Luiz, Prince of Brazil

Dom Luiz (Luiz Gastão Maria José Pio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga; 6 June 1938 – 15 July 2022) was the legal guardian of the Brazilian throne, and de jure, Emperor of Brazil as Luiz I from July 1981 until his death. Having been Head of the Imperial House of Brazil for 41 years, 10 days.

The Vassouras branch claims legitimacy over the throne in opposition to the Petrópolis branch of the Orléans-Braganzas, headed by Pedro Carlos, Prince of Brazil. Though both Prince Luiz and Prince Pedro Carlos are great-great-grandchildren of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, of the House of Braganza, they disputed leadership over Brazilian Imperial Family due to a dynastic dispute concerning their fathers, who were cousins.

Although the exile of the Imperial Family had already been revoked, Prince Luiz was born in France a year after the marriage of his parents, Pedro Henrique, Prince of Brazil and Princess Maria Elisabeth of Bavaria, and only came to Brazil after the end of the Second World War. A pupil of Plinio Correa de Oliveira, Luiz became a member of the TFP and later of the IPCO and is an outspoken traditionalist conservative and advocate of right-wing Christian policies.

Prince Luiz actively claimed the throne and participated in matters concerning Brazil's imperial past and monarchical political proselytism having been partially responsible for the removal of the stony clause of the republican form of government in the Brazilian Constitution of 1988. He was widely recognized as the legitimate claimant to the Brazilian throne by Brazilian monarchists and press. Childless, upon his death he was succeeded by his brother Bertrand

Early life
Luiz Gastão Maria José Pio was born on 6 June 1938 in Mandelieu-la-Napoule, France, the first son Pedro Henrique, Prince of Brazil, the Vassouras grandson of Emperess Isabel of Brazil, and his wife, Princess Maria Elisabeth of Bavaria, granddaughter of King Ludwig III of Bavaria. Through his father, he is a member of the Vassouras branch of the House of Orléans-Braganza, a cadet branch of the House of Braganza and the House of Orléans. Through both of his parents, Luiz is a cousin to many heads of royal families throughout the world, including: Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza; Henri Antoine, Hereditary Prince of Ligne; Archduke Leopold Franz of Austria; and Henri, Count of Paris. Luiz's godparents were Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, his paternal grandmother, and Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, his maternal uncle. Upon his birth he was registered as a Brazilian citizen at the Consulate General of Brazil in Paris.

Although Prince Luiz was born after revocation of the exile that had been imposed on the Imperial Family by Brazil's first Republican government, the aftermath of World War I and World War II detained the Vassouras branch of the family in Europe until 1945, when they were finally repatriated, settling first in the town of Petrópolis (Rio de Janeiro), in the Imperial Palace of Grão-Pará, then moving to a confortable farm his father bought in Jacarezinho (Paraná).

Formation
He studied in traditional colleges - such as the Jesuit College of Saint Ignatius - and later went to Paris, where he perfected his language learning. He speaks Portuguese, French and German fluently and understands Spanish, Italian and English. On 1957, Luiz returned to Europe to finish his studies, where he graduated in chemical engineering at the University of Munich. Returning to Brazil in 1967, his family having already moved to Vassouras (Rio de Janeiro), Prince Luiz became a member of the Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, a traditionalist Catholic organization which opposes socialistic land reform and supports conservative politics based on Catholic social doctrine and the principles promoted by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. Alongside Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, his Portuguese counterpart he opposes same-sex marital unions, as of a 2015 declaration.

Succession
On 1981, he succeeded Prince Pedro Henrique as claimant to the Brazilian throne in the Vassouras branch. According to Brazilian legitimist claims, he is de jure Emperor of Brazil ("Luiz I of Brazil").

He and two of his younger brothers (Prince Bertrand and Prince Antônio) have engaged in monarchist proselytism in Brazil. They played major roles during the campaign for the 1993 plebiscite, which represented the first official opportunity for a return of the monarchy to Brazil since the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889. In it, the people were asked to choose which form of government, presidential or parliamentary, and which form of state organization, republic or constitutional monarchy, Brazil should have. The monarchist cause was not successful, receiving 13.2% of the vote against 66% for the republic.

From his rise to the headship of the imperial house, he devotes all his time to Brazilian affairs, albeit discreetly. He visits with his brothers the Brazilian cities, where he is received with honors, being a meritorious and honorary citizen of almost all the capitals, honorary member of numerous cultural and historical institutions - such as the Brazilian Historic and Geographic Institute.

As of 2022, Dom Luiz resided in a house with "no luxury nor splendor" in Higienópolis, a high-income borough of São Paulo, Brazil.

