From medieval to modern days, we today come across with an Empress who ruled very shortly an Empire located in the tropics, during the mid of 19th century. As the second consort of Emperor Pedro, Amélie of Leuchtenberg held briefly the title before she was sent to exile with her husband after he was forced to abdicate. Her figure is very little discussed amongst Brazilian's historiography and few are the sources about this interesting woman, who's the subject of the blog on this day.
Amélie de Leuchtenberg (Portuguese: Amélia Augusta Eugénia de Leuchtenberg; French: Amélie Auguste Eugénie de Leuchtenberg) was born on the 31st day of July, 1812 in Milan. Her parents were Eugène de Beauharnais, duke of Leuchtenberg and only male son of the famous Empress Josephine of Beauharnais of France with her first husband Alexandre de Beauharnais, and princess Augusta of Bavaria, whose father was the king of Bavaria, Maximilian I. Amélie was the fourth of the seven children of her parents, who included the Queen of Sweden Josephine, and her education was tutored by her own mother, princess Augusta.
There is almost nothing regarding her childhood and education, except when it comes to the fact she seemed to have filled the demands of the emperor of Brazil for a second wife. Pedro of Braganza was crowned Emperor of Brazil in December 1st 1822 after the political process he and his then first wife the Archduchess of Austria Maria Leopoldina participated, of which culminated in Brazilian's independence and formation of the empire of Brazil. However, with the death of Leopoldina in 1826, Pedro I was in need of a new wife as much as the country required a new Empress. Yet, his reputation at the European courts was not one of the bests because of the mistreatment he caused to his deceased wife by having an affair with Marquesa dos Santos (Marchioness of Santos). Therefore, to find a new consort for the Emperor was a troubled ask his most trusted advisor, known as Barbacena, was confided.
"After the death of his first wife, the Austrian archduchess Maria Leopoldina in December 1826, Emperor Pedro I of Brazil (and King Pedro IV of Portugal) sent the Marquês de Barbacena to Europe to find him a second wife. His task was not easy; several factors complicated the search. First, Dom Pedro had stipulated four conditions: a good family background, beauty, virtue and culture. Conversely, the emperor of Brazil did not have a particularly good image in Europe: his relationship with the Marquesa do Santos was notorious, and few eligible princesses were expected to be eager to leave the courts of Europe to marry a widower who had a tarnished reputation as a husband, becoming step-mother to his five children. To make matters worse, the former father-in-law of Dom Pedro, Francis I of Austria, had a low opinion of his son-in-law's political views, and apparently acted to prevent a new marriage to ensure that his grandchildren would inherit the throne of Brazil if they survived infancy."
Amélie de Leuchtenberg (Portuguese: Amélia Augusta Eugénia de Leuchtenberg; French: Amélie Auguste Eugénie de Leuchtenberg) was born on the 31st day of July, 1812 in Milan. Her parents were Eugène de Beauharnais, duke of Leuchtenberg and only male son of the famous Empress Josephine of Beauharnais of France with her first husband Alexandre de Beauharnais, and princess Augusta of Bavaria, whose father was the king of Bavaria, Maximilian I. Amélie was the fourth of the seven children of her parents, who included the Queen of Sweden Josephine, and her education was tutored by her own mother, princess Augusta.
There is almost nothing regarding her childhood and education, except when it comes to the fact she seemed to have filled the demands of the emperor of Brazil for a second wife. Pedro of Braganza was crowned Emperor of Brazil in December 1st 1822 after the political process he and his then first wife the Archduchess of Austria Maria Leopoldina participated, of which culminated in Brazilian's independence and formation of the empire of Brazil. However, with the death of Leopoldina in 1826, Pedro I was in need of a new wife as much as the country required a new Empress. Yet, his reputation at the European courts was not one of the bests because of the mistreatment he caused to his deceased wife by having an affair with Marquesa dos Santos (Marchioness of Santos). Therefore, to find a new consort for the Emperor was a troubled ask his most trusted advisor, known as Barbacena, was confided.
"After the death of his first wife, the Austrian archduchess Maria Leopoldina in December 1826, Emperor Pedro I of Brazil (and King Pedro IV of Portugal) sent the Marquês de Barbacena to Europe to find him a second wife. His task was not easy; several factors complicated the search. First, Dom Pedro had stipulated four conditions: a good family background, beauty, virtue and culture. Conversely, the emperor of Brazil did not have a particularly good image in Europe: his relationship with the Marquesa do Santos was notorious, and few eligible princesses were expected to be eager to leave the courts of Europe to marry a widower who had a tarnished reputation as a husband, becoming step-mother to his five children. To make matters worse, the former father-in-law of Dom Pedro, Francis I of Austria, had a low opinion of his son-in-law's political views, and apparently acted to prevent a new marriage to ensure that his grandchildren would inherit the throne of Brazil if they survived infancy."
