Infanta Antónia Of Portugal

Infanta Antónia of Portugal (Antónia Maria Fernanda Micaela Gabriela Rafaela Francisca de Assis Ana Gonzaga Silvéria Júlia Augusta de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança; 17 February 1845 – 27 December 1913) also known as Antónia of Braganza, was a Portuguese ''infanta'' (princess) of the House of Braganza."While remaining patrilineal dynasts of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha according to pp. 88, 116 of the 1944 ''Almanach de Gotha'', Title 1, Chapter 1, Article 5 of th
1838 Portuguese constitution
declared, with respect to Ferdinand II of Portugal's issue by his first wife, that 'the Most Serene House of Braganza is the reigning house of Portugal and continues through the Person of the Lady Queen Maria II'. Thus their mutual descendants constitute the Coburg line of the House of Braganza" She was the daughter of Queen Maria II of Portugal and her King consort Ferdinand II of Portugal. Through her father, she also held the titles of Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duchess of Saxony.

Life

Antónia was born in 1845 at the Palace of Belém, she was the sixth child of twelve, and the third girl. She married Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen on 12 September 1861. They had three sons;
* William (1864–1927), who succeeded as Prince of Hohenzollern; married (1) Princess Maria Teresa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (2) Princess Adelgunde of Bavaria
* Ferdinand (1865–1927), later King of Romania; married Princess Marie of Edinburgh
* Karl Anton (1868–1919), married Princess Josephine Caroline of Belgium

Princess Marie of Edinburgh, her daughter-in-law, described her appearance in her memoirs:

"''Antonia, or Antoinette, had been one of the great beauties of her time; one of those old-fashioned, classic-featured beauties, whom one associates with the crinoline. Her profile was Grecian, her shoulders sloping, her hands long and delicate, her feet very small and useless. But her figure somehow could not fit in with the clothes of the day, there was a disproportion between the bust and the legs. The crinoline was missing. Superbly aristocratic, she moved slowly with a curious swinging of the hips. She loved fine clothes and jewels and, though leading almost an invalid's life, was always very smartly dressed.''" Later, Marie also wrote on their complicated relationship and views on her mother-in-law's character: ''"She was a curious mixture of dignity and childish futility, vain, self-centered, small in her judgements of others. ..She lived so protected, so out of the world, hedged in by her Church, nursing her delicate health , everybody serving her, spoiling her, she was more like an exigent child than a woman who had lived a real woman's life. .I really think she liked me then, but there was also something else in this; I was to be shown off as a favourite to spite Mädi, her eldest daughter-in-law."''

Antónia of Braganza died in the German Empire in 1913.

Honours and awards

* :
Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Preußen
' (1908), Genealogy p. 6
** Dame of the Order of Queen Saint Isabel
** Grand Cross of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa
* Kingdom of Prussia:
** Dame of the Order of Louise, 1st Division
** Cross of Merit for Women and Girls, ''26 June 1871''
* : Dame of the Order of the Starry Cross, 1st Class
* Ernestine duchies: Grand Cross of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order
* : Dame of the Decoration of the Cross of Queen Elisabeth
* : Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa, ''23 October 1855''

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Antonia Of Portugal, Infanta
1845 births
1913 deaths
Nobility from Lisbon
Portuguese infantas
House of Braganza-Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Princesses of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
Dames of the Order of Saint Isabel
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa
19th-century Portuguese people
19th-century German women
Daughters of kings
Daughters of queens regnant
Mothers of Romanian monarchs