Amélia, Empress (1812–1873)

Empress Amélia (Amélia Augusta de Leuchtenberg; b. July 1812; d. January 1873), empress consort of Brazil (1829–1831). Milan-born daughter of Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon's stepson, and the Bavarian duchess of Leuchtenberg, Amélia became the second wife of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil in 1829. A young woman of rare beauty and sensitivity, Amélia appeared in Rio de Janeiro at a critical time for the Brazilian monarchy—a time of recrimination over the loss of Uruguay, governmental deadlock, financial crisis, nativist ferment, and growing public dissatisfaction with the emperor.

Amélia's arrival in Rio was predicated on the banishment of Pedro's mistress, the marchioness of Santos, which cleared the way for the emperor's reconciliation with José Bonifácio de Andrada E Silva, a bitter foe of the marchioness. Empress Amélia joined Andrade in advising Pedro to appoint a new cabinet headed by the marquis of Barbacena, who had been her escort from Bavaria to Brazil. The Barbacena ministry smoothed the emperor's relations with parliament and probably prolonged his reign. Pedro's dismissal of Barbacena a year later set off the chain of events that led to the abdication and exile of Pedro and Amélia in April 1831.

From Brazil they went to Paris, where Amélia bore the former emperor a daughter, Maria Amélia, and served as guardian of his eldest daughter, Maria da Glória, when Pedro left for Portugal to secure the Portuguese throne for Maria da Glória. Amélia rejoined Pedro in Lisbon in September 1833, a year before his death. She devoted most of the rest of her life to charity work in Portugal.

See alsoMaria II of Portugal (Maria da Gloria); Pedro I of Brazil.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Maria Junqueira Schmidt, A segunda imperatriz do Brasil (1927).

Ligia Lemos Tôrres, Imperatríz dona Amélia (1947).

Additional Bibliography

Barreira, Lauro. A imperatriz desterrada. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Cia Brasileira de Artes Gráficas, 1979.

                                        Neill Macaulay