95th birthday of Princess Dona Maria d’Orleans-Bragança

Today is the 95^th birthday of Her Imperial Highness Princess Dona Maria d’Orleans-Bragança, the widow of Prince Dom Pedro Henrique d’Orleans-Bragança, Head of the Brazilian Imperial Family and Pretender to the Brazilian Throne between 1921 and 1981.

She was born in Nymphenburg Castle, in Munich, Bavaria, on 9th September 1914, the second of the six child and first daughter of Prince Franz of Bavaria and his wife Princess Isabella, born Princess of Croy.

Her father was the third son of King Ludwig III of Bavaria and his wife Queen Maria Theresia, born Archduchess of Austria-Este and Heir to the Jacobite claims to the British Throne, while her mother was a daughter of Karl Alfred, Duke of Croÿ, and his wife Ludmilla, born Princess of Arenberg. Among her siblings are the late Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, Prince Rasso of Bavaria, Archduchess Dorothea of Austria, the widow of Archduke Gottfried, titular Grand-Duke of Tuscany.

Princess Maria married in the chapel of Nymphenburg Castle in 1937 HIH Dom Pedro Henrique, titular Emperor of Brazil, who was 5 years older then her. They had 12 children, eight sons and four daughters: among them are Prince Dom Luiz, the present Head of the Imperial Family and claimants to the Imperial Throne, Prince Dom Antonio (husband of Princess Christina, daughter of Prince Antoine de Ligne, and future Head of the Family), Princess Eleonore, now Princess de Ligne. Dom Pedro Henrique died in 1981.

Dona Maria and Dom Pedro Henrique lived for some years after their wedding in France, and after the end of the Second World War they moved in Brazil, where the Princess still lives near Rio, in a house together with her daughter Dona Isabel. Like her late husband, the Princess is a painter, and in particular she is a specialist in porcelain painting, following a tradition of her homeland Bavaria.

Since the death of her sister Eleonore less then a month ago, the Princess is last surviving member of the Bavarian Royal Family to be born before the fall of the Monarchy in 1918, and is also the eldest member of both the Imperial Family of Brazil and of the Royal Family of Bavaria.

More info can be found in this thread.

Filed under Brazil, Germany
Tagged Bavaria, Biography, Birthday, Maria Elisabeth of Bavaria.