Princess Isabelle
Countess of Paris
Isabelle in 1995
Orléanist consort to the French throne
Pretendence25 August 1940 – 19 June 1999
BornPrincess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza
13 August 1911
Château d'Eu, Eu, Seine-Maritime, France
Died5 July 2003(2003-07-05) (aged 91)
Paris, France
Burial
Chapelle royale de Dreux
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1931; died 1999)​
Issue
Names
Isabelle Marie Amélie Louise Victoire Thérèse Jeanne
HouseOrléans-Braganza
FatherPedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará
MotherCountess Elisabeth Dobrzensky of Dobrzenicz
ReligionRoman Catholicism

Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza (Isabelle Marie Amélie Louise Victoire Thérèse Jeanne; 13 August 1911 – 5 July 2003) was the consort of the Orléanist pretender to the French throne, Henri, Count of Paris, and the daughter of Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, pretender to the throne of the Empire of Brazil.

Early life

Isabelle as an infant in her mother's arms, circa 1911

Born on 13 August 1911, Princess Isabelle Marie Amélie Louise Victoire Thérèse Jeanne of Orléans-Braganza was the eldest daughter of Dom Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, erstwhile heir to the throne of the Empire of Brazil, and his wife, Countess Elisabeth Dobrzensky of Dobrzenicz. Her father was the eldest son of Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, the elder daughter and heiress of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, and Prince Gaston of Orléans, Count of Eu, grandson of Louis Philippe I, the "citizen king" of the French. Isabelle was born in a pavilion on the grounds of the Château d'Eu, her paternal grandfather's home in the town of Eu in the Seine-Maritime department of France in Normandy. She was named after her paternal grandmother, the Princess Imperial.[1]

In 1891, Dom Pedro de Alcântara became Prince Imperial of Brazil to royalists when his mother became claimant to the throne upon the death of the emperor in exile. In 1908, he renounced his succession rights, and those of his descendants, to marry Bohemian noblewoman Countess Elisabeth Dobrzensky of Dobrzenicz. Though his mother withheld dynastic consent, his parents attended his wedding.[2] However, with the agreement of the Duke of Orléans, Head of the House of Orléans to which he belonged paternally, he and his descendants retained the right to use the title Prince/ss of Orléans-Braganza.[2]

After the deaths of her maternal grandparents, Isabelle's parents moved from the Pavillon des Ministres on the castle grounds into the main Chateau. They spent the winter months in a townhouse in Boulogne-sur-Seine. In 1924, her father's cousin, Prince Adam Czartoryski, placed at the family's disposal, apartments in the palatial Hôtel Lambert on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris, where Isabelle and her siblings undertook their studies.[3] The family travelled extensively and much of Isabelle's youth was spent visiting her maternal relatives at their large estate at Chotěboř, Czechoslovakia, Attersee, Austria, and Goluchow, Poland. With her father, Isabelle visited Naples, Constantinople, Rhodes, Smyrna, Lebanon, Syria, Cairo, Palestine and Jerusalem.[3]

In 1920, Brazil lifted the law of banishment against its former dynasty and invited them to bring home the remains of Pedro II, although Isabelle's grandfather, the Count of Eu, died at sea during the voyage. But after annual visits over the next decade, her parents decided to repatriate their family to Petropolis permanently, where Isabelle attended day school at Notre-Dame-de-Sion while the family took up residence at the old imperial Grão Pará Palace.[3] Until then, Isabelle was privately educated by governesses and tutors.

Marriage

Princess Isabelle first met her third cousin, Prince Henri of Orléans, heir to the Head of the House of Orléans, in 1920 at the home of the Duchess of Chartres, Henri's grandmother who was also a cousin of both of Isabelle's grandparents. In the summer of 1923, Henri was a guest at the Chateau d'Eu, at which time Isabelle, aged 12, resolved that she would one day marry him. However, he took no apparent notice of her at the wedding of his sister, Anne, to the Duke of Aosta at Naples in 1927. During a visit to his parents' home, the Manoir d'Anjou in Brussels, over Easter 1928, Henri began to show interest in Isabelle, and still more at a family reunion in July 1929.[3]

Henri proposed to Isabelle on 10 August 1930 while taking part in a hunt at Count Dobržensky's Chotěboř home. The couple kept their engagement a secret until a family gathering at Attersee later that summer, but were obliged by the Duke of Guise to wait until Henri finished his studies at Louvain University before the betrothal was officially announced 28 December 1930.[3]

