Nevada Stoody Hayes
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Nevada Stoody Hayes (21 October 1870 – 11 January 1941), sometimes called Nevada of Braganza, was an American socialite who became the wife of Infante Afonso of Braganza, Duke of Porto, whose nephew, Manuel II, was the last king of
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
. She was the
Princess Royal of Portugal This is a list of Princesses Royal of Portugal (or more formally Princess Royal of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves). The title is, since 1815, carried either in her own right by the heiress to the throne, as a substantive title, or by th ...
, but never accepted as a member of the exiled Portuguese royal family, yet by Portuguese law her marriage to Afonso was legal.


Early life

Nevada was born on 21 October 1870 in
Sandyville, Ohio Sandyville is an unincorporated community in northern Sandy Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, United States. It has a post office with the ZIP code 44671. It lies along State Route 800 between Canton and New Philadelphia. Among the notab ...
, to Jacob Walter Stoody and Nancy Miranda ( McNeal) Stoody. Her maternal grandparents were James Powell McNeal and Sarah Yell ( Chase) McNeal.


Personal life


First marriage

Her first husband was inventor Lee Albert Agnew (1867-1924), whom she divorced in 1906. Despite the divorce, Agnew maintained warm feelings toward his former wife, and after he died on 31 January 1924, his will left her his estate's income not earmarked for the support of their son, Lee Albert "David" Agnew, Jr. (1903-1977).


Second marriage

The day after her divorce from Agnew, Hayes married William Hayes Chapman (1834-1907), then in his early seventies. When he bequeathed her more than $8 million at his death a year later, the newspapers dubbed her "the $10 million widow". Excerpt from Mrs. Astor’s 400:
She immediately went to Europe where it was reported that those vying for her hand included Lord Falconer (later the 10th Earl of Kintore who married American heiress Helen Zimmerman, formerly Duchess of Manchester), Count A. F. Cherep-Spiridovich (a younger officer in the army of the Tsar), Prince Mohammed Ali Hassan of Egypt, and Count Aubert de Sonis who came from Paris to New York on the same ship with the widow. While the Count was in the lobby of the St. Regis Hotel waiting to present flowers and a proposal of marriage, she departed by a rear exit with Philip Van Valkenburgh, a prominent member of an old New York family (but, obviously in need of some of her money, she would soon come to find out). They were married in Connecticut on 23 November 1909 and were divorced after a short-time amid protracted legal battles; she finally settled $200,000 upon him in 1910 ...


Third marriage

Nevada married for a third time to Philip Henry Van Volkenburgh, Jr. (1853-1949), a New York lawyer and banker, on November 23, 1909, in
Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...
. Shortly after their marriage, however, they separated and she took up residence in
Pomfret, Connecticut Pomfret is a New England town, town in Windham County, Connecticut, Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 4,266 in 2020 according to the 2020 United States Census. The land was purchased from Native Americans in 1686 (the ...
, a state which required three years residency before a suit for divorce could be brought. In 1913, Philip had her served with divorce papers while she was at the Hotel Vanderbilt in New York City. In turn, she sued him, and the following year, she obtained an uncontested divorce from Volkenburgh in
Putnam, Connecticut Putnam is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 9,224 at the 2020 census. History Putnam, originally known as Aspinock, then part of Killingly, is a New England mill town incorporated in 1855. Created from se ...
, on grounds of desertion in 1914.


