Gaston, comte d'Eu

Infobox Monarch
name =Gaston d´Orléans
title = Comte d´Eu


caption = Gaston d´Orléans, count of Eu
royal house =House of Orléans
father =Louis, Duke of Nemours
mother =Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary
date of birth =birth date|1842|4|28|mf=y
place of birth =Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
date of death =death date and age|1922|8|28|1842|4|28
place of death =Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
buried =Imperial Mausoleum, Rio de Janeiro

Gaston d´Orléans (April 28 1842 – August 28 1922), was a french prince, a military commander who fought in the Spanish-Moroccan War and the War fo the Triple Alliance and husband to Isabel the heiress to the brazilian imperial throne. His name in full was Louis Phillipe Marie Ferdinand Gaston d'Orléans.

When anglicised, his name would be Gaston of Orléans, full name "Louis Philippe Marie Ferdinand Gaston of Orléans".

He was born on April 28, 1842 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, the first son of and Louis, the Duke of Nemours and Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary.

Childhood

Gaston was born in April 28, 1842 in Neully, France, being the eldest son of Louis, the Duke of Nemours and Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary. His paternal grandparents were Louis-Philippe, king of the french and Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies, while his maternal grandparents were Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Antonie of Kohary. As a member of the Royal House of France, Gaston was part of the House of Orléans, a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, that in turn belonged to the Capetian Dynasty. As french prince by birth, he was entitled comte d´Eu (in english: Count of Eu).

The prince received a refined education thanks to its masters Julio Gauthier and the historian Auguste Trognon and came to learn several languages, as Latin, English, German, Portuguese and the French, his native tongue.

His grandfather king Louis-Philippe was ousted out of his throne by the Revolution of 1848 and with only five years old, Gaston left for the exile in Great Britain with the remaining of his family and would only return to his native land in 1878. His family soon established itself in one old mansion called Claremont , in the south region of England, where they would live for some years. In 1855, with thirteen years old, he initiated his military career in the artillery course and would conclude it in Military School of Segovia, Spain, where he became a captain. He moved to Spain after following his uncle Antoine, the Duke of Montpensier´s orientation, as he lived there sincer his marriage to the princess Luisa Fernanda, sister of Isabella II, queen of Spain. His mother, Victoria of Saxe-Coburgo-Koháry from the House of Wettin, a cousin of Victoria of the United Kingdom and also sister of Ferdinand II, king-consort of Portugal, who was married to Maria II, elder sister of the emperor Pedro II, died precociously in 1857.

Adult life

After long years with problems in the border with Morocco caused by constant attacks to the spanish cities by moroccan outlaws, Spain decided to declare war to the neighboring country in 1859. The young Gaston was sent as a sobordinate officer to participate in the conflict on the side of the Spanish forces that consisted of more than of 40,000 soldiers, against the moroccan troops, who in turn had about 140,000 men. The comte d´Eu participated in all battles and after the ending of the conflict in 1860 he returned to Spain with a certain military reputation. A few years later, he was contacted by his uncle Ferdinand II that stimulated him to think on the possibility of a marriage with one of the two daughters of Pedro II of Brazil. He declared that he would accept the proposal but only after meeting them. Pedro II´s sister princess Francisca who was married to François d'Orléans, prince of Joinville (uncle of Gaston), described the comte d´Eu in letter the Brazilian emperor: "“If you could grasp this one for one of your daughters it would be excellent. He is robust, high, handsome, good nature, very amiable, much instructed, studious, and in addition, he possesss now a small military fame” ".

He disembarked in Rio de Janeiro on September 2, 1864 in the company of the cousin, Ludwig August, the duke of Saxe. Immediately afterwards they went directly to the Palace of São Cristóvão to meet the brazilian imperial family. However, Gaston was not enthusiastic about the two princesses, whom he considered " “ugly” ". At the beginning, the young comte d´Eu was promised to Leopoldina and his cousin to Isabel but after knowing them better, emperor Pedro II decided to invert the pairs. So Gaston became attached to Isabel instead of Leopoldina. Their marriage occurred in October 15, 1864. A little before that, Gaston was was awarded with the Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of the Southern Cross was a few days later accepted as the honorary president of the Brazilian Geographic and Historical Institute.

Decades later in 1892, Alfredo d' Escragnolle, the viscount of Taunay, would give his opinion regarding the two cousins when they first arrived in Brazil. He said that the duke of Saxe " “had only interest on spending his life in a lazy and amusing way, he liked a lot of hunting and appreciated a lot the many joys that existed in Europe, while the comte d´Eu with all the defects that I can point at him, cared sincerely and a lot to Brazil and believe it or not, he still loves it today with intensity and no second intention”".

War of the Triple Alliance

Gaston and Isabel were travelling in Europe in their honeymoon when paraguayan forces had invaded the brazilian provinces of Mato Grosso and Rio Grande Do Sul. Pedro II sent a letter to the couple in 1865 demanding Gaston´s presence in Brazil telling that he had already had gone to the city of Uruguaiana in the southern region of the country and asked to meet him, the duke of Saxe and the brazlian army in there. Uruguaiana had been conquered by paraguayan army and was under siege by brazilian, argentine and uruguayan troops (both coutries had allied with Brazil), waiting either the surrender or the defeat in battle of the enemy force. Of this moment, the viscount of Taunay (he himself a veteran of the War of the Triple Alliance) would write in his memories that while Gaston " “showed in all the occasions a great interest for the things of Brazil, observing, asking, visiting all the places and going after correctly and accurate information, while the other" [August Luis, duke of Saxe] "did not show anything except for indifference and ambitionless”". He was later nominated general commander of the artillery and president of the Commission of Improvements of the Army in November 19, 1865.

