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The Portuguese monarchy was abolished on 5 October 1910, when King Manuel II was deposed following a republican revolution. The present head of the House of Braganza, the former ruling house, is Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, a position he has held since the death of his father, Duarte Nuno, in 1976. The succession law for the former Portuguese throne was male-preference cognatic primogeniture.
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Rules of succession
The 1822, 1826 and 1838 constitutions, as well as the 1842 revival of the 1826 constitutional charter, confirmed cognatic primogeniture among the legitimate issue of the then-reigning monarch and, in case of their extinction, among collateral descendants of the Braganza dynasty. That had been the customary succession in pre-constitutional Portugal.
The 1838 constitution was replaced in 1842 by reviving the 1826 Constitutional Charter of Portugal. Among other things, the 1826 charter stipulated that, should there be no eligible descendants of Maria II of Portugal, the crown would pass to a collateral heir.
Maria II has living legitimate descendants today, but they are not Portuguese citizens and make no claim to represent the royal line of Portugal.
Family of the current Miguelist claimant
Maria II was restored to the throne of Portugal in 1834, on the deposition and exile of her uncle Miguel I of Portugal. The Miguelist claim to the Portuguese throne rests with:
The immediate heirs to his claim, in order of succession, are numbered below: