title: Keith Vaz

text: On 25 January, Vaz had become the focus of Opposition questions about the Hinduja affair and many parliamentary questions were tabled, demanding that he fully disclose his role. Vaz said via a Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) spokesman that he would be "fully prepared" to answer questions put to him by Sir Anthony Hammond, QC, who had been asked by the Prime Minister to carry out an inquiry into the affair.


title: Keith Vaz

text: Vaz had known the Hinduja brothers for some time; he had been present when the charitable Hinduja Foundation was set up in 1993, and also delivered a speech in 1998 when the brothers invited Tony and Cherie Blair to a Diwali celebration.


title: Keith Vaz

text: On 26 January 2001, Conservative MP John Redwood accused Prime Minister Tony Blair of prejudicing the independent inquiry into the Hinduja passport affair, after Blair declared that the FCO minister Keith Vaz had not done "anything wrong". On the same day, Vaz told reporters that they would "regret" their behaviour once the facts of the case were revealed. "Some of you are going to look very foolish when this report comes out. Some of the stuff you said about Peter, and about others and me, you'll regret very much when the facts come out", he said. When asked why the passport application of one of the Hinduja brothers had been processed more quickly than normal, being processed and sanctioned in six months when the process can take up to two years, he replied, "It is not unusual."


title: Keith Vaz

text: On 29 January, the government confirmed that the Hinduja Foundation had held a reception for Vaz in September 1999 to celebrate his appointment as the first Asian Minister in recent times. The party was not listed by Vaz in House of Commons register of Members' Interests, and Redwood, then head of the Conservative Parliamentary Campaigns Unit, questioned Vaz's judgement in accepting the hospitality.


title: Keith Vaz

text: In March, Vaz was ordered to co-operate fully with a new inquiry launched into his financial affairs by Elizabeth Filkin. Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, Vaz's superior, also urged him to answer fully allegations about his links with the Hinduja brothers. Vaz met Filkin on 20 March to discuss a complaint that the Hinduja Foundation had given £1,200 to Mapesbury Communications, a company run by his wife, in return for helping to organise a Hinduja-sponsored reception at the House of Commons. Vaz had previously denied receiving money from the Hindujas, but said that he made no personal gain from the transaction in question.


title: Keith Vaz

text: In June 2001, Vaz said that he had made representations during the Hinduja brothers' applications for British citizenship while a backbench MP. Tony Blair also admitted that Vaz had "made representations" on behalf of other Asians.


title: Keith Vaz

text: On 11 June 2001, Vaz was dismissed from his post as Europe Minister, to be replaced by Peter Hain. The Prime Minister's office said that Vaz had written to Tony Blair stating his wish to stand down for health reasons.


title: Keith Vaz

text: In December 2001, Filkin cleared Vaz of failing to register payments to his wife's law firm by the Hinduja brothers, but said that he had colluded with his wife to conceal the payments. Filkin's report said that the payments had been given to his wife for legal advice on immigration issues and concluded that Vaz had gained no direct personal benefit, and that Commons rules did not require him to disclose payments made to his wife. She did, however, criticise him for his secrecy, saying, "It is clear to me there has been deliberate collusion over many months between Mr Vaz and his wife to conceal this fact and to prevent me from obtaining accurate information about his possible financial relationship with the Hinduja family".


title: Keith Vaz

text: In 2002, Vaz was suspended from the House of Commons for one month after a Committee on Standards and Privileges inquiry found that he had made false allegations against Eileen Eggington, a former policewoman. The committee concluded that "Mr Vaz recklessly made a damaging allegation against Miss Eggington to the Commissioner, which was not true, and which could have intimidated Miss Eggington or undermined her credibility".


title: Keith Vaz

text: Eggington, a retired police officer who had served 34 years in the Metropolitan Police, including a period as deputy head of Special Branch, wanted to help a friend, Mary Grestny, who had worked as personal assistant to Vaz's wife. After leaving the job in May 2000, Grestny dictated a seven-page statement about Mrs Vaz to Eggington in March 2001, who sent it to Filkin. Grestny's statement included allegations that Mr and Mrs Vaz had employed an illegal immigrant as their nanny, and that they had been receiving gifts from Asian businessmen such as the Hinduja brothers. The allegations were denied by Vaz, and the Committee found no evidence to support them.


title: Keith Vaz

text: In late 2001, Vaz complained to Leicestershire Police that his mother had been upset by a telephone call from "a woman named Mrs Egginton", who claimed to be a police officer. The accusations led to Eggington being questioned by police. Vaz also wrote a letter of complaint to Filkin, but when she tried to make inquiries Vaz accused her of interfering with a police inquiry and threatened to report her to the Speaker of the House of Commons. Eggington denied that she had ever telephoned Vaz's mother and offered her home and mobile telephone records as evidence. The Commons committee decided that she was telling the truth. They added: "Mr Vaz recklessly made a damaging allegation against Miss Eggington, which was not true and which could have intimidated Miss Eggington and undermined her credibility."


title: Keith Vaz

text: A letter to Filkin from Detective Superintendent Nick Gargan made it plain that the police did not believe Vaz's mother ever received the phone call and the person who came closest to being prosecuted was not Eggington but Vaz. Gargan said that the police had considered a range of possible offences, including wasteful employment of the police, and an attempt to pervert the course of justice. Leicestershire Police eventually decided not to prosecute. "We cannot rule out a tactical motivation for Mr Vaz's contact with Leicestershire Constabulary but the evidence does not support further investigation of any attempt to pervert the course of justice."


title: Keith Vaz

text: It was concluded that Vaz had "committed serious breaches of the Code of Conduct and showed contempt for the House" and it was recommended that he be suspended from the House of Commons for one month.


title: Keith Vaz

text: In 2001, it was revealed that Vaz had assisted Anglo-Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi in his attempts to avoid extradition to France. Opposition MPs called for an investigation into what one dubbed "Hinduja Mark II".


title: Keith Vaz

text: Auchi was wanted for questioning by French police for his alleged role in the notorious Elf Aquitaine fraud scandal which led to the arrest of a former French Foreign Minister. The warrant issued by French authorities in July 2000 accused Auchi of "complicity in the misuse of company assets and receiving embezzled company assets". It also covered Auchi's associate Nasir Abid and stated that, if found guilty of the alleged offences, both men could face 109 years in jail.


title: Keith Vaz

text: Vaz was a director of the British arm of Auchi's corporation, General Mediterranean Holdings (GMH), whose previous directors had included Lords Steel and Lamont, and Jacques Santer. Vaz used his political influence on GMH's behalf; this included a party in the Park Lane Hilton to celebrate the 20th anniversary of GMH on 23 April 1999, where Lord Sainsbury presented Auchi with a painting of the House of Commons signed by Tony Blair, the Opposition leaders, and over 100 other leading British politicians. Lord Sainsbury later told "The Observer" that he did this "as a favour for Keith Vaz". In May 1999, Vaz resigned his post as a director after he was appointed a Minister. In a statement to "The Observer", a GMH spokesman said that Vaz had been invited to become a GMH director in January 1999, yet company accounts showed Vaz as a director for the financial year ending December 1998.


title: Keith Vaz

text: Labour confirmed in May 2001 that Auchi had called Vaz at home about the arrest warrant to ask him for advice. A spokesman said that Vaz "made some factual inquiries to the Home Office about the [extradition] procedure." This included advising Auchi to consult his local MP. The spokesman stressed that Vaz acted properly at all times and was often contacted by members of Britain's ethnic communities for help. In a Commons answer to Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker earlier the same month Vaz confirmed that "details of enquiries by Mr Auchi have been passed to the Home Office".


title: Keith Vaz

text: Following the February 2004 murder of a fourteen-year-old boy, Vaz asked for an investigation of the relationship between the video games and violence, saying the parents of the victim believed that the killer was influenced by the video game "Manhunt". Although the police dismissed the claim and the only copy found belonged to the victim, Tony Blair said the game was unsuitable for children and agreed to discuss with the Home Secretary what action could be taken.


title: Keith Vaz

text: The sequel, "Manhunt 2", described by the British Board of Film Censors as "distinguishable ... by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone", became the first video game banned by the BBFC in the UK for 10 years. Vaz said: "This is an excellent decision by the British Board of Film Classification, showing that game publishers cannot expect to get interactive games where players take the part of killers engaged in 'casual sadism' and murder."


title: Keith Vaz

text: Vaz has also criticised "Bully", which had a pre-release screenshot showing three uniformed pupils fighting and kicking. In 2005, he asked Geoff Hoon: "Does the leader of the house share my concern at the decision of Rockstar Games to publish a new game called "Bully" in which players use their on-screen persona to kick and punch other schoolchildren?" Due to the controversy surrounding the "Bully" title, the game was released in the UK in 2006 under an alternative name, "Canis Canem Edit", though the original title was restored when the game was re-released in 2008. Both releases of the game were rated 15 by the BBFC and were generally positively received by critics.


title: Keith Vaz

text: In October 2010, Vaz put down an early day motion noting that the 2009–10 Malmö shootings "have been associated with the violent video game "Counter-Strike"". The EDM also noted that the game had been previously banned in Brazil and also been associated with US College Campus massacres in 2007. It called on the Government to ensure the purchase of video games by minors was controlled and that parents were provided with clear information on any violent content.


title: Keith Vaz

text: In July 2007, Vaz was elected as the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee. Select committee members are usually proposed by the Committee of Selection which, under the Standing Orders of the House, nominates members to select committees, but unusually Vaz was the only nomination made by Harriet Harman, Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal. Harman argued that this was because there was not sufficient time to go through the usual procedure before the impending summer recess. The Chairman of the Committee of Selection told the House that the Committee had been ready to meet earlier that week, but had been advised by the Government that there was no business for it to transact. Vaz replaced John Denham on 26 July 2007. Vaz was re-elected to the Committee's chairmanship in June 2015.


