Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil
Dona Isabel, known as "the Redemptress", was the Princess Imperial of Brazil and heiress presumptive to the throne of the Empire of Brazil. She served as regent of the empire on three occasions and was a central figure in Brazilian history during the final decades of the monarchy.
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Isabel was the eldest daughter of Emperor Pedro II and Empress Teresa Cristina, and a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza. Following the deaths of her two younger brothers in infancy, she was formally recognized as her father's heiress presumptive. In 1864, she entered into an arranged marriage with the French prince Gaston, Count of Eu, with whom she had three sons.
During Emperor Pedro II's absences abroad, Isabel exercised the powers of the crown as regent. In her third and final regency, she sponsored and signed the Lei Áurea in 1888, which abolished slavery in Brazil. Although emancipation was widely celebrated by the population, it intensified opposition among influential landowners and political elites. Her prospective accession was further contested due to prevailing gender prejudices, her strong Catholic faith, and her marriage to a foreign prince.
In 1889, the Brazilian imperial family was overthrown in the military coup that ended the monarchy. Isabel subsequently lived in exile in France, where she spent the final three decades of her life.
Early life
Birth
Isabel was born at on 29 July 1846 in Rio de Janeiro's Paço de São Cristóvão. She was the daughter of Brazil's Emperor Pedro II and his wife Teresa Cristina. On 15 November the infant princess was baptized in an elaborate ceremony in Igreja da Glória. Her godparents, both represented by proxy, were her uncle, King Ferdinand II of Portugal, and her maternal grandmother María Isabella of Spain. She was christened Isabel Cristina Leopoldina Augusta Miguela Gabriela Rafaela Gonzaga. Her last four names were always bestowed upon the members of her family, and Isabel and Cristina honored Isabel's maternal grandmother and mother, respectively.She was a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza through her father, and from birth was referred to using the honorific Dona. She was the granddaughter of Brazil's Emperor Pedro I, and the niece of Queen Maria II of Portugal. Through her mother, she was a granddaughter of Francis I and niece to Ferdinand II, both kings of the Two Sicilies in turn.
At the time of her birth, she had an elder brother named Afonso who was heir apparent to the Brazilian throne. Two other siblings followed: Leopoldina in 1847 and Pedro in 1848. Afonso's death in 1847, at the age of, propelled Isabel to the position of Pedro II's heir presumptive. She briefly lost the position with the birth of Prince Imperial Pedro. After his death in 1850, Isabel became the definitive heiress as Princess Imperial, the title given to the first in the line of succession. Isabel's early years were a time of peace and prosperity in Brazil. Her parents provided a happy and healthy upbringing. She and her sister "grew up in a stable, secure environment dramatically different from the one her father and aunts had known, and light years away from the childhood chaos of Pedro I."
Heir to the throne
The early death of both of his sons had an enormous impact on Pedro II. Aside from his personal grief, the loss of his sons affected his future conduct as monarch and would determine the fate of the Empire. In the Emperor's eyes, the deaths of his children seemed to portend an eventual end of the Imperial system. The future of the monarchy as an institution no longer concerned him, as he increasingly saw his position as being nothing more than that of Head of State for his lifetime.The Emperor's words revealed his inner conviction. After learning of the death of his son Pedro in 1850, he wrote: "This has been the most fatal blow that I could receive, and certainly I would not have survived were it not that I still have a wife and two children whom I must educate so that they can assure the happiness of the country in which they were born." Seven years later, in 1857, when it was more than clear that no more children would be born, the Emperor wrote: "As to their education, I will only say that the character of both the princesses ought to be shaped as suits Ladies who, it may be, will have to direct the constitutional government of an Empire such as Brazil".
Although the Emperor still had a legal successor in his beloved daughter Isabel, the male-dominated society of the time left him little hope that a woman could rule Brazil. He was fond and respectful of the women in his life, but he did not consider it feasible that Isabel could survive as monarch, given the political realities and climate. To historian Roderick J. Barman, the Emperor "could not conceive of women, his daughters included, playing any part in governance. In consequence, although he valued D. Isabel as his daughter, he simply could not accept or perceive her in cold reality as his successor or regard her as a viable ruler." The main reason for this behavior was his attitude toward the female gender. "Pedro II believed, as did most men of his day", says Barman, "that a single woman could not manage life's problem on her own, even if she possessed the powers and authority of an empress."
