Prince Bertrand of Orléans-Braganza

Prince Bertrand
Prince Imperial of Brazil (disputed)

Prince Bertrand in 2011
Born (1941-02-02) 2 February 1941
Mandelieu, France
Full name
Bertrand Maria José Pio Januário Miguel Gabriel Raphael Gonzaga de Orléans e Bragança
House House of Orléans-Braganza
Father Prince Pedro Henrique of Orléans-Braganza
Mother Princess Maria Elisabeth of Bavaria
Religion Roman Catholicism
Brazilian Imperial Family
(Vassouras branch)

Prince Bertrand of Orléans-Braganza (born 2 February 1941, Mandelieu, France) is a member of the Imperial House of Brazil. According to the disputed claims of the Vassouras branch of the family, he is first in the line of succession to the defunct Brazilian throne, and consequently the current Prince Imperial of Brazil. Prince Bertrand is also related to the Royal House of Portugal and the Royal House of France (Orleanist claimants), both by his father's lineage, and to the Royal House of Wittelsbach, by his mother's lineage.

Biography

The third son of Prince Pedro Henrique of Orléans-Braganza and Princess Maria Elisabeth of Bavaria, his elder brothers are, in order, Prince Luiz of Orléans-Braganza who is the present Head of the Brazilian Imperial Family and Prince Eudes of Orléans-Braganza, who renounced his dynastic rights to the Brazilian Throne in order to marry a commoner.

According to the Pró Monarquia Brazilian monarchist website,[1] his full title is "His Imperial and Royal Highness, The Prince Imperial of Brazil, Dom Bertrand of Orléans-Braganza (in Portuguese: "Sua Alteza Imperial e Real, Princípe Imperial do Brasil, Dom Bertrand de Orléans e Bragança").

As with his two elder brothers, Prince Bertrand was born in France, even though the exile imposed to the Imperial Family had already been revoked, due to the Second World War. He came to Brazil only after the end of the conflict.

In Brazil, the Imperial Family settled in the state of Rio de Janeiro and later in Paraná, where Prince Bertrand spent his childhood. When he was 18 years old, he went to São Paulo, where he achieved a bachelor's degree in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of São Paulo in 1964. He still lives in São Paulo.

He is a Traditionalist Catholic and a member of Tradition, Family and Property.[2] He is not married and has no issue, so his dynastic heir is his younger brother, Prince Antonio of Orléans-Braganza, who is married to a Belgian princess, Princess Christine of Ligne, with issue.

Both he and his elder brother, Prince Luiz, are engaged in monarchist proselytism in Brazil.[3] They both played main roles during the campaign for the 1993 plebiscite, which represented the hitherto only real opportunity for a return of the monarchy since the Proclamation of the Republic, in 1889. In it, the people were asked to choose which form of government (presidential or parliamentary) and which form of State organization (Republic or Constitutional monarchy) Brazil should have. The monarchist cause was not successful, receiving only 13.4% of the vote.[4][5]

In recent years, Prince Bertrand is coordinator and spokesman of the movement Paz no Campo (Peace in the fields), and has traveled all over Brazil lecturing for farmers and entrepreneurs in defense of private property and free enterprise.[6][7] On 2012, Prince Bertrand wrote a book called Psicose Ambientalista (Environmentalist Psychosis), dealing of what he calls "the hoaxes created by radical environmentalists and by eco-terrorists".[8]

Titles and honors

Styles of
Prince Bertrand
Reference style His Imperial and Royal Highness
Spoken style Your Imperial and Royal Highness
Alternative style Sir

Titles and styles

He has been styled as Prince and as His Imperial and Royal Highness throughout his life. In Brazil, where the honorific "Dom" has disappeared from everyday use, he is regularly called "Dom Bertrand".

Honors

He was a recipient of the following foreign honors:

References

  1. ↑ Casa Imperial do Brasil (Portuguese)
  2. ↑ "Prince Bertrand of Orleans-Braganza Visits America", TFP.org, 30 April 2001
  3. ↑ "A Sour Anniversary for Brazil's Monarchists" by James Brooke, New York Times, 12 November 1989
  4. ↑ "1993 Brazilian Plebiscite" by Scott Bailey, UCSD
  5. ↑ 1993 Human Rights Report, US State Department, 31 January 1994
  6. ↑ Blog de D. Bertrand de Orleans e Bragança.
  7. ↑ Paz no campo significa “tolerância zero” com o MST e congêneres. In: Catolicismo, May 2007
  8. ↑ ORLEANS E BRAGANÇA, D. Bertrand de. Psicose Ambientalista. IPCO, 2012.
  9. ↑ BUYERS, Christopher. The Royal Ark.
  10. ↑ Casa Imperial do Brasil. Biografia.

Ancestry

Prince Bertrand of Orléans-Braganza
Cadet branch of the House of Orléans
Born: 2 February 1941
Titles in pretence
Preceded by
Prince Luiz
one of two current pretenders to the throne of Brazil		 — TITULAR —
Prince Imperial of Brazil in Vassouras line of succession
5 July 1981 – present
Reason for succession failure:
Empire abolished in 1889		 Incumbent
Next in line:
Prince Antônio
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