title: Keith Vaz

text: Vaz's backing for the 42-day terrorist detention without charge "was seen as crucial by the Government".


title: Keith Vaz

text: During the debate on 10 June 2008, the day before the key vote, Vaz was asked in Parliament whether he had been offered an honour for his support. He said: “No, it was certainly not offered—but I do not know; there is still time.”


title: Keith Vaz

text: The "Daily Telegraph" printed a hand written letter to Vaz, written the day after the vote, then Chief Whip Geoff Hoon wrote:


title: Keith Vaz

text: "Dear Keith ... Just a quick note to thank you for all your help during the period leading up to last Wednesday’s vote. I wanted you to know how much I appreciated all your help. I trust that it will be appropriately rewarded!... With thanks and best wishes, Geoff."


title: Keith Vaz

text: Vaz wrote to the Press Council complaining the story was inaccurate, that the letter had been obtained by subterfuge and that he had not been contacted before the story was published. The complaint was rejected as the article made it clear that the reports of an honour were just speculation which Vaz had already publicly denied.


title: Keith Vaz

text: In September 2008, Vaz faced pressure to explain why he failed to declare an interest when he intervened in an official investigation into the business dealings of a close friend, solicitor Shahrokh Mireskandari, who has played a role in several racial discrimination cases against the Metropolitan Police, and who was representing Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur in his racial discrimination case against Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Ian Blair.


title: Keith Vaz

text: The Solicitors Regulation Authority began an investigation into Mireskandari's legal firm, Dean and Dean, in January 2008 after a number of complaints about its conduct. Vaz wrote a joint letter with fellow Labour MP Virendra Sharma to the authority's chief executive, Anthony Townsend, in February 2008 on official House of Commons stationery. He cited a complaint he had received from Mireskandari and alleged "discriminatory conduct" in its investigation into Dean and Dean. The Authority was forced to set up an independent working party to look into whether it had disproportionately targeted non-white lawyers for investigation.


title: Keith Vaz

text: Liberal Democrat deputy leader Vince Cable said that Vaz should make a public statement to clear up his role in the affair. "It is quite unreasonable that an independent regulator should have been undermined in this way. I would hope that the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee will give a full public statement."


title: Keith Vaz

text: In September 2008, Vaz came under pressure when it was revealed that he had sought the private views of Prime Minister Gordon Brown in connection with the Committee's independent report into government plans to extend the detention of terror suspects beyond 28 days. "The Guardian" reported that emails suggested that Vaz had secretly contacted the Prime Minister about the committee's draft report and proposed a meeting because "we need to get his <nowiki>[</nowiki>Brown's<nowiki>]</nowiki> suggestions". An email was sent in November 2007 to Ian Austin, Gordon Brown's parliamentary private secretary, and copied to Fiona Gordon, at the time Brown's political adviser. Another leaked email showed that Vaz had also sent extracts of the committee's draft report to the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, for his comments; according to Parliament's standing orders, the chairman of the Select Committee cannot take evidence from a witness without at least two other committee members being present.


title: Keith Vaz

text: Shami Chakrabarti, then director of human rights group Liberty, compared it to a judge deciding a case privately emailing one of the parties to seek their suggestions.


title: Keith Vaz

text: Vaz's total expenses of £173,937 in 2008/2009 were ranked 45th out of 647 MPs, with office running costs and staffing costs accounting for 70% of this. The register of Member's interests shows that he owns the constituency office. His second home expenses, ranked 83 out of 647 at £23,831 in 2008/2009 were the subject of a "Daily Telegraph" article. Vaz who lives in Stanmore, a 45-minute journey time from Parliament, claimed mortgage interest on a flat in Westminster he bought in 2003.


title: Keith Vaz

text: In May 2007, after claiming for the flat's service and council tax, he switched his designated second home to his constituency office and bought furniture. The report into the Parliamentary expenses scandal by Sir Thomas Legg showed that 343 MPs had been asked to repay some money and Vaz was asked to repay £1514 due to furnishing items exceeding allowable cost. New expenses rules published by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority which came into force after the 2010 general election limit the second home allowance to £1,450 a month, i.e. the Westminster cost of renting a one bedroomed flat. Profits made on existing second homes will be recouped.


title: Keith Vaz

text: Vaz was one of the members of the Commons who agreed to be on the all-party parliamentary group on Fiji proposed by Patrick Mercer MP, as part of his paid advocacy for lobbyists. Mercer was recorded describing Vaz as "a crook of the first order", adding that he had "never met an operator like him ... I mean it's not always completely ethical but it's stunning, he is an operator". Such comments on Vaz and on other politicians were a reason for the Committee on Standards deciding that Mercer had brought the House of Commons into disrepute.


title: Keith Vaz

text: In April 2015, a video showing Vaz speaking using loudspeakers from a campaign car caused a row with Leicester Conservatives. Using a loudspeaker on the street is an offence that carries a penalty of up to £5,000, and there is no exemption for political campaigning.


title: Keith Vaz

text: The incident was investigated by noise pollution officers of Leicester City Council, with officials confirming in June that it was illegal but that no action would be taken.


title: Keith Vaz

text: Allegations about Vaz were published by the British tabloid "Sunday Mirror" in early September 2016. It was reported that he had engaged in unprotected sexual activity with male prostitutes and had told them he would pay for cocaine if they wished to use it. He told the prostitutes that his name was Jim and that he was an industrial washing machine salesman. Vaz later apologised for his actions. "It is deeply disturbing that a national newspaper should have paid individuals who have acted in this way", he said. Vaz resigned as chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee on 6 September 2016.


title: Keith Vaz

text: At the end of October 2016, Vaz was appointed to the Justice Select Committee, after he had put himself forward and was nominated by his party. A House of Commons motion to block this development was defeated; motions of this kind are rare. According to Laura Hughes of "The Daily Telegraph", Conservative Party whips told their MPs to vote for Vaz in the division to prevent a precedent being created of such appointments being rejected by MPs. Over 150 Conservative MPs voted in support of Vaz. The Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen asked in the chamber of Vaz; "If the right honourable member for Leicester East found himself last month to be not fit to be chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee and the matters are unresolved, what makes him think that he is a fit and proper person this month?"


title: Keith Vaz

text: The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Hudson, announced an investigation into Vaz's conduct. The Standards Commissioner's investigation was halted "for medical reasons" in December 2017. The inquiry recommenced in March 2018 and, in October 2019, under the stewardship of the new Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Stone, the inquiry recommended that Keith Vaz be suspended from Parliament for six months. The inquiry report confirmed that, in her memorandum, the Commissioner had concluded "... it is more likely than not that Mr Vaz has engaged in paid sexual activity" and there was "evidence of Mr Vaz's apparent willingness to purchase controlled drugs for others to use". The Commissioner's memorandum also concluded Vaz "shows disregard for the law and that, in turn, is disrespectful to the House and fellow Members, who collectively are responsible for making those laws. Mr Vaz's conduct has also been disrespectful of the House's system of standards. He has not "co-operated at all stages" with the investigation process. He has failed, repeatedly, to answer direct questions; he has given incomplete answers and his account has, in parts, been incredible". On 31 October 2019, MPs voted in favour of the suspension.


title: Keith Vaz

text: Allegations were published in August 2018 by BBC's "Newsnight" that a former Clerk of the House of Commons, Jenny McCullough, was bullied by Vaz as she was trying to uphold the Standards of the House. Among other allegations, McCullough alleged that Vaz made jokes about her being a security threat, on account of her Northern Irish background and accent. In September 2021, Parliament's standards commissioner and the Independent Expert Panel found the allegations to be credible, saying the bullying "was hostile, sustained, harmful and unworthy of a Member of Parliament"; the Panel concluded that Vaz should never be given a Parliamentary pass again.


title: Keith Vaz

text: Valuable seafront land along the 700 metre stretch from Moti Daman Lighthouse to Jampore beach is claimed to be owned by indigenous tribal fishing communities who have lived there for generations, as well as by NRI Damanese predominantly living in Leicester. In December 2018, local residents received documents instructed by State Administrator Praful Khoda Patel ordering the confiscation of their land and demolition of homes to make way for development. With 11,000 Damanese living the Leicester East constituency, members of the community appealed to Keith Vaz, who flew out to Daman to meet Praful Patel. In January 2019 Vaz reported back:


title: Keith Vaz

text: "I believe that Mr Patel has a vision for Daman and he wants to develop it as a tourist and education centre. I was particularly impressed by the commitments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in order to enhance the development of Daman. Mr Patel promised that there would be no further demolitions until after the court has made its ruling and that he would talk to me about any further matters concerning this issue. I welcomed his constructive and positive approach."


title: Keith Vaz

text: However, by November, the bulldozing went ahead and the Daman protests began. On 3 November 2019, Daman Collector Rakesh Minhas issued a Section 144 order banning peaceful assembly of four or more persons, slogan-shouting and the use of loudspeakers across the entire district and ordered the conversion of two highschools into 'temporary jails'. 70 protesters were held in these 'temporary jails' and another 8 arrests were made. Few of the adivasi fisherfolk were rehoused whilst most languished traumatised and homeless on the streets near the rubble of their razed homes. , the site is now billionaire Binod Chaudhary of CG Corp Global's Fern Seaside Luxurious Tent Resort, offering tent accommodation to tourists for £57 per night.


title: Keith Vaz

text: Following the vote in October 2019 by MPs to endorse Vaz's suspension, the "Daily Telegraph" published an article asking: "Why is Keith Vaz even in Parliament?" The article noted that: "He resigned as a minister in 2001, was suspended in 2002, named in the 2009 expenses scandal... His ability to survive certainly suggests something in our democratic system is broken."


title: Keith Vaz

text: On 10 November 2019 Vaz said in a statement he was retiring from Parliament and would not be standing for re-election. His six-month suspension meant he would face an automatic contested re-selection.


