Birth and family Daughter of João de Castro do Canto e Melo, 1st Viscount of Castro, and Escolástica Bonifácia de Toledo Ribas, Viscountess of Castro. Domitila belonged to an
aristocratic family from São Paulo. Born on 27 December 1797, she was baptized three months later, on 7 March 1798 in the Church of Nossa Senhora da Assunção (Sé) in São Paulo. According to her baptismal record, her godfather was
Ensign José Duarte e Câmara. The
Brigadier João de Castro do Canto e Melo was born in the
Terceira Island in the
Azores, and died in
Rio de Janeiro in 1826. He was the son of João Batista do Canto e Melo and Isabel Ricketts, and descended from
Pero Anes do Canto, from Terceira Island. He passed to Portugal, setting up a cadet square at the age of 15 on 1 January 1768, named Standard-Bearer on 17 October 1773. He was 21 when, in 1774, he went to
Rio de Janeiro and months later to
São Paulo. • João de Castro do Canto e Melo (March 1786 – 11 September 1853), 2nd Viscount of Castro,
Field Marshal and Gentleman of the Imperial Chamber; married with Inocência Laura Vieira de Azambuja, with whom he had issue. • José de Castro do Canto e Melo (baptized 17 October 1787 – died ca. 1842),
Brigadier of the
Brazilian Army. Soldier at the age of five on 1 July 1792, Standard-Bearer in 1801,
Ensign in 1807, Lieutenant in 1815, Commander of the Cavalry Squad of the Legion of São Paulo and in the Battle of Itupuraí, in the 1816 campaign. Captain in 1818, Sergeant Major of the 2nd Line Cavalry Regiment of Vila de Curitiba, then São Paulo Province, in 1824. Colonel of the Army Staff in 1827. He was licensed for health reasons in 1829. Brigadier retired from the Army. Gentleman of the Imperial Chamber, dismissed in 1842. Knight of the
Military Order of Saint Benedict of Aviz in 1824 and was promoted to Commander in the same order in 1827. Officer of the
Order of the Southern Cross in 1827; married with his niece Francisca Pinto Coelho de Mendonça e Castro, with whom he had issue. • Maria de Castro do Canto e Melo (baptized February 1790; died in infancy). • Pedro de Castro do Canto e Melo (baptized 26 May 1791; died in infancy). • Maria Benedita de Castro do Canto e Melo (18 December 1792 – 5 March 1857), married to Boaventura Delfim Pereira, Baron of Sorocaba, with whom she had issue; her second son Rodrigo Delfim Pereira, although recognized by her husband, was in fact an illegitimate son of Emperor Pedro I, her sister's lover. • Ana Cândida de Castro do Canto e Melo (January 1795 – 27 May 1834), married to Carlos Maria de Oliva, Veador of the Imperial Chamber and Colonel of the Army, with whom she had issue. • Fortunata de Castro do Canto e Melo (baptized 12 January 1797; died in infancy). • Francisco de Castro do Canto e Melo (5 April 1799 – 21 June 1869), Gentleman of the Imperial Chamber, Major retired of the Army; married firstly with Francisca Leite Penteado and secondly with Lina Pereira de Castro. He had issue from his second marriage. In addition, Domitila had an older illegitimate half-sister, Matilde Eufrosina de Castro,) with Teresa Braseiro.
First Marriage On 13 January 1813, Domitila, at the age of fifteen, married an officer from the second squad of the Corps of Dragons in the city of Vila Rica (now
Ouro Preto),
Ensign Felício Pinto Coelho de Mendonça (26 February 1790 – 5 November 1833), cited by several historians as a violent man, who beat and raped her, and from whom she divorced on 21 May 1824. After the wedding in São Paulo, Felício and Domitila left for Vila Rica. Three children were born from the marriage: Due to her husband's mistreatment, Domitila obtained permission from his family in São Paulo to return to her father's home with her children. He arrived back in
São Paulo at the end of 1816. Felício managed to transfer his post in the army from Vila Rica to
Santos and settled in São Paulo, trying to reconcile with his wife and in 1818 they returned to live together. However, given his drinking and gambling problems, it did not take long for Felício to return with his old behavior, and began the beatings and death threats to his wife. On the morning of 6 March 1819, Felício surprised Domitila next to the Santa Luiza fountain and stabbed her twice, one stab caught in the thigh and the other in the belly. Felício was arrested and taken to Santos, next to his barracks, from where he left for
Rio de Janeiro. Domitila spent two months between life and death. When she recovered from her injuries, she had to fight legally against her father-in-law, who wanted to take the couple's children to educate them in the Captaincy of
Minas Gerais. Domitila asked for Felício's legal separation but only obtained it five years later, when she was already the Emperor's mistress. Domitila's detractors would accuse her after being assaulted because she betrayed Felício, when in reality, through documentation and witnesses in the divorce process, he had tried to kill her to sell the land that both, with the death of his mother, had jointly inherited in Minas Gerais.
