Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza

Infobox pretender
English name = Pedro Gastão


birth_date = 19 February 1913
birthplace = Eu, Seine-Maritime, France
death_date = death date and age|2007|12|27|1913|2|19
deathplace = Villamanrique de la Condesa, Seville, Spain
regnal =
title=Prince of Orléans-Braganza
throne = Brazil
pretend from = 29 January 1940ndash 27 December 2007
year=15 November 1889
king = Pedro II
relationship = great-grandson
house = Orléans-Braganza
father = Prince Pedro de Alcântara of Orléans-Braganza
mother = Countess Elisabeth Dobrzensky of Dobrzenicz
spouse = Princess Maria de la Esperanza of Bourbon-Two Sicilies
children = Prince Pedro Carlos
Princess Maria da Gloria
Prince Afonso Duarte
Prince Manuel Álvaro
Princess Cristina Maria
Prince Francisco Humberto
predecessor =
successor = Prince Pedro Carlos of Orléans-Braganza
footnotes =

Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza (born "Pedro de Alcântara Gastão João Maria Filipe Lourenço Humberto Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga de Orléans e Bragança") (19 February 1913ndash 27 December 2007) [ [http://news.google.com.br/news/url?sa=t&ct=pt-BR_br/0-0&fp=4773c9fe6a5a68bb&ei=0tNzR_CkLoKyyQT6nZHJDg&url=http%3A//oglobo.globo.com/pais/mat/2007/12/27/327776960.asp&cid=1104860207 Morre na Espanha dom Pedro Gastão de Orléans e Bragança] ] was one of two claimants to the Brazilian throne as titular Emperor of Brazil, and head of the Petrópolis branch of the Brazilian Imperial House. [cite journal|author=Handler, Bruce|date= March 5, 1989|title=Brazil to Decide on Return of Monarchy|journal=Los Angeles Times|pages=p.34]

Biography

Prince Pedro Gastão was the son of Prince Pedro de Alcântara of Orléans-Braganza and Countess Elisabeth Dobrzensky of Dobrzenicz. He was born in Eu, France. He spent his youth in Europe and at his family's Parisian home in the Boulogne sur Seine suburb: "I have very good memories of my grandparents...In exile in France I was always brought up thinking of Brazil not France or Portugal." [cite journal |author=Bailey, Anthony|date= January 1998|title=Dom Pedro and the lost empire|journal=Royalty|pages=pp. 54–59]

A few years before his death Pedro Gastão’s father Prince Pedro de Alcântara told a Brazilian newspaper::“My resignation was not valid for many reasons: besides, it was not a hereditary resignation.”cite journal |last=Bodstein |first=Astrid |title=The Imperial Family of Brazil |journal=Royalty Digest Quarterly |issue=3 |pages= |date=2006 |url=http://www.brasilimperial.org.br/atualidades.htm |accessdate=2007-12-28 ]

Following the death of his father supported by Infante Alfonso, Duke of Calabria and Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona he declared himself head of the Imperial Family of Brazil. His position was supported by Francisco Morato the professor of the faculty of Law 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 1990’s published a report saying that the resignation of his father was invalid under all possible aspects of Brazilian Law.

He represented a rival claim to that of his cousin's son, Prince Luís of Orléans-Braganza, to be the heir of the deposed Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, despite the renunciation signed by his father in 1908 when he married, without dynastic approval, a Bohemian noblewoman. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20061008221543/http://www.eurohistory.com/braganza.html The Amazon Throne] ]

In 1945 Pedro relinquished to his sister Princess Maria Francisca of Orléans-Braganza and her heirs his claim to the title Duke of Braganza. The title had been created in 1816 in favor of his great-great-grandfather Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. It had, in fact, been claimed and used in exile as a "title of pretence" by the Miguelist pretenders to the Portuguese throne since 1834. It is currently borne by the eldest son of Francisca by her late husband, Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza.

Pedro Gastão died aged 94 on 27 December, 2007.

Marriage and children

He married Princess Maria de la Esperanza of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1914-2005), a daughter of Prince Carlos of the Two Sicilies and Princess Louise of Orléans, on 18 December 1944 in Seville, Spain, and had six children: [ [http://www.thepeerage.com/p10403.htm#i104030 Genealogy of Prince Pedro Gastão] ]

* Prince Pedro Carlos of Orléans-Braganza (born 31 October 1945), succeeded to his father's claim as Emperor on 26 December 2007.
* Princess Maria da Gloria of Orléans-Braganza (born 13 December 1946), former Crown Princess of Yugoslavia.
* Prince Afonso Duarte of Orléans-Braganza (born 25 April 1948)
* Prince Manuel Álvaro of Orléans-Braganza (born 17 June 1949)
* Princess Cristina Maria of Orléans-Braganza (born 16 October 1950)
* Prince Francisco Humberto of Orléans-Braganza (born 9 December 1956)

Ancestors

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1= 1. Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza
2= 2. Prince Pedro de Alcântara of Orléans-Braganza
3= 3. Countess Elisabeth Dobrzensky de Dobrzenicz
4= 4. Gaston, Count of Eu
5= 5. Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil
6= 6. Count Johann Dobrzensky de Dobrzenicz
7= 7. Elisabeth Kottulinsky von Kottulin
8= 8. Louis, Duke of Nemours
9= 9. Princess Victoria of Kohary
10= 10. Pedro II of Brazil
11= 11. Teresa of the Two Sicilies
12= 12. Count Johann Nepomuk Dobrzensky de Dobrzenicz
13= 13. Maria Friederike Wanczura von Rzehnicz
14= 14. Josef Kottulinsky von Kottulin
15= 15. Adelheid von Attems-Heiligenkreuz
16= 16. Louis-Philippe of the French
17= 17. Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies
18= 18. Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince of Kohary
19= 19. Princess Antonia of Kohary
20= 20. Pedro I of Brazil
21= 21. Maria Leopoldina of Austria
22= 22. Francis I of the Two Sicilies
23= 23. Maria Isabella of Spain
24= 24. Count Johann Wenzel Dobrzensky de Dobrzenicz
25= 25. Maria Anna Pergler von Perglas
26= 26. Josef Joachim Wanczura von Rzehnicz
27= 27. Maria Friederike La Motte von Frintropp
28= 28. Josef Johann Kottulinsky von Kottulin
29= 29. Josefa Katzianer von Katzenstein
30= 30. Franz Anton von Attems-Heiligenkreuz
31= 31. Countess Ernestine Khuen of Belasi of Lichtenberg and Gandegg

References

infobox hrhstyles|royal name=Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza|

dipstyle=His Imperial and Royal Highness|offstyle=Your Imperial and Royal Highness|altstyle=Sir|

External links

* [http://www.imperialereal.com/ingles/index.htm Brazilian Constitutional Monarchy Historic-Cultural Website]
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791734,00.html Brilliant Match - Time Magazine]