title: Keith Vaz

text: The petition entitled "Remove the Gandhi statue in Leicester" alleges that Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India's independence movement against British rule, was a "fascist, racist and sexual predator". Vaz said that the "dreadful" petition, which came following weeks of George Floyd protests, "seeks to divide communities in Leicester and in the country. If this is not withdrawn I will certainly refer it to the police to consider whether it incites racial hatred."


title: Croatian cuisine

text: Croatian cuisine is heterogeneous and is known as a cuisine of the regions, since every region of Croatia has its own distinct culinary tradition. Its roots date back to ancient times. The differences in the selection of foodstuffs and forms of cooking are most notable between those in mainland and those in coastal regions. Mainland cuisine is more characterized by the earlier Slavic and the more recent contacts with Hungarian and Turkish cuisine, using lard for cooking, and spices such as black pepper, paprika, and garlic. The coastal region bears the influences of the Greek and Roman cuisine, as well as of the later Mediterranean cuisine, in particular Italian (especially Venetian). Coastal cuisines use olive oil, herbs and spices such as rosemary, sage, bay leaf, oregano, marjoram, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and lemon and orange rind. Peasant cooking traditions are based on imaginative variations of several basic ingredients (cereals, dairy products, meat, fish, vegetables, nuts) and cooking procedures (stewing, grilling, roasting, baking), while bourgeois cuisine involves more complicated procedures and use of selected herbs and spices. Charcuterie is part of the Croatian culinary tradition in all regions. Food and recipes from other former Yugoslav countries are also popular in Croatia.


title: Croatian cuisine

text: Croatian cuisine can be divided into several distinct cuisines (Dalmatia, Dubrovnik, Gorski Kotar, Istria, Lika, Međimurje, Podravina, Slavonija, Zagorje) each of which has specific cooking traditions, characteristic for the area and not necessarily well known in other parts of Croatia. Most dishes, however, can be found all across the country, with local variants.


title: Croatian cuisine

text: Stewed vegetables with a small amount of meat or sausages ("varivo" or "čušpajz") is perceived as a healthy, traditional meal. Sour cream (in Northern Croatia) or olive oil (on the coast) can be added to the plate just before serving. Stewed meat dishes are often prepared by men in open spaces, following hunting and shepherding traditions. In Dalmatian urban cuisine, spices such as cinnamon and clove, dried plums, dried figs, apples and other fruit are sometimes added to meat stews.


title: Croatian cuisine

text: Pasta is one of the most popular food items in Croatian cuisine, especially in the region of Dalmatia. "Manistra na pome" (pasta with tomato sauce) is a staple. The other popular sauces include creamy mushroom sauce, minced meat sauce and many others. Fresh pasta (, ) is added to soups and stews, or prepared with cottage cheese, cabbage, even with walnuts or poppy seed. Potato dough is popular, not only for making (gnocchi), but also for making plum or cheese dumplings which are boiled, and then quickly fried in breadcrumbs and butter.


title: Croatian cuisine

text: Soup is an integral part of a meal in Croatia and no Sunday family meal or any special occasion will go without it. The most popular soups are broth-based, with added pasta or semolina dumplings. They are usually light in order to leave space for the main course and dessert to follow. However, cream or roux-based soups are also popular, and there are many local variations of traditional soups.


title: Croatian cuisine

text: Croatia has two main wine regions: Continental (Kontinetalna) and Coastal (Primorska), which includes the islands. Each of the main regions is divided into sub-regions which are divided yet further into smaller vinogorje, (literally wine hills) and districts. Altogether, there are more than 300 geographically defined wine-producing areas in Croatia. In parts of Croatia, wine, either red or white, is sometimes consumed mixed in approximately two thirds wine and one third of mineral water.


title: Croatian cuisine

text: Apart from imported beers (Heineken, Tuborg, Gösser, Stella Artois, etc.), there are home-brewed and locally brewed beers in Croatia. A brewery based in Split produces Bavarian "Kaltenberg" beer by licence of the original brewery in Germany.


title: Croatian cuisine

text: Croatia is a country of coffee drinkers (on average 5kg per person annually), not only because it was formerly part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, but also because it bordered the former Ottoman Empire. Traditional coffee houses similar to those in Vienna are located throughout Croatia.


title: Croatian cuisine

text: Regarding its water resources, Croatia has a leading position in Europe. Concerning water quality, Croatian water is greatly appreciated all over the world. Due to a lack of established industries there have also been no major incidents of water pollution.


title: Steven Pressfield

text: Steven Pressfield (born September 1, 1943) is an American author of historical fiction, non-fiction, and screenplays, including his 1995 novel "The Legend of Bagger Vance" and 2002 non-fiction book "The War of Art".


title: Steven Pressfield

text: Pressfield was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1943, while his father was stationed there, in the Navy.


title: Steven Pressfield

text: Pressfield was an advertising copywriter, schoolteacher, tractor-trailer driver, bartender, oilfield roustabout, attendant in a mental hospital, fruit-picker in Washington state, and screenwriter. His struggles to make a living as an author, including the period when he was homeless and living out of the back of his car, are detailed in his 2002 book "The War of Art".


title: Steven Pressfield

text: Pressfield's first book, "The Legend of Bagger Vance", which was loosely based on the Bhagavad Gita, was published in 1995, and was made into a 2000 film of the same name directed by Robert Redford and starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and Matt Damon.


title: Steven Pressfield

text: His second novel, "Gates of Fire" (1998), is about the Spartans and the battle at Thermopylae. It is taught at the U.S. Military Academy, the United States Naval Academy, and the Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico.


title: Steven Pressfield

text: Prior to publishing his first original works of fiction, Pressfield wrote several Hollywood screenplays including 1986's "King Kong Lives", 1988's "Above the Law" starring Steven Seagal and directed by Andrew Davis, 1992's "Freejack", a work of science fiction starring Emilio Estevez, Mick Jagger, and Anthony Hopkins, and 1993's "Joshua Tree" (a.k.a. "Army of One") starring Dolph Lundgren and George Segal. "Joshua Tree" was directed by Academy Award and Bafta winning stuntman Vic Armstrong.


title: Steven Pressfield

text: His novel "The Legend of Bagger Vance" was made into a 2000 film starring Matt Damon as the golf pro and Will Smith as his spiritual guide and was widely criticized for its use of the "Magical Negro" as a plot device.


title: Steven Pressfield

text: Pressfield also appeared as one of the historians in The History Channel's 2007 documentary "Last Stand of the 300" and a commentator on an episode of the History Channel's "Decisive Battles" series featuring Alexander the Great on July 30, 2004.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Dona Maria Leopoldina of Austria (22 January 1797 – 11 December 1826) was the first Empress of Brazil as the wife of Emperor Dom Pedro I from 12 October 1822 until her death. She was also Queen of Portugal during her husband's brief reign as King Dom Pedro IV from 10 March to 2 May 1826.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: She was born in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, and his second wife, Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily. Among her many siblings were Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria and Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: The education Maria Leopoldina had received in childhood and adolescence was eclectic and broad, with a higher cultural level and more consistent political training. Such education of the little princes and princesses of the Habsburg family was based on the educational belief initiated by their grandfather Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, who believed "that children should be inspired from an early age to have high qualities, such as humanity, compassion and the desire to make people happy". With a deep Christian faith and a solid scientific and cultural background (which included international politics and notions of government) the Archduchess had been prepared from an early age to being a proper royal consort.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: In the 21st century, it has been proposed by some historians that she was one of the main articulators of the process of Independence of Brazil that took place in 1822. Her biographer, historian Paulo Rezzutti, maintains that it was largely thanks to her that Brazil became a nation. According to him, the wife of Dom Pedro "embraced Brazil as her country, Brazilians as her people and Independence as her cause". She was also adviser to Dom Pedro on important political decisions that reflected the future of the nation, such as the "Dia do Fico" and the subsequent opposition and disobedience to the Portuguese courts regarding the couple's return to Portugal. Consequently, for governing the country on Dom Pedro's trips through the Brazilian provinces, she is considered the first woman to become head of state in an independent American country.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina was born on 22 January 1797 at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Archduchy of Austria. She was the sixth (but third surviving) child of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (who from 1804, became Emperor of Austria with the title of Francis I, because Napoleon Bonaparte demanded that he renounce the title of Holy Roman Emperor when he was crowned Emperor of the French) but the fifth (third surviving) child and fourth (second surviving) daughter born from his second marriage with Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily. Her paternal grandparents were Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Luisa of Bourbon, Infanta of Spain and her maternal grandparents were King Ferdinand IV & III of Naples and Sicily (later King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies) and Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria. Through both parents (who are double first-cousins), Maria Leopoldina was descended from the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (one of the oldest and most powerful dynasties in Europe, which reigned over Austria from 1282 to 1918, among other territories that reigned and was the oldest reigning house in Europe at the time of Maria Leopoldina's birth) and from the House of Bourbon (a royal dynasty who at the time of her birth reigned over Spain, Naples, Sicily and Parma; the main branch of the family, who reigned in France since 1589, was dethroned after the French Revolution in 1792 but briefly restored during 1814–1830).