On 8 April 1931, Isabelle and Henri were married at Palermo Cathedral; she was 19, and he was 22.[4][5][6] The wedding was held in Sicily, since the law of banishment against the heirs of France's former dynasties had not yet been abrogated.[5] The two families selected Palermo because Isabelle's family owned a palace there, which had been the location of three earlier weddings.[5] The wedding gave rise to several royalist demonstrations, and the road leading to the cathedral was lined with hundreds of visitors from France who viewed Henri as the rightful heir to the French throne.[6] He was greeted with such cries as "Vive le roi, Vive la France" along with other monarchist cries and songs.[6] These supporters were joined by 1,200 guests including members of the bride and groom's families, along with representatives of other royal dynasties.[6]

Later life

Isabelle at a book signing, 1998

Henri became pretender to the throne of France upon the death of his father, the Duke of Guise, in 1940. In 1947, Henri and Isabel's family took up residence at the Quinta do Anjinho, an estate in Sintra, on the Portuguese Riviera.[7] In 1950, the law of banishment was repealed and the family moved to Paris.

Princess Isabelle, called Madame, and her husband used the French Royal coat of arms. She survived her late husband by four years.

Issue

NameBirthDeathNotes
Princess Isabelle Marie Laure Victoire8 April 1932married Friedrich Karl, Count of Schönborn-Buchheim.
Prince Henri Philippe Pierre Marie14 June 193321 January 2019married Duchess Marie Thérèse of Württemberg.
Princess Hélène Astrid Léopoldine Marie[8]17 September 1934[8]married Count Evrard de Limburg-Stirum.
Prince François Gaston Michel Marie, Duke of Orléans15 August 193511 October 1960Died fighting for France in Algeria.
Princess Anne Marguerite Brigitte Marie4 December 1938[4]married Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria.
Princess Diane Françoise Maria da Gloria24 March 1940married Carl, Duke of Württemberg.
Prince Michel Joseph Benoît Marie25 June 1941married Béatrice Pasquier de Franclieu.
Prince Jacques Jean Yaroslaw Marie, Duke of Orléans25 June 1941married Gersende de Sabran-Pontevès.
Princess Claude Marie Agnès Catherine11 December 1943married Prince Amedeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta.
Princess Jeanne de Chantal Alice Clothilde Marie9 January 1946married (Baron) François Xavier de Sambucy de Sorgue.
Prince Thibaut Louis Denis Humbert20 January 194823 March 1983married Marion Mercedes Gordon-Orr.

Ancestry

Selected publications

  • Isabelle, comtesse de Paris (1978). Tout m'est bonheur. Paris: Éditions Robert Laffont. ISBN 2221001079.
  • Isabelle, comtesse de Paris (1993). Moi, Marie-Antoinette. Paris: R. Laffont. ISBN 2221074858.
  • Isabelle, comtesse de Paris (1998). La reine Marie-Amélie grand-mère de l'Europe. Paris: Perrin. ISBN 2262014515.

References

  1. ↑ Enache, Nicolas. La Descendance de Marie-Thérèse de Habsburg. ICC, Paris, 1996. p. 71. French. ISBN 2-908003-04-X.
  2. 1 2 de Montjouvent, Philippe. Le Comte de Paris et sa Descendance. Editions du Chaney, 1998, Charenton, France. pp. 148–152. French. ISBN 2-913211-00-3.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 de Montjouvent, Philippe. Le Comte de Paris et sa Descendance. Editions du Chaney, 1998, Charenton, France. pp. 49–59. French. ISBN 2-913211-00-3.
  4. 1 2 "Countess Has Daughter", The New York Times, Brussels, 5 December 1938
  5. 1 2 3 Cortesi, Arnaldo (8 April 1931), "Royal Cousins Wed in Palermo Today", The New York Times, Rome
  6. 1 2 3 4 Cortesi, Arnaldo (9 April 1931), "Legitimists Cheer at Royal Wedding", The New York Times, Palermo
  7. ↑ Valynseele, Joseph [in French] (1967). Les Prétendants aux Trônes d'Europe (in French). France: Saintard de la Rochelle. pp. 179, 186–187, 198, 201, 204, 207–209, 212.
  8. 1 2 "Princess Is Christened", The New York Times, Brussels, 16 October 1934

Further reading

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