page_title: Pedro Afonso, Prince Imperial of Brazil
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Pedro Afonso, Prince Imperial of Brazil / Infancy and early death / Death
caption_attribution_description: Português: Palácio de Santa CruzEnglish: Palace of Santa Cruz Estate, for long a rural property of the House of Braganza (Royal and later Imperial Family of Brazil)
context_page_description: Dom Pedro Afonso was the Prince Imperial and heir apparent to the throne of the Empire of Brazil. Born at the Palace of São Cristóvão in Rio de Janeiro, he was the second son and youngest child of Emperor Dom Pedro II and Dona Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies, and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza. Pedro Afonso was seen as vital to the future viability of the monarchy, which had been put in jeopardy by the death of his older brother Dom Afonso almost three years earlier.
  Pedro Afonso's death from fever at the age of one devastated the Emperor, and the imperial couple had no further children. Pedro Afonso's older sister Dona Isabel became heiress, but Pedro II was unconvinced that a woman could ever be accepted as monarch by the ruling elite. He excluded Isabel from matters of state and failed to provide training for her possible role as empress. With no surviving male children, the Emperor came to understand that the imperial line was destined to end with his own death.
context_section_description: In 1847 and the two following years, Pedro II and his family spent the summer at Petrópolis. The traditional summer residence of the imperial family was at Santa Cruz Estate, a rural property that had belonged to the Braganzas for generations. The shift to Petrópolis seemed an unwelcome novelty among members of the court, "who disliked any change that threatened the established ways and interests". Bowing to tradition, the Emperor decided to again summer at Santa Cruz in 1850. During the imperial family's stay at the rural estate, Pedro Afonso and his sister Isabel were struck by fever. The princess eventually recovered, but the Prince Imperial died of convulsions at 04:20 on 10 January. Contemporaries argued that either encephalitis or a congenital disorder may have caused his death.
  Pedro II regarded the death of his son as "the most fatal blow that I could ever receive, and certainly I would not have survived were it not that I still have a wife and two children". The Emperor wrote to his brother-in-law Dom Fernando II, King-consort of Portugal: "By the time you receive this, you will certainly have learnt of the grievous loss I have undergone ... God who has made me pass through so hard a testing, will in his mercy give me grounds to console my sorrows." Pedro II had already lost another son, Dom Afonso, almost three years earlier. He revealed his inner turmoil in a sonnet: "Twice already I have suffered death, for the father dies who sees his son is dead." Except for brief inspection visits, the Emperor avoided Santa Cruz thereafter.
  A grand funeral was held for the Prince Imperial two days after his death. The streets were crowded with ordinary people who greatly mourned the prince's death. So remarkable was the event that tourists paid for the privilege of watching the funeral procession from a hotel in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Pedro Afonso was buried in the mausoleum of the Convento de Santo Antônio (Convent of Saint Anthony) in Rio de Janeiro.
caption: The Santa Cruz Estate a couple of decades before Pedro Afonso's death
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