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: She was given the name "Caroline Josepha Leopoldine Franziska Ferdinanda", according to her main biographer Carlos H. Oberacker Júnior in his work "A Imperatriz Leopoldina: Sua Vida e Sua Época", and confirmed by Bettina Kann in her work "Cartas de uma Imperatriz" and other authors. In one of the essays presented in his work, Oberacker Júnior showed an excerpt of the publication made by the Austrian newspaper "Wiener Zeitung" on 25 January 1797, who gave the news of the birth of the Archduchess three days before with her full name; he also mentioned that the name "Maria" wasn't present in the preserved baptismal record of the Archduchess, which is in fact true. According to Oberacker Júnior, the Archduchess started using it already on his trip to Brazil, when dealing with some private businesses. In Brazil, she started to sign only Leopoldina, or using the first name Maria, as can be seen in her oath to the Constitution of Brazil in 1822. According to another theory presented by Oberacker Júnior, the Archduchess probably began to use the name "Maria" due to her great devotion to the Virgin Mary and to invoke her protection, and also because all her sisters-in-law used this name.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina was born during a turbulent period in European history. In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte became First Consul of France, and later became Emperor. He then began a series of conflicts and established systems of alliances known as "Coalitions" over Europe that frequently redefined the continent's borders. Austria was an active participant in all of the Napoleonic Wars, against France, her historical enemy. Napoleon shook the old European royal institutions, and fierce battles began through the Holy Roman Empire. Her older sister, Archduchess Maria Ludovika, married Napoleon in 1810, seeking to strengthen the ties between France and Austria. This union was undoubtedly one of the most serious defeats of the House of Habsburg; their maternal grandmother, Queen Maria Carolina of Naples and Sicily (who deeply hated everything about France after execution of her beloved sister Queen Marie Antoinette in 1793), grunted with her son-in-law's attitude: “It was precisely what I lacked, to now become the devil's grandmother”.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: On 13 April 1807, the 10-year-old Archduchess lost her mother after she suffered complications due to childbirth. A year later (6 January 1808), her father remarried to the woman Maria Leopoldina would later describe as the most important person in her life, Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: First-cousin of her husband and granddaughter of Empress Maria Theresa, the new Empress was well-educated and surpassed her predecessor in culture and intellectual brilliance. Muse and personal friend of the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, she was responsible for the intellectual formation of her stepdaughter, developing in Maria Leopoldina a taste for literature, nature and music by Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven. Because she had no children of her own, she willingly adopted those of her predecessor; Maria Leopoldina always considered her stepmother to be her mother and she grew up with Empress Maria Ludovika as her "spiritual mother". Thanks to her, the Archduchess had the chance of meeting Goethe in 1810 and 1812, when she went to Carlsbad with her stepmother.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina was raised according to the three Habsburg principles: discipline, piety and sense of duty. Her childhood was marked by a strict education, diverse cultural stimulation and successive wars that threatened her father's domains. She and her siblings were raised in accordance with the educational principles laid down by their grandfather, Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, who preached equality between men, treating everyone with courtesy, the need to practise charity, and above all, the sacrifice of their own desires for the needs of the State. Among these principles was the habit of exercising their handwriting by writing the following text:


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: The study program for Maria Leopoldina and her siblings included subjects such as reading, writing, dance, drawing, painting, piano, riding, hunting, history, geography and music; and in an advanced module, mathematics (arithmetic and geometry), literature, physics, singing and crafts. From an early age, Maria Leopoldina showed a greater inclination towards the disciplines of natural sciences, being mainly interested in botany and mineralogy. The Archduchess also inherited the habit of collecting from her father: she began collections of coins, plants, flowers, minerals and shells. Between October and December 1816, she was successful in quickly learning the Portuguese language; by December, the Archduchess was already speaking fluently with Portuguese diplomats, and lived "surrounded by maps of Brazil and books containing the History of this Kingdom, or Memories related to it". Language learning was part of the family formation, and Leopoldina became a notorious polyglot, speaking 7 languages: her native German, as well as Portuguese, French, Italian, English, Greek and Latin.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Leopoldina and her siblings were taken on frequent visits to museums, botanical gardens, factories and agricultural fields. And, not infrequently, they participated in dances, performed in plays and played instruments for an audience, with the intention of getting the children used to ceremonies and public exposure. The Habsburg Archudukes and Archduchesses were encouraged to attend the theatre in order to develop public speaking abilities, greater articulation and oratory skills.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: For centuries, royal marriages in Europe served primarily as political alliances. Through marriage, the geopolitical cartography of the European continent was shaped by a complex web of shared interests and solidarity between royal houses. The marriage between Maria Leopoldina and Dom Pedro de Alcântara, Prince Royal of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, was a strategic alliance between the monarchies of Portugal and Austria. With this union, the House of Habsburg-Lorraine fulfilled the famous motto: "Bella gerant alii, tu, felix Austria, nube" ("Let others wage war, thou, happy Austria, marry").


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: On 24 September 1816, it was announced by Emperor Francis I that Dom Pedro de Alcântara, wished to take a Habsburg Archduchess as his wife. Prince Klemens von Metternich suggested that it should be Maria Leopoldina to go get married, as it was "her turn" to become a wife. The Marquis of Marialva played an enormous role in the wedding negotiations, the same one who had negotiated, advised by Alexander von Humboldt, the coming to Brazil of the French Artistic Mission. King John VI did everything to include the Infanta Dona Isabel Maria (who would be regent of the Kingdom of Portugal from 1826 to 1828 and would die unmarried) in the negotiations. The Marquis of Marialva made a guarantee that the Portuguese royal family was determined to return to the continent as soon as Brazil demonstrated that it had surely "escaped the flames of the wars of independence that were advancing in the Spanish colonies", thus obtaining Austrian consent to marriage. Once this was secured, the contract was signed in Vienna on 29 November 1816.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Two ships were prepared, and in April 1817, scientists, painters, gardeners and a taxidermist, all with assistants, travelled to Rio de Janeiro ahead of Maria Leopoldina, who, in the meantime, studied the history and geography of her future home and learned Portuguese. During these weeks, the Archduchess compiled and wrote a vade mecum, a unique document the like of which has never been produced by any other Habsburg princess.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: The marriage "per procuram" (by proxy) between Maria Leopoldina and Dom Pedro took place on 13 May 1817 at the Augustinian Church in Vienna. The groom was represented by the bride's uncle, Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Through this marriage, King John VI saw the opportunity to counteract the excessive influence of England in its domains by forging new alliances with traditional dynasties. Austria, on the other hand, saw the new Portuguese-Brazilian Empire as an important transatlantic ally that fit perfectly with the reactionary, absolutist ideals of the Holy Alliance. In this way, the marriage was a purely political act, not a sentimental one.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina's trip to Brazil was difficult and time-consuming. The Archduchess left Vienna for Florence on 2 June 1817, where she awaited further instructions from the Portuguese court, since monarchical authority remained tenuous in Brazil since the Pernambucan revolt.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: On 13 August 1817, Maria Leopoldina was finally allowed to embark on her journey from Livorno, Italy, on the Portuguese fleet composed of the ships "D. João VI" and "São Sebastião". With her luggage and a large entourage, she faced 86 days of crossing the waters of the Atlantic. Forty boxes the height of a man contained her trousseau, books, collections and gifts for the future family. She brought also an impressive household: court ladies, a chambermaid, a butler, six ladies-in-waiting, four pages, six Hungarian nobles, six Austrian guards, six chamberlains, a chief Almoner, a chaplain, a private secretary, a doctor, a performer, a mineralogist and her painting teacher. The Archduchess definitively parted for Brazil two days later, on 15 August. The differences in habits and customs, already noticed in the period since she embarked, foreshadowed the difficulties that she would face in Rio de Janeiro. The first time she set foot on Portuguese territory, however, it was not on Brazilian land, but on Madeira Island, on 11 September.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: On 5 November 1817, Maria Leopoldina arrived to Rio de Janeiro, where she finally met her husband and his family. The next day, the official marriage ceremony took place at the "Capela Real" of Rio de Janeiro Cathedral amidst celebrations all over the city.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Upon her arrival, the physical appearance of Maria Leopoldina surprised the Portuguese royal family, who were awaiting a beautiful Archduchess. Instead, she was overweight, though with a beautiful face. However, she was also extraordinarily cultured for her time, with a keen interest in botany. The arrival provided Jean-Baptiste Debret with an occasion for his first commission, where he had 12 days to decorate the city. He had a studio in the Catumbi neighborhood, where as a naturalist, he later made drawings of plants and flowers for Maria Leopoldina. He would say: "I was in charge of graciously executing some drawings for her that she dared to ask for", he said, "in the name of his sister, former Empress of the French ". In his atelier, Debret designed the great gala uniforms of the court, in green and gold, the decorations of the new state, and previously designed the crown created by Napoleon in 1806 for the Kingdom of Italy. Debret also designed the insignia of the Order of the Southern Cross, comparable to the Medal of the Legion of Honor, and years later he also designed the Imperial Order of the Rose, instituted in honor of Dom Pedro's second wife, Amélie of Leuchtenberg.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: From a distance, the Portuguese Royal Prince initially appeared to his new wife as a perfect, well-educated gentleman, but the reality was very different. Dom Pedro was a year younger than Maria Leopoldina and rarely measured up to the descriptions she had been given by the matchmakers. His temperament was impulsive and choleric, and his education modest. Even spoken communication between the young married couple proved difficult, as Pedro spoke very little French and his Portuguese could only be described as vulgar. In addition, keeping with Portuguese tradition, the 18-year-old Dom Pedro not only had a string of amorous adventures behind him and was principally interested in horse racing and love affairs, but by the time of his marriage he was living as if in wedlock with French dancer Noemie Thierry, who was finally removed from the court by his father a month after Maria Leopoldina's arrival in Rio de Janeiro.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: The young married couple took up residence in six relatively small rooms in the Palace of São Cristóvão. The inner courtyard and path to the stables were unpaved and the tropical rainfall quickly turned everything to mud. There were insects everywhere, including in their clothing, for the uniforms and court regalia made of velvet and plush rotted and turned mouldy in the heat and humidity. The Prince von Metternich would intercept a letter from the Baron von Eschwege to his partner in Vienna in which he said: "Speaking of the Crown Prince, since he is not without natural intelligence, he is lacking in formal education. He was raised among horses, and the princess sooner or later you will realize that he is not able to coexist in harmony. Furthermore, the court of Rio is very boring and insignificant, compared to the courts of Europe".


