Princess Isabelle of Brazil
| Princess Isabelle | |
|---|---|
| Countess of Paris | |
| |
| Tenure | 25 August 1940 – 19 June 1999 |
| Predecessor | Isabelle of Orléans |
| Successor | Micaëla Cousiño Quiñones de León |
| Born | 13 August 1911 Eu, Seine-Maritime, France |
| Died | 5 July 2003 (aged 91) Paris, France |
| Spouse | Prince Henri, Count of Paris |
| Issue | Princess Isabelle, Countess of Schönborn-Buchheim Prince Henri, Count of Paris Princess Hélène, Countess of Limburg-Stirum Prince François, Duke of Orléans Princess Anne, Dowager Duchess of Calabria Diane, Duchess of Württemberg Prince Michel, Count of Évreux Prince Jacques, Duke of Orléans Princess Claude Princess Chantal, Baroness of Sambucy de Sorgue Prince Thibaut, Count of La Marche |
| Full name | |
| Isabel Maria Amélia Luiza Vitória Thereza Joanna Michaela Gabriela Raphaela Gonzaga de Orléans e Bragança | |
| House | Orléans-Braganza |
| Father | Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará |
| Mother | Countess Elisabeth Dobržensky de Dobrženicz |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Princess Isabelle of Brazil, Countess of Paris (Eu, 13 August 1911 – Paris, 5 July 2003) was a Princess of Brazil, a member of the Petrópolis branch of the House of Orléans-Braganza and the the consort of the Orleanist pretender to the French throne, Prince Henri, Count of Paris. She was the second child and oldest daughter of Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, the firstborn son of Isabel, Regent of Brazil. She worked as a model for major international brands such as Vogue and was an historical author.
A worldly-renowned royal for her charisma, aesthetics and position as the most popular de jure Queen of France since the dethronement of the House of Orléans in 1848, she was close friend to several reigning personalities such as Empress Farah Pahlavi of Persia, Queen Paola of Belgium, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, as well as to King Simeon II of Bulgaria. Through her siblings she was also aunt of King Juan Carlos I of Spain and to Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, the pretender to the Portuguese throne.
For her distinguished role as consort to the main pretender to the French throne, her popularity and due to the fact that the restoration of the Orleanist French monarchy became somewhat plausible by the 1960s as a result between the proximity of her husband to President General Charles De Gaulle, she was frequently described as "the best Queen France never had".
Biography
Early years and background
The eldest daughter of Dom Pedro de Alcântara of Orléans-Braganza (1875–1940), attending by the title of Prince of Grão-Pará, and of his wife, Countess Elisabeth Dobržensky de Dobrženicz (1875–1951), Isabelle was born in a pavilion of the Château d'Eu in Normandy.[1] She was christened as namesake of her paternal grandmother, the Princess Regent Isabel of Brazil, elder daughter and heiress of the deposed Emperor Pedro II of Brazil and the only living royal ruler of the Brazilian Empire.
Upon the death of the Emperor in exile in 1891, Dom Pedro de Alcântara became Prince Imperial of Brazil and his mother the titular Empress of Brazil to the royalists and loyalists. In 1893 there were several newspapers worldwide reporting that he had been acclaimed Emperor Pedro III of Brazil by admiral Custódio de Melo, leader of the Navy Revolt. In 1908 he married a Bohemian noblewoman in the presence of his parents, although his mother supposedly withheld dynastic approval as head of the imperial family in exile. Therefore, Dom Pedro renounced the succession rights of himself and his future descendants to the abolished Brazilian throne[2] in a legally questionable act.
After the deaths of her maternal grandparents, Isabelle's parents moved from the Pavillon des Ministres on the castle grounds into the main building of the Château d'Eu, spending winter months in a town house in Boulogne-sur-Seine. In 1924, her father's cousin, Prince Adam Czartoryski, placed at the family's disposal apartments in the palatial Hotel Lambert on the Île Saint-Louis, where Isabelle and her siblings undertook studies.[3] The family traveled extensively, however. Much of Isabelle's early youth was spent on visits to her maternal relatives, at their large estate at Chotěboř, Czechoslovakia, at Attersee in Austria, and at Goluchow in Poland. With her father, Isabelle visited Naples, Constantinople, Rhodes, Smyrna, Lebanon, Syria, Cairo, Palestine and Jerusalem.[3]
Life in Brazil
In 1920 Brazil lifted the law of banishment against its former dynasty and invited them to bring home the remains of Pedro II, although Isabelle's grandfather the Count d'Eu died at sea during the voyage. But after annual visits over the next decade, her parents decided to re-patriate their family to Petrópolis permanently, where Isabelle attended day school at Notre-Dame-de-Sion while the family took up residence at the old Imperial Palace of the Grão-Pará.[3] Until then, Isabelle was privately educated by a series of governesses and tutors.
Following her marriage to the Count of Paris (as seen below), the couple firstly settled at the Palace of Grão-Pará in Petrópolis, as her husband's family, the House of Orléans, had been banished from French soil in 1886. One of their children, Princess Diane, Duchess of Württemberg was born there. Following a time the family spent in Brazil, the moved to Morocco and later Belgium, until the abolition of the anti-orleanist law in 1950, allowing the Counts of Paris to finally moved to France.
