The Independence of Brazil is a historical fact directly linked to the action of Dom Pedro I. This is what we all learn in school. But behind the Prince Regent’s decision, Princess Leopoldina’s influence was also decisive.
The letters she sent to her husband were the final kick to the rupture between Brazil and Portugal.
Maria Leopoldina Josefa Carolina de Habsburgo was an Austrian princess, who landed in Brazil in 1817, at the age of 20, to consummate her marriage to Prince Regent Pedro I, of the Portuguese dynasty of Bragança. A throne arrangement, as befitted two European royal families.
The first Brazilian empress did not live long, dying in 1826 and, in nine years at court, she became pregnant nine times. But her role in Brazilian history goes far beyond just being the wife of Dom Pedro I. She was instrumental in the independence process, which imploded the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.
It was she who convinced José Bonifácio to accept the nomination to be Minister of the Kingdom and of Foreign Affairs.
The Declaration of Independence, written by Bonifácio, was signed by her on September 2, 1822 and sent by messengers on horseback to Dom Pedro, who was in São Paulo at the time. His texts were decisive.
“Brazil will be in your hands a great country, Brazil wants you for its monarch. With your support or without your support, he will make his separation. The snitch is ripe, pick it up or it will rot.” – Wrote Leopoldina in one of the three letters she sent to Dom Pedro.
The cry of Ipiranga was a consequence not only of Portuguese threats to return Brazil to the status of a colony, but also of Princess Leopoldina’s efforts.
Discover the exhibitions at the Ipiranga Museum, in São Paulo
Source: CNN Brasil