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: In the wake of Maria Leopoldina's arrival, the first wave of immigrants arrived in Brazil; Swiss settlers who settled in the vicinity of the court, founding Nova Friburgo and settling in the future Petrópolis, the later Imperial summer residence. From 1824, due to the Brazilian campaign in Europe organized by Major Georg Anton Schäffer, the Germans arrived more numerous and settled again in Nova Friburgo and in the temperate regions of the provinces of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, where the colony of São Leopoldo was created in the new Royal Princess's honour. Some from Pomerania went to Espírito Santo, living until the 1880s in such complete isolation that they didn't even speak Portuguese.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Brazil had the privilege of being portrayed and studied by European artists and scientists of the first order long before other American countries. Still in the 17th century, in the context of the Dutch occupation of northeastern Brazil, Prince John Maurice of Nassau-Siegen brought to Brazil a significant group of collaborators, among which we can mention Willem Piso, a doctor who came to study tropical diseases; Frans Post, famous painter, then in his early twenties; Albert Eckhout, also a painter; cartographer Cornelius Golijath; the astronomer Georg Marggraf, who, with Piso, would be the author of "Historia Naturalis Brasiliae" (Amsterdam, 1648), the first scientific work on Brazilian nature. The Prince of Nassau-Siegen was also concerned with perpetuating the political events of his administration, entrusting Caspar Barlaeus with a history of his government in Brazil.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Once the Dutch were expelled, the Portuguese became aware that the recovery of the territory was the result of a series of happy circumstances, which could no longer be repeated, in the event of a new invasion of the territory of Portuguese America. In view of this situation, Portugal has taken the policy of the State to prohibit the access of its overseas possessions to any and all foreigners, even prohibiting the publication of any news or reference to American lands. This State policy was effectively followed by several generations, from the middle of the 17th century until the arrival of the royal family to Brazil and the consequent opening of Brazil to the world, symbolized by the Decree of Opening Ports to Friendly Nations ("Decreto de Abertura dos Portos às Nações Amigas"), first act signed by Prince Regent John, during his stay in Salvador, in 1808.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: The opening of the ports and the consequent revocation of the ban on the landing of foreigners in Brazilian lands, which coincided with a difficult time for European naturalists, as their transit through Europe was significantly hampered by the Napoleonic Wars, coupled with the lack of knowledge about this immense portion of the globe's territory, aroused enormous scientific interest in Europe. Parallel to this world context, Maria Leopoldina, since her first youth (around 14-years-old), started to show a special interest in the natural sciences, especially in geology and botany. This fact did not go unnoticed by her teachers and by her father, Emperor Francis I of Austria, who surprised the young Archduchess's interests (they thought it would be more natural for such inclinations to arise in one of her brothers), but did nothing to hinder the young Maria Leopoldina's studies.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Therefore, in 1817, when the forthcoming announcement of the wedding of Maria Leopoldina and Dom Pedro, immediately was organized, under the auspices of the Austrian court, (but also integrated by Bavarian scientists) what would become the main scientific expedition into the unknown (for science) Brazilian lands.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: In 1815 King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria was already planning a great scientific expedition through South America, but some setbacks occurred and the expedition was not carried out. So when in 1817 Maria Leopoldina embarked to Brazil for her wedding with Dom Pedro, the Bavarian sovereign took the opportunity and sent two of his subjects: Carl Friedrich Phillip von Martius, doctor and botanist, and Johann Baptist von Spix, zoologist, with the retinue of the Archduchess.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: In addition to these, Karl von Schreibers, Director of the Natural History Museum, under orders from Chancellor Prince von Metternich, prepared a mission with notable scientists who would accompany the Archduchess's entourage. Among the scientists were: Johann Christof Mikan, a botanist and entomologist; Johann Emanuel Pohl, physician, mineralogist and botanist; Johann Buchberger, flora painter; Johann Natterer, zoologist; Thomas Ender, painter; Heinrich Schott, gardener; and the Italian naturalist Giuseppe Raddi, this group aimed to collect specimens and make illustrations of people and landscapes for a museum to be founded in Vienna.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: The greatest interest was to trace the New World by researching plants, animals and Indians. All this fascination was due to the publication of the first volume of the book by the German geographer Alexander von Humboldt, "Le voyage aux régions equinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, fait en 1799–1804" ("The voyage to the equinoctial regions of the New Continent, made in 1799–1804") and Aimé Bonpland. Humboldt influenced several artists, for example Johann Moritz Rugendas, and the striking feature of his research, as well as that of Humboldtian artists, was to represent everything he saw in an encyclopedic way, that is, explaining in detail everything they saw.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina's well-known interest in sciences was noted in 1818 when she influenced her father-in-law to create the Royal Museum (the now National Museum of Brazil). Just a few months after her arrival in Brazil, was also created the first Brazilian Natural History Museum, which promoted scientists to explore Brazil. In September 1824, the British well-travelled and published writer Maria Graham arrived to Boa Vista and was given a friendly reception by Dom Pedro and Maria Leopoldina and granted full authority over the upbringing of their eldest daughter Maria da Glória, whose education at that time was widely neglected; soon Maria Leopoldina and her daughter's governess relationship quickly grew into an affectionate friendship, moreover because both shared a common interest in the sciences. Although after only six weeks Maria Graham was dismissed from her post by Dom Pedro, to Maria Leopoldina's dismay, both women's common interest allowed them to stay close to each other up until Maria Leopoldina's death: they wanted to get information that they were not privileged to because they were living in a male dominated world.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: The year 1821 was decisive in Maria Leopoldina's life. Belonging to one of the most conservative and enduring families in Europe (the House of Habsburg-Lorraine) she came from a careful education based on the molds of the absolutist monarchies of the time. In June 1821, a frightened Maria Leopoldina wrote to her father "My husband, God help us, loves the new ideas", suspicious of the new constitutional and liberal political values; she personally witnessed the events that took place in Europe years before, in which Napoleon Bonaparte systematically altered the political power of the continent, having a certain influence on his way of seeing these new political concepts. The conservative and traditional education of which the Archduchess had been disciplined also adds to this aspect.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina, previously lacking in affection and approval, quickly gives way to the adult woman who faces life without illusions. As the friction between Portugal and Brazil unfolded, she became increasingly involved in the turmoil of political events that preceded the Independence of Brazil. Her involvement with Brazilian politics would lead her to play a fundamental role in the later Independence, alongside José Bonifácio de Andrada. In this phase, she distances herself from the conservative (absolutist) ideas of the Vienna court and adopts a more liberal (constitutional) discourse in favor of the Brazilian cause.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: As a result of the Liberal Revolution that took place in Portugal in 1820, on 25 April 1821 the court was forced to return to Portugal. A squadron of 11 ships took King John VI, the court, the royal house and the royal treasury back to the continent, and only Dom Pedro remained in Brazil as regent of the country, with ample powers counterbalanced by a regency council. At first, the new Regent was incapable of dominating the chaos: the situation was dominated by the Portuguese troops, in anarchic conditions. The opposition between Portuguese and Brazilians became increasingly evident. It can be clearly seen in Maria Leopoldina's correspondence that she warmly espoused the cause of the Brazilian people and came to desire the country's Independence, which is why she is loved and venerated by the Brazilians.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina grew up fearing popular revolutions due to the example of her great-aunt Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France, guillotined during the French Revolution. However, the fear of revolutions that would diminish the powers of the monarchs by popular revolt as happened in France in 1789 and recently in Portugal in 1820 was not seen in Brazil: "As soon as the autonomist movement and then the independence movement won Dom Pedro and Dona Leopoldina as protagonists, the Brazilians saw them as allies for the first time, and not as tyrants who should be defeated to give up power".


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Prepared to maintain fidelity to the absolutist monarchy, Maria Leopoldina did not imagine that she would be Regent in the troubled moments that preceded the break with Portugal, nor that she would defend the Independence of Brazil even before Dom Pedro, in a clear attitude contrary to the education she received. The Austrian Archduchess was always on the side of the Brazilian cause and, in several letters written to her friends in Europe, began to distinguish between Portuguese and Brazilians, making it clear what she thought about Portuguese domination over the colony. With the return of the court to Portugal and the appointment of Dom Pedro as Prince Regent of Brazil (25 April 1821), Maria Leopoldina conceived that staying in America was the solution for the defense of dynastic legitimacy against the liberal excesses that threatened the power of the Houses of Habsburg and Bragança in Brazil. Dom Pedro, by the other hand, without any political experience and overwhelmed by the current unstable situation, constantly asked his father to released him from the regency and allowed him and his family to return to Portugal – in September 1821, six months after King John VI's departure, he wrote: "I beg Your Majesty most urgently to release me from this onerous task".


