Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza
Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza (
September 23 1907-
December 24 1976), [
IPA pron. ] was a claimant to the
throne of Portugal from 1920 until his death.
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.
Duarte Nuno's father was the Miguelist claimant to the throne of Portugal who opposed his cousins, the de facto 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).
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 commoner. Ten days later on
July 31 1920 Duarte Nuno's father Miguel II abdicated in his favour. 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 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 Adelgundes, 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. Manuel had no children and no close heirs according to the Portuguese constitution of 1834 (the last constitution issued while Portugal was a monarchy). On
April 17 1922 an 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. Strictly speaking the "Pact of Paris" had no legal value, but it was an important step 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 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. Later Duarte Nuno was received in audience in Paris by Manuel's mother Queen Amelie.
Duarte Nuno was undoubtedly the legal heir of his grandfather Miguel I, but he was not the legal heir of the last reigning king of Portugal Manuel II. The law of
December 19 1834 had sent Miguel I into exile; neither Duarte Nuno nor his father were born in Portugal as was required for succession rights (the fact that the Emperor Franz Josef I had granted extraterritoriality to Duarte Nuno's birthplace and that Portuguese soil had been placed under the bed where he was born did not change the law of Portugal). Article 98 of the Constitution of 1838 (the last constitution while Portugal was a monarchy) removed forever all rights of succession from Miguel I and all his descendants.
Manuel II, who had lived in exile from 1910, could not unilaterally change Portuguese law; he could only amend the constitution with the National Assembly which was now republican. In the "Pact of Paris", however, Manuel II showed his personal desire that he be succeeded by Duarte Nuno.
A small minority of monarchists looked elsewhere. 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 attractive. The closest Portuguese descendant was Costança Berquo de Mendoça, 4th
Duchess of Loulé (a great-great-granddaughter of King
John VI). Later a woman named
Maria Pia who claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of the king
Carlos I of Portugal also claimed to have succession rights. Her supporters played upon the traditional rivalry between the Miguelist line and the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha line.
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.
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).
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.
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
Ã"scar 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 Grand Master 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.
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.
