Countess Elisabeth Dobržensky de Dobrženicz

Elisabeth Maria Adelheid Dobrženský von Dobrženitz (also Dobrzensky de Dobrzenicz; ; 7 December 1875 – 11 June 1951) was a Bohemian noblewoman whose marriage to the son of the former heiress to the throne of Brazil prompted renunciation of his claim to the abolished monarchy's throne.

Early life

Born in the Chotěboř castle, family estate of an old Bohemian noble family, Elisabeth Maria Adelheid was the fourth child and only daughter of Johann Wenzel, Count Dobrženský of Dobrženicz (1841–1919) and his wife, Countess Elisabeth Kottulinsky, Baroness of Kottulin and Krzizkowitz (1850–1929).

She had three elder brothers Jan, Otokar and Jaroslav and a younger brother named Karl Kunata. Karl Kunata renamed himself to Count Kottulinský, like his maternal family, in Austria in 1905; late in 1912, he married Countess Maria Theresia von Meran (1893-1981), member of a morganatic branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

Marriage and issue

Elisabeth married Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará on 14 November 1908 at Versailles. He had previously renounced his hereditary claim to the crown of Brazil because she was not of royal birth. They had five children:

Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza (1911–2003) married Henri, Count of Paris (parents of Henri, Orléanist pretender to the throne of France). Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza (1913–2007) married Princess Maria de la Esperanza of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (parents of Princess Maria da Glória, Duchess of Segorbe, former Crown Princess of Yugoslavia). Princess Maria Francisca of Orléans-Braganza (1914–1968) married Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza (parents of Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, the current pretender to the throne of Portugal). Prince João Maria of Orléans-Braganza (1916–2005) married Fatima Sherifa Chirine (1923-1990), widow of Prince Hassan Toussoun, Prince of Egypt. Princess Teresa Teodora of Orléans-Braganza (1919–2011) married Ernesto António Maria Martorell y Calderó (1921-1985); Before her marriage, she was the fiancée of Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

Death Elisabeth died on 11 June 1951, in Sintra, Portugal, aged 75. She was buried alongside her husband, Pedro de Alcântara in the Cathedral of Petrópolis.

Honors

Ancestry