Upbringing
Education
Isabel began her education on 1 May 1854, when she was taught how to read and write by a male instructor, who was openly republican. As the Portuguese court tradition demanded, the heir of the throne was supposed to have an aio in charge of his education once he achieved the age of seven. After a long search, Pedro II chose the Brazilian-born Luísa Margarida Portugal de Barros, the Countess of Barral, daughter of a Brazilian noble and wife of a French noble. Barral assumed her position on 9 September 1856, when Isabel was ten years old. The 40-year-old Countess was a charming and vivacious woman who soon captured the heart of Isabel and became a kind of role model to the young princess.In Pedro II's own words, his daughters' education "should not differ from that given to men, combined with that suited the other sex, but in a manner that does not distract from the first." He "provided his daughters with a broad, democratic and rigorous education, through both its curriculum and the teachers who taught it." For over nine and a half hours per day and six days per week, Isabel and her sister were in class. Subjects were broad and included Portuguese and French literature, astronomy, chemistry, the history of Portugal, England and France, drawing, piano, dancing, political economy, geography, geology, and the history of philosophy. As an adult, beyond her native Portuguese, Isabel became fluent in French, English and German.
Among her teachers were Barral, others who had taught her father as a child, and even Pedro II, who gave lessons in Latin, geometry, and astronomy. The education provided to Isabel was lacking, however. All she assimilated were abstract ideas which did not teach her "how to integrate" them "with practical application". Her tutors and parents did not prepare her to rule Brazil, nor to understand its political and social issues. A way of preparing her for a role as future Empress "would have been to give her from an early age personal experience of the tasks she would face and to relate it to what she learned in the classroom." That did not happen. Pedro II "showed her no state papers. He did not discuss politics with her. He did not take her with him on his constant visits to government offices. He did not include her in the despacho, the weekly meetings with the cabinet members, nor did he allow her to attend the public audiences that took place twice a week." She might have been officially heiress to the throne, "but by his treatment of her Pedro II deprived the honor of any meaning."
Domestic life
Pedro II's behavior as a father was completely different as an emperor. A "man remarkable for his self-control, was at his most affectionate and most outgoing with children, above all his daughters." His daughters, "whom I love deeply", as Pedro II wrote in his diary in 1861, "both loved and admired him." He "was a strict father who demanded obedience", but who, at the same time, was very kind and concerned with his children. However, Pedro II "found difficult if not impossible" to grant intimacy to not only Isabel, but "to any member of his family."During her upbringing Isabel "absorbed from her instructors conformity to traditional gender roles. She accepted women as dependent and obedient, and indeed her mother's and her governess's behavior did not justify anything else." She "did not lack powers of observation and a certain shrewdness, but she was very accepting of existence as it was and certainly not given to pondering the justification of existence for the established order." All this meant that Isabel would not attempt "a position in life autonomous of her father", even less rival him.
That happened because the Princess Imperial was "at an essential disadvantage with her father. She had a strong personality but she could not turn it to account. As a child she did not share Pedro II's seriousness, his single mindedness, or his interest in the larger world. The coming of adolescence did not improve matters." In fact, she lacked introspection and had a "tendency to take a cheerful view of life". Also, Isabel "did not naturally possess much patience or notable powers of endurance. She moved from one interest to another as each in turn caught her fancy. She was not afraid to speak her mind, and she held strong views. However, when she encountered something she did not like, she found it difficult to focus and organize her resistance so as to make her view prevail. She tended to flare up and then to submit or to lose interest."
Isabel's mother, Teresa Cristina, "lived for her family and found fulfillment in making her spouse and her daughters happy." She "created for her family a home life that was secure, safe and predictable." Isabel and her sister "loved their gentle mother and worshipped their demanding but emotionally distant father." From both parents, Isabel inherited a lack of racism. Pedro II surrounded himself with men "regardless of their race." Historian James McMurtry Longo said that as "her father's student, daughter, and heir Princess Isabel followed his example. Race never played a role in her social life, political relationships, alliances or disagreements." And concludes: "It may have been the most important lesson learned from him."
The Imperial family lived in São Cristóvão palace but during the summer went to Pedro II's palace in Petrópolis. Isabel lived an almost completely secluded life from the outside world, far away from the eyes of the Brazilians. She and her sisters had a few friends. Three of them would remain lifelong friends of Isabel: Maria Ribeiro de Avelar, Maria Amanda de Paranaguá and Adelaide Taunay. The sole male child who was part of Isabel's all female group was Dominique, the only son of the Countess of Barral, who was regarded by the Princess Imperial and her sister as "the younger brother they never had".