Isabel, Duchess of Braganza

Isabel, Duchess of Braganza (née Isabel Inês de Castro Curvello de Herédia; born 22 November 1966) is a Portuguese noblewoman and wife of Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, the current pretender to the defunct Portuguese throne.

Born into the family of an old Portuguese nobility, Isabel worked as an assets manager before to her marriage. Since marrying Duarte Pio, Isabel has ceased to have paid employment and become patron to several Portuguese charities and non-profit foundations. She and her husband have had three children together, securing the continuation of the House of Braganza.

Family Isabel Inês de Castro Curvello de Herédia was born on 22 November 1966, in Lisbon, to Dom Jorge de Herédia (b. 1934), an architect, and his wife, Dona Raquel Leonor Pinheiro de Castro Curvello (b. 1935).

She is a descendant in the male lineage of Francisco Correia de Herédia, 1st Viscount of Ribeira Brava (a Vitalício title,

Early life

Isabel lived between metropolitan Portugal and Portuguese Angola until 1975, when Angola was granted independence. Her family subsequently moved to São Paulo, Brazil. There, she studied at the Colégio São Luís, a Jesuit-run institution. In 1990, she obtained a degree in business administration from the Fundação Getúlio Vargas and returned to Portugal to a job in BMF — Sociedade de Gestão de Patrimónios, S.A. She worked in investment management.

Personal life On 13 May 1995 she married Duarte Pio de Bragança, at Jerónimos Monastery. Present at the ceremony were representatives of various European royal and noble houses: Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, Prince Henri, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Infanta Margarita, Duchess of Soria, among others. The principal Portuguese political figures, including the President of the Republic Mário Soares, Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva and President of the Assembly António Barbosa de Melo, were also present.

Following her marriage and the birth of her first child, Afonso, Isabel resigned from her professional life and devoted herself to the management of her family, the family's assets and the patronage of various causes.

Honours National honours

Foreign honours

Genealogy

Ancestry

Issue Duarte Pio and Isabel of Heredia have three children: