Santos, Marquesa de (1797–1867)

Marquesa de Santos (Domitila de Castro Canto e Melo; b. March 1797; d. 13 November 1867), Emperor Pedro I's Brazilian mistress. Domitila was Pedro I's lover from 1822 to 1831. She was one of many Castro women who were chosen to be the mistresses of Pedro I of Castile and Pedro II of Portugal. A striking beauty with ivory skin and dark hair, the marquesa was married at age fourteen. She bore three children during her first marriage. Unknown to her spouse, they were actually Pedro's. Eventually, her deranged and jealous husband drove her out of their home. Pedro I arranged an ecclesiastical divorce for his lover. Domitila and the emperor had four children during this often stormy love affair. After Pedro left Brazil, the marquesa married for a second time. She was one of the richest women in Brazil when she died, leaving a fortune of over 1 million milréis, the equivalent of $1 million U.S.

See alsoPedro I of Brazil; Pedro II of Brazil.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sergio Correa Da Costa, Every Inch a King: A Biography of Dom Pedro I, First Emperor of Brazil (1950).

Alberto Rangel, Dom Pedro I e a Marquesa de Santos á vista de cartas íntimas e de outros documentos públicos e particulares, 3d ed. (1969), and Marginados: Anotações e as cartas de D Pedro I a D Domitila (1974).

Eul-Soo Pang, In Pursuit of Honor and Power: Noblemen of the Southern Cross in Nineteenth-Century Brazil (1988).

Additional Bibliography

Pinheiro Neto, João. Pedro e Domitila: Amor em tempo de paixão. Rio de Janeiro: Mauad, 2002.

                                         Eul-Soo Pang