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina's determination to stay became even more staunch thanks to the support of José Bonifácio de Andrada, and educated man from São Paulo; with his help, she decisively convinced her husband that maintaining the territorial integrity of Brazil was only possible if they both remained there. Finally, on 9 January 1822 Dom Pedro solemnly declared: "Fico!" ("I am staying"). At the age of 24, Maria Leopoldina made a political decision that sentenced her to indefinite stay in America and would deprive her for the rest of her life from living near her father, siblings and other family members. Just as her sister Marie Louise married Napoleon Bonaparte with the intention of bringing political relations between the Austrian and the French Empires closer through this wedding, for Maria Leopoldina a role was kept in history much more relevant than that of her sister.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Two days later, the decision of the Prince-Regent to remain in Brazil caused outraged among the "Cortes" (the elected parliamentary representatives of the Brazilian people, who wanted that the whole royal family leave the country, after which Brazil would have been divided up into separate regions): government offices and buildings were burned – a revolution broke out. Dom Pedro and Maria Leopoldina were at the theatre at that moment; while he rode out with his troops against the "Cortes", Maria Leopoldina went onto the stage and announced: "Remain calm, my husband has everything under control!". With this announcement (who was greeted with jubilation) she placed herself firmly on the side of the Brazilian people.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: However, Maria Leopoldina's knew that her life was in danger; she hurriedly back to Boa Vista. Seven months pregnant at that moment, she took both her children, 3-years-old Maria da Glória and 11-months-old João-Carlos, into a coach and fled with them to Santa Cruz, in a perilous twelve-hour journey. The political situation soon calmed down and she was able to return with her children to Boa Vista. However, the young Prince João Carlos never recovered from the strain and died on 4 February 1822.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: At the end of 1821, a letter of Maria Leopoldina addressed to her secretary Schäffer makes it clear that she was, since that time, more decided by Brazil and by the Brazilians than Dom Pedro: it was necessary to stay in Brazil and go against the demands of the Portuguese court. Her "Dia do Fico" was earlier than that of her husband.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: In the Manifesto to the Friendly Nations, signed by Dom Pedro on 6 August 1822, the despotism of the courts of Lisbon was denounced in relation to Brazilian affairs and called upon the friendly nations of Brazil to deal directly with matters with Rio de Janeiro and no longer with the Portuguese government, explaining its cause and events from the point of view of Brazilians. In the same document, however, it is possible to observe that, even on the eve of the Proclamation of Independence, the Prince-Regent did not wish to dissolve the ties between Portugal and Brazil, but did not promise to defend the links between the two countries. That would be an ineffective measure of neutrality, since a month later the country would become independent. As a woman was not well regarded in the political environment, Maria Leopoldina acted by means of "specific advice and influencing others to her husband, [so] she was achieving her conquests". Dom Pedro, at first, avoided contact with the Brazilian idea of freedom, trying to maintain neutrality, aiming to avoid the probable punishment of losing his inheritance to the Portuguese throne if he disobeyed the courts. Maria Leopoldina realized that Portugal, dominated by the courts, was already lost and that Brazil still lay like a blank canvas, which could become a future power, much more relevant than the old metropolis: the court orders, if enforced, would eventually shatter Brazil into dozens of republics, as had happened with the Spanish colonies in South America. According to Ezekiel Ramirez, the signs of a nascent Brazilian unit as an independent nation in the southern provinces were visible, but the north supported the Lisbon Cortes and called for regional independence. If the Prince Regent had left the country at that moment, Brazil would be lost to Portugal because the courts of Lisbon repeated the same error that led the Spanish courts to lose the colonies, seeking to establish direct contacts with each province in particular.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina's attitude, defending Brazilian interests, is eloquently stamped in the letter he wrote to Dom Pedro, on the occasion of Brazil's independence:


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: In Rio de Janeiro, thousands of signatures collected required the regents to remain in Brazil. "José Bonifácio de Andrada's courageous attitude toward Portuguese arrogance greatly encouraged the aspirations for unity that existed in the southern provinces, especially in São Paulo. A highly educated men led this movement." After the "Dia do Fico" a new ministry was organized under the leadership of José Bonifácio, "a strictly monarchist", and the Prince-Regent soon won the trust of the people. On 15 February 1822 the Portuguese troops left Rio de Janeiro, and their departure represented the dissolution of the ties between Brazil and the metropolis. Dom Pedro was triumphantly received in Minas Gerais.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: When her husband traveled to São Paulo in August 1822 to pacify politics (which culminated in the proclamation of Brazil's Independence in September), Maria Leopoldina was appointed as his official representative, that is, as Regent in his absence. Her status was confirmed with a document of investiture dated 13 August 1822 in which Dom Pedro appointing her head of the Council of State and Acting Princess-Regent of the Kingdom of Brazil, giving her complete authority to take any necessary political decisions during his absence. Great was her influence in the process of independence. The Brazilians were already aware that Portugal intended to call Dom Pedro back, relegating Brazil again to the status of a simple colony rather than a kingdom united to that of Portugal. There were fears that a civil war would separate the Province of São Paulo from the rest of Brazil.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: The Princess-Regent received a new decree with demands from Lisbon arrived in Rio de Janeiro and, without time to wait for Dom Pedro's return, Maria Leopoldina, advised by José Bonifácio de Andrada, and using her attributes as interim head of government, met in the morning of 2 September 1822 with the Council of State and signed the Decree of Independence, declaring Brazil separate from Portugal. Maria Leopoldina send Dom Pedro a letter, along with another letter from José Bonifácio, as well as comments from Portugal criticizing the actions of her husband and King John VI. In her letter to her husband, the Princess-Regent suggests her husband to proclaim the Independence of Brazil, with the warning: "The fruit is ripe, pick it up, otherwise it will rot" ("O pomo está maduro, colha-o já, senão apodrece").


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Dom Pedro declared the Independence of Brazil upon receiving the letter of his wife on 7 September 1822 at São Paulo. Maria Leopoldina had also sent papers received from Lisbon, and comments from Antônio Carlos Ribeiro de Andrada, deputy to the courts, for which the Prince-Regent learned of criticism of him in the metropolis. The position of John VI and all his ministry, dominated by the courts, was difficult.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: While awaiting the return of her husband, Maria Leopoldina, the interim ruler of an already independent country, idealized the flag of Brazil, in which she mixed the green of the House of Braganza and the golden yellow of the House of Habsburg. Other authors say that Jean-Baptiste Debret, the French artist who designed what he saw in Brazil in the 1820s, was the author of the national pavilion that replaced that of the old Portuguese court, symbol of the oppression of the old regime. Debret is the design of the beautiful imperial flag, in collaboration with José Bonifácio de Andrada, in which the green rectangle of the Braganza represented the forests and the yellow rhombus, color of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, represented the gold. After that, Maria Leopoldina committed herself deeply in the recognition of the autonomy of the new country by the European courts, writing letters to the father, the Emperor of Austria, and to her father-in-law, the King of Portugal.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina became Brazil's first Empress consort, being acclaimed as such on 12 October 1822, at the coronation ceremony and consecration of her husband as Dom Pedro I, Constitutional Emperor and Perpetual Defender of Brazil. Due to Brazil's status as at the time the only monarchy in South America, Maria Leopoldina was the first Empress of the New World.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: First headquarters of the government, radiating center for metropolitan policies and strategic port, Bahia only lost its privileged situation in Brazil with the discovery of gold in the Hereditary Captaincy of Espírito Santo, and the region where the deposits were discovered by "Bandeirantes" was dismembered from the said captaincy and transformed in the province of Minas Gerais (dismemberment that was repeated as new deposits were discovered, causing the Captaincy of Espírito Santo to narrow Minas Gerais, in an ill-fated containment barrier against gold smuggling) and the subsequent transfer of the capital to Rio de Janeiro, in 1776. Salvador did not want to welcome the passing court, as it did in 1808, but permanently. In the process of separating from Portugal, Bahia hosted antagonistic currents: the pro-independence interior and the capital loyal to the court of Lisbon. After 7 September 1822, there was an armed struggle that gave victory to the imperial troops on 2 July 1823.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Bahian women actively participated in the patriotic battle. Maria Quitéria, enlisted clandestinely as a loyal soldier to the Brazilian cause, was described by Maria Graham and decorated by the Order of the Southern Cross by Emperor Pedro I. The oral tradition of Itaparica Island also records the role of Afro-Brazilian Maria Felipa de Oliveira, who would have led more than 40 black women and defending the Island. Already Sister Joana Angélica, Abbess of the Convent of Lapa, prevented with her own life the entry of Portuguese troops in the cloister.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Women's political awareness is also highlighted in the ""Carta das senhoras baianas à sua alteza real dona Leopoldina"", who congratulates the Princess-Regent for her part in the patriotic resolutions on behalf of her husband and the country. In the letter of 186 Bahian ladies, delivered by hand in August 1822, was express their gratitude for Maria Leopoldina's stay in Brazil. The Princess-Regent writes to her husband to express her views on the presence of women in politics, telling him that the attitude of those ladies "proves that women are more cheerful and are more adherent to the good cause". Despite not returning to host the government, Bahia played an important role in the regional political balance in favor of the Brazilian Empire. In recognition of the support obtained in the Independence process, the Emperor and Empress visited Salvador between February and March 1826.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: King John VI of Portugal died on 10 March 1826; Dom Pedro in consequence inherited the Portuguese throne as King Pedro IV, while remaining Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. Maria Leopoldina thus became both Empress consort of Brazil and Queen consort of Portugal. However, aware that a reunion of Brazil and Portugal would be unacceptable to the people of both nations, less than two months later, on 2 May, Dom Pedro hastily abdicated the crown of Portugal in favor of their eldest daughter Maria da Glória, who became Queen Dona Maria II.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: The Emperor's scandalous relationship with Domitila de Castro Canto e Melo, Marchioness of Santos, the public recognition of their illegitimate daughter, the appointment of the mistress as lady-in-waiting to the Empress, and the trip of the imperial couple together with the Marchioness of Santos to Bahia in the beginning of 1826 were events that left Maria Leopoldina totally humiliated, shaking her morally and psychologically. The daughter that the Emperor had with his mistress in May 1824 (only three months later, the Empress also gave birth) was officially legitimized by him, named Isabel Maria de Alcântara Brasileira and granted the title of Duchess of Goiás with the style of Highness and the right to use the honorific "Dona". In a letter to her sister Marie Louise, the Empress says: “The seductive monster is the cause of all my misfortunes”. Solitary, isolated, devoted only to giving birth to an heir to the throne (the future Emperor Dom Pedro II would be born in 1825), Maria Leopoldina became increasingly depressed. Since the beginning of November 1826, the Empress' health rapidly waned: cramps, vomiting, bleeding and delusions were frequent in her last weeks of her life, worsened by a new pregnancy.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina was loved by all the Brazilian people, and her popularity was even greater and more expressive than that of Dom Pedro. Rio de Janeiro began to monitor the severity of the Empress' disease. The ambassador of the Kingdom of Prussia, Theremim, related with respect the public demonstrations of love for the Empress to the court of Berlin:


