Princess Francisca of Brazil

Francisca
Princess of Joinville
Portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter c.1844
Spouse	François d'Orléans
Detail Issue
Françoise, Duchess of Chartres
Full name
Francisca Carolina Joana Carlota Leopoldina Romana Xavier de Paula Micaela Gabriela Rafaela Gonzaga de Bragança
Father	Pedro I of Brazil and IV of Portugal
Mother	Maria Leopoldina of Austria
Born	2 August 1824(1824-08-02) Paço de São Cristóvão, Brazil
Died	27 March 1898(1898-03-27) (aged 73) Paris, France
Burial	Chapelle royale de Dreux
Religion	Roman Catholic

Francisca of Brazil (Portuguese pronunciation: [fɾɐ̃ˈsiʃkɐ kɐɾuˈlinɐ]; (2 August 1824 – 27 March 1898) was a princess of Brazil. She was a daughter of Pedro I of Brazil and IV of Portugal and his first wife Maria Leopoldina of Austria. She married a son of Louis Philippe I and had three children.

Through her only surviving daughter, she is an ancestor of Prince Henri, Count of Paris, the present Orléanist pretender to the French throne and Juan Carlos I of Spain.

Biography

Born at the Imperial Palace of Saint Christopher, her youngest brother was the future Pedro II of Brazil. As such, she was the aunt of Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil.

She was also a first cousin of Princess Maria Carolina of the Two Sicilies, Napoleon II of France and Franz Joseph I of Austria.

Francisca married François d'Orléans, the third son of Louis Philippe I and his Italian Queen Maria Amalia of Naples. François, called the prince de Joinville, and Francisca married in Rio de Janeiro on 1 May 1843. The bride was 19, the groom 25.

• Portrait of Dona Francisca, Princess of Joinville, by Ary Scheffer, oil on canvas, 1844, Musée de la Vie romantique, Paris

Their only daughter Princess Françoise d'Orléans married her first cousin Robert, Duke of Chartres and became the mother of the Orléanist pretender Prince Jean, Duke of Guise. It is unknown whether her son Pierre ever married, even though he lived in his seventies.

Princess Francisca in old age.

When the Orléans family fled France, they settled in England living at Claremont; It was there that Francisca gave birth to a still born daughter in 1849; the next year, the exiled King Louis Philippe I died himself. During the rule of the House of Bonaparte of the Second Empire, the Orléans family returned to France; Francisca herself died in Paris aged 73. Her husband outlived her by two years dying in Paris in 1900.

Issue

• Princess Françoise-Marie Amélie of Orléans (14 August 1844 – 28 October 1925) married her cousin Robert d'Orléans and had issue;
• Prince Pierre-Philippe Jean Marie of Orléans, Duke of Penthièvre (4 November 1845 – 17 July 1919) never married;
• Princess Marie-Léopoldine of Orléans (30 October 1849) stillborn daughter born and died at Claremont;

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

• 2 August 1824 – 1 May 1843 Her Imperial and Royal Highness Princess Francisca of Brazil, Infanta of Portugal.
• 30 May 1837 – 27 March 1898 Her Imperial and Royal Highness The Princess of Joinville, Princess of Orléans, Princess of Brazil.