Iberian noble house
The House of Bourbon-Braganza (Spanish: Casa de Borbón-Braganza; Portuguese: Casa de Bourbon-Bragança) was an Iberian noble house that had its origins in a royal marriage arranged in 1785 between Gabriel of Bourbon, Infante of Spain and Mariana Victoria of Braganza, Infanta of Portugal. Their descendants served as Dukes of Marchena, Durcal, Hernani, and Ansola.
History
Their surviving son, Infante Pedro Carlos of Spain and Portugal (1786–1812), was brought up in the Portuguese court, first in Lisbon and, after 1807, in Rio de Janeiro. Until 1793, he was the only grandson of Queen Maria I, and therefore considered as a potential heir of the Portuguese throne. Similar to his father, he also married a Portuguese Infanta, his first cousin once removed Infanta Maria Teresa of Portugal (1793–1874).[1]
They had one child Infante Sebastian of Portugal and Spain (1811–1875), Infante of Portugal by royal edict (issued in 1812), but only became a Spanish Infante in 1824 by royal edict of King Ferdinand VII of Spain, as he was only a distant descendant of King Charles III. When the Portuguese royal family returned to Europe, Sebastian went to live in Spain (1822); but, due to his support to the Carlist pretender, he returned to Portugal (1865), where King Luís I gave him a warm reception.
The legitimate male line of the family has become extinct after the death of Manfredo, 1st Duke of Hernani, in 1979; the last member of the family was Leticía Fernanda de Borbón y Bosch-Labrús, who died in 2008. Yet there are still distant female-line descendants, represented among the Spanish nobility (Dukes of Marchena, Durcal, and Ansola).