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: On 7 December 1826, the "Diário Fluminense" reported that the people of Rio de Janeiro continued, in their anxiety, to seek at all times to know the "afflictive state" of the Empress:


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: On the afternoon of the previous day (6 December), as reported by the same newspaper (and later confirmed by Father Sampaio's sermon) several processions accompanying "the Sacred Images of the respective churches" were destined for the Imperial Chapel. According to Father Sampaio:


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: There are disagreements about the real cause of death of the first Empress of Brazil. For some authors, Maria Leopoldina would have died as a result of puerperal sepsis, while the Emperor was in Rio Grande do Sul, where he had inspected the troops during the Cisplatine War.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: The version that Maria Leopoldina died as a result of the attacks on her during a tantrum of her husband, is a widespread theory corroborated by historians such as Gabriac, Carl Seidler, John Armitage and Isabel Lustosa. The perception of real violence as the cause of death suffered a certain setback —even if a fatal assault did not necessarily reach the skeleton— with the recent exhumation of the Empress' remains where there was no bone fracture. This would have happened on 20 November 1826, when Maria Leopoldina would take over the regency so that the Emperor could travel to the South to deal with the war against Uruguay. Wanting to prove that the rumors about his extramarital relations and the bad climate between the Imperial couple were lies, Dom Pedro I decided to hold a large farewell reception where he demanded that both the Empress and his mistress the Marchioness of Santos appear together with him before the ecclesiastical and diplomatic dignitaries for the protocolary hand-kissing. With the fulfillment of this demand, Maria Leopoldina would have officially recognized her husband's mistress, and for this she defied Dom Pedro I's orders and refused to appear at the reception. The Emperor, known to have a volatile genius, had a bitter argument with his wife, and even tried to drag her around the palace, attacking her with words and kicks. At the end, he attended the hand-kissing ceremony accompanied only by the Marchioness of Santos and departed to the war with no resolution to the situation. There is no other witness of the aggression other than the three, and that the suspicions about the aggressions suffered were raised by the ladies and doctors who supported Maria Leopoldina afterwards. The reality of the facts was perhaps different:


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: The Empress, who had been in severe depression for months and in the 12th week of pregnancy, had a profoundly damaged health. Reportedly, she send a last letter to her sister Marie Louise, dictated to the Marchioness of Aguiar, in which she mentions the terrible attack she had suffered at the hands of her husband in the presence of his mistress; however, recent studies show that this last letter from Maria Leopoldina can be a fraud. The original, in French, was never found in any file, in Brazil or abroad. The copy in the Historical Archives of the Imperial Museum in Petrópolis, is written in Portuguese, with a single sentence in French saying that the transcription was made according to an original issued on 12 December 1826. This copy, used by all scholars until then, only appeared in Rio de Janeiro on 5 August 1834 (almost eight years after the Empress's death) to be registered with the notary Joaquim José de Castro. They served as witnesses to certify the origin of the letter César Cadolino, J. M. Flach, J. Buvelot and Carlos Heindricks. Of these, evidently two, Cadolino and Flach, were greatly indebted to Maria Leopoldina and for them was nothing better than to have a "confession" made by the Empress herself.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: During Maria Leopoldina's agony, the most diverse rumors arose: that the Empress was a prisoner at the Quinta da Boa Vista, that she was being poisoned by her doctor at the behest of the Marchioness of Santos, among others. Domitila de Castro's popularity, which was no longer the best, worsened, with her house in São Cristóvão being stoned and her brother-in-law, a butler of the Empress, received two shots. The Marchioness' right to preside over medical appointments of the Empress, as her lady-in-waiting, was denied, and ministers and officials of the palace suggested that she should not continue to attend court.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: The statement issued on 11 December to the Emperor about his wife's death reports seizures, high fever and delusions. Enjoying a great appreciation for the population, who admired her much more than her husband, her death was mourned by much of the nation.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: This version of events was propagated to Europe, and Dom Pedro I's reputation was so tarnished that his second marriage became very difficult. It is said that the first recipient of the Imperial Order of Dom Pedro I, Emperor Francis I of Austria, would have received the condecoration as an apology from the Brazilian emperor, his son-in-law.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Luiz Roberto Fontes —coroner who accompanied the forensic analysis of the imperial family carried out between March and August 2012—, said that a serious illness caused the miscarriage and death of Maria Leopoldina, and not a fight between the Imperial couple at Quinta da Boa Vista, in Rio de Janeiro, as he mentioned to the public in a lecture at the MusIAL (Museu do Instituto Adolfo Lutz):


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: The first threat of miscarriage occurred on 19 November, when the Empress had a small bleed. With the worsening of the condition during the week, she also suffered from fever and severe diarrhea, which indicate a dangerous intestinal hemorrhage for a pregnant woman.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: On 30 November, the delusions were added until medical records indicated the Empress miscarried a male fetus of about three-months-old of gestation on 2 December, days before her death. Even after losing the baby, Maria Leopoldina's health did not improve and started to have more and more delusions, fever and hemorrhages, "that is, she was in a clear septic picture, a picture of death", said the coroner.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina died at the São Cristóvão Palace in the Quinta da Boa Vista, located in the neighborhood of São Cristóvão, in the northern part of the city of Rio de Janeiro on 11 December 1826, five weeks before her 30th birthday. The funeral ceremony was chaired by Francisco do Monte Alverne, official preacher of the Empire of Brazil.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Her body, covered with the imperial mantle, was placed in three urns: the first made of Portuguese pine, the second made of lead (with its own Latin inscription, on which there was a skull with two crossed tibias, and on this, the imperial coat silver) and the third of cedar.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: She was buried on 14 December 1826 in the church of the Ajuda Convent (currently the Cinelândia). When the convent was demolished in 1911, her remains were transferred to the Santo Antônio Convent, also in Rio de Janeiro, where a mausoleum was built for her and some members of the imperial family. In 1954, her remains were definitively transferred to a green granite sarcophagus decorated with gold, in the Imperial Chapel, under the Ipiranga Monument, in the city of São Paulo.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Although she is portrayed as a melancholic woman and humiliated by the scandals and extramarital relations of Dom Pedro I (representing her as the fragile link in the love triangle), the most recent historiography has claimed to Maria Leopoldina a less passive image in national history.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina had great prominence in Brazilian politics, either when the Portuguese court returned to Portugal, or behind the scenes of the friction between Brazil and Portugal until the moment of Independence in 1822. While Dom Pedro I still maintained the possibility of maintaining the United Kingdom with Portugal, Maria Leopoldina had already found that the most prudent path was the total emancipation of the metropolis. Maria Leopoldina's intellectual and political education, combined with her strong sense of duty and sacrifice on behalf of the State, were fundamental to Brazil, especially after King John VI, under Portuguese pressure, was forced to return to Lisbon. In view of the fact that she was an Archduchess of Austria and member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and who had been educated under an aristocratic and absolutist regime, Maria Leopoldina did not hesitate to defend ideals and more representative forms of government for Brazil, influenced by liberalism and constitutionalism.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Brazilians had great respect and admiration for Maria Leopoldina from the first moments when she set foot in Brazil. Very popular (a view even stronger among the poorest and slaves), from the moment of her death she had started to be called the "Mother of Brazilians". Petitions were made for the Empress to receive the title of "Guardian Angel of this nascent Empire". During the period in which she was ill in her last days of life, processions were carried out on the streets of Rio de Janeiro; churches and chapels filled with people in deep sadness. The news of her death caused a stir throughout the city. The people took to the streets in tears, and there are reports of slaves who lamented with screams: “Our mother died. What will become of us? Who will take sides with blacks?”. With her death, the popularity of Dom Pedro I, allied to the problems of the first reign, declined considerably. The writer and biographer of her life, Carlos H. Oberacker Júnior, says that "rarely has a foreigner been so dear and recognized by a people like her".


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: During her life, Maria Leopoldina looked for ways to end slavery. In an attempt to change the type of labor in Brazil, the Empress encouraged European immigration to the country. Maria Leopoldina's arrival in Brazil fostered the beginning of German immigration to the country, first coming from the Swiss, settling in Rio de Janeiro and founding the city of Nova Friburgo. Then, to populate southern Brazil, the Empress encouraged the Germans to come. The presence of Maria Leopoldina in South America attracted attention as a way to "propagandize" Brazil among the Germanic milieu.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: The importance and relevance of the Empress on Brazilian soil is also due to the fact of the scientific mission that accompanied her on a journey from the Italian Peninsula, composed of European painters, scientists and botanists. As Maria Leopoldina was interested in botany and geology, two German scientists came with her: botanist Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius and zoologist Johann Baptist von Spix, known names in the natural sciences of the 19th century, in addition to the traveling painter Thomas Ender. The research of this mission resulted in the works "Viagem pelo Brasil" and "Flora Brasiliensis", a compendium of approximately 20,000 pages with classification and illustration of thousands of species of native plants. Together, the scientists traveled another 10,000 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro to the borders with Peru and Colombia.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina's stance in refusing to return to Portugal still divides opinions, because while for a group of writers that was a revolutionary attitude, for others the Archduchess was just a strategist. For Maria Celi Chaves Vasconcelos, a professor at UERJ and a specialist in the education of noble women, there is not the slightest trace of rebellion in any writing by or about Maria Leopoldina: "Would it be revolutionary because it influenced Dom Pedro in the Proclamation of Independence? I don't think there is any revolutionary trait there; I think she was, perhaps, knowledgeable enough about political history to make the correct judgment about the moment lived and how much he was conducive to Independence", defends the researcher. "Regardless of the reasons that made Maria Leopoldina stay in Brazil, the Empress must be interpreted as a revolutionary woman because she was the first to make politics in the high sphere of Brazilian decisions", defends historian Paulo Rezzutti.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Empress Maria Leopoldina has already been portrayed as a character in cinema and television, being played by Kate Hansen in the film "Independência ou Morte" (1972), by Maria Padilha in the miniseries "Marquesa de Santos" (1984) and by Érika Evantini in the miniseries "O Quinto dos Infernos" (2002).


