Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza
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Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza (Duarte Nuno Fernando Maria Miguel Gabriel Rafael Francisco Xavier Raimundo António de Bragança; September 23, 1907-December 24, 1976), pronounced [duˈaɾt(ɨ) ˈnunu]) was a claimant to the throne of Portugal from 1920 until his death.
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[edit] Birth
Duarte Nuno Fernando Maria Miguel Gabriel Rafael Francisco Xavier Raimundo António de Bragança was born at Schloss Seebenstein in Austria, the son of Miguel II, Duke of Braganza and of his second wife, Princess Marie Therese of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. Duarte Nuno had two older half-brothers and eight sisters.
His paternal grandparents were Miguel of Portugal and Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. His maternal grandparents were Charles Henry, Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg and Princess Sophia of Liechtenstein.
Duarte Nuno’s father was the Miguelist claimant to the throne of Portugal who opposed his cousins, the reigning line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Braganza descended from Queen Maria II. Duarte Nuno’s family had been disinherited by Maria II. In spite of this, the Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria granted extraterritoriality to Schloss Seebenstein in order that Duarte Nuno and his siblings could legally be born in Portuguese territory in order to comply with the Portuguese law of succession.
The day after his birth, Duarte Nuno was baptised at Seebenstein. His godparents were his aunt the Infanta Adelgundes and the husband of another aunt the Infante Alfonso Carlos of Spain, Duke of San Jaime (both of whom were represented by proxies).
[edit] Succession as Miguelist claimant
Duarte Nuno’s second brother, Francisco, died in 1919, and on July 21, 1920, his eldest brother, Miguel, renounced his succession rights in order to marry an American heiress, Anita Stewart. Ten days later on July 31, 1920, Duarte Nuno’s father, Miguel II, abdicated his claim to the Portuguese throne in favour of Duarte Nuno. [1] Henceforth the Miguelists recognised Duarte Nuno as King Duarte II of Portugal, even though Portugal had become a republic in 1910 when Maria II’s great-grandson, King Manuel II (who was still living in 1920), was sent into exile. Duarte Nuno used the title Duke of Braganza as a title of pretense.
Since Duarte Nuno was only twelve years old when he succeeded as Miguelist claimant to the Portuguese throne, his aunt, Infanta Aldegundes, Duchess of Guimarães, acted as regent for him until his attained his majority. In 1921, she issued a manifesto outlining the family’s goals for the restoration of the monarchy.
The abdication of Duarte Nuno’s father was intended to improve the relationship between the two monarchist groups in Portugal: the supporters of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha line of Manuel II and the supporters of the Miguelist line of Duarte Nuno. The Saxe-Coburg-Gotha line was called “constitutional” because it had accepted a liberal constitution for Portugal.
[edit] Succession as Constitutional claimant
The Constitutional claimant to the throne, King Manuel II, had been overthrown and exiled in 1910. After the death of his uncle Afonso in 1920, Manuel had no close relatives who could succeed according to the Portuguese Constitutional Charter of 1826 (the constitution in force from 1842 until the overthrow of the monarchy in 1910). [2] The conflict between the Miguelist line and the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha line was not just about which person should be sovereign; it was also about how much power the sovereign should have. The Miguelist line traditionally believed in an autocratic absolutist monarchy, while the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha line believed in a constitutional monarchy.
In 1912, Duarte Nuno’s father, Miguel, had met with Manuel to try to come to some agreement so that there would not be two claimants to the Portuguese throne, both living in exile. Their representatives signed the Pact of Dover by which Miguel recognised Manuel as king, while Manuel recognised the succession rights of Duarte Nuno should Manuel and his uncle Afonso die without children. [3] The pact was unpopular with the supporters of both sides, with many claiming that it was never actually signed.
On April 17, 1922, a second agreement called the Pact of Paris was signed by the representatives of Duarte Nuno and Manuel in which Manuel agreed that the Cortes should select his heir if he died without one, while Duarte Nuno agreed to ask and recommend that his followers accept Manuel as king. [4]
Strictly speaking the Pact of Dover and the Pact of Paris were only private agreements and had no legal value. As constitutional claimant to the throne, Manuel could not act unilaterally without the Cortes. But the agreements were important steps in reconciling the Miguelist line and the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha line and moving towards a united monarchist movement.
