# "The Apple is Ripe; Pick It Now Or It Will Rot"

An episode of [Noble Blood](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1468332063), 1 Sep 2026, 35 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/arttrk.com/p/D5CA5/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/55b20558-9add-4d0b-8c42-ae300188d1aa/c7e28819-ca89-4b9e-8fba-b4b70102f233/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=0bfdba5f-fcca-4c2f-8772-ae300188d1b8

Leopoldina married into the royal family of Portugal, which meant moving to Brazil with her husband. But civil war was bubbling on both sides of the Atlantic, and while her husband was out of town and Leopoldina was serving as Princess Regent, she would be faced with making a fateful decision that would define the future of her country. Support Noble Blood: —ORDER 'THE ARCANE ARTS' — Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon — Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story' See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim &
[0:04] Speaker 1: Mild from Aaron Menke. Listener discretion advised. Call it coincidence,
[0:12] Speaker 1: call it destiny, call it the inevitable escalation of transatlantic colonization,
[0:19] Speaker 1: but to Princess Leopoldina, the whole predicament was a royal pain.
[0:26] Speaker 1: On the morning of September 2nd, 1822, as she marched
[0:31] Speaker 1: through her palace in Brazil in order to meet with
[0:34] Speaker 1: her top advisor and council of state, the cruel irony
[0:38] Speaker 1: of her situation was surely not lost on her. The
[0:43] Speaker 1: decree that she had just received from Portugal pitted Leopoldina's
[0:48] Speaker 1: past against her present, her innermost desires against the strictures
[0:55] Speaker 1: of her station. because she was a princess caught between worlds.
[1:01] Speaker 1: Leopoldina had grown up in a sprawling imperial palace in Vienna, Austria,
[1:08] Speaker 1: but the hall in which she was hunkering down to
[1:10] Speaker 1: strategize with that September was in the relatively quaint royal
[1:16] Speaker 1: residence known as Quinta de la Boa Vista in Rio
[1:20] Speaker 1: de Janeiro, Brazil. Leopoldina lived there with her husband, Dom
[1:25] Speaker 1: Pedro I, who was Prince Regent of Brazil and heir
[1:30] Speaker 1: to the Portuguese throne. Except his family's status had been
[1:35] Speaker 1: getting increasingly shaky on both sides of the Atlantic, with
[1:40] Speaker 1: a potential revolution brewing back in Portugal. At this point,
[1:46] Speaker 1: Leopoldina's husband wasn't even with her in the palace in
[1:50] Speaker 1: Rio de Janeiro. He was off in Sao Paulo, since
[1:54] Speaker 1: there were also civil war tensions for him to try
[1:57] Speaker 1: and quell throughout Brazil. Although Dom Pedro was reportedly not
[2:02] Speaker 1: a particularly skilled ruler, he had at least had the
[2:07] Speaker 1: sense to name his insightful wife as acting Princess Regent
[2:13] Speaker 1: while he was out of town, meaning she was temporarily
[2:18] Speaker 1: in charge of the entire Kingdom of Brazil. But if
[2:22] Speaker 1: she had any grand plans for overhauling flawed judicial systems,
[2:28] Speaker 1: enacting sweeping public measures, or even sprucing up her beloved stables,
[2:34] Speaker 1: she would hardly get the chance. Because a little over
[2:37] Speaker 1: two weeks into her regency, the Portuguese parliament sent a decree,
[2:43] Speaker 1: and they demanded that Dom Pedro immediately return to Portugal.
[2:50] Speaker 1: What would Leopoldina do? On the one hand, she yearned
[2:56] Speaker 1: to go back to Europe and be closer to home.
[2:59] Speaker 1: On the other hand, agreeing to leave Brazil carried immense risk.
[3:05] Speaker 1: Because this was no cordial request for a family reunion.
[3:10] Speaker 1: The aggressive message represented the culmination of years of fierce
[3:15] Speaker 1: tension between liberal-leaning political factions. conniving parliamentary representatives and Don
[3:23] Speaker 1: Pedro's royal family. And in a frantic window that encapsulated
[3:28] Speaker 1: Leopoldina's fraught life, it was up to her to find
[3:33] Speaker 1: a favorable path forward between adopted cultures and warring empires.
