Princess Leopoldina of Brazil

Leopoldina, Princess Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Leopoldina Teresa Francisca Carolina Miguela Gabriela Rafaela Gonzaga; 13 July 1847 – 7 February 1871) was a Brazilian princess and a member of the Brazilian imperial family. She was the younger daughter of Emperor Pedro II and Empress Teresa Cristina. For most of her life, she was the second in the line of succession to the Brazilian throne.

Born a Princess of Brazil, upon her marriage to Prince Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1864 she was styled Princess Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duchess of Saxony. The couple had four sons. Following her premature death and given her sister's apparent infertility, her two eldest children were recognized and raised as Princes of Brazil. Through them, she became the matriarch of the Braganza-Saxe-Coburg and Gotha branch of the Imperial House of Brazil.

Biography Family and early years Leopoldina was born at 6:45 am on 13 July 1847, in the Imperial Palace of São Cristóvão, the second daughter of Pedro II and Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies. Her paternal grandparents were the Emperor Pedro I and Empress Maria Leopoldina, and her maternal grandparents were King Francis I of the Two Sicilies and Queen Maria Isabella.

She was baptized in the Cathedral and Imperial Chapel on 7 September 1847, by the bishop chief chaplain and diocesan gift Manuel do Monte Rodrigues de Araújo, Count of Irajá, and her name was given in honor of her paternal grandmother. Her godparents were her uncle and aunt, the Prince and Princess of Joinville—for which C. His de Buthenval, the minister plenipotentiary of Louis Philippe I of France, stood proxy—and Mariana Carlota de Verna Magalhães Coutinho, Countess of Belmonte and chief chamberlain of the Empress.

The princesses attended classes six days a week, from 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. They could only receive visits on Sundays, at parties or on any other occasion determined by the Emperor. The subjects they studied were diverse: Portuguese and its Literature, French, English, Italian, German, Latin, Greek, Algebra, Geometry, Chemistry, Physics, Botany, History (whose subjects were divided by country and period), Cosmography, Drawing and Painting, Piano, Philosophy, Geography, Political economy, Rhetoric, Zoology, Mineralogy, and Geology.

Marriage

Pedro II had commissioned Princess Francisca to find in Europe two young princes who would marry his daughters. In the Speech from the Throne of May 1864, the sovereign announced the marriage of the princesses without, however, naming names of suitors. However, the two candidates chosen by the emperor—his nephew, Pierre, Duke of Penthièvre, and Philippe, Count of Flanders (son of Leopold I of Belgium)—refused the offer, leading the monarch to opt for the Princes Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the second son of August of Saxe-Coburg-Gota and Princess Clémentine of Orléans, and Gaston of Orléans, Count of Eu. On 2 September 1864, the princes arrived in Rio de Janeiro. In the days that followed, the initial plans were reversed, as Isabel recalled:

The union of Leopoldina and Ludwig August was settled through a marriage agreement between the Emperor of Brazil and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The contract provided, in articles 3, 4 and 5 that, as long as Dom Pedro II did not consider Princess Isabel's succession assured, the couple should—among other things —reside part of the year in Brazil and have their children in Brazilian territory.

Finally, on 15 December 1864, Leopoldina married Ludwig August. The couple received a grant of $300,000,000 for the acquisition of a residence in Rio de Janeiro, from which they and their descendants would have the usufruct, but which would remain as national patrimony. The chosen property was a mansion next to the Palace of São Cristóvão, acquired in June 1865 and baptized as "Palace Leopoldina".

Ten months after suffering a miscarriage, Leopoldina gave birth on 19 March 1866, to the one who would become Dom Pedro II's favorite grandson, Prince Pedro Augusto. From then on, the Princess began to live between Brazil and Europe, always returning to her native land for the birth of her children. Thus it was with Augusto Leopoldo and José Fernando—born in 1867 and 1869, respectively. When she discovered she was pregnant with the fourth child, she and her husband decided that they would not return to Brazil, and on 15 September 1870, Prince Luís Gastão was born at Ebenthal Castle in Austria.

Death At the beginning of 1871, Leopoldina displayed the first symptoms of the disease that would kill her. The gastrointestinal problems and the fever, however, were not associated with the intake of contaminated water that plagued Vienna. In the second week, however, the princess was in a state of worrying prostration. The intermittent fever, the spots on the skin and the hematochezia, classic symptoms of typhoid fever, appeared in the fourth week. The picture evolved rapidly and Leopoldina began to suffer delusions and convulsions, a situation witnessed by Princess Isabel and the Count of Eu.

The princess eventually succumbed to the disease in the afternoon of 7 February 1871, at the age of 23. Clémentine of Orléans described the agony of her daughter-in-law in a letter sent to the Princess of Joinville:

In honor of the princess, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria decreed official mourning for 30 days. After the solemn funeral rites celebrated by the apostolic nuncio, Monsignor Mariano Falcinelli Antoniacci, her body was transferred to Coburg, where representatives of all the royal houses of Europe attended its burial. Her body rests in the crypt of St. Augustinkirche, next to the tombs of her husband and children. Every year, until 1922, masses in her memory were celebrated in Vienna.

Legacy The infertility of Princess Isabel, heir presumptive to the crown—who would give birth to a son only after more than ten years of marriage and almost four years after her sister's death—included Leopoldina's two eldest sons on the 2nd and 3rd positions in the line of succession to the Brazilian throne. After the death of their mother, the young princes were taken by their grandfather to be raised and educated in Brazil. This situation made the princess, although involuntarily, the founder of the cadet branch of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza. Pedro Augusto and Augusto Leopoldo would only be deprived of the succession in 1875, with the birth of Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará.

Titles, styles, and honors

Titles and styles 13 July 1847 – 15 December 1864: Her Imperial Highness Princess Leopoldina of Brazil 15 December 1864 – 7 February 1871: Her Imperial Highness Princess Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duchess of Saxony

Honors

Issue

NamePictureBirthDeathNotes Peter 100px19 March 18666 July 1934Prince of Brazil and of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Showed first signs of mental disorder soon after the Imperial Family's banishment following the Proclamation of the Republic on 15 November 1889. He died in an asylum on the outskirts of Vienna. August 100px6 December 186711 October 1922Prince of Brazil and of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He married (1894) Karoline Marie of Austria. They had eight children. Joseph 100px21 May 186913 August 1888Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Never married. Ludwig 100px15 September 187023 January 1942Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He married firstly (1900) Mathilde of Bavaria; they had two children. He married secondly (1907) Countess Anna of Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg; they had one daughter.

Ancestry