In 1927, Duarte Nuno’s father, Miguel II, died. On July 2, 1932, Manuel II died. Henceforth, the vast majority of monarchists, both Miguelist and Constitutional, supported Duarte Nuno as claimant to the Portuguese throne. João António de Azevedo Coutinho, the head of Causa Monárquica and Manuel II’s lieutenant while he was in exile, published a declaration in support of Duarte Nuno. [5] Later Duarte Nuno was received in audience in Paris by Manuel’s mother, Queen Amelie.
While Duarte Nuno was accepted by the vast majority of monarchists, there were some supporters of the constitutional monarchy who continued to contest his claim. Duarte Nuno was undoubtedly the legal heir of his grandfather, Miguel I, but there were doubts about whether he was the legal heir of the last reigning king of Portugal, Manuel II. Articles 87 and 88 of the Constitutional Charter of 1826 (the constitution in force in 1910 when the monarchy was overthrown) stated that the throne passed first to the descendants of Queen Maria II (from whom Duarte Nuno was not descended) and only when they were extinct to collateral heirs. [6] Maria II had living descendants, but none of these had Portuguese nationality. Article 89 of the Constitutional Charter of 1826 stated that “no foreigner can succeed to the crown of the kingdom of Portugal”. [7]
There was also some doubt about Duarte Nuno’s nationality. Duarte Nuno’s grandfather had been sent into exile by the law of December 19, 1834. Neither Duarte Nuno nor his father were born in Portugal, but Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria had granted extraterritoriality to Duarte Nuno’s birthplace and Portuguese soil had been placed under the bed where he was born. Article 8 of the Constitutional Charter of 1826 stated that Portuguese citizenship is lost "by those who are banished by sentence". [8] The fact that Duarte Nuno and his father had not been born in Portugal, and the fact that their family had been banished from Portugal, could therefore be used as arguments against them by their opponents (D. Duarte's line was not banished by judicial sentence, however the 1834 constitution in force at the time of D. Miguel I's banishment did not protect the citizenship of those exiled by law). On the other hand, when the Constitutional Charter of 1826 was re-instated in 1842, it cancelled the clause depriving Miguel I and his heirs of succession rights as dynasts, however their banishment had not been stipulated in that charter, but in a separate law not repealed until 1950.
A small minority of monarchists looked for a candidate other than Duarte Nuno. Manuel's genealogical heir was Crown Prince George of Saxony (a great-grandson of Maria II), but he was not Portuguese (as was required by Portuguese law for the succession); he was also a Catholic priest. The genealogical heir of Maria II's older brother Emperor Pedro II of Brazil was his grandson Prince Pedro of Orleans-Braganza; he too was not Portuguese, but the fact that he was Brazilian and therefore imbued with Portuguese culture made him a somewhat attractive candidate. The closest heir who was undoubtedly Portuguese was Constança Berquo de Mendonça, 4th Duchess of Loulé (a great-great-granddaughter of King John VI). Later a woman calling herself Maria Pia of Saxe-Coburg-Braganza, who claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of King Carlos I, also claimed to have succession rights. Her supporters played upon the traditional rivalry between the Miguelist line and the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha line.
[edit] Education
Duarte Nuno’s first tutors were two Portuguese ladies Maria Luisa Castelo and Maria das Dores de Sousa Prego. Later he was taught by the Benedictine monk Frei Estevao from the monastery of Cucujaes. Duarte Nuno attended school at the Abbey of Ettal in Bavaria and the Abbey of Clairvaux in France and then completed his secondary education in Regensburg. He received a degree in agricultural sciences from the University of Toulouse. Although forbidden entry to Portugal by the law of exile against the descendants of Miguel I, he visited the country in secret in 1929.
[edit] Marriage and children
On October 15, 1942, in the cathedral of Petropolis in Brazil, Duarte Nuno married Princess Maria Francisca of Orleans-Braganza (September 8, 1914-January 15, 1968). The marriage was particularly popular since Maria Francisca was the great-granddaughter of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil the younger brother of Queen Maria II of Portugal. The marriage thus united the two rival lines of the Portuguese royal family. Maria Francisca and her family were also viewed as representatives of a liberal monarchy as opposed to the traditional conservatism of Duarte Nuno’s family.
Duarte Nuno and Maria Francisca had three sons:
- Duarte Pio, current Duke of Braganza (born 1945).
- Miguel, 7th Duke of Viseu (born 1946).
- Henrique, 4th Duke of Coimbra (born 1949).
[edit] Transfer of 1816 title of Duke of Braganza
In 1945, Maria Francisca’s brother, Prince Pedro Gastão of Orleans-Braganza, relinquished to Maria Francisca and her heirs his rights to the title of Duke of Braganza which had been created in 1816 in favor of his great-great-grandfather, Emperor Pedro I of Brazil.
