| Maria Leopoldina, Empress Of Brazil |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT MARIA LEOPOLDINA OF AUSTRIA | |
| portuguese queens consorts | |
| archduchesses of austria | |
| house of habsburg-lorraine | |
| austrian-brazilians | |
| deaths in childbirth | |
| 1797 births | |
| 1826 deaths | |
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Archduchess Maria Leopoldina Josepha Caroline of Austria ( 22 January 1797 - 11 December 1826 ), Empress consort of Brazil , and, for two months, Queen Consort of Portugal at the same time. She was born in Vienna , Austria , as the daughter of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor and his second wife, Maria Theresa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. Among her many siblings were Emperor Ferdinand I Of Austria and Marie Louise , wife of Napoleon Bonaparte . In 1817 she sailed to Brazil to marry the future Crown Prince of Portugal, Dom Pedro Of Alcantara . The Portuguese royal family had been living there in exile for ten years, as a result of the Napoleonic Wars . Leopoldine was very cultured, fluent in six languages, and very interested in the natural sciences. During the coming years she brought several researchers and biologists to her new homeland, starting with Johann Baptist Von Spix , Carl Friedrich Philipp Von Martius and Johann Natterer , who accompanied her in 1817. When his father, King João VI , returned to Lisbon in 1821, Dom Pedro chose to remain in Brazil with Leopoldine and their children. In 1822, Dom Pedro led Brazil's proclamation of independence from Portugal, and was crowned as the country's Emperor. Princess Leopoldina thus became Brazil's first Empress-consort. When his father died, 10 March 1826 , Pedro inherited the Portuguese throne as King Pedro IV of Portugal, while still remaining Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. However, only two months later he was forced to give up the Portuguese throne to his 7-year-old daughter Maria , Therefore, for a couple of months, Leopoldine was both Empress consort of Brazil and Queen consort of Portugal. Leopoldine gave Peter 7 children, before she died in 1826 after a Miscarriage .
The largest railway station in Rio De Janeiro is named ''Imperatriz Leopoldina'' after her. EXTERNAL LINKS
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