In two different occasions throughout the conflict, Gaston sent requests to Pedro II to authorize him to join the war on Paraguai, but in both occasions for his great disillusionment, the Council of State voted against his desire of going to war. The reason for the first refusal was to prevent that other countries would see the presence of a prince in the conflict as a desire to conquer other coutries's territories and, for second, it was not acceptable that the husband of the heiress of the throne would subordinated to a brazilian military officer - in this in case, Luis Alves de Lima and Silva, the marquis of Caxias, just-nominated allied commander-in-chief.However, by being an officer of high rank with enough prestige and well-known capacity, Gaston was convoked to lead as commander-in-chief of the allied armies in 1869 after the marquis of Caxias self dismissed of that position. The comte d´Eu didn´t have the same will to leave to theater of operations, not for cowardice, but for believing that was futile and unnecessary to continue the war only to hunt Francisco Solano López the Paraguayan dictator, an opinion shared by a great number of brazilians at that time. Even so the choice of Gaston in March 22, 1869 as the new commander-in-chief with only 27 years old brought joy the brazilian public opinion. When he arrived at Paraguay, he reorganized the brazilian army and fired the officers accused of pillage in the enemy territory.

The comte d´Eu decided to use diversified tactics to deceive the paraguayan army about how and where allied army would carry its attacks. In the opinion of the visconde of Taunay, Gaston showed "“great strategical ability, cool temper, patience of an experienced leader and unquestionable courage”". He also participated actively on the battles that occurred, as in Acosta Ñu, where he suffered great risk for his life [DORATIOTO, Francisco, Maldita Guerra, Companhia das Letras, 2002] . It was his idea to definitively extinguish the slavery in Paraguay which had something like 25,000 slaves, many of whom were obliged to fight in the war against the Triple Alliance [PLÁ, Josefina. Hermano Negro: la Esclavitud em el Paraguay, 1972] .

However, Gaston suffered heavy critics when after he discovered that the brigadier João Manuel Mena Barreto had died in the battle that resulted in the conquest of the village of Peribuí, he ordered the decapitation of colonel Pablo Caballero and the head politician of the village, Patricio Marecos [DORATIOTO, Francisco, Maldita Guerra, Companhia das Letras, 2002] . In September, the comte d´Eu entered in depression (mainly because he felt digusted with the so many deaths caused by the conflict) and practically left the conduction of the allied army until the end of the war in March 1, 1870. [DORATIOTO, Francisco, Maldita Guerra, Companhia das Letras, 2002] . When he returned to Brazil in April 29, 1870, he was received as a war hero and with great popular manifestation, and was also nominated member of the Council of State in of July 6 of the same year.

Modern critics to Gaston d´Orléans in the war

The so called “revisionist” historians that appeared after the 1960´s has portrayed the comte d´Eu as a bloodthirsty mass murderer. [Leuchars, Chris: "To the bitter end: Paraguay and the War of the Triple Alliance", Westport (CT) 2002, p. 215-218.] Some historians, like Júlio Jose Chiavenato accuse him of having committed war crimes and being the most interested person on keeping the war on only to pursuit López. The historian accuses Gaston of having ordered to set fire in the grass to assassinate carbonized the wounded paraguayan soldiers who were still in the field after the battle of Acosta Ñu. Chiavenato uses as a source the memories of the viscount of Taunay. But recently, it has been found out that the memories says something completely different: "“there were bullets that still blew up in the field because of the fire in the grass that was started in the beginning of the battle by the paraguayans to occult their tactical movement”". [Cf. Ricardo Bonalume Neto em: [http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/mais/fs091105.htm "Novas lições do Paraguai"] . Consulted in september 15, 2008.] [Cf. Ricardo Bonalume Neto em: [http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fol/brasil500/histpar_1.htm "Novas lições do Paraguai"] . Consulted in september 15, 2008.] Also, there is a mention of an episode where Gaston ordered the troops to set fire in a hospital full of wounded paraguayan soldiers and that resulted in the death of more than a hundred victims. However, it is most likely that the hospital has burnt as a result of collateral damage caused by allied bombardment at the beginning of the battle directed the to paraguayan military defense and not as the result of a deliberate desire of killing defenseless people [DORATIOTO, Francisco, Maldita Guerra, Companhia das Letras, 2002] .

Later life

When the Brazilian monarchy was overthrown in 1889, the emperor went into exile with his family to Europe. But in 1922, as part of the commemoration of the first centennial of the country's independence, the Brazilian government rescinded the exile law imposed by the new republican government in 1889 and allowed the imperial family to return. Isabel was newly deceased, and her husband Gaston, having embarked on a ship to Brazil, died onboard. A few years before, Isabel as imperial princess, had abolished slavery in Brazil, for which cause and legacy she is referred in the world's civilized societies.

Isabel and Gaston's children and issue use the name Orléans-Braganza, and are the claimants to the Brazilian imperial throne.

Currently, the dynastic Head of the Imperial House of Brazil is Prince Luiz of Orleans-Braganza, Gaston's great-grandson.

Another of his great-grandsons, Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza is the current presumptive heir to the throne of Portugal.

His grandson Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza claimed the imperial Brazilian throne (despite his father's renunciation due to morganatic marriage), and could also have been a claimant to the Portuguese throne, as his father apparently never renounced such rights.

Bibliography

*BARMAN, Roderick J., Princesa Isabel do Brasil: gênero e poder no século XIX, UNESP, 2005.
*DORATIOTO, Francisco, Maldita Guerra, Companhia das Letras, 2002
*LYRA, Heitor, História de Dom Pedro II, v.1, UNESP, 1979
*PLÁ, Josefina, Hermano Negro: la esclavitud en el Paraguay, 1972
*VAINFAS, Ronaldo, Dicionário do Brasil Imperial, Objetiva, 2002

References