Infanta Antónia of Portugal

Life

Antónia was born on 17 February 1845 at the Palace of Belém, she was the sixth child of eleven, and the third girl. She married Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen on 12 September 1861. They had three sons: William (1864–1927), who succeeded as Prince of Hohenzollern; married (1) Princess Maria Teresa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (2) Princess Adelgunde of Bavaria Ferdinand (1865–1927), later King of Romania; married Princess Marie of Edinburgh Karl Anton (1868–1919), married Princess Josephine Caroline of Belgium

Princess Marie of Edinburgh, her daughter-in-law, described her appearance in her memoirs: "Antonia, or Antoinette, had been one of the great beauties of her time; one of those old-fashioned, classic-featured beauties, whom one associates with the crinoline. Her profile was Grecian, her shoulders sloping, her hands long and delicate, her feet very small and useless. But her figure somehow could not fit in with the clothes of the day, there was a disproportion between the bust and the legs. The crinoline was missing. Superbly aristocratic, she moved slowly with a curious swinging of the hips. She loved fine clothes and jewels and, though leading almost an invalid's life, was always very smartly dressed." Later, Marie also wrote on their complicated relationship and views on her mother-in-law's character: "She was a curious mixture of dignity and childish futility, vain, self-centered, small in her judgements of others. [...] She lived so protected, so out of the world, hedged in by her Church, nursing her delicate health, everybody serving her, spoiling her, she was more like an exigent child than a woman who had lived a real woman's life. [..] I really think she liked me then, but there was also something else in this; I was to be shown off as a favourite to spite Mädi, her eldest daughter-in-law." Antónia of Braganza died in the German Empire on 27 December 1913.

Honours and awards Dame of the Order of Queen Saint Isabel Grand Cross of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa Kingdom of Prussia: Dame of the Order of the Starry Cross, 1st Class

Ancestry