Pedro Gastão, Prince of Brazil

Dom Pedro Gastão, Prince of Brazil (19 February 1913 – 27 December 2007) was the firstborn and heir of Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, who disputedly reigned Emperor Pedro III of Brazil. He was the Head of the Petrópolis branch of the House of Orléans Braganza following his father's death and a claimant to the defunct Brazilian throne as Pedro IV in opposition to the Vassouras branch claim led by his cousins Princes Pedro Henrique and Luiz.

Pedro Gastão was born during the Brazilian Imperial Family's exile, being the second child and first son of Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, disputedly Emperor Pedro III (from 1894 to 1895), and Countess Elisabeth Dobrzensky of Dobrzenicz. Never having accepted his father's renunciation as valid, he actively claimed the Brazilian throne from his father's death in 1940 until his own in 2007, becoming famous and cherished both among Brazilians and among international royalty. He also maintained a frank and friendly relation with the Brazilian republican authorities and participated in almost all official events of the Brazilian State, apecially in receptions to worldwide royalty. Thanks to that, he was occasionally allowed to make use of state property, such presidential plane and army escorting.

Uncle to King Juan Carlos I of Spain, as well to the pretenders to the Portuguese and French thrones and to the consorts of Württemberg and the Two Sicilies, he was grandfather to Peter, Hereditary Prince of Yugoslavia and a personal friend to Kings Baudoiun and Albert II of Belgium, to Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg and to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

Birth
Prince Pedro Gastão, whose name was after his father and grandfather, was born in 19 February 1913 in France in the Château d'Eu, at the homonimous town of Eu, during the exile of the Brazilian Imperial Family which had been deposed in 1889. His father Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, was the older son of the Empress Isabel of Brazil and had been expected from birth to eventually inherit the Imperial Throne of Brazil naturally (although he nominally reigned as Emperor during the Federalist Revolution, between 1894 and 1895). His mother, Countess Elisabeth Dobrzensky of Dobrzenicz, comes from a Bohemian noble family. He was brother to Princess Isabelle, Countess of Paris and to Princess Maria Francisca, Duchess of Braganza and had other two siblings.

When he was born, his father had renounced the rights of succession to the Brazilian throne in his own name and that of his descendants five years ago. However, this resignation has its legal validity questioned, but, nevertheless, it was accepted by the Empress, as head of the family, and theoretically was tacitly recognized by the other world dynasties. Thus, as the succession rights of Prince Pedro de Alcântara theoretically passed to his brother Luís, who began to use the title of Prince Imperial of Brazil (and his son that of Prince of Grão- Pará), when Pedro Gastão was born, he was not identified as Prince of Grão-Pará, as he legally should have been, being treated only as Prince of Brazil.

Childhood
Pedro Gastão spent his early childhood in Europe, largely at his family's Parisian home in the Boulogne-sur-Seine suburb and at the Château d'Eu, where he was born: "I have very good memories of my grandparents [...] In exile in France I was always brought up thinking of Brazil, not France or Portugal." In 1922 he saw Brazil for the first time, two years after the reppealing of the Banishment Law against the Imperial Family. On that occasion, upon arriving in Brazil accompanied by his father and grandfather, the Prince Gaston of Orléans, Count of Eu and de jure Emperor of Brazil either consort or by jure uxoris, in order to commemorate the bicentenary of the country's independence, his grandfather died and received a funeral from the Head of State in the streets of Rio de Janeiro. The family repatriated to Brazil and settled at the Imperial Palace of Grão-Pará, at the town of Petrópolis, and Pedro Gastão attended the Notre Dame de Sion school which rented his father's Imperial Palace of Petrópolis.

Succession
When Pedro Gastão was born, it had been five years since his father had signed the instrument of resignation, by which he theoretically would have renounced the rights of succession to the throne of Brazil for himself and his offspring. However, although the document was accepted by the Empress and the royalists, it was not in accordance with Brazilian monarchical law, that is, with the 1824 Constitution of the Empire of Brazil.