[3:39] Speaker 1: Leopoldina called her emergency morning meeting, knowing that an entire
[3:45] Speaker 1: country's sovereignty— the along with major dynastic implications and countless lives,
[3:53] Speaker 1: all hung in the balance. Ratcheting up the pressure even
[3:57] Speaker 1: further was the fact that she had only mere hours
[4:01] Speaker 1: to make her momentous decision. As Leopoldina had found countless
[4:06] Speaker 1: times before in her life, life as a princess was
[4:10] Speaker 1: no fairy tale. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood.
[4:17] Speaker 1: Leopoldina had not met her husband prior to their marriage.
[4:22] Speaker 1: Don Pedro I was a pretty big deal, and he
[4:25] Speaker 1: had to be, because Maria Leopoldina, as she would later
[4:29] Speaker 1: be called in Brazil, came from an exceedingly noble line herself,
[4:34] Speaker 1: the famed Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty. Leopoldina's father was the last emperor
[4:40] Speaker 1: of the Holy Roman Empire. Her mother had the distinction
[4:44] Speaker 1: of being the first empress of Austria. Leopoldina's many siblings
[4:49] Speaker 1: had numerous titles and crowns, and her sister Maria Louise
[4:54] Speaker 1: had even married Napoleon Bonaparte. In short, Leopoldina's family ran
[5:00] Speaker 1: a large amount of Europe, and in the Portuguese house
[5:04] Speaker 1: of Braganza, they had seemingly selected a worthy groom. Prince Pedro,
[5:11] Speaker 1: later known as Dom Pedro I, was heir to the
[5:15] Speaker 1: throne that ruled Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves. However, in
[5:20] Speaker 1: the years leading up to marriage negotiations, his family had
[5:25] Speaker 1: become heavily reliant on the British, having sought their protection
[5:30] Speaker 1: when the French army had invaded Portugal back in 1807.
[5:35] Speaker 1: The perceived danger back then was so extreme that the
[5:39] Speaker 1: royal family had fully fled to go live in Brazil.
[5:43] Speaker 1: But even from across the Atlantic, like so many other
[5:47] Speaker 1: powerful houses at that time, Dom Pedro's family looked to
[5:52] Speaker 1: solidify their sovereign position through strategic marriages. Per many sources,
[5:59] Speaker 1: Leopoldina had received a stellar education while growing up in
[6:03] Speaker 1: Schönbrunn Palace, and she no doubt would have been aware
[6:08] Speaker 1: of the typical marital trajectories of princesses. That said, according
[6:13] Speaker 1: to many of her surviving letters, the marriage that her
[6:17] Speaker 1: parents arranged for her was especially daunting because, again, the
[6:23] Speaker 1: Portuguese royal family was living in Brazil at this time.
[6:28] Speaker 1: So marrying Prince Pedro meant moving to an entirely new continent.
[6:34] Speaker 1: Not only did Leopoldina, the 20-year-old bride, never meet the
[6:39] Speaker 1: 19-year-old Don Pedro before the wedding, she didn't even meet
[6:44] Speaker 1: him at the wedding. He remained in Rio de Janeiro
[6:48] Speaker 1: and sent an emissary to Vienna, the Marquise of Marialva.
[6:53] Speaker 1: The arrival of the Marquise was reportedly met with great fanfare.
[6:58] Speaker 1: Leopoldina's written recollections suggest a much more wary personal attitude,
[7:05] Speaker 1: but the Marquise apparently charmed her with charisma and several
[7:10] Speaker 1: lavish gifts. These included a glitzy, diamond-studded necklace that contained
[7:17] Speaker 1: a small, painted portrait of Dom Pedro. Thankfully, he seemed
[7:22] Speaker 1: handsome enough. More importantly, the Marquise reportedly assured Leopoldina that
[7:29] Speaker 1: Dom Pedro was intelligent, thoughtful, and cultured. This seemed to
[7:35] Speaker 1: boost her optimism prior to the wedding, and on May 13, 1817,
[7:41] Speaker 1: she participated in a marriage by proxy, in which her
[7:45] Speaker 1: uncle acted as a stand-in for the groom. With the
[7:49] Speaker 1: formalities completed, Leopoldina prepared for her voyage overseas to with
[7:54] Speaker 1: apparent enthusiasm. She assembled a large entourage, invited scientists, started
[8:01] Speaker 1: learning Portuguese, and even packed up a sizable amount of
[8:05] Speaker 1: botanical specimens. Meanwhile, the Brazilian court prepared to greet their
[8:11] Speaker 1: new princess. According to several accounts, news of her arrival
[8:16] Speaker 1: spawned a wide range of reactions, both among the nobility
[8:21] Speaker 1: and the larger populace. While there was a general curiosity
[8:26] Speaker 1: about the powerful princess sailing their way, there was also trepidation.