However, not all was lost. "Amélie now became a good possibility, but their encounter was brought about not by Barbacena, but by Domingos Borges de Barros, Viscount of Pedra Branca, minister in Paris, to whom she had been pointed out. She came from a distinguished and ancient line on her mother's side, the Wittelsbachs, but her father, an exile who shared the disgrace of Napoleon Bonaparte's deposition as emperor, was not an optimal marital match. However, that was her sole "defect". The princess was tall, very beautiful, well proportioned, with a delicate face. She had blues eyes and brownish-golden hair. António Teles da Silva Caminha e Meneses, Marquês do Resende, sent to verify the beauty of the young lady, praised her highly, saying that she had "a physical air that like that the painter Correggio gave us in his paintings of the Queen of Sheba". She was also cultured and sensitive. A contemporary piece in The Times of London affirms that she was one of the best educated and best prepared princesses in the German world."
How must have Amélie felt when she was betrothed to a man whose reputation was low and hardly well seen by the noblest families of Europe? It's difficult to say, but we may assume she followed with her duties and was well prepared and advised by her mother to what was coming straight ahead. The marriage treaty was signed in England then ratified by Amélie's mother, princess Augusta. When the match was confirmed by Dom Pedro, he broke any links he had with the Marchioness, which was important if he was willing to remarry.
Once her noble and beauty traits were confirmed, "a proxy marriage ceremony on 2 August in the chapel of the Palais Leuchtenberg in Munich was a simple affair with few in attendance, as Amélie insisted on donating to a Munich orphanage the appreciable amount Dom Pedro had sent for a ceremony with full pomp. Dom Pedro was represented by the Marquês de Barbacena. Amélie was barely seventeen years old; Dom Pedro was thirty."
Carl Friedrich von Martius, a scientist, and Ana Romana de Aragão Calmão, Countess of Itapagibe, were sent to aid Amélie in preparing her for the role of which she was expected to perform. She was taught Portuguese, her husband-to-be's personalities and his likes, aside of the journey that would lead her to Brazil. Of her mother, Amélie was advised "that she be demonstrative of her feelings and overcome and timidity so as not to discourage her husband, that she be loving toward her stepchilden, and above all that she remain faithful, as empress, to the interests of the Brazilians."
She then left to Brazil with her brother, Auguste, embarking on the frigate Imperatriz and sailed from Belgium to Rio de Janeiro. There, she would arrive at October 15th of 1829, and so "traditions says that upon hearing that the ship was approaching, Dom Pedro embarked on a tugboat to meet it on the far side of the bar, and that he collapsed with emotion upon seeing his wife on deck."
The children of Pedro I's first marriage were brought to meet their new stepmother once the first meeting of the newlywed's occurred. She was later formally introduced to court, and it seemed she was well received by those present at the moment as we can see below:
"In January 1830 the new empress was formally presented in court, with a dance at which all of the ladies dressed in pink, the empress's favorite color. The following day, the couple began their honeymoon (...). Upon settling into the imperial palace, the Paço de São Cristóvão, and perceiving what she considered an inadequate standard of protocol, Amélie established French as the court languaged and adopted a ceremonial modeled after European courts. She sought to update the cuisine and fashion, redecorated the palace, acquired new tableware and silverware, and attempted to refine the manners of the court. She achieved at least a partial success in this last, and the elegance of the Empress, always impeccably dressed, became internationally famous."
In comparsion to her predecessor, Maria Leopoldina, Amélie succeeded better by having a place in her husband's heart and dealing well with the court, in its majority composed by Portuguese people or, at least, of Portugueses origins. As the late paragraph attested, she remodelled the court in an attempt to draw it closer to Europe's standards, an effort of modernising the country. One may assume that Pedro II's equally attempts of modern policies he followed might have come from his stepmother, with whom he had an excellent relationship.
