Thank you Jose, it seems that the Braganzas have quite a nice property portfolio as well as an impressive jewellery collection. I hope they find ways to preserve it into the next generation. Is it known are the assets held in a foundation or a Trust?
---- All the jewels are private property, most of them inherited via D.Duarte's mother, D.Maria Francisca, Princess of Brazil, as well as several gifts.
The Crown Jewels from the former reigning PRF are kept in the vaults of the Bank of Portugal and the Dukes of Bragança have not access to them.
There are projects to complete the Palace of Ajuda and create an exhibition room for the Crown Jewels.
I particularly like the house of Infante Miguel, I looked it up on google maps and it looks lovely.
I am intrigued by your comment about Queen Amelie, if she had to be "convinced" to leave her Portuguese assets to the current Duke's father by Salazar, what was in it for her? Also if the property of the Royal family was nationalised after the death of King Manuel, why were her properties not affected?
---- When King D.Miguel lost the throne in 1834, he was allowed to take to exile his personal goods as well as the jewels inherited from his mother.
In a grand gesture, he declined and left without anything.
He lived from a pension given by the Pope, and later via the generosity of his in-laws.
WW1 was particularly difficult for the family.
Infanta D.Maria Adelaide wrote in his memoirs that there was a festive occasion when some cousins who were in the army once visited the family.
D.Maria Adelaide and D.Duarte Nuno "assalted" the horses' provisions and their biscuits tasted as cakes from the best vienese patisseries.
When the PRF was allowed to return to Portugal, their finances were reduced to nothing.
They had no properties in Portugal and had to accept the offer to stay in a friend's house near Oporto.
Later, Salazar ordered the Foundation of Casa de Bragança to lend them a house near Coimbra.
Salazar accepted the RF but wanted it far from Lisbon.
When King D.Manuel II died, he left in his will that all his legacy (his vast properties, his book collections, objets d'art, jewels, etc.) should be reunited in a Museum of Casa de Bragança.
Salazar subverted the will and created the Foundation with the royal inheritance.
He also convinced the two Queens, D.Amélia and D.Augusta Victoria, to leave to the Foundation most of their part of D.Manuel's inheritance.
The properties that were gathered in the Foundation belonged to D.Manuel II.
But D.Amélia still had some properties, privately owned, received from D.Carlos and coming from her investments that, in normal conditions, would pass to D.Amélia's close relatives, the Orléans.
D.Amélia was a wholehearted supporter of Salazar and saw him as "the Saviour of Portugal" after the anarchy of the 1st republic (191o-26) who had casted the RF into exile.
So, when Salazar weaved his web to provide for the RF without having the republic to pay for it, the Queen was convinced to go ahead with the plan.
After all, the Duchess of Bragança was an Orléans like the Queen, and the sister of her nephew's wife (the countess of Paris).
D.Duarte Pio was her godson, so everything remained in the family.
I have read that Salazar thought about restoring the monarchy, what swayed his mind against. Am I correct in assuming he must have been a monarchist at heart to want to bring the Braganzas back from exile and being concerned regarding their financial position.
---- Salazar was a pragmatic monarchic.
He was born in 1889, the same year as D.Manuel II.
He despised the 1st republic, jacobine and anti-clerical, and considered the possibility of retsoring the monarchy.
His neighbour Franco tried to convince him so.
Main opposition came (for obvious reasons) from the very much revered President of the Republic Maréchal Óscar Carmona, a fierceful republican with royalish ticks , who cut all Salazar's shots in that change.
When Carmona died in 1951 during his 3rd term (despite the constitution ony allowed 2 terms so you can see his importance in the political chessboard), the question rose again but the opposition was larger.
Salazar liked the idea because he considered the Duke of Bragança a weak person who would be eternally grateful to him, and agree with his politics, the complete opposite to the troublesome Count of Barcelona, a man with unquestionable more charisma.
Most argued that the question of the form of the regime was undebatable - the Constitution forbade it, so it would be opening a can of worms;
The only candidate, D.Duarte Nuno, was unknown and unfamiliar to the people, coming from a branch of the RF that had been exiled and even deprived from portuguese citizenhip, a branch labeled as "the absolutists".
One of the major opponents to the restoration was a man some considered his dauphin, Marcello Caetano, who, after some approaches and estrangements, would be Salazar's successor in 1968 and be the last PM from the 2nd republic.
Making use of his pragmatism, and in order to keep in control his faithfuls, Salazar accepted the inevitable and forgot the change of the regime.
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