[8:32] Speaker 1: This was largely due to the fact that, like in
[8:36] Speaker 1: other South American countries at this time, there were steady
[8:40] Speaker 1: rumblings of dissatisfaction with the overall monarchical system. Even so,
[8:48] Speaker 1: the possibility that Leopoldina might provide an heir to the
[8:52] Speaker 1: throne also did purportedly help ease widespread worries about a
[8:58] Speaker 1: future succession crisis. Leopoldina finally arrived in Rio in November
[9:04] Speaker 1: of 1817. And after all the buildup, things actually seemed
[9:10] Speaker 1: to go fairly well. Multiple historians mention that for both newlyweds,
[9:16] Speaker 1: their partner didn't exactly meet initial expectations. To Leopoldina, Don
[9:23] Speaker 1: Pedro wasn't as cultured or intellectually curious as she'd been told.
[9:29] Speaker 1: but at least he shared her passions for horseback riding
[9:32] Speaker 1: and hunting, and the two spent many a morning out
[9:36] Speaker 1: exploring together. Likewise to Dom Pedro, his court, and the
[9:41] Speaker 1: Brazilian public, Leopoldina supposedly wasn't as beautiful a princess as
[9:47] Speaker 1: they had hoped, but many were impressed by her intelligence, outdoorsiness,
[9:53] Speaker 1: and interest in the people and natural wonders of her
[9:57] Speaker 1: new home. Leopoldina's correspondence with her sister at this time
[10:03] Speaker 1: suggested a desire to make the best of her match
[10:06] Speaker 1: and to grow to love Dom Pedro. Whether she ever
[10:10] Speaker 1: truly felt such a level of affection is debatable, but
[10:14] Speaker 1: evidently the royal couple did diligently start trying to have children. Sadly,
[10:21] Speaker 1: the good times, or at least the relatively better times,
[10:25] Speaker 1: couldn't last. After giving birth to a daughter in 1819,
[10:30] Speaker 1: Leopoldina suffered through two tragic miscarriages. Per many scholarly sources,
[10:37] Speaker 1: her grief over her pregnancy losses was dramatically compounded by
[10:42] Speaker 1: all of the familial and societal pressure placed on her
[10:46] Speaker 1: to produce a male heir. To further magnify Leopoldina's stress,
[10:52] Speaker 1: she discovered Dom Pedro to be something of an insatiable philanderer,
[10:59] Speaker 1: even by exceedingly powerful prince standards. The degree to which
[11:04] Speaker 1: he attempted to hide his extramarital affairs from his wife
[11:08] Speaker 1: seems a bit murky, but judging by her surviving writings,
[11:13] Speaker 1: it didn't take long for her to catch on and
[11:16] Speaker 1: find out that his near-constant acts of infidelity had produced
[11:22] Speaker 1: and would continue to produce many children outside of wedlock.
[11:28] Speaker 1: Leopoldina reportedly withdrew from public appearances, feeling depressed and isolated
[11:35] Speaker 1: so far from her Austrian friends, family, and culture. At
[11:41] Speaker 1: this point, few to none would have probably guessed she
[11:44] Speaker 1: would ever have an outsized impact on world history. But
[11:49] Speaker 1: while Leopoldina's personal life spiraled, tensions between Brazil and Portugal escalated,
[11:57] Speaker 1: putting her on a collision course with a life-defining dilemma.