Although she did improve the popularity of Pedro I as Emperor of Brazil, she could not manage the decline of it with the succession of crisis that made him renounce his crown for his younger son, the five year old Pedro de Alcântara. Nevertheless, it does well to point that:
"Their marriage was a happy one, unlike Dome Pedro's first, and she reportedly had a good relationship with her legitimate stepchildren as well. Her beauty, good sense, and kindness promptly won the affections of both her husband and his children by his first marriage. She made sure that the latter had a good family environment and received a good education. Shortly after the marriage, a French traveler reported "it appears that the empress continues to exercise her influence over the children of Dom Pedro. The happy results are already apparent, she has already made considerable renovations to the palace, and order has commenced to reign; te princesses' education is supervised and directed personally by the empress", with the same care going to the heir of the throne, little Pedro de Alcântara (later Pedro II of Brazil); the proof of this last being that he soon began to call her "mamãe" ("mommy"). Amélie always expressed her affection for Pedro II, and maintained a correspondence with him until the end of her life, trying to instruct and support him. Nearly six decades of their correspondence survive. Dom Pedro II reciprocated her kindness, soliciting her help in arranging marriages for his own daughters and visiting her in Lisbon in 1871".
At the exile, this non-melancholical woman, kind and subtle in her strong-will personalitly, Amélie would still support her husband and his ilegitimate daughter, the duchess of Goias, whom she came to adopt as if she was of her own, until the end of his days. It was also in exile that she came to give birth to their only daughter, who received the name Maria Amélia. Towards them, she would commit herself, and for the first years in exile, especially after the death of Pedro I, Amélie attempted to be recognized as part of the royal family, but, because of the regency of the monarch fearing she might try to influence the young Pedro II, they declined to do so. This problem, however, was only solved after Pedro's majority.
As said before, Amélie and Pedro II still exchanged letters and even indirectly she had a role in his life. Regarding her daughter, Maria Amélia, she was also very devoted to, tutoring herself as she was tutored by her own mother. The princess was even betrothed to the archduke of Austria, Maximilian, but she soon started to show symptons of tuberculosis. Amélie tried a change of airs to help her daughter's health improve, but no change was seen and before her 20's, Maria Amélia of Bragança was no longer breathing.
The death of her daughter affected the empresss dowager and duchess of Bragança so much that she visited Maria Amélia's tomb every year on the anniversary of her death, and financed the construction of a still-extant hospital in Funchal named "Princesa Dona Maria Amélia"".
With time, Amélie's own health started to deterioriate and in her will, she made her sister, Queen of Sweden, her heiress, despite leaving many of her properties to her almost son-in-law the previously already mentioned archduke of Austria. So she settled in Lisbon and in 26 January 1873, she came to die. At the present days, she is found buried at the "crypt of the Monument to the Independence of Brazil in São Paulo." Amélie de Leuchtenberg was 60 years old.
Bibliography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am%C3%A9lie_of_Leuchtenberg
http://www.revistadehistoria.com.br/secao/artigos/a-outra-noiva-do-imperador
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2281566/Dom-Pedro-I-Brazils-emperor-exhumed.html
https://thenewroyaltyworldblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/amelie-of-leuchtenberg/
http://www.polyvore.com/am%C3%A9lie_leuchtenberg/set?.embedder=0&.src=share_html&.svc=twitter&id=62019337
How must have Amélie felt when she was betrothed to a man whose reputation was low and hardly well seen by the noblest families of Europe? It's difficult to say, but we may assume she followed with her duties and was well prepared and advised by her mother to what was coming straight ahead. The marriage treaty was signed in England then ratified by Amélie's mother, princess Augusta. When the match was confirmed by Dom Pedro, he broke any links he had with the Marchioness, which was important if he was willing to remarry.
Once her noble and beauty traits were confirmed, "a proxy marriage ceremony on 2 August in the chapel of the Palais Leuchtenberg in Munich was a simple affair with few in attendance, as Amélie insisted on donating to a Munich orphanage the appreciable amount Dom Pedro had sent for a ceremony with full pomp. Dom Pedro was represented by the Marquês de Barbacena. Amélie was barely seventeen years old; Dom Pedro was thirty."
Carl Friedrich von Martius, a scientist, and Ana Romana de Aragão Calmão, Countess of Itapagibe, were sent to aid Amélie in preparing her for the role of which she was expected to perform. She was taught Portuguese, her husband-to-be's personalities and his likes, aside of the journey that would lead her to Brazil. Of her mother, Amélie was advised "that she be demonstrative of her feelings and overcome and timidity so as not to discourage her husband, that she be loving toward her stepchilden, and above all that she remain faithful, as empress, to the interests of the Brazilians."
She then left to Brazil with her brother, Auguste, embarking on the frigate Imperatriz and sailed from Belgium to Rio de Janeiro. There, she would arrive at October 15th of 1829, and so "traditions says that upon hearing that the ship was approaching, Dom Pedro embarked on a tugboat to meet it on the far side of the bar, and that he collapsed with emotion upon seeing his wife on deck."