Imperial Mistress Domitila met
Dom Pedro de Alcântara, Prince-Regent of
Brazil days before the
Proclamation of the Independence on 29 August 1822. The Prince-Regent was returning from a visit to
Santos when he received, on the banks of the
Ipiranga Brook, in
São Paulo, two missives (one from his wife, Princess
Maria Leopoldina of Austria and another from
José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva) that informed him about the decisions of the Portuguese Courts, in which Dom Pedro stopped being Prince-Regent and received orders to return to the continent. Outraged by this "interference with his acts as ruler", and influenced by whose defended the break with the metropolis—especially by José Bonifácio de Andrada—he decided to separate Brazil from the
Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves. Domitila was not the only lover of Dom Pedro, but she was the most important and the one with whom he had the longest relationship. Before his marriage, the Prince-Regent had been involved with a French ballerina, named Noémi Thierry, with whom he had a son. During his relationship with Domitila he had other parallel ones, such as Adèle Bonpland (wife of French naturalist
Aimé Bonpland) and the dressmaker Clemence Saisset (whose husband had a store on Rua do Ouvidor), with whom he had a son. In addition to these liaisons, Domitila's own sister, Maria Benedita de Castro do Canto e Melo, Baroness of Sorocaba, also had a son with Dom Pedro. In 1823, the now Emperor Pedro I installed Domitila at the Barão de Ubá street (today the
Estácio neighborhood) which was her first residence in
Rio de Janeiro. One year later, and thanks to the support of her lover, Domitila was able to have her first marriage nullified. In 1826, she received as a gift the "
Casa Amarela", as her mansion became known, at number 293 of the current Avenida D. Pedro II, near
Quinta da Boa Vista, in
São Cristóvão (where the Museum of the First Reign now operates). on 4 April 1825 she was appointed Lady-in-waiting of Empress Maria Leopoldina, on 12 October of the same year was created
Viscountess of Santos with designation as a
Grandee and, on 12 October 1826 she was finally created
Marchioness of Santos. Besides all this titles, on 4 April 1827 the Emperor invested his mistress with the
Order of Saint Isabel, who was solely granted "to women of irreproachable conduct". Despite information circulating that the cemetery's land was donated by the Marchioness of Santos, this version is incorrect. In fact, the cemetery was built, partly on land in the public domain and partly on land acquired from Marciano Pires de Oliveira for 200, 000
réis, which donated another part. After the inauguration, the area was enlarged with land expropriated by councilor Ramalho and Joaquim Floriano Wanderley. in her native
São Paulo. Her grave in the Cemitério da Consolação, as well the two other plots she bought adjoining her gravesite —where her younger brother Francisco de Castro do Canto e Melo, her son Felício Pinto Coelho de Mendonça e Castro, and, after a recent discovery, her daughter the Countess of Iguaçu, were also buried—, were all recovered in the 1980s by the Italian accordionist
Mario Zan, one of Domitila's most famous and fervent admirers; he took care of the deposit for the maintenance of the gravesites for years and when he died in 2006 he was buried in a tomb in front of the Marchioness. Even after his death, Mario Zan continues, in a way, to pay for the maintenance of Domitila's gravesite, because according to his will, the copyrights of his music were destined to this purpose. Domitila's grave always receives fresh flowers from people who continue to consider her a popular saint. Among the legends is that she protects the
prostitutes of the city and, due to having achieved a good marriage and restructuring worthily after her scandalous relationship with Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, she became an inspiration for girls who wanted to marry well. In her grave headstone there are plaques from devotees thanking her for some grace. ==Ancestry==