[12:03] Speaker 1: As Leopoldina would have likely known from her years of
[12:07] Speaker 1: thorough schooling, the last few centuries of Brazilian history had
[12:11] Speaker 1: been tumultuous. In very brief terms, the Portuguese had arrived
[12:17] Speaker 1: in the 16th century and rapidly realized the value of
[12:22] Speaker 1: the land's natural resources. They sought to seize as much
[12:26] Speaker 1: territory as possible through negotiations and outright violence against native tribes, and,
[12:33] Speaker 1: similar to tragic cases in other parts of the Americas,
[12:38] Speaker 1: European diseases they carried wiped out vast numbers of the
[12:43] Speaker 1: local populations. The most profitable export at the time was
[12:48] Speaker 1: refined sugar, and the Portuguese fought off corresponding French and
[12:53] Speaker 1: Spanish colonizing forces, to gain control over both the sugar
[12:58] Speaker 1: trade and Brazil. This ultimately allowed Dom Pedro's family to
[13:04] Speaker 1: reign over Portugal and its forcibly taken colony of Brazil. However,
[13:10] Speaker 1: things got dicey in 1807 when Napoleon's army invaded Portugal
[13:17] Speaker 1: for refusing to join a large-scale embargo of the United Kingdom.
[13:23] Speaker 1: which must have made certain family discussions awkward later on,
[13:27] Speaker 1: since Leopoldina's sister, Marie-Louise, had become Napoleon's second wife a
[13:33] Speaker 1: few years after that invasion. Dom Pedro's father, King John
[13:38] Speaker 1: VI of Portugal, negotiated with the British to provide naval protection,
[13:45] Speaker 1: and he fled to Brazil with his family and a
[13:48] Speaker 1: good portion of his court. Napoleon was defeated in 1815,
[13:54] Speaker 1: but by then, King John VI still viewed it as
[13:59] Speaker 1: safer to maintain his capital in Rio de Janeiro, so
[14:03] Speaker 1: he upgraded Brazil from a colony to a full kingdom.
[14:09] Speaker 1: Did this sudden promotion of a country sit well with
[14:13] Speaker 1: political elites back in Portugal? It did not. A liberal
[14:19] Speaker 1: revolution kicked off in 1820. The Portuguese Parliament, known as
[14:25] Speaker 1: the Cortes, demanded that Dom Pedro's father come back to
[14:30] Speaker 1: basically agree to the constitution that they were creating. King
[14:34] Speaker 1: John acquiesced and returned to Portugal, leaving Dom Pedro behind
[14:40] Speaker 1: in Brazil as Prince Regent in 1821. While this increased
[14:47] Speaker 1: Dom Pedro and Leopoldina's clout to a degree, she was
[14:51] Speaker 1: no dummy. She knew King John leaving Brazil was all-around
[14:56] Speaker 1: bad news for her. On a personal level, she had
[15:00] Speaker 1: reportedly formed a close, trusting bond with her father-in-law, so
[15:04] Speaker 1: his departure was an emotional blow. Furthermore, some biographers have
[15:10] Speaker 1: suggested that after King John left, Dom Pedro had even
[15:15] Speaker 1: more leeway to get into his various womanizing escapades. On
[15:22] Speaker 1: a political level, Leopoldina also knew that the king returning
[15:27] Speaker 1: to Portugal was only the start of more trouble. After all,
[15:32] Speaker 1: she had grown up learning about the French Revolution... and
[15:36] Speaker 1: several modern scholars point out that she had something of
[15:39] Speaker 1: a morbid fascination with her great-aunt Marie Antoinette and her
[15:44] Speaker 1: public execution. In other words, Leopoldina was well aware that
[15:50] Speaker 1: once a revolution got going, royal heads might roll. Her husband,
[15:56] Speaker 1: Dom Pedro, didn't seem to have the same historical acumen
[16:00] Speaker 1: and sense of foreboding. he sent his father a letter
[16:04] Speaker 1: basically begging to be able to also return to Portugal.
[16:09] Speaker 1: King John VI was apparently strongly against that because he
[16:14] Speaker 1: wanted their family's control of Brazil to continue to appear solid.
[16:19] Speaker 1: This turned out to be a tall task, especially since
[16:24] Speaker 1: the influential members of the Cortes in Portugal allegedly openly
[16:29] Speaker 1: mocked Dom Pedro, and started issuing numerous decrees aimed at
[16:35] Speaker 1: re-subordinating Brazil by weakening its provinces and new leader. The
[16:42] Speaker 1: general consensus among historians seems to be that Leopoldina had,
[16:47] Speaker 1: by then, shown a fair amount of support toward the
[16:51] Speaker 1: Brazilian side of the standoff. She publicly backed the growing
[16:56] Speaker 1: group of Brazilian-born and Portuguese-born residents in Brazil- who were
[17:01] Speaker 1: furious about Portugal's intention to demote them from a kingdom
[17:07] Speaker 1: back into a colony. But it wasn't as simple as
[17:11] Speaker 1: just ignoring all the Portuguese posturing. The Portuguese Cortes still
[17:17] Speaker 1: controlled a sizable military force in Brazil. Leopoldina supposedly witnessed
[17:23] Speaker 1: skirmishes between these soldiers and her subjects, and urged Dom
[17:28] Speaker 1: Pedro to prevent the conflict from igniting a full-blown civil war.
