Amélie of Orleans

The queen Marie Amélie Louise Helene of Orleans was born in Twickenham, in England, on September 28th, 1865, and died in Versailles, in France, on October 25th, 1951. Born French princess, it is also the last queen of Portugal.

Family

Amélie is the oldest daughter of Philippe of Orleans, count de Paris (the “Philippe VII” of the orleanists), and of Marie-Isabelle of Orleans - Montpensier, Infante of Spain. It is also related to two other applicants with the throne of France: his/her brother Philippe, duke of Orleans (the “Philippe VIII” of the orleanists) and his Jean brother-in-law, duke of Own way (the “Jean III” of the orleanists).
May 22nd, 1886, the Amélie princess marries the royal prince of Portugal, dom Charles of Saxony-Cobourg (future Charles Ier of Portugal). From this happy marriage are born three children:

  • Dom Louis-Philippe (1887-1908), duke of Bragance, which dies assassinated with his/her father.
  • Doña Marie-Anne (December 14th, 1887 - December 14th, 1887).
  • Manual Dom II (1889-1932), last king de Portugal (1908-1910).

Biography

Amélie passes its childhood to England, country where she is born, because of Loi of exile which touches its family since the revolution of February 1848, and it is only from 1871 that the princess and her family can return to live in France.

In 1886, the princess marries the heir to Portugal and, on this occasion, his/her father, the count of Paris, organizes a sumptuous reception in the Galliera hotel (future Hôtel Matignon), in Paris. The luxury which deploy on this occasion Orleans and the chronicle that make the newspapers monarchists of them (and, in particular, the Barber ) raise the consternation of the republican mediums. This event gives place to many attacks against the royal family (and the imperial family) and leads to the vote in June 1886, of a new law of exile. But with the difference of the first, this law touches only the applicants (Orleans and Bonaparte) like their oldest sons, which explains why the Amélie princess will be able to return to live in France when the republic is proclaimed in Portugal. The parents of the Amélie queen are constrained to leave France for England, they bid their farewell with the castle of Have then embarks with the Tréport.

In 1889, the husband of Amélie, dom Carlos, goes up on the Portuguese throne and Amélie becomes queen. She then starts to play a cultural and social part important in the country. In 1892, it founds the Institute of Assistance to the Shipwrecked men and, in 1905, the Museum of Fit with body Royal (current National museum of Fit with body). But the queen creates especially the National Assistance with the Tuberculous one, which fights the most terrible disease of the time.

However, Portugal passes through an serious attack to the turning of XIXè and XXè century. As into Spain or France, the royal family is divided into two branches (the Bragance and the Saxony-Cobourg) which are opposed for the throne while the movements republican and anarchist meets a success growing in the population. In 1907, to face the difficulties which the country crosses, Charles Ier calls with the capacity an authoritative general, João Franco, but this one is made unpopular very quickly.

However, the royal couple and their children nevertheless decide to go in official visit to France, with the end of the year. The voyage proceeds there very well and the queen finds her country with pleasure. Unfortunately, a drama occurs when the family regains Portugal. February 1st, 1908, whereas the sovereigns move in pram towards the royal palace, an attack occurs and king Charles Ier and his oldest son, prince Louis-Philippe, are assassinated. Upright in the car, making of her body a rampart to protect her young person sons Handbook, the Amélie queen however manages to hold in respect one of the terrorists by striking it with her bouquet of flower! From this event, the queen will never recover completely. After the attack, it is withdrawn in the palate of Pena, with Sintra, from where it only leaves from now on to support young Handbook II, whereas the institutions of the country do not cease degrading themselves. When the Portuguese republic is proclaimed, on October 5th, 1910, the Amélie queen leaves in exile with the remainder the royal family in Twickenham, where it is received by the duke of Orleans. But after the marriage of Handbook II with the princess Augustine-Victoria de Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, the Amélie queen leaves to settle in France, with the castle of Bellevue, close to Versailles.

In 1932, the Amélie queen undergoes a new test with the death of her Manuel son: she then becomes the last representing of the Portuguese branch of Saxony-Cobourg.

During the IIème World war, the government of the Portuguese dictator Salazar offers to the queen the political asylum but this one refuses it, preferring to live under the mode of the occupation with its French fellow-citizens. Once the finished war, on June 8th, 1945, Amélie returns on a journey to Portugal. She visits there Fatima and all the places where she lived, except Vila Viçosa, residence for which she feels too strong feelings. In 1945, the queen becomes godmother of dom Duarte Pio of Portugal, current duke of Bragance, thus confirming the reconciliation of the two branches of the Portuguese royal family.

In 1951, the Amélie queen dies out in France, in her Castle of Bellevue to Chesnay beside Versailles. The remainders of the last queen of Portugal are then transferred close from those to her husband and of its sons, with the royal Pantheon of Bragances, in the church of São Vicente de Fora, in Lisbon.

Internal bonds

  • Marie-Amélie of Bourbon-Siciles (1782-1866)

  • Ferdinand Philippe of Orleans (1810-1842)

External bonds

  • the castle of Have where the Amélie queen of Portugal passed a whole part of her childhood then adolescence, leaving France in 1886 for its marriage with the crown prince Dom Carlos to Portugal

Sources

  • Catinot-Crost, Laurence, Amélie, princess of France, queen of Portugal: 1865-1951 , J & D, 1996.

  • Poisson, Georges, Orleans, a family in search of a throne , Perrin, Paris, 1999.

Biographical novel

  • Bern, Stephan, Me, Amélie, last queen of Portugal (Romance), Denoel, Paris, 1997.

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