A few years before his death, Pedro Gastão's father, Pedro de Alcântara, even told a Brazilian newspaper:
 * "My resignation was not valid for many reasons: besides, it was not a hereditary resignation." But on spite of this, Prince Pedro de Alcântara never challenged the heaship of his nephew Pedro Henrique, Prince of Brazil.

Therefore, following the death of his father, and supported by Infante Alfonso, Duke of Calabria and Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona, Prince Pedro Gastão declared himself Head of the Imperial Family of Brazil. His position was endorsed by Francisco Morato, law professor at the University of São Paulo, who concluded the resignation of Pedro Gastão's father was not a valid legal or monarchical act. Professor Paulo Napoleão Nogueira da Silva in the 1990s published a report saying that the resignation of his father was invalid under all possible aspects of Brazilian Law.

During most of his life he represented strong a rival claim to that of his cousin Pedro Henrique, Prince of Brazil and his cousin's son, Luiz, Prince of Brazil, to be the heir of the deposed Emperor Pedro II of Brazil. Although his father's resignation was widely recognized by the Brazilian monarchists, the figure of Dom Pedro Gastão was much more charismatic and active, and as the son of the main heir to Dom Pedro II's throne, his claim was still very strong, so he was much more famous than his Vassouras branch counterpart. Imperative figure in the city of Petrópolis, he was a reference to prince and to the imperial family when Brazilians thought of the old monarchy.

Marriage and issue
On 18 December 1944 Prince Pedro Gastão married Princess Maria de la Esperanza of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1914–2005), a daughter of Prince Carlos of the Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain and Princess Louise of Orléans in Seville, Francoist Spain. The couple had six children:


 * Pedro Carlos, Prince of Brazil (31 October 1945), married Rony Kuhn de Souza (20 March 1938–14 January 1979) 2 September 1975, with issue. He remarried Patricia Branscombe 16 July 1981, with issue.
 * Princess Maria da Gloria of Brazil (13 December 1946), married Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia 1 July 1972, divorced 1985, with issue. She remarried Ignacio de Medina y Fernández de Córdoba, 19th Duke of Segorbe on 24 October 1985, with issue.
 * Prince Alfonso of Brazil (25 April 1948), married Maria Parejo Gurruchaga (born 1954) 3 January 1973, divorced with issue. He remarried Silvia-Amália Hungria de Silva Machado 19 November 2002.
 * Prince Manuel of Brazil (17 June 1949), married Margarita Haffner (10 December 1945) 12 December 1977, divorced 1995, with issue.
 * Princess Cristina of Brazil (16 October 1950), married 16 May 1980 Prince Jan Pavel Sapieha-Rozanski (26 August 1935), 16 May 1980, sometime Belgian ambassador to Brazil divorced 1988, with issue.
 * Prince Francisco of Brazil (9 December 1956), married Christina Schmidt-Pecanha (14 January 1953) 28 January 1978, divorced, with issue. He remarried Rita de Cássia Pires 1980, with issue.

Official relations
Despite not having his claim to the throne widely recognized by the Brazilian monarchists, Pedro Gastão was very popular with the Brazilian common people, national and international media, the country's republican authorities and the world royalty. He hosted Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh twice at his palace in Villamanrique-de-la-Condessa, Spain, and participated in the reception of the British monarch and consort to Brazil in 1968. He also hosted Kings Carol II of Romania, Juan Carlos I of Spain and Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in his palace in Petrópolis, Brazil. He had also participated in the official receptions to the monarchs of the United Kingdom, Belgium, Iran, Luxembourg, Ethiopia, to the then Crown Prince of Japan, present Emperor Emeritus Akihito, and had also participated in several royal gala balls at the embassies in Rio de Janeiro and abroad. In terms of both national and international popularity, it is visible that Pedro Gastão has far surpassed his rival pretender, Prince Pedro Henrique.

As a resident of Petrópolis, Pedro Gastão became a kind of ambassador for the monarchical cause and was seen as a living representative of Brazil's imperial past. He has accumulated thousands of documents and works of art in the archives of his residence, which even today help to tell the story of the so-called "Imperial City". Pedro Gastão was also the one who received the presidents of the republic on vacation in the city. He was proud to have met all Brazilian heads of state, from Epitácio Pessoa, who abolished his family's exile, to Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the last Brazilian president in office while the Prince was still living in Brazil and a personal friend of his. His popularity with high government officials allowed him to make occasional use of state property such as Air Force planes and the Presidential Guard Battalion, to this day better known as the Emperor's Battalion.