[17:35] Speaker 1: In 1822, fearing exactly that, Dom Pedro traveled to Sao
[17:39] Speaker 1: Paulo to try to block the province from separating from
[17:44] Speaker 1: the kingdom. Before leaving Rio, he put Leopoldina in charge
[17:49] Speaker 1: as princess regent. And now we're catching up to the
[17:53] Speaker 1: introduction of today's episode. Less than three weeks after Leopoldina
[17:59] Speaker 1: was made Princess Regent, the Cortes sent their decree demanding
[18:05] Speaker 1: Dom Pedro's return to Portugal. And in doing so, they
[18:10] Speaker 1: saddled Leopoldina with an awful choice. Because as much as
[18:15] Speaker 1: the message was essentially an ultimatum from the leaders of
[18:19] Speaker 1: the revolution saying, we can do this the easy way
[18:23] Speaker 1: or the hard way, it also offered the homesick Princess
[18:27] Speaker 1: Regent what she'd been so desperately desiring. This was Leopoldina's
[18:32] Speaker 1: chance to finally return to her family and friends, to
[18:37] Speaker 1: reconnect with her studious peers, to get more support and
[18:42] Speaker 1: feel less isolated and lonely with only her philandering husband.
[18:47] Speaker 1: And yet, on that fateful morning in 1822, Leopoldina met
[18:53] Speaker 1: with the Council of State at her Quinta da Boa
[18:56] Speaker 1: Vista Palace and made her position clear. She insisted that
[19:02] Speaker 1: she and Dom Pedro must stay in Brazil. Sources disagree
[19:08] Speaker 1: about the specifics of her subsequent actions. Some claim that
[19:12] Speaker 1: to rapidly marshal support, given the threat of Portugal's military,
[19:18] Speaker 1: Leopoldina signed an initial decree stating that Brazil was separate
[19:23] Speaker 1: from Portugal. Others emphasized that she announced this plan and
[19:28] Speaker 1: then sent a passionate message to Dom Pedro detailing how
[19:33] Speaker 1: he should enact it. This message included the memorable line,
[19:37] Speaker 1: The apple is ripe. Pick it now or it will rot.
[19:43] Speaker 1: Most chronicles then seemed to be in agreement that Leopoldina
[19:47] Speaker 1: worked closely with a top advisor, and compiled a convincing
[19:52] Speaker 1: collection of materials to send along to Dom Pedro. It
[19:56] Speaker 1: contained letters from both of them, the communication from the Cortes,
[20:01] Speaker 1: and papers outlining the latest criticisms of her husband echoing
[20:06] Speaker 1: throughout Lisbon. such as politicians snide references to the prince
[20:11] Speaker 1: as an adolescent. These documents reached Don Pedro on September 7th,
[20:17] Speaker 1: while he and his party camped at the Iparanga Brook
[20:21] Speaker 1: near Sao Paulo, and the documents achieved their desired effect.
[20:26] Speaker 1: Don Pedro allegedly brandished his sword and delivered what would
[20:30] Speaker 1: become known as the Cry of Iparanga, an emphatic proclamation
[20:35] Speaker 1: that in which he shouted, independence or death. There were
[20:40] Speaker 1: still plenty of official documents and ceremonies to sort out
[20:45] Speaker 1: following that verbal declaration. But in the context of our story,
[20:51] Speaker 1: perhaps the most intriguing question is, what pushed Leopoldina to
[20:56] Speaker 1: choose that path? Once again, historians disagree. Some argue that
[21:02] Speaker 1: she'd become fully emotionally invested in the struggles of her
[21:07] Speaker 1: adopted homeland and its people. Others are wary of ascribing
[21:11] Speaker 1: too much broad altruism to Leopoldina's decision-making, commenting that such
[21:17] Speaker 1: an inclination might be more a reflection of modern values
[21:22] Speaker 1: and societal tendencies, to retroactively reframe events, rather than it
[21:28] Speaker 1: being a sufficiently nuanced explanation for what Leopoldina was experiencing
[21:34] Speaker 1: at the time. Many of those researchers also suggest that
[21:38] Speaker 1: Leopoldina's choice to stay in Brazil and declare independence could
[21:43] Speaker 1: just as well have stemmed from more opportunistic or fear-based motivations.
