Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza
Duarte Pio of Bragança (born
May 15 1945,
Berne),
pron. IPA [], is the 24th
Duke of Braganza (
Port. Duque de Bragança) and the
pretender to the throne of
Portugal.
Duarte Pio João Miguel Gabriel Rafael de Bragança was born in
Berne,
Switzerland, the eldest son of
Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza and his wife
Princess Maria Francisca de Orleans e Bragança. At the time of his birth Duarte Pio's family was banned from entering Portugal by the laws of exile of
December 19 1834 and
October 15 1910. In spite of the fact that Portugal had been a republic since 1910, Duarte Pio's birth took place in the Portuguese embassy in Berne in order to assure his eventual rights of succession to the Portuguese throne which required Portuguese nationality; a small but vocal minority of Portuguese monarchists dispute these rights of succession.
Duarte Pio's
godparents were
Pope Pius XII and Queen Amelia of Portugal, the mother of
Manuel II, the last reigning king of Portugal.
On
May 27 1950 the National Assembly repealed the laws of exile of
December 19 1834 and
October 15 1910. In 1951 Duarte Pio visited Portugal for the first time accompanied by his aunt the Infanta Filippa. In 1952 he moved to Portugal permanently with his parents and brothers.
From 1957 to 1959 Duarte Pio was enrolled in the Colégio Nuno Álvares in
Santo Tirso. In 1960 he entered the Military College in
Lisbon. He attended the Instituto Superior de Agronomia (now part of the
Technical University of Lisbon) where he received a degree in agricultural sciences. Later he attended the Graduate Institute of Development Studies of the
University of Geneva.
From
1968 to
1971 Duarte Pio fulfilled his obligations as a Portuguese citizen by doing his
military service as required by law. As part of his military service Duarte Pio was required to swear an oath of fidelity to the Portuguese republic. He was criticized for this by some monarchists, a few of whom even claimed that he had thereby lost his rights of succession.
Duarte Pio served as a pilot and lieutenant in the
Portuguese Air Force in
Angola which at the time was embroiled in the
Portuguese Colonial War. In 1972 he participated with a multi-ethnic Angolan group in the organization of an independent list of candidates to the National Assembly. This resulted in his expulsion from Angola by the Prime Minister
Marcelo Caetano. Duarte Pio, however, continued his contacts with various leaders in the Portuguese colonies.
On
December 24 1976 Duarte Pio's father Duarte Nuno died; Duarte Pio succeeded as claimant to the Portuguese throne. Henceforth he used the title
Duke of Braganza. Although the title has no legal recognition in Portugal, it is widely recognised socially even by members of the government.
A small number of Portuguese monarchists do not recognise Duarte Pio as claimant to the throne and Duke of Braganza. The dispute dates back to 1828 when Duarte Pio's great-grandfather
Miguel I proclaimed himself king of Portugal. Miguel I was eventually exiled by his niece Queen
Maria II, and by the Constitution of 1838 (the last constitution while Portugal was a monarchy) he and all his descendants were forever excluded from the succession to the throne. Although the descendants of Miguel I and Maria II were reconciled in 1922, no change could legally be made to the monarchist constitution since Portugal has been a republic since 1910.
Duarte Pio is the closest male-line relative to Manuel II, the last king of Portugal. There are closer female-line relatives (who according to the Constitution of 1838 have succession rights), but none of these makes any active claim to the throne. There are several monarchist organizations in Portugal which maintain that only the Cortes (or perhaps the National Assembly) could legally determine the rightful claimant if ever Portugal decided to restore the monarchy.
There is only one monarchist political party in Portugal, the
People's Monarchist Party (Partido Popular Monárquico). It does not have the support of Duarte Pio, nor does it support him.
Duarte Pio was a public campaigner for the rights of
East Timor. Formerly a Portuguese colony, it was forcibly occupied and subsequently ruled as an oppressed province by
Indonesia. Even before the political leaders of the world considered Timor an issue, Duarte Pio organized several national and international campaigns for the cause of Timor. However, when the country got its independence, Duarte Pio was not invited to the national celebrations.
On
May 13 1995, Duarte Pio married
Isabel de Herédia, a Portuguese businesswoman. This was the first marriage of a member of the Portuguese royal family to take place in Portugal since the marriage of King
Luís I in 1862. The ceremony was celebrated in the
Monastery of Jerónimos in
Lisbon and presided over by Cardinal
António Ribeiro,
Patriarch of Lisbon. It was attended by the principal Portuguese political figures, including the the
President of the Republic Mário Soares, the President of the
Assembly_of_the_Republic, and the
Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva. Also present were representatives of most European
royal houses.
Duarte Pio and Isabel have three children:
* HRH Infante Afonso,
Prince of Beira, Duke of Barcelos (born
March 25 1996)
* HRH Infanta Maria Francisca (born
March 3 1997)
* HRH Infante Dinis, Duke of Porto (born
November 25 1999)
Just like his marriage, the births of Duarte Pio's children were occasions of widespread national rejoicing in Portugal.
*
Official Website of the Duke of Braganza*
Fundacao da Casa de Bragança Foundation of the House of Bragança.
*Mendes, Nuno Canas.
Duarte e Isabel, duques de Bragança: biografia autorizada Mem Martins: Lyon Multimédia Edições, 1995.
*Morais, Jorge.
D. Duarte: a primeira biografia. Lisbon: Chiado-Consultores de Informação, 1995.
*Fernandes, Clara Picão.
Monarquia hoje?: diálogos com o Duque de Bragança. Lisbon: Editora Civilização, 1995.
In 2005 it was reported that Mendo Castro Henriques was working on a new biography.
