Maria Leopoldina of Austria

Did You Know?

• The marriage between Maria Leopoldina and Dom Pedro was a strategic alliance between the monarchies of Portugal and Austria, fulfilling the Habsburg motto: 'Let others wage war, thou, happy Austria, marry.'
• Empress Maria Leopoldina has been portrayed in cinema and television by actresses including Kate Hansen, Maria Padilha, and Érika Evantini.
• The samba school Imperatriz Leopoldinense, whose name derives indirectly from her, featured her life as the subject of its 1996 carnival parade.

Early years

Maria Leopoldina was born on 22 January 1797 at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, the sixth child but third surviving of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (who from 1804 became Emperor of Austria as Francis I), and his second wife Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily. Her paternal grandparents were Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Luisa of Bourbon; her maternal grandparents were King Ferdinand IV & III of Naples and Sicily and Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria. Through both parents, who were double first-cousins, she descended from the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and the House of Bourbon.

From Austria to the New World and the Scientific Mission

Maria Leopoldina left Vienna for Florence on 2 June 1817, awaiting further instructions from the Portuguese court. On 13 August 1817 she embarked from Livorno, Italy, on the Portuguese fleet, facing 86 days crossing the Atlantic. Her luggage included forty boxes containing her trousseau, books, collections and gifts. Her entourage included court ladies, a chambermaid, a butler, six ladies-in-waiting, four pages, six Hungarian nobles, six Austrian guards, six chamberlains, a chief Almoner, a chaplain, a private secretary, a doctor, a performer, a mineralogist and her painting teacher. She first set foot on Portuguese territory on Madeira Island on 11 September, and arrived in Rio de Janeiro on 5 November 1817, where she met her husband and his family.

Regent and Empress of Brazil

In 1821, Maria Leopoldina, educated in the molds of absolutist monarchies, initially viewed her husband's liberal political values with suspicion. As friction between Portugal and Brazil unfolded, she became increasingly involved in political events and adopted a more liberal discourse in favor of the Brazilian cause. After the Liberal Revolution of 1820 forced King John VI to return to Portugal in April 1821, Dom Pedro remained as regent. Maria Leopoldina's correspondence shows she warmly espoused the Brazilian cause and came to desire the country's Independence. She played a fundamental role alongside José Bonifácio de Andrada, and for governing the country on Dom Pedro's trips through the Brazilian provinces, she is considered the first woman to become head of state in an independent American country.

Decline in health and death

After King John VI died on 10 March 1826, Dom Pedro inherited the Portuguese throne as Pedro IV while remaining Emperor of Brazil, making Maria Leopoldina both Empress consort and Queen consort. Less than two months later, on 2 May, Dom Pedro abdicated the Portuguese crown in favor of their eldest daughter Maria da Glória. The Emperor's scandalous relationship with Domitila de Castro Canto e Melo, Marchioness of Santos, including the public recognition of an illegitimate daughter and her appointment as lady-in-waiting to the Empress, left Maria Leopoldina humiliated. In a letter to her sister Marie Louise, she called the mistress 'the seductive monster'. Solitary and depressed, she devoted herself to giving birth to an heir. From early November 1826, her health declined with cramps, vomiting, bleeding and delusions, worsened by a new pregnancy. She died on 11 December 1826, mourned by the Brazilian people.