[21:50] Speaker 1: She was reportedly certain that agreeing to the latest Cortes
[21:55] Speaker 1: decree and returning to Europe would erode her husband's power.
[22:00] Speaker 1: Such a submissive move would put him, and by extension her,
[22:05] Speaker 1: in danger of losing their status, if not their lives,
[22:09] Speaker 1: because again, Leopoldina was apparently fixated on avoiding the revolution-fueled
[22:16] Speaker 1: fate of Marie Antoinette. Signs also point toward Leopoldina having
[22:22] Speaker 1: had a grasp of the massive economic implications of of
[22:26] Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Brazil being downgraded to a colony, since
[22:31] Speaker 1: that would have likely upended the country's tax policies and
[22:35] Speaker 1: trade agreements. It would have had drastic effects on Brazilians'
[22:40] Speaker 1: lives and, especially given that anti-monarchy sentiments were rippling throughout
[22:46] Speaker 1: other parts of South America, such a downturn could tank
[22:50] Speaker 1: her solid levels of recent popularity, which, once again... might
[22:55] Speaker 1: have made it harder to keep her royal head firmly
[22:59] Speaker 1: attached to her royal neck. So ultimately, whether it came
[23:04] Speaker 1: down to benevolence, newfound patriotism, or practical self-preservation, or possibly
[23:11] Speaker 1: all of the above, Leopoldina's decision proved to be a
[23:16] Speaker 1: savvy one. Her husband officially declared independence in a letter
[23:20] Speaker 1: to his father on September 22nd, 1822, and he gave
[23:25] Speaker 1: himself the new title of emperor, which made Leopoldina an empress.
[23:32] Speaker 1: Bloody battles commenced between Portuguese and Brazilian forces, but ultimately,
[23:39] Speaker 1: Portugal could not sustain a costly war from across the Atlantic.
[23:44] Speaker 1: The last Portuguese troops left in 1824, and by 1825,
[23:50] Speaker 1: Portugal signed the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro to recognize
[23:55] Speaker 1: Brazil as independent. Leopoldina had obviously played a vital part
[24:01] Speaker 1: in this massive paradigm shift, but it came at quite
[24:05] Speaker 1: a personal cost. As if missing out on reuniting with
[24:10] Speaker 1: her family wasn't punishment enough, her relationship with Don Pedro
[24:15] Speaker 1: continued to deteriorate. Rather than being thankful to his astute
[24:21] Speaker 1: wife for her perceptive actions during her time in charge...
[24:25] Speaker 1: Don Pedro instead became increasingly infatuated with one of his mistresses.
[24:31] Speaker 1: Sources show that he bestowed various titles on her and
[24:34] Speaker 1: her family and gifted them valuable possessions and land. At
[24:39] Speaker 1: one point, in a move that was either wildly naive
[24:42] Speaker 1: or cruelly aggravating, Don Pedro even tried to make his
[24:47] Speaker 1: mistress one of his wife's ladies-in-waiting. This sort of treatment
[24:52] Speaker 1: prompted Leopoldina to write to her sister that the seductive
[24:57] Speaker 1: monster is the cause of all my misfortunes. Even so,
[25:02] Speaker 1: Leopoldina went on to have more children, including a son
[25:06] Speaker 1: and heir to Dom Pedro's throne. Dom Pedro would actually
[25:11] Speaker 1: inherit the kingdom of Portugal from his father in March
[25:14] Speaker 1: of 1826, But because he couldn't hold both the Brazilian
[25:19] Speaker 1: and Portuguese thrones, he abdicated Portugal in May in favor
[25:23] Speaker 1: of his eldest daughter. Leopoldina, ever so briefly queen of Portugal,
[25:29] Speaker 1: would not survive the year. She suffered grave complications related
[25:34] Speaker 1: to pregnancy and childbirth, and in 1826 reportedly died in
[25:41] Speaker 1: feverish agony after a bout of sepsis. She was only
[25:45] Speaker 1: 29 years old. It's worth noting that Brazilian independence was
[25:54] Speaker 1: not necessarily an immediate win for the common people. As
[25:59] Speaker 1: several historians and writers are careful to underline, many influential
[26:04] Speaker 1: and wealthy individuals in Brazil were tired of European oversight,
[26:09] Speaker 1: but did not want the national power structure to change
[26:12] Speaker 1: so dramatically that it upended their favorable place within society.