Business
The prince ran the Companhia Imobiliária de Petrópolis (Petrópolis Imobiliary Company), that collected the laudemium fee, until the end of the 20th century, when he relinquished leadership of the company in favor of his eldest son and heir Pedro Carlos and went to live in Spain. Still in the mountain town of Petrópolis, in the 1950s, Pedro Gastão acquired the newspaper Tribuna de Petrópolis, founded in 1902, and currently managed by his son, Prince Francisco. In 1954 he came to an agreement with his siblings for the definitive sale of the Château d'Eu, castle in which his family lives most of their exile in France, to the Brazilian entrepeneur Assis Chateaubriand, and later to the Prefecture of Eu.

Referendum
In the early 1990s, during the referendum in which the Brazilian people should opt for the monarchy or the republic, Pedro Gastão was one of the most engaged in the campaign for the monarchy. Nevertheless, despite his popularity, his nephew, Prince João Henrique, ended up becoming the most popular candidate for the throne of Brazil among the population. But with the defeat of the cause, in advanced age, the prince eventually left the country and disallowed the initiative of some of his supporters to found a monarchist party in Brazil. He retired to his wife's property in Villamanrique, near Seville, Spain, returning to Brazil always to visit his children and grandchildren.

Death
The couple's last years of life were spent at the princess's estate, where both passed away. Princess Maria de la Esperanza died before him, in 2005, leaving him only with his caretakers and being constantly visited by two of his children who lived in Seville. Prince Pedro Gastão died in the early hours of 27 December 2007, at the age of 94, and was buried the following day, in the chapel of Villamanrique de la Condesa. He received a State funeral with the presence of the Spanish monarchs.

Titles and styles

 * 19 February 1913 – 14 November 1921: His Imperial Highness The Prince of Grão-Pará
 * 14 November 1921 – 29 November 1940: His Imperial Highness The Prince Imperial of Brazil
 * 29 Janaury 1940 – 27 December 2007: His Imperial Highness The Prince of Brazil

It is worth notice that, from his birth to the death of his father, Prince Pedro Gastão simply attended as a Prince of Brazil or Prince of Orléans-Braganza by virtue of his grandmother's recognition of his father's renunciation and the maintenance of such position by his father.

Honours
As Head of the House of Orléans-Braganza, Pedro Gastão held the following positions:
 * Flag of Empire of Brazil (1870-1889).svg Grand Master and Sovereign of the Imperial Order of Christ
 * Flag of Empire of Brazil (1870-1889).svg Grand Master and Sovereign of the Imperial Order of St. Benedict of Avis
 * Flag of Empire of Brazil (1870-1889).svg Grand Master and Sovereign of the Imperial Order of Saint James of the Sword
 * Flag of Empire of Brazil (1870-1889).svg Grand Master and Sovereign of the Imperial Order of the Southern Cross
 * Flag of Empire of Brazil (1870-1889).svg Grand Master and Sovereign of the Imperial Order of Emperor Pedro I
 * Flag of Empire of Brazil (1870-1889).svg Grand Master and Sovereign of the Imperial Order of the Rose

He has also been decorated with a number of other honours:
 * Flag of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1816).svg Calabrian Royal Family of Two Sicilies: Bailiff Grand Cross of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George
 * Flag of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1816).svg Calabrian Royal Family of Two Sicilies: Bailiff Grand Cross of the Illustrious Royal Order of Saint Januarius
 * Flag of Portugal (1830).svg Portuguese Royal Family: Grand Cross of the Order of Christ
 * Flag of the Order of St. John (various).svg Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
 * State Flag of Greece (1863-1924 and 1935-1973).svg Kingdom of Greece: Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer
 * Flag of Spain (1945–1977).svg Spanish State: Knight of the Royal Cavalry Armory of Seville