In 1826, Pedro had succeeded as King Pedro IV of Portugal, but two months later he was forced to abdicate in favor of his daughter, Maria II, while remaining emperor of Brazil. Some legists held that Pedro had continued to be Duke of Braganza. Certainly after Pedro abdicated as emperor of Brazil and returned to Portugal in 1831, he used the title Duke of Braganza" until his death in 1834. These same legists held that the title passed to Pedro's son and heir, Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, who after he was deposed in 1889 used the title during his exile in France. The title was then inherited by Pedro II's daughter Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, then by her eldest son Prince Pedro de Alcantara of Orleans-Branganza, and then by his son Prince Pedro Gastão of Orleans-Braganza. According to Portuguese peerage law, Prince Pedro Gastão could alter the succession to the title by relinquishing it to his sister. Accordingly, Duarte Nuno regarded his wife and himself as the holders of the title of Duke of Braganza from the creation of 1816.
[edit] Return to Portugal
On May 27, 1950, the National Assembly repealed the laws of exile of December 19, 1834 and October 15, 1910. Duarte Nuno, however, did not return to Portugal until 1952 on account of a car accident in Thionville in which he was seriously injured. He was presented with a residence in Portugal by the Fundação Casa de Bragança.
Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar thought about restoring the monarchy in 1951, after the death of President Óscar Carmona, but he preferred instead to maintain the Head of State like it appeared in the Constitution of 1933.
In 1974, Duarte Nuno handed over his residence the Palácio de São Marcos to the University of Coimbra. From then until his death in 1976, he lived in southern Portugal with his unmarried sister, the Infanta Filippa.
Duarte Nuno was Grand Master of the Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa and Sovereign of the Order of Saint Isabel. He was a Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and a Knight of the (Austrian) Order of the Golden Fleece.
Duarte Nuno is buried in the Augustinian monastery in Vila Viçosa, the traditional burial place of the dukes of Braganza.
[edit] Further reading
D. Duarte Nuno de Bragança, um rei que não reinou: testemunhos sobre a vida e a obra de D. Duarte II, Chefe da Casa Real Portuguesa. Lisbon, 1992.
Cabral, Antonio. El-Rei D. Duarte II: rei morto, rei posto, a sua vida, os seus direitos, paginas de historia. Lisbon: Livraria popular de F. Franco, 1934.
Galvão, Manuel de Bettencourt e. O Duque de Bragança. Lisbon: Edições Gama, 1945.
Miranda, Jorge O Constitucionalismo luso-brasileiro. Lisboa: Comissão nacional para as comemorações dos descobrimentos Portugueses. 2001 ISBN-972-787-034-1
[edit] References
- ^ Abdicação de Dom Miguel II de Bragança em Dom Duarte Nuno
- ^ There was a later constitution in 1838 (which specifically removed succession rights from Duarte Nuno's grandfather Miguel and his family), but this constitution was repealed in 1842, when the Constitutional Charter of 1826 was re-instated. For more information about Portugal’s constitutional history, see The Parliament in the History of the Constitution.
- ^ Pacto de Dover
- ^ D. Duarte Nuno de Bragança, um rei que não reinou : testemunhos sobre a vida e a obra de D. Duarte II, chefe da Casa Real Portuguesa (Lisbon, 1992).
- ^ Proclamação do Lugar-Tenente João de Azevedo Coutinho em Nome da Causa Monárquica, Aclamando Rei de Portugal O Senhor D. Duarte Nuno de Bragança
- ^ Carta Constitucional de 1826
- ^ Carta Constitucional de 1826
- ^ Carta Constitucional de 1826
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Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza
Cadet branch of the House of Aviz
Born: 23 September 1907 Died: 24 December 1976 |
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| Titles of nobility | ||
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| Preceded by Duke Miguel II |
Duke of Braganza 21 July 1920 – 24 December 1976 |
Succeeded by Duarte Pio |
| Titles in pretence | ||
| Preceded by Duke Miguel II |
— TITULAR — King of Portugal Miguelist line 21 July 1920 – 24 December 1976 Reason for succession failure: Grandfather deposed in 1834 |
Succeeded by Duarte Pio |
| Preceded by King Manuel II |
— TITULAR — King of Portugal 2 July 1932 – 24 December 1976 Reason for succession failure: Monarchy abolished in 1910 |
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| Pretenders to the Portuguese throne |
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Miguelist Line Deposed King |
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