Amélia, Dowager Empress of Brazil, Duchess of Braganza, 1860

amelia

Amélia, Dowager Empress of Brazil, Duchess of Braganza1860

Amélia, Duchess of Braganza and Dowager Empress of Brazil (31 July 1812 – 26 January 1873), seated and looking at a photograph album, open on a table. The table also holds a framed photograph.

She was Empress of Brazil as the wife of Pedro I of Brazil. She was the granddaughter of Josephine de Beauharnais. Her father, Eugène de Beauharnais, was the only son of Empress Josephine and her first husband Alexandre, vicomte de Beauharnais. He thus became a stepson of Napoleon Bonaparte when his mother married the future emperor. The mother of Empress Amélie was Princess Augusta, daughter of Maximilian I, King of Bavaria.

Amélie’s mother was the daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his first consort, Landgravine Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt. Among Amélie’s siblings were Josephine of Leuchtenberg, queen consort of King Oscar I of Sweden, and Auguste de Beauharnais, 2nd Duke of Leuchtenberg, prince consort of Queen Maria II of Portugal (stepdaughter of Amélie). Napoleon III was Amélie’s first cousin.

After the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814, Eugène de Beauharnais, having been granted the title Duke of Leuchtenberg by his father-in-law, settled in Munich. The possibility occurred to Amé mother, Augusta, of marrying Amélie to the Emperor of Brazil, to guarantee the pretensions of the House of Leuchtenberg to royal status.

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source: Royal Collection

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