Constituent Assembly of 1987
Immediately after the end of the military dictatorship in 1985, Prince Luiz played a major role in the country's politics when convening the 1987 Constituent Assembly that would enact the 1988 Constitution. He wrote a letter known as "Letter to Messrs. Members of the National Constituent Assembly" which was sent simultaneously to all members of the constituent assembly asking them that, in a moment called the "political opening", in which even the most extreme communists and guerrillas were given amnesty, the political rights of monarchists would also be guaranteed, that is, that their struggle was not hopeless, given the fact that, until then, the republican form of government had been a stony clause in Brazilian constitutions since 1891, effectively making it impossible to restore the monarchy and making and removing the political element from the monarchist movements.

I therefore agree that we must ask the current Constituent Assembly not to include, in the future constitutional text, the “stony clause” that was established in the 1891 Constitution. This clause prohibited, as you know, that it was the object of consideration by the Legislature of any proposal to modify the republican form of government (art. 90, § 4). The same provision was inexplicably repeated by the Constitutions of 1934 (art. 178, § 5), of 1946 (art. 217, § 6) and by the one of 1967, currently in force (art. 47, § 1). These Constitutions, which recognized all Brazilians, without distinction, the right to freely express their thoughts, in fact made a distinction, excluding a category of them. They were the monarchists, discriminated against from organizing and working legally for the victory of their cause through elections.

São Paulo, 7 September 1987. Luiz of Orléans-Braganza

Through the Federal Deputy Cunha Bueno (PSD-SP) the letter had an effect on the Constituent Assembly, which determined the non-continuation of the stony clause and the holding of the 1993 plebiscite, promised and never carried out by the Constitution of 1891, in which the people could decide between the republican and monarchical form of government.

Heirs
Unmarried and childless, his brother, Prince Bertrand, third male children of Prince Pedro Henrique, was his heir as Prince Imperial of Brazil, because Pedro Henrique's second male children, Prince Eudes, renounced his dynastic rights in 1966 to marry a commoner. As Bertrand also don't have children, and the succession to the Brazilian throne, once Bertrand assumed the leadership of the Brazilian imperial house, would belong to Antônio João, sixth man, fourth and fifth Pedro Henrique's male children, Prince Pedro and Prince Fernando, also renounced their rights, the next in the line of succession is Luiz's fifth brother an Pedro Henrique's sixth son, Prince Antônio, and after him inherits the rights his son, Prince Rafael, followed by his daughter, Princess Maria Gabriela.

After the men, and of the descendants of Prince Antônio, follows Luiz's sister Princess Eleanora of Brazil though she married a head of another dynastic house, Michel, 14th Prince of Ligne, and maintained her dynastic status. Eleanora's son, Henri Antoine, Hereditary Prince of Ligne, although not being a Prince of Brazil, is also listed as the next in the line of succession to the throne.

Health problems and hospitalization
Luiz had a series of health problems in the 2010s. The family announced, on June 10, 2022, that he had been admitted to the Santa Catarina hospital in São Paulo. On July 8, he also informed that, after being hospitalized for several days, including in the intensive care unit (ICU), his condition was irreversible. Finally, he communicated his passing on July 15, 2022.

Announcement of death
For his death, official mourning was declared throughout Brazil, for a period of one day, by decree of the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro. On July 16, 2022, Itamaraty published a note of regret in honor of Dom Luiz and added: "Dom Luiz is now succeeded by his brother Dom Bertrand at the head of the Imperial House, who will be responsible for the mission of representing the descendants of the founder of Brazil in this year of the Bicentennial of Independence."

Funeral and burial
The wake took place on July 16, 17 and 18, 2022, at the headquarters of the Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Institute, in São Paulo, bringing together monarchists from all over Brazil. The mass that preceded the burial (in the Consolação Cemetery) was celebrated on July 18 in the parish of Santa Terezinha, in the Capital of the State of São Paulo

Titles and styles

 * 6 June 1938 – 5 July 1981: His Imperial Highness The Prince Imperial of Brazil
 * 5 July 1981 – 15 July 2022t: His Imperial Highness The Head of the Imperial House of Brazil

Honours
As Head of the House of Orléans-Braganza, Luiz 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

Luiz has also been decorated with a number of other honours:
 * Flag of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1816).svg Castroan Royal Family of Two Sicilies: Bailiff Grand Cross of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George
 * 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
 * Flag of Portugal (1830).svg Portuguese Royal Family: Grand Cross of the Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa
 * Flag of the Vatican City.svg Vatican: Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre