Isabel de Herédia


Isabel, Duchess of Braganza is a Portuguese noblewoman and wife of Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, the current pretender to the defunct Portuguese throne.
Born into the family of an old Portuguese nobility, Isabel worked as an assets manager before to her marriage. Since marrying Duarte Pio, Isabel has ceased to have paid employment and become patron to several Portuguese charities and non-profit foundations. She and her husband have had three children together, securing the continuation of the House of Braganza.

Family

Isabel Inês de Castro Curvello de Herédia was born on 22 November 1966, in Lisbon, to Dom Jorge de Herédia, an architect, and his wife, Dona Raquel Leonor Pinheiro de Castro Curvello.
She is a descendant in the male lineage of Francisco Correia de Herédia, 1st Viscount of Ribeira Brava and his wife Dona Joana Gil de Borja de Macedo e Meneses. Although Francisco was a member of the Portuguese nobility, he was a famed republican, who was involved in the failed republican uprising of 28 January 1908.
Isabel de Herédia is the first cousin of Manuel Caldeira Cabral, former Portuguese Minister of Economy.

Early life

Isabel lived between metropolitan Portugal and Portuguese Angola until 1975, when Angola was granted independence. Her family subsequently moved to São Paulo, Brazil. There, she studied at the Colégio São Luís, a Jesuit-run institution. In 1990, she obtained a degree in business administration from the Fundação Getúlio Vargas and returned to Portugal to a job in BMF — Sociedade de Gestão de Patrimónios, S.A. She worked in investment management.

Personal life

On 13 May 1995 she married Duarte Pio de Bragança, at Jerónimos Monastery. Present at the ceremony were representatives of various European royal and noble houses: Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, Prince Henri, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Infanta Margarita, Duchess of Soria, among others. The principal Portuguese political figures, including the President of the Republic Mário Soares, Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva and President of the Assembly António Barbosa de Melo, were also present.
Following her marriage and the birth of her first child, Afonso, Isabel resigned from her professional life and devoted herself to the management of her family, the family's assets and the patronage of various causes.

Honours

National honours

Foreign honours

Genealogy

Issue

Duarte Pio and Isabel of Heredia have three children:
NameBirthNotes
Afonso, Prince of Beira25 March 199616th Prince of Beira, 18th Duke of Barcelos; 2nd in line in the succession
Maria Francisca, Duchess of Coimbra3 March 19975th Duchess of Coimbra, Infanta of Portugal; 4th in line in the succession
Dinis, Duke of Porto25 November 19994th Duke of Porto, Infante of Portugal; 3rd in line in the succession