House of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza

The House of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (Portuguese: Casa de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança), often referred to as Saxe-Coburg and Braganza branch, is a cadet branch of the Imperial House of Brazil and of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry, itself a branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The house was founded with the marriage of Princess Leopoldina of Brazil to Prince Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1864. Two of the first four princes of the house were recognized as Princes of Brazil due to the apparent infertility of the Princess Imperial, their aunt, which placed them as heirs presumptive to the throne and made their offspring a junior branch of the Imperial House of Brazil, behind the senior branch that is the House of Orléans-Braganza.

Origin
In 1864, the Emperor Pedro II of Brazil was looking for a match to his daughters. The Emperor's sister, Princess of Joinville suggested her nephews, Prince Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Prince Gaston, Count of Eu, both grandsons of King Louis Philippe of France, as suitable choices for the imperial princesses. The two young men traveled to Brazil in August 1864 so that the prospective brides and grooms could meet before a final agreement to the marriage. Isabel and her younger sister Leopoldina were not informed until Ludwig August and Gaston were mid-Atlantic. At first, Leopoldina was to marry Gaston, and Isabel to marry Ludwig August, but ultimatelly they changed, as Ludwig August fell in love for Leopoldina and Gaston thought better of Isabel. The two couples: Gaston and Isabel; August and Leopoldina; were engaged on 18 September. On 15 December 1864 at Rio de Janeiro, Prince Ludwig August married Princess Leopoldina.

It was from that marriage the Saxe-Coburg and Braganza branch was formed. Traditionally and following the agnatic rule, the couple's children are members of the father's house, in this case the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and therefore a new house or branch would not be created from this marriage. However, as this couple had four children much earlier than Isabel and Gaston, who seemed incapable of having children and would only having it 11 years after the wedding, Ludwig August's and Leopoldina's older sons, Prince Pedro Augusto and Prince Augusto Leopoldo, were recognized as Princes of Brazil (in an act sanctioned by the article 105 of the constitution, which does not prohibit the transmission of titles by women) and presumptive heirs to the Brazilian throne, and were taken to be raised in Brazil - where they were born - by their maternal grandfather Pedro II, following an accordance between the Emperor of Brazil and Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Thus, the princes came to be known in Brazil as "Saxe-Coburg and Braganza", after their parents's houses, which became a subsidiary branch of the Imperial House of Brazil, which from 1875 onwards lied behind in the line of succession to the Brazilian throne after the House of Orléans-Braganza, formed by the children of Princess Imperial Isabel, Leopoldina's older sister, and Prince Gaston of Orléans.

Ludwig Gaston and Leopoldina's Brazilian offspring became known as "Saxe-Coburg and Braganza", making reference to Brazil's reigning House of Braganza, while those who were not considered natural Brazilians used Ludwig's name, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Later Princess Teresa Cristina, the only child of Prince Augusto Leopoldo (Leopoldina and Ludwig's second son) to keep the Brazilian nationality, would officially adopt the "Saxe-Coburg and Braganza" as surname instead of "Saxe-Coburg and Gotha" as her siblings who resigned their Brazilian nationality and citizenship did.

Exile
On 15 November 1889 a republican military coup d'ètat deposed Emperor Pedro II, proclaiming the First Brazilian Republic, and ordering the exile of the Brazilian Imperial Family. By that time Prince Pedro Augusto was the only Saxe in Brazil, since his brother Prince Augusto Leopoldo, who served in the Imperial Brazilian Navy since 1882, was in a circunavigation travel. The Imperial Family arrived at Lisbon on 7 December 1889. During the travel, Prince Pedro Augusto suffered bouts of schizophrenia, believing the ship's crew would kill them, and had to be contained in his quarters. Meanwhile the news of the coup in Brazil only arrived at Prince Augusto Leopoldo when he was in Ceylon, in 17 December 1889. He was dicharged from the navy and left there, taking a boat and a train to meet his family recently-arrived in Europe. Pedro and Augusto remained in France, next to their grandfather, until his death in 1891. Then they both moved to Ebenthal, in Austria, where their father lived along with their younger brother, Prince Ludwig Gaston of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

In 1891 Prince Augusto Leopoldo obtained a special permission from Emperor Franz Josef to serve in the Austro-Hungarian Navy without prejudice to his status as a Brazilian prince, eventually becoming Sea Captain. In 1893, however, his older brother Prince Pedro Augusto had a breakdown when he read in the news that his cousin Pedro de Alcântara - and not him - had been acclaimed Emperor of Brazil. His father and brothers then chose to commit him to a psychiatric asylum, where he lived, between a suicide attempt and moments of lucidity, until his death in 1934.

In 1894 Prince Augusto Leopoldo married Archduchess Karoline Marie of Austria, granddaugther of Ferninand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The marriage was attended the Emperor and Empress of Austria. The couple had 8 children, all registered as Brazilian nationals at the Brazilian embassy in Vienna, even though they did not held the title of Prince of Brazil like their father [although they had the right to do so]; they were known in Europe as Princes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. In time, all of those who reached adulthood resigned their Brazilian nationalities, except for Princess Teresa Cristina, who even officially adopted "Saxe-Coburg and Braganza" as her surname. In 1930 Princess Teresa Cristina married Lamoral, Baron Taxis di Bordogna and Valnigra. The couple had 4 children. The couple had 4 children, including Prince Carlos Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza, the current Head of the House.

