Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza

Who was Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza?

D. Duarte Nuno, Prince Royal of Portugal, Duke of Braganza was the claimant to the defunct Portuguese throne, as both the Miguelist successor of his father, Miguel, Duke of Braganza, and later as the head of the only Brigantine house, after the death of the last Legitimist Braganza, King Manuel II of Portugal. In 1952, when the Portuguese Laws of Banishment were repealed, the Duke moved his family to Portugal, thus returning the Miguelist Braganzas to their homeland and becoming the first Portuguese royals to live in Portugal since the deposition of the monarchy, in 1910.

Once established in Portugal, the Duke was granted a pension and residence by the Fundação da Casa de Bragança, the organization has owned and managed all the private assets of the House of Braganza, since the death of King Manuel II, in 1932. Duarte Nuno spent the rest of his life attempting, without success, the restoration of all Brigantine assets to his family and recreating the image of the Miguelist Braganzas in Portuguese society, all under the goal of the restoration of the Portuguese monarchy, under the Braganzas.

In 1942, the Duarte Nuno married Princess Maria Francisca of Orléans-Braganza, daughter of Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará. Their marriage reconciled two branches of the House of Braganza, in two different ways, reuniting the Portuguese and Brazilian Brigantine houses and specifically reuniting the Miguelist and Liberal Braganzas, which had been estranged since 1828, when the War of Two Brothers was waged between King-Emperor Pedro IV & I, founder of the Liberal Braganzas, and King Miguel I, founder of the Miguelist Braganzas. The couple had three sons, the eldest of whom is Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, the current pretender to the Portuguese throne.