, Emperor of Brazil, with his wife
Teresa Cristina, and their daughters
Isabel (in blue gown) and
Leopoldina, 1857 Founded by
Pedro of Braganza, until then
Prince Royal of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, member of the
House of Braganza,
heir apparent to the Portuguese throne and the
King's representative in the
Kingdom of Brazil as Prince Regent, the Imperial House of Brazil was sovereign from 7 September 1822, when Prince Pedro proclaimed the
independence of the Kingdom of Brazil from the
United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves and was subsequently acclaimed as
Emperor of Brazil on 12 October that same year until 15 November 1889, when a military coup d'état took place and the
proclamation of the Brazilian republic overthrew the monarchy. Prince Pedro, then, was acclaimed as Emperor of Brazil throughout the land. The
constitution of the Brazilian Empire of 1824 – the first Brazilian constitutional charter – was organized two years after independence, with the emperor being the head of state and head of government of the Empire of Brazil, as well as head of the moderator power and the executive power. He reigned until 7 April 1831 when he abdicated due to a long ideological conflict between with a sizable parliamentary faction over the role of the monarch in the government and other obstacles. Pedro I's successor in Brazil was his five-year-old son, Pedro II. As the latter was still a minor, a weak regency was created. The power vacuum resulting from the absence of a ruling monarch as the ultimate arbiter in political disputes led to regional civil wars between local factions. Having inherited an empire on the verge of disintegration, Pedro II, once he was declared of age, managed to bring peace and stability to the country, which eventually became an emerging international power. Even though the last four decades of
Pedro II's reign were marked by continuous internal peace and economic prosperity, he had no expectation to see the monarchy survive beyond his lifetime and made no effort to maintain support for the institution. The next in line to the throne was his daughter
Isabel, but neither Pedro II nor the ruling classes considered a female monarch acceptable. Lacking any viable heir, the Empire's political leaders saw no reason to defend the monarchy. After a 58-year reign, on 15 November 1889 the Emperor was overthrown in a sudden ''
coup d'état'' led by a clique of military leaders whose goal was the formation of a republic headed by a dictator, forming the
First Brazilian Republic.
Post monarchy , her husband the
Count of Eu, their son
Prince Luís, his wife
Princess Maria di Grazia, and their children
Pedro Henrique, Luiz Gastão, and Pia Maria (on Isabel's lap), 1913 With the proclamation of the Brazilian republic on 15 November 1889, the imperial family went into exile in
Portugal,
Spain,
France and
Austria-Hungary. In the party that accompanied the imperial family were included many loyal subjects and nobles, as politicians such the
Viscount of Ouro Preto, the deposed last
Prime Minister of the Empire, as well the Emperor's particular doctor. Prince
August Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, grandson of Emperor Pedro II was the only member of the imperial family not boarded to exile because he was on board the cruiser
Almirante Barroso, on a circumnavigation trip. Subsequently, upon receiving the news of the deposition of the monarchy, he was sent into exile. In addition to the ban, the Republican government confiscated and auctioned many of the assets of the imperial family. In 1890, thirteen auctions of Imperial House goods were made. Empress
Teresa Cristina died in the first months of exile. Later Emperor
Pedro II died in France, where he received
a head of state's funeral by the French government. The imperial family settled in the
Château d'Eu, former residence of King
Louis Philippe of France and property of
Gaston of Orléans, Count d'Eu, husband of
Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, heiress of Pedro II and
de jure Empress-in-Exile of Brazil. Despite the prohibition then in force,
Prince Luiz of Orléans-Braganza tried to disembark in
Rio de Janeiro in 1906, but was prevented by local authorities. Finally, President
Epitácio Pessoa, by presidential decree of 3 September 1920, revoked the Banishment Law. The Imperial Family was then able to return to Brazilian soil. The occasion was used to repatriate the remains of the last emperor and his consort, who would be transferred from Portugal a year later. Of the nine members of the imperial family originally exiled, only two returned to Brazil alive:
Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará and his father, Prince Gaston, Count of Eu, who died the following year aboard the ship Massilia, on their way to Brazil to celebrate the centenary of independence. The State gave back possessions of the Imperial Family to the Petrópolis Branch exclusively, to Prince Dom Pedro de Alcântara, within those possessions was the
Palácio do Grão-Pará in Petropolis, where the Direct Line of Descendants of the last Emperor, the Petrópolis Branch still resides until today. On the other hand, not all the family returned immediately to Brazil, and the
Vassouras branch, present clamoring to the Brazilian throne, did only return after the end of
World War II.
Repatriation Currently, the remains of five members of the imperial family are buried in the
Imperial Mausoleum in
Petrópolis:
Emperor Pedro II and Empress Teresa Cristina, whose mortal remains were transferred from the
Royal Pantheon of the House of Braganza in
Lisbon, in 1921, on the occasion of the centenary of the Independence of Brazil, Princess Isabel, removed from the cemetery of
Eu in 1953 with her husband, Prince Gaston, and the Prince of Grão-Pará, transferred from the cemetery of Petrópolis in 1990, together with his wife. Prince Luiz and Prince Antônio are buried in the
Royal Chapel of Dreux, France, where the wife of the first, Princess Maria Pia, was buried in 1973. Princes
Pedro Augusto, August Leopold,
Joseph Ferdinand and
Ludwig Gaston are buried in the crypt of the
Church of St. Augustine in
Coburg, Germany, where their mother,
Princess Leopoldina, had been buried in 1871. In 1954, the remains of the first Empress,
Maria Leopoldina, were transferred to the
Imperial Crypt and Chapel in
São Paulo, which were in the Santo Antônio Convent, Rio de Janeiro. Some of the children of both emperors are buried in the Santo Antônio Convent: Prince Miguel,
Prince João Carlos,
Princess Paula Mariana,
Prince Afonso Pedro and
Prince Pedro Afonso, as well as Princess Luísa Vitória. In 1972, on the occasion of the sesquicentenary of Independence, the remains of
Emperor Pedro I were transferred from the Royal Pantheon of the House of Braganza to the Imperial Chapel. The body of his second wife,
Empress Amélie, was transferred from the Braganza Pantheon to the Imperial Chapel in 1982. In that same year the body of her daughter,
Princess Maria Amélia, was transferred from the Braganza Pantheon to the
Convent of Santo Antônio. File:Olhares sobre o Museu do Ipiranga 2017 041.jpg|The Imperial Crypt and Chapel in the
Monument to the Independence of Brazil in
São Paulo, serves as the final resting place of Emperor Pedro I (also King Pedro IV of Portugal) and his two wives File:Petropolis-Cathedral1.jpg|The tombs of Emperor Pedro II and other members of the imperial family in the
Imperial Mausoleum, housed within the
Cathedral of Petrópolis File:Convento de Santo Antônio do Largo da Carioca 09.jpg|A mausoleum at the
Convent of Saint Anthony in Rio de Janeiro, where several
princes and princesses of the Empire of Brazil are interred. ==Dynastic question==