Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza

Duarte Nuno
Duke of Braganza
Miguelist claimant to the Portuguese throne
Tenure31 July 1920 – 2 July 1932
PredecessorMiguel Januário, Duke of Braganza
Head of the House of Braganza
Tenure2 July 1932 – 24 December 1976
PredecessorManuel II
SuccessorDuarte Pio, Duke of Braganza
Born(1907-09-23)23 September 1907
Seebenstein, Austria
Died24 December 1976(1976-12-24) (aged 69)
Prazeres, Lisbon, Portugal[1]
Burial
Augustinian monastery in Vila Viçosa
Spouse
(m. 1942; died 1968)
Issue
details...
Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza
Miguel Rafael, Duke of Viseu
Henrique Nuno, Duke of Coimbra
Names
Duarte Nuno Fernando Maria Miguel Gabriel Rafael Francisco Xavier Raimundo António
HouseBraganza
FatherMiguel Januário, Duke of Braganza
MotherPrincess Maria Theresa of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg
ReligionRoman Catholic

Dom Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza (23 September 1907 – 24 December 1976) was the claimant to the defunct Portuguese throne, as both the Miguelist successor of his father, Miguel Januário, Duke of Braganza, and later as the head of the only Brigantine house, after the death of the last ruling Braganza, King Manuel II of Portugal. In 1952, when the Portuguese Laws of Banishment were repealed (27 May 1950),[2] the Duke moved his family to Portugal, thus returning the Miguelist Braganzas to their homeland and becoming the first of the former Portuguese royal dynasty to live in Portugal since the abolition of the monarchy in 1910.[3]

Once established in Portugal, the Duke was granted a pension and residence by the Fundação da Casa de Bragança, the organization has owned and managed all the private assets of the House of Braganza, since the death of King Manuel II, in 1932. Duarte Nuno spent the rest of his life attempting, without success, the restoration of all Brigantine assets to his family and recreating the image of the Miguelist Braganzas in Portuguese society, all under the goal of the restoration of the Portuguese monarchy, under the Braganzas.

In 1942, the Duarte Nuno married Princess Maria Francisca of Orléans-Braganza, daughter of Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará. Their marriage reconciled two branches of the House of Braganza, the Portuguese and Brazilian Brigantine houses, and reunited politically the Miguelist and Liberal Braganzas' supporters,[citation needed] which had been estranged since 1828, when the War of Two Brothers was waged between King-Emperor Pedro IV & I, founder of the Liberal Braganzas, and King Miguel I, founder of the Miguelist Braganzas. The couple had three sons, the eldest of whom is Duarte Pio de Bragança, the current pretender to the defunct Portuguese throne.

  1. ^ "Livro de registo de óbitos 1976-12-09/1976-12-31". p. 632, nº 1265.
  2. ^ Law no. 2040 of 1950 (published in the Diário do Governo no. 99/1950, Series I of 1950-05-27, page 323)
  3. ^ Though they were not the first Portuguese royalty to visit Portugal since 1910, as various of the Duke's relatives had visited the country, albeit illegally, during the monarchist insurrections of the North, in the 1910s, and Duarte Nuno's sister, Infanta Filipa, officially visited in 1940, and Dowager-Queen Amélia officially visited in 1945.