The children of Pedro I's first marriage were brought to meet their new stepmother once the first meeting of the newlywed's occurred. She was later formally introduced to court, and it seemed she was well received by those present at the moment as we can see below:
"In January 1830 the new empress was formally presented in court, with a dance at which all of the ladies dressed in pink, the empress's favorite color. The following day, the couple began their honeymoon (...). Upon settling into the imperial palace, the Paço de São Cristóvão, and perceiving what she considered an inadequate standard of protocol, Amélie established French as the court languaged and adopted a ceremonial modeled after European courts. She sought to update the cuisine and fashion, redecorated the palace, acquired new tableware and silverware, and attempted to refine the manners of the court. She achieved at least a partial success in this last, and the elegance of the Empress, always impeccably dressed, became internationally famous."
In comparsion to her predecessor, Maria Leopoldina, Amélie succeeded better by having a place in her husband's heart and dealing well with the court, in its majority composed by Portuguese people or, at least, of Portugueses origins. As the late paragraph attested, she remodelled the court in an attempt to draw it closer to Europe's standards, an effort of modernising the country. One may assume that Pedro II's equally attempts of modern policies he followed might have come from his stepmother, with whom he had an excellent relationship.
Although she did improve the popularity of Pedro I as Emperor of Brazil, she could not manage the decline of it with the succession of crisis that made him renounce his crown for his younger son, the five year old Pedro de Alcântara. Nevertheless, it does well to point that:
"Their marriage was a happy one, unlike Dome Pedro's first, and she reportedly had a good relationship with her legitimate stepchildren as well. Her beauty, good sense, and kindness promptly won the affections of both her husband and his children by his first marriage. She made sure that the latter had a good family environment and received a good education. Shortly after the marriage, a French traveler reported "it appears that the empress continues to exercise her influence over the children of Dom Pedro. The happy results are already apparent, she has already made considerable renovations to the palace, and order has commenced to reign; te princesses' education is supervised and directed personally by the empress", with the same care going to the heir of the throne, little Pedro de Alcântara (later Pedro II of Brazil); the proof of this last being that he soon began to call her "mamãe" ("mommy"). Amélie always expressed her affection for Pedro II, and maintained a correspondence with him until the end of her life, trying to instruct and support him. Nearly six decades of their correspondence survive. Dom Pedro II reciprocated her kindness, soliciting her help in arranging marriages for his own daughters and visiting her in Lisbon in 1871".
At the exile, this non-melancholical woman, kind and subtle in her strong-will personalitly, Amélie would still support her husband and his ilegitimate daughter, the duchess of Goias, whom she came to adopt as if she was of her own, until the end of his days. It was also in exile that she came to give birth to their only daughter, who received the name Maria Amélia. Towards them, she would commit herself, and for the first years in exile, especially after the death of Pedro I, Amélie attempted to be recognized as part of the royal family, but, because of the regency of the monarch fearing she might try to influence the young Pedro II, they declined to do so. This problem, however, was only solved after Pedro's majority.
As said before, Amélie and Pedro II still exchanged letters and even indirectly she had a role in his life. Regarding her daughter, Maria Amélia, she was also very devoted to, tutoring herself as she was tutored by her own mother. The princess was even betrothed to the archduke of Austria, Maximilian, but she soon started to show symptons of tuberculosis. Amélie tried a change of airs to help her daughter's health improve, but no change was seen and before her 20's, Maria Amélia of Bragança was no longer breathing.
The death of her daughter affected the empresss dowager and duchess of Bragança so much that she visited Maria Amélia's tomb every year on the anniversary of her death, and financed the construction of a still-extant hospital in Funchal named "Princesa Dona Maria Amélia"".
With time, Amélie's own health started to deterioriate and in her will, she made her sister, Queen of Sweden, her heiress, despite leaving many of her properties to her almost son-in-law the previously already mentioned archduke of Austria. So she settled in Lisbon and in 26 January 1873, she came to die. At the present days, she is found buried at the "crypt of the Monument to the Independence of Brazil in São Paulo." Amélie de Leuchtenberg was 60 years old.
Bibliography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am%C3%A9lie_of_Leuchtenberg
http://www.revistadehistoria.com.br/secao/artigos/a-outra-noiva-do-imperador
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2281566/Dom-Pedro-I-Brazils-emperor-exhumed.html
https://thenewroyaltyworldblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/amelie-of-leuchtenberg/
http://www.polyvore.com/am%C3%A9lie_leuchtenberg/set?.embedder=0&.src=share_html&.svc=twitter&id=62019337
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