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: Maria Leopoldina's life was also the subject of the 1996 plot of the samba school "Imperatriz Leopoldinense", whose name already derives indirectly from her (because the school is based in the area of the Estrada de Ferro Leopoldina, named in honor of the Empress). On the occasion, the carnival designer and professor Rosa Magalhães received support from the Austrian government for the parade.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: In 2007, the actress Ester Elias gave life to Maria Leopoldina in the musical "Império", by Miguel Falabella, which tells part of the history of the Empire of Brazil.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: In 2018, Maria Leopoldina and "Imperatriz Leopoldinense" were honored by the "Tom Maior" samba school, at the São Paulo carnival.


title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria

text: By June 1818 Maria Leopoldina became pregnant, and her first child, Maria da Glória, was born after a difficult delivery on 4 April 1819. Her next pregnancy ended in a miscarriage in November 1819, and on 26 April 1820 she suffered her second miscarriage; the child, a son, was named Miguel in honor of his paternal uncle and died almost immediately. These failed pregnancies had a profound effect in Maria Leopoldina, who, conscient about her primary duty to bore an heir to the House of Bragança, became depressed and withdraw from society for a time. Her first living son, João Carlos, Prince of Beira, was born on 6 March 1821, to the joy of the court and population, but died on 4 February 1822 aged 11 months. Her next three pregnancies resulted in three daughters, Januária (born 11 March 1822), Paula (born 17 February 1823) and Francisca (born 2 August 1824) until the birth of the long-hoped son and heir, the future Emperor Dom Pedro II, on 2 December 1825. Her ninth and last pregnancy resulted fatal on her, and she died of complications of a miscarriage.


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: Sleigh Bells is an American musical duo based in Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2008 and consisting of vocalist Alexis Krauss and guitarist/producer Derek E. Miller. They became known for their overdriven style of noise pop, which incorporates elements from various genres including pop, hip hop, metal, and punk.


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: After signing to M.I.A.'s N.E.E.T. Recordings and the independent label Mom + Pop Music, Sleigh Bells released their debut album "Treats" (2010) to critical acclaim. They followed with "Reign of Terror" (2012), "Bitter Rivals" (2013), and "Jessica Rabbit" (2016). Their fifth album, "Texis", was released in September 2021.


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: The two members of Sleigh Bells—Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss—had previous experience performing and touring in a musical ensemble. From age 17 to 22, Miller was a guitarist in the post-hardcore band Poison the Well. He played on the band's first three albums, but left in 2004, citing creative differences with the other band members as a key factor for his departure. Krauss meanwhile has a background in theater and television. As a child she appeared in a "Nickelodeon Magazine" commercial, and starred in a community production of the musical Annie. From age 12 to 16, Krauss performed in the teen pop group RubyBlue. After RubyBlue broke up, Krauss went to college (majoring in political science), taught Spanish at an elementary school in The Bronx, and performed at weddings on the side for fun.


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: In March 2008, Miller moved to New York City expressly to find a female vocalist for some song demos he was working on. "I'm just obsessed with female vocalists. I don't want to say I was really determined, but I was really determined," said Miller. He began working at a Brazilian bistro in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and in July, Krauss and her mother dined at the restaurant. Miller expressed his interest in finding a female vocalist for his new project and Krauss was volunteered by her mother. The two met in a park, where she listened to Miller's demos. In a 2012 interview, Krauss recalled her first impressions, saying: "Derek's music sounded like a really interesting challenge, but I wasn't thinking he was somebody I wanted to develop a creative relationship with." Krauss was pursuing a Rhodes Scholarship at the time, but decided to pair up with Miller instead. The band name Sleigh Bells comes from the phrase Miller used to delineate CD-Rs with demos he had worked on.


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: From the beginning, Miller and Krauss set high expectations for themselves, with the goal to make a living off of their music. Krauss noted that when the two began recording together for the first time, Miller wanted to be in control. "It was like a really interesting session gig for me...I always knew it was Derek's thing — he was producing and writing the songs. He had very specific ideas about what the vocals should be like."


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: The duo performed at the CMJ Music Marathon in October 2009. They signed to M.I.A.'s N.E.E.T. Recordings and Mom + Pop Music in March 2010. The two quickly got in the studio and recorded a seven-track self-titled EP. Their EP soon gained attention from "The Guardian", "The New York Times", "Pitchfork", ABC News's Amplified, and other sources. Stereogum named them a Band to Watch on October 22, 2009. "The Guardian" named them Band of the Day in December 2009. Their song "Crown on the Ground" was named the 57th best track of 2009 by "Pitchfork". Miller produced the track "Meds and Feds" with M.I.A. from the album "Maya" towards the end of 2009, and began recording "Treats" with Krauss in 2010. All but one of the tracks from "Sleigh Bells EP" have been subsequently included on studio albums. Songs "Rill Rill", "Crown on the Ground", "Beach Girls" (later renamed "Kids"), "Infinity Guitars", and "A/B Machines" were released on 2010s "Treats". The final track on the extended play, "2HELLWU", was eventually reworked into the "Bitter Rivals" track "To Hell with You", released in October 2013.


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: The group released "Tell 'Em", the first single from their debut album, "Treats", as a free download in April 2010. "Treats" was released in May 2010 by Mom + Pop Music. "Alarm Magazine" later stated that the album established the band as "the new master of noise pop, infusing overblown electro beats and crunchy, gritty guitars into raucous compositions," concluding that "it was an unapologetic exploration of pushing 'pop' music to its threshold and crossing it."


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: They performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2010 and 2011, the Primavera Sound Festival in May 2010, and the Pitchfork Music Festival in July 2010.


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: Sleigh Bells began tracking songs for their second studio album in June 2011. Describing the sound of the new album, Krauss said, "It sounds really huge, so there's going to still be tons of volume."


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: On December 2, 2011, the band's website began to link to a Vimeo video. It served as a teaser trailer for the upcoming album, revealing the title to be "Reign of Terror". There was no release date or any other information attached to the trailer. The trailer features scenes of Krauss sitting at a vanity mirror, grooming herself, interspersed with various backstage and live concert footage, as well as footage depicting the band's touring. For the duration of the video, a riff plays in the background and serves as the only sound. This was later featured in "Rainmaker" on "Kid Krushchev".


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: On December 7, 2011, the band announced via press release both the date of the album's release and the track listing. The band's publicist said of the upcoming release, "[The album features] songs that are as crushing and authoritative as their title suggests; they're effortlessly robust and heavier than any of the band's previous output ... the sonic equivalent of a beautiful shotgun to the head." The album's promotional single, "Born to Lose", was released on December 15, 2011. In an interview with webzine Coup de Main, Krauss was quoted as saying that "Reign of Terror" is "a much more personal record".


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: The album was originally set to be released on February 14, 2012, but was pushed back to February 21. Along with the announcement of the release date and track listing, Sleigh Bells also announced a tour of strictly Floridian venues. This tour preceded the release of the album.


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: Sleigh Bells made their network television debut on the February 18, 2012 episode of "Saturday Night Live", performing the songs "Comeback Kid" and "End of the Line". On August 16, 2012, the duo announced a US tour, which kicked off at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle on August 28 and concluded at First Avenue in Minneapolis on November 2, including dates with Swedish hardcore punk band Refused and American DJ AraabMuzik.


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: Only a few months after the release of "Reign of Terror", Sleigh Bells began writing a third studio album for a possible 2013 release. Before the end of 2012, the album was said to feature more writing from Krauss and with a cleaner sound. The album, titled "Bitter Rivals", was released on October 8, 2013, through Mom + Pop Music. The album was partially inspired by the music of Janet Jackson. According to Krauss, several tracks would feature dynamic acoustic riffs and R&B-ish vocals. In an interview with "Rolling Stone" magazine, Krauss clarified the new style of the album, saying, "I was interested in doing something Beyoncé or Janet Jackson would do, these slow-winding, sparkling melodies." A music video directed by Sleigh Bells for the album's title track, "Bitter Rivals", was released in September 2013. The band toured North America in October and November 2013 in support of "Bitter Rivals" with Doldrums and Danny Brown as support.


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: On December 7, 2015, Sleigh Bells premiered a new song titled "Champions of Unrestricted Beauty", while announcing they were finishing up their fourth studio album. The duo released the single "Rule Number One" on June 7, 2016, followed by "Hyper Dark" on July 19. On August 24, Sleigh Bells announced both the release date and track listing of their upcoming fourth studio album, "Jessica Rabbit". The album was released on November 11, 2016, marking the first release on the duo's own label, Torn Clean, in partnership with Sinderlyn.


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: It was announced on October 10, 2017, that the duo would release a mini-album titled "Kid Kruschev" on November 10, 2017. On the same day, the lead single "And Saints" was released. "Rainmaker" was released as the second single on October 24.


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: In summer 2021, "Texis" was announced to be released September 10, with a leading single and music video for "Locust Laced".


title: Sleigh Bells (band)

text: The band's music has been known for its juxtaposition of simple pop hooks with loud, rhythmic noise, electronic beats, harsh guitar riffs and dreamy vocals, which has been described mainly as noise pop. The band's music also has been described as noise rock, indie rock, dance-punk, electropunk, digital hardcore, experimental pop, alternative rock, and industrial rock. While their debut album, "Treats", was noted for its punk and heavy metal guitars, glam metal influences and mid-tempo beats from hip hop and electro, their second album, "Reign of Terror", was also described as a mixture of "heavy metal shredding with R&B vocals".