Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil
Dona Isabel, nicknamed "the Redemptress", was the Princess Imperial of the Empire of Brazil and the Empire's regent on three occasions. Born in Rio de Janeiro as the eldest daughter of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil and Empress Teresa Cristina, she was a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza. After the deaths of her two brothers in infancy, she was recognized as her father's heiress presumptive. She married a French prince, Gaston, Count of Eu, in an arranged marriage and they had three sons.
Portrait by Insley Pacheco, c. 1870
Isabel at age 12, 1858
Princesses Leopoldina (left) and Isabel (center) with an unidentified friend, c. 1860
Isabel around age 19, c. 1865 (photograph by Augusto Stahl)
The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and Uruguay until the latter achieved independence in 1828. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Pedro I and his son Pedro II. A colony of the Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil became the seat of the Portuguese Empire in 1808, when the Portuguese Prince regent, later King Dom John VI, fled from Napoleon's invasion of Portugal and established himself and his government in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. John VI later returned to Portugal, leaving his eldest son and heir-apparent, Pedro, to rule the Kingdom of Brazil as regent. On 7 September 1822, Pedro declared the independence of Brazil and, after waging a successful war against his father's kingdom, was acclaimed on 12 October as Pedro I, the first Emperor of Brazil. The new country was huge, sparsely populated, and ethnically diverse.
A locomotive in Bahia province (Brazilian northeast), c. 1859
Brazilian artillery in position during the Paraguayan War, 1866
Emperor Pedro II surrounded by prominent politicians and national figures c. 1875
Belém, a medium-sized city and capital of Pará province (Brazilian north), 1889