Fourth marriage

Her fourth and last husband was the Duke of Porto, Dom Afonso of Braganza (1865–1920),
Infante of Portugal Infante of Portugal (Portuguese: ''Infante de Portugal''; f. Infanta), is the royal title of the Kingdom of Portugal, granted to the sons or daughters of the King and Princes of Portugal who were not the heir to the throne. It is also used to deno ...
, whom she married
morganatically Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spou ...
on 26 September 1917 in Rome, and again in a civil ceremony on 23 November of that year in
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, under the name of ''Madame Nevada Stoody Hayes-Chapman''.Mrs. Nevada Van Volkenburgh, born Nevada Stoody, adopted after her Van Volkenburgh divorce in 1914 the name "Nevada Stoody ''Hayes''", which is related to the name of her second husband William ''Hayes'' Chapman. Hayes began styling herself "Her Royal Highness, Nevada, the Duchess of Porto", but the
Portuguese royal family The Most Serene House of Braganza ( pt, Sereníssima Casa de Bragança), also known as the Brigantine Dynasty (''Dinastia Brigantina''), is a dynasty of emperors, kings, princes, and dukes of Portuguese origin which reigned in Europe and the Ame ...
never recognized her as a member. Afonso tried to have his wife accepted by his family, but was rebuffed. Three years later, on 21 February 1920, at
Naples, Italy Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, the duke died, without having ever renounced his rights to the throne. Hayes traveled from Italy to Portugal with the body of her late husband, and arranged for its installation in the Braganza pantheon in the
Monastery of São Vicente de Fora The Church and Monastery of São Vicente de Fora, meaning "Monastery of St. Vincent Outside the Walls", is a 17th-century church and monastery in the city of Lisbon, Portugal. It is one of the most important monasteries and mannerist buildings in ...
in
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
. Although the terms of a morganatic marriage exclude the surviving spouse from inheriting any of the titles or privileges that are the prerogatives of royalty (while the concept of morganatic marriage has never explicitly existed anywhere in Portugal), they do not exclude the survivor from inheriting property. In his will, Dom Afonso left his entire estate to Nevada Stoody Hayes. Excerpt from Mrs. Astor's 400:
He forfeited his inheritance rights to the throne by his marriage and his financial allowance from the royal family was cut. Nevada styled herself as the Crown Princess of Portugal. Her husband was the uncle of King Manuel of Portugal and only brother of King Manuel's father, the murdered King Carlos. King Victor Emanuel, a cousin of the Duke of Oporto, gave him asylum in the Royal Palace in Naples and a reported allowance of $10,000 per year. The Duke of Oporto died in Naples in 1920 having fled there after the Portuguese Revolution. After the death of the King of Portugal Nevada petitioned the republican government – to no avail – to grant her all the royal family's funds as she considered herself its senior member. She sailed to the U. S. in 1921 to have made a silver casket on a bronze base (weighing half a ton) in which to convey her late husband's body from Naples to Lisbon. There it would be displayed in the Pantheon before the Duke of
Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...
was buried next to his murdered brother, the late King. In 1935 the Duchess of Porto traveled on the Ile de France to New York where she reported that, having spent two months in Germany, she was "greatly impressed by Adolf Hitler." She jealously guarded (and according to all precedent, she and the hypocritical status phoniness of that period, she was correct in asserting her marital rights) what she perceived as her rights as Crown Princess and once, on a trans-Atlantic cruise which also included the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, to ensure that she be seated on the Captain's right at dinner rather than the Grand Duchess, she entered the dining room ahead of all other guests to take her seat. She died 11 January 1941 in Tampa, Florida, at St. Joseph's Hospital after an illness of 10 days. She had spent the winter in Tampa for the preceding 10-years. She left a son, Lee Albert "David" Agnew, Jr., of New York, and four sisters (...).
Nevada Stoody Hayes died at Saint Joseph's Hospital in
Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...
,
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, in 1941, at age 70. After her death, the Foundation of the House of Bragança bought the painting "Battle of Cape St. Vincent", a Portuguese national treasure that had been included in her inheritance, depicting a victory of the fleet of
Maria II of Portugal , image = Queen Maria II by John Simpson.jpg , caption = Portrait by John Simpson, 1835 , succession = Queen of Portugal , reign = , predecessor = Pedro IV , successor = Miguel I , reg-type = Regents , regent ...
over the fleet of Miguel I of Portugal during the
Liberal Wars The Liberal Wars (), also known as the Portuguese Civil War (), the War of the Two Brothers () or Miguelite War (), was a war between liberal constitutionalists and conservative absolutists in Portugal over royal succession that lasted from 18 ...
. It is now located in the
Maritime Museum A maritime museum (sometimes nautical museum) is a museum specializing in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on large bodies of water. A subcategory of maritime museums are naval museums, which focus on navies and the militar ...
in Lisbon.


References


External links


Royalty Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayes, Nevada Stoody 1870 births 1941 deaths American socialites Princesses Royal of Portugal House of Braganza-Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Morganatic spouses People from Tuscarawas County, Ohio