page_title: Amélie of Leuchtenberg
section_title: Return to Europe
hierarchical_section_title: Amélie of Leuchtenberg / Return to Europe
caption_attribution_description: English: Emperor Pedro I of Brazil with his second wife (Empress Amélie) and eldest daughter (Queen Maria II of Portugal), just a few months before Pedro's death
context_page_description: Amélie of Leuchtenberg, was Empress of Brazil as the wife of Pedro I of Brazil.
  She was the granddaughter of Josephine de Beauharnais, Empress of the French. Her father, Eugène de Beauharnais, was the only son of Empress Josephine and her first husband Alexandre, Viscount of Beauharnais. He thus became a stepson of Napoleon Bonaparte when his mother married the future emperor. The mother of Empress Amélie was Princess Augusta, daughter of Maximilian I, King of Bavaria.
context_section_description: After Dom Pedro I abdicated the crown, Amélie accompanied her husband back to Europe. They now held the titles of Duke and Duchess of Braganza. She was three months pregnant and suffered badly from nausea on the sea voyage. After resupplying the ship at Faial Island in the Azores, they arrived at Cherbourg, in France, on 10 June 1831. They were received with the honors appropriate to reigning monarchs, greeted with a 21-gun cannon salute and by a detachment of 5,000 soldiers of the National Guard. The prefecture of the city offered them a palace as accommodation, but a mere ten days after their arrival Dom Pedro left for London, leaving behind Amélie, who was reunited with Maria da Glória the 23rd of the same month.
  Amélie soon established residence in Paris, with Maria da Glória and with Dom Pedro's illegitimate daughter Isabel Maria, Duchess of Goiás, whom Amélie ended up adopting as her own daughter. On 30 November 1831 Amélie gave birth to Princess Maria Amélia, who would prove to be her only child. Her father expressed his happiness in a letter to young Dom Pedro II: "Divine Providence has seen fit to diminish the sadness my paternal heart feels for the separation from V.M.I. (Vossa Majestade Imperial, "Your Imperial Majesty") giving to me a daughter and, to V.M.I., another sister and subject".
  Meanwhile, Dom Pedro I, as Duke of Braganza, began a bloody battle against his brother Dom Miguel I of Portugal for the Portuguese crown, in the name of his daughter Maria da Glória. Upon receiving the news of the Duke's victory in Lisbon, Amélie left with her daughter and stepdaughter for Portugal, arriving in the capital on 22 September 1833. With Miguel defeated and exiled from Portugal, Dom Pedro and his family established themselves first at Ramalhão Palace and later at Queluz National Palace.
caption: Emperor Pedro I of Brazil with his second wife Amélie and eldest daughter Queen Maria II of Portugal, just a few months before Pedro's death, 1834.
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