[26:19] Speaker 1: Brazil's agricultural economy was a particular focal point. Fundamentally, those
[26:25] Speaker 1: who profited from the sugar trade, which was heavily reliant
[26:29] Speaker 1: on slavery, didn't want monarchs or emerging governing bodies controlling
[26:35] Speaker 1: their fortunes from a different continent. Yet they were evidently
[26:39] Speaker 1: fine with more locally-based rulers like Dom Pedro and Leopoldina,
[26:44] Speaker 1: who would let them continue on with business as usual.
[26:49] Speaker 1: That's not to say that Leopoldina wholeheartedly condoned the overall
[26:54] Speaker 1: status quo in Brazil. In fact, some of her correspondence
[26:59] Speaker 1: signals the opposite. Nevertheless, it's hard to deny that whether
[27:03] Speaker 1: it was luck or conscious planning, she clearly took advantage
[27:08] Speaker 1: of common Brazilians' anti-authoritarian anger being mostly projected towards elites
[27:15] Speaker 1: back in Portugal. Relatedly, there is something of a debate
[27:20] Speaker 1: between historians over whether Leopoldina's excellent reputation received the biggest
[27:26] Speaker 1: boost from her contributions as a ruler, her adept political moves,
[27:32] Speaker 1: an inherent level of likability, or her proximity to other
[27:37] Speaker 1: monarchs who made her look better by comparison. In the end,
[27:42] Speaker 1: regardless of whether Leopoldina was truly a champion of the
[27:46] Speaker 1: masses or or a pragmatist who knew how to align herself,
[27:51] Speaker 1: she left behind a fascinating legacy. For one thing, thanks
[27:56] Speaker 1: to her keen interest in science and avid support of
[28:00] Speaker 1: several scientific missions throughout Brazil, she helped spark enlightening research
[28:06] Speaker 1: in multiple fields there, especially botany and geology. Leopoldina's children
[28:13] Speaker 1: also continued her family's long-standing tradition of sitting in the
[28:18] Speaker 1: highest seats of power. Her daughter eventually became Maria II,
[28:23] Speaker 1: Queen of Portugal, and her son, Dom Pedro II, ruled
[28:28] Speaker 1: Brazil as emperor for nearly 58 years and was given
[28:33] Speaker 1: the epithet the Magnanimous in recognition of his stable, prosperous,
[28:38] Speaker 1: and diplomatic reign. Interestingly, Leopoldina's role in Brazilian independence Leopoldina
[29:01] Speaker 1: histories have increasingly featured her as more of a protagonist
[29:06] Speaker 1: whose proactivity had an immense influence on her adopted country.
[29:11] Speaker 1: Leopoldina's letters to family back in Europe, particularly to her
[29:15] Speaker 1: sister and father, have been the key in the endeavor
[29:18] Speaker 1: to better understand Leopoldina and her short but eventful reign,
[29:25] Speaker 1: as the letters reveal both a tragic emotional journey and
[29:29] Speaker 1: a brilliant political mind. Leopoldina's death was mourned by millions,
[29:36] Speaker 1: many of whom refer to her as the Mother of Brazil.
[29:39] Speaker 1: Though she is perhaps not quite as widely known in
[29:43] Speaker 1: modern Brazil, her name still carries lasting popularity. Leopoldina has
[29:48] Speaker 1: served as inspiration for plays, musicals, TV shows, and movies.
[29:54] Speaker 1: According to one research professor, The prominent role of Leopoldina
[29:59] Speaker 1: in the wildly popular soap opera Novo Mundo is actually
[30:04] Speaker 1: a telling symbol of shifting cultural perspectives, as well as
[30:09] Speaker 1: an intriguing lens of contemporary feminism. Sadly for Leopoldina, she
[30:14] Speaker 1: had never been able to return to her family in Austria.
[30:19] Speaker 1: She died as a unique leader to the Brazilian people.