Marriage and issue
Isabelle was related to both parents of her future husband, and first met the young Prince Henri d'Orleans in 1920 at the home of the Duchess of Chartres. In the summer of 1923 he was a guest at her parents' home at the Chateau d'Eu, at which time Isabelle, aged 12, resolved that she would one day marry him. But he took no apparent notice of her at the wedding of his sister Anne to the Duke of Aosta at Naples in 1927. During a visit to his parents home, the Manoir d'Anjou, in Brussels over Easter in 1928, Prince Henri d'Orleans began to show interest in Isabelle, and still more at a family reunion in July 1929.[3]
Henri proposed to Isabelle on 10 August 1930 while taking part in a hunt at Count Dobržensky's Chotěboř home. The couple kept their engagement a secret until a family gathering at Attersee later that summer, but were obliged by the Duke of Guise to wait until Henri finished his studies at Louvain University before the betrothal was officially announced 28 December 1930.[3]
On 8 April 1931, at the Cathedral of Palermo, Sicily, Isabelle married her third cousin Henri, count of Paris (1908–1999).[4][5][6] Isabelle was 19, while Henri was 21.[4] The wedding was held in Sicily, since the law of banishment against the heirs of France's former dynasties had not yet been abrogated.[5] The two families selected Palermo because Isabelle's family possessed a palace there, which had been the location of three earlier royal weddings.[5]
The wedding gave rise to several royalist demonstrations, and the road leading to the cathedral was lined with hundreds of visitors from France who viewed Henri as the rightful heir to the French throne.[6] He was greeted with such cries as "Vive le roi, Vive le France" along with other monarchist cries and songs.[6] These supporters were joined by members of the bride and groom's families, along with representatives of other royal dynasties.[6]
He became pretender to the throne of France from 1940 onwards.
They had eleven children:
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Princess Isabelle Marie Laure Victoire | 8 April 1932 | married Friedrich Karl, Count of Schönborn-Buchheim; has issue. | |
| Prince Henri Philippe Pierre Marie | 14 June 1933 | married Duchess Marie Thérèse of Württemberg; has issue. | |
| Princess Hélène Astrid Léopoldine Marie[7] | 17 September 1934[7] | married Count Evrard de Limburg-Stirum; has issue. | |
| Prince François Gaston Michel Marie, Duke of Orléans | 15 August 1935 | 11 October 1960 | Died fighting for France in Algeria. |
| Princess Anne Marguerite Brigitte Marie | 4 December 1938[4] | married Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria; has issue. | |
| Princess Diane Françoise Maria da Gloria | 24 March 1940 | married Carl, Duke of Württemberg; has issue. | |
| Prince Michel Joseph Benoît Marie | 25 June 1941 | married Béatrice Pasquier de Franclieu; has issue. | |
| Prince Jacques Jean Yaroslaw Marie, Duke of Orléans | 25 June 1941 | married Gersende de Sabran-Pontevès; has issue. | |
| Princess Claude Marie Agnès Catherine | 11 December 1943 | married Prince Amedeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta; has issue. | |
| Princess Jeanne de Chantal Alice Clothilde Marie | 9 January 1946 | married Baron François Xavier de Sambucy de Sorgue; has issue. | |
| Prince Thibaut Louis Denis Humbert | 20 January 1948 | 23 March 1983 | married Marion Mercedes Gordon-Orr; has issue. |
Princess Isabelle, called Madame, and her husband used the French Royal coat of arms. She survived her late husband by four years.
Titles, styles and honors
| Styles of | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reference style | Her Royal Highness |
| Spoken style | Your Royal Highness |
| Alternative style | Ma'am |
Titles and styles
- 13 August 1911 – 8 April 1931: Her Royal Highness Princess Isabelle of Brazil
- 8 April 1931 – 19 June 1999: Her Royal Highness The Countess of Paris
- 19 June 1999 – 5 July 2003: Her Royal Highness The Dowager Countess of Paris
Honours
Austrian Imperial Family: Dame of the Order of the Starry Cross[8]
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Ancestry
Extended content
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References
- ↑ Enache, Nicolas. La Descendance de Marie-Thérèse de Habsburg. ICC, Paris, 1996. p. 71. French.
- ↑ de Montjouvent, Philippe. Le Comte de Paris et sa Descendance. Editions du Chaney, 1998, Charenton, France. pp. 148–152. French.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 de Montjouvent, Philippe. Le Comte de Paris et sa Descendance. Editions du Chaney, 1998, Charenton, France. pp. 49–59. French.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Countess Has Daughter", The New York Times, Brussels, 5 December 1938
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Cortesi, Arnaldo (8 April 1931), "Royal Cousins Wed in Palermo Today", The New York Times, Rome
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Cortesi, Arnaldo (9 April 1931), "Legitimists Cheer at Royal Wedding", The New York Times, Palermo
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Princess Is Christened", The New York Times, Brussels, 16 October 1934
- ↑ Royal Ark
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