Princes of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza
Upon their marriage, it was natural, according to [agnatic] tratidition, that their childen would use inherit their father's title and be Barons, but the Constitution of the Brazilian Empire does not prevent the transmission of titles by women, which, incidentally, is precedent both in the case of Teresa Cristina's grandmother Leopoldina, transmitting the Brazilian royal title to her two eldest children, as in the case of her great-aunt Isabel who, as Princess Imperial, transmitted her titles to her offspring, while her own husband, a Prince of Orléans, did not transmit any titles. There is furthermore the question of dynasty survival, in which, when there is no salic law and a woman occupies the position of headship, in order for the dynasty to survive, it is acceptable for her to transmit her titles to her children, and not (or at least not only) the husband; Princess Teresa Cristina was the Head of the branch or house of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza as the only child of Prince Augusto Leopoldo to remain Brazilian, since her uncle Pedro Augusto's death in 1934. And so, with the consent of Baron Lamoral, all four of the couple's children were registered as Brazilian nationals and adopted the surname Tasso (from Lamoral Tasso) of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza. And while they could not inherit the title of Princes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from their mother, since it can only be transmitted through male line, they did not lose their princely quality in accordance to Article 105 of Brazil's Imperial Constitution, and are traditionally [according to Portuguese tradition] called by their surnames, thus as "Princes of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza" [in the same way their cousins are often called Prince(ss) Name of Orléans-Braganza, or Portuguese Infantes are often called "Infante(a) Name of Braganza"].

Tragedy
Princess Marie Caroline of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the third child of Prince Augusto Leopoldo and Archduchess Karoline Marie, was born with a mental disability, and even though she was raised with caring and love by her parents until adulthood, she was ultimatelly admitted in a sanatorium in Schladming, the same on which her uncle, Prince Pedro Augusto, had first been hospitalized. Following her father's death in 1922, her mother, assisteed by her other uncle, Prince Ludwig Gaston, Prince Augusto's younger brother, took responsability for her treatment. In 1941, three years after Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria, under the Aktion T4 euthanasia policy, the patients of the Schladming sanatorium were removed to the concentration camp of Schloss Hartheim and gassed. The princess's death and the ongoing World War II left her mother in isolation in a luxurious apartment in Budapest and motived her brother, Prince Rainer, to join the Hungarian resistance; her uncles, Prince Ludwig Gaston, aged and deppresed, died the next year, in 1942, being the last living grandchild of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil.

In the Kingdom of Hungary, in 1945, Prince Rainer was killed in action in Budapest. A few months later, as Hungary fell to the Allies, the communist elements of the Hungarian Resistance, supported by the Red Army, sacked Budapest's wealth; they broke into Rainer's mother apartment and discovered that the elderly lady living there was an Habsburg, which promptly led them to murder the Archduchess Karoline Marie with bayonets.

Repatriation
Upon marrying, it was agreed that the children of Princess Teresa Cristina and Baron Lamoral would be registered as Brazilian nationals, in order to remain in the line of succession to the throne of Brazil. The couple had four children, three of whom were born in Austria and one in Brazil. After the end of the Second World War, the family decided to settle in Brazil, where the couple's children, already fluent in Portuguese as determined by their mother, who learned the language from their father, born and raised in Brazil, studied in schools and went to college, being able to choose, after studying, in adulthood, to continue in Brazil or return to Europe.

The girls, Princesses Alice Tasso and Maria Cristina, eventually moved to Italy, where they got married and started a family. The boys, princes Carlos Tasso and Felipe Tasso, on the other hand, remained in Brazil where they married Brazilian women. After his first marriage to a Brazilian woman ended in divorce, Carlos Tasso remarried to the Archduchess Walburga of Austria, Princess of Tuscany, whom he met while working in Europe. The couple had eight children, all born outside Brazil but registered as Brazilian naturals. During most of his adulthood and old age, Prince Carlos Tasso lived between Brazil, where he is a coffee grower and a member of numerous historical and cultural institutions, and Italy, his father's birthplace, where he owns properties and vineyards. In 2011 the Prince made the decision to retire permanently in Villalta, Italy. His brother, Prince Filipe Tasso, lives in Brazil where all his descendants were born.

Members

 * Prince Pedro Augusto of Brazil (1866–1934): Older son of Princess Leopoldina of Brazil and Prince Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, he became Head of the Saxe-Coburg and Braganza branch in 1871 and of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry in 1921.
 * Prince Augusto Leopoldo of Brazil (1864–1922)
 * Prince August Clemens of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1895–1908)
 * Princess Klementine Marie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1897–1975): Resigned Brazilian nationality.
 * Princess Marie Karoline of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1899–1941): Executed by the Nazi Regime.
 * Prince Rainer of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1900–1945): Resigned Brazilian nationality.
 * Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1901–1985): Resigned Brazilian nationality.
 * Princess Teresa Cristina of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (1902–1990): Only child of Prince Augusto Leopoldo to keep the Brazilian nationality, she became Head of the Saxe-Coburg and Braganza branch in 1934.
 * Prince Carlos Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 1930)
 * Prince Afonso Carlos Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 1970)
 * Princess Pia Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 2004)
 * Prince Taddeo Augusto Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 2011)
 * Princess Teresa Cristina Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 1971)
 * Prince José Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 1972)
 * Princess Maria Cristina Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 2013)
 * Princess Maria Leopoldina Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 1974)
 * Princess Carolina Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 1976)
 * Prince Antônio Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 1979)
 * Prince Armando Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 2006)
 * Prince Pedro Antônio Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 2008)
 * Princess Leopoldina Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 2011)
 * Prince Fernando Carlos Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (1980–1990)
 * Princess Maria Aparecida Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 1985)
 * Princess Alice Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (1936–2013)
 * Prince Filipe Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 1939)
 * Princess Anna Cristina of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. ?)
 * Princess Anna Carolina of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. ?)
 * Princess Maria Cristina Tasso of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (b. 1945)
 * Princess Leopoldine Blanka of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (1905–1978): Resigned Brazilian nationality.
 * Prince Ernst Franz of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1907–1978): Resigned Brazilian nationality.