Religion Roman Catholicism | Name Prince of | |
 | ||
Born 2 February 1941 (age 83)
Mandelieu, France ( 1941-02-02 ) House House of Orleans-Braganza Father Prince Pedro Henrique of Orleans-Braganza Mother Princess Maria Elisabeth of Bavaria | ||
Prince Bertrand of Orléans-Braganza, Prince Imperial of Brazil (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.
Contents
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.
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elder brothers, Prince Bertrand was born in France, even though the exile imposed to the Imperial Family had already been revoked, due to the Second World War.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. 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. 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.
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. 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".
Titles and styles
Prince Bertrand is styled "Prince Dom Bertrand of Orléans and Braganza, Prince Imperial of Brazil"
Honors
He was a recipient of the following foreign honors: