peter was unwilling to accept his younger brother's breach of trust. In 1831 he resigned in Brazil in favor of his son Emperor Peter II in order to be able to devote himself entirely to Portuguese problems. He went to Europe, assumed the title of Duke of Braganza and began the fight against his brother. Portugal was plunged into a civil war ( Miguelistenkrieg ), which ended in Michael’s defeat in 1834. Michael had to go into exile again, Maria II ascended the Portuguese throne for the second time, and the Duke of Braganza died in the same year.

The end of House Braganza rule and developments in exile

The Braganza house was split into three lines:

the Brazilian line, represented by Emperor Peter II .;
the Portuguese line, represented by Queen Maria II and
the Portuguese Legitimist (Miguelitische) line in exile, represented by ex-King Michael, who never renounced his claim to the throne.

The Brazilian line

Emperor Peter II was overthrown in 1889. Since then, Brazil has been a republic . With his death in 1891, the Brazilian line of the House of Braganza died out in the male line. He was heir to his daughter, Princess Elisabeth (Princesa Isabel, 1846–1921), who had married Gaston von Orleans, Count of Eu in 1864 , a paternal grandson of the French King Ludwig Philipp and maternal of Duke Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (the was also father of the Portuguese King Ferdinand II , see Portuguese line). The Brazilian line of the House of Braganza was continued via Princess Elisabeth as House Orléans-Braganza (Orléans e Bragança). The current (2007) head of the house is Dom Luíz Gastão de Orleans e Bragança. He is thus a pretender to the throne and would become Brazilian emperor in the event that Brazil should reintroduce the monarchy with the former ruling family. In 1993, on the basis of Article 2 of the transitional provisions of the new Brazilian constitution of 1988, a referendum was actually held on the re-establishment of the monarchy; but only 13% of the Brazilians eligible to vote voted for the monarchy.

The Portuguese line

In Portugal, the House of Braganza was extinguished in the male line with the death of Peter IV of Portugal (= Peter I of Brazil) in 1834. His daughter, Queen Maria II. Married Ferdinand von Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha in 1836 . With Maria's son, Peter V , the Portuguese line of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha came to government in 1853 . In 1910 the last king from this line, Manuel II, was overthrown, and Portugal has been a republic since then. With the Treaty of Dover (1912) the deposed Emanuel II allied himself with the legitimists / Miguellists against the new republic in Portugal. Before his death he appointed Duarte II Nuno, a descendant of the Miguelite line, as his successor. Manuel II died childless in exile in England in 1932. With that the Portuguese line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was extinguished.

The Legitimist / Miguelite Line

In 1834 King Michael was forced into exile. Neither he nor his descendants ever gave up their claim to the Portuguese throne, so they saw themselves as anti-kings against Maria II or the rulers of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family who ruled after her. It was not until 1921 that the two warring lines were finally reconciled. In the meantime the revolution of 1910 had ended the monarchy in Portugal, the last Portuguese king Emanuel II was in exile in England. Since Emanuel had no descendants, he appointed Duarte II Nuno (1907-1976), son of Michael of Braganza and grandson of King Michael, as his successor. Since 1976 his son, Duarte III. Pio (* 1945), head of the royal house of Portugal and Duke of Braganza and thus, in the event that the monarchy should be reintroduced in Portugal, pretender to the throne .

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