Infanta Antónia of Portugal

Infanta Antónia
Princess consort of Hohenzollern
Tenure	2 June 1885 – 8 June 1905
Born	(1845-02-17)17 February 1845 Belém Palace, Lisbon, Portugal
Died	27 December 1913(1913-12-27) (aged 68) Sigmaringen, German Empire
Spouse	Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern ​ ​ (m. 1861; died 1905)​
Issue	William, Prince of Hohenzollern Ferdinand I of Romania Prince Karl Anton
Names Portuguese: Antónia María Fernanda Micaela Gabriela Rafaela Francisca de Assis Ana Gonzaga Silvina Júlia Augusta de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança
House	Braganza[1]
Father	Fernando II of Portugal
Mother	Maria II of Portugal

Infanta Antónia of Portugal (or of Braganza; Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐ̃ˈtɔniɐ]; 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) was a Portuguese infanta (princess) of the House of Braganza,^[1] 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."^[2] 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."^[3]

Antónia of Braganza died in the German Empire in 1913.

Honours and awards

•  Kingdom of Portugal:^[4]
  • Dame of the Order of Queen Saint Isabel
  • Grand Cross of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa
• Kingdom of Prussia:^[4]
  • Dame of the Order of Louise, 1st Division
  • Cross of Merit for Women and Girls, 26 June 1871^[5]
•  Austria-Hungary: Dame of the Order of the Starry Cross, 1st Class^[4]
• Ernestine duchies: Grand Cross of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order^[4]
•  Kingdom of Romania: Dame of the Decoration of the Cross of Queen Elisabeth^[4]
•  Spain: Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa, 23 October 1855^[6]

Ancestry

References

This page was last edited on 20 April 2024, at 17:02