[30:23] Speaker 1: but one who suffered an exceedingly painful end. Still, in
[30:27] Speaker 1: terms of the ratio between a ruler's time wielding absolute
[30:31] Speaker 1: power and their impact on a country's history, it's hard
[30:35] Speaker 1: to argue that there have been many more influential individuals
[30:39] Speaker 1: than Empress Leopoldina. Although in a fascinating historical parallel, another
[30:46] Speaker 1: Princess Regent of Brazil, might give Leopoldina a run for
[30:50] Speaker 1: her money when calculating a monarch's momentous achievements per days
[30:54] Speaker 1: in charge. Because while Leopoldina's son, Emperor Dom Pedro II,
[31:01] Speaker 1: was a longtime supporter of abolishing slavery throughout the country,
[31:05] Speaker 1: it was actually his daughter, Doña Isabel, who signed the
[31:09] Speaker 1: abolition of slavery into law while her father was away
[31:13] Speaker 1: in Europe and she was acting as regent. meaning that
[31:17] Speaker 1: Leopoldina and her granddaughter presided over two of the biggest
[31:22] Speaker 1: inflection points in Brazilian history. That is the striking story
[31:29] Speaker 1: of Empress Leopoldina, but stick around after a brief sponsor
[31:33] Speaker 1: break to hear about a decades-long controversy regarding the real
[31:39] Speaker 1: cause of her death. Leopoldina reportedly died in 1826 due
[31:51] Speaker 1: to her declining health while she had been pregnant, and
[31:54] Speaker 1: then further side effects from an ensuing miscarriage. However, there
[31:59] Speaker 1: is a theory within some corners of the scholarly community
[32:04] Speaker 1: that the Empress was, in fact, murdered. Several prominent historians
[32:09] Speaker 1: of both South American and European backgrounds have argued that
[32:14] Speaker 1: Leopoldina died in 1826, after her husband, Don Pedro, physically
[32:19] Speaker 1: assaulted her. Proponents of this theory point to a reception
[32:24] Speaker 1: he held on November 20th, 1826. The celebration was supposed
[32:29] Speaker 1: to involve a hand-kissing ceremony, in which Don Pedro expected
[32:35] Speaker 1: both Leopoldina and his favorite mistress to accompany him. As
[32:40] Speaker 1: this would essentially amount to Leopoldina formally recognizing her husband's lover,
[32:47] Speaker 1: she purportedly refused to participate. As the story goes, Don
[32:52] Speaker 1: Pedro then flew into a rage and attacked her while
[32:56] Speaker 1: they were alone, causing injuries that ultimately killed her. Scientists
[33:01] Speaker 1: actually exhumed Leopoldina's remains in 2012. and didn't seem to
[33:07] Speaker 1: find conclusive evidence to support the murder hypothesis, at least
[33:13] Speaker 1: not in terms of detectable damage to her skeleton. That said,
[33:17] Speaker 1: a copy of a last letter that Leopoldina supposedly wrote
[33:22] Speaker 1: to her sister did surface about eight years after her death.
[33:27] Speaker 1: In it, she detailed the alleged attack by Don Pedro.
[33:32] Speaker 1: In the nearly two centuries since, though, many scholars have
[33:36] Speaker 1: either declared the letter to be an outright fake, or
[33:40] Speaker 1: a real work that was nevertheless of questionable credibility, since
[33:45] Speaker 1: it was dictated to a select few individuals who were
[33:49] Speaker 1: indebted or extremely loyal to Leopoldina. All in all, the
[33:54] Speaker 1: current sentiment among researchers is seems to still mostly be
[33:58] Speaker 1: that she died from pregnancy-related complications. But the ongoing quest
[34:04] Speaker 1: for answers speaks to the lasting impact of the brief
[34:09] Speaker 1: but compelling life of one of history's most impactful princesses.
[34:22] Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim &
[34:26] Speaker 1: Mild from Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is hosted by me,
[34:30] Speaker 1: Dana Schwartz. Writers for Noble Blood are Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick,
[34:34] Speaker 1: Paul Jaffe, Natasha Lasky, and me, Dana Schwartz. The show
[34:39] Speaker 1: is edited and produced by Jesse Funk and Gnomes Griffin,
[34:43] Speaker 1: with supervising producer Rima Ilkayali, and executive producers Aaron Manke,
[34:49] Speaker 1: Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
[34:54] Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
[34:58] Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.