Background
She was a daughter of Emperor Dom Pedro I, who also reigned as King Dom Pedro IV of Portugal, and his first wife, Dona Maria Leopoldina. She married a son of Louis Philippe I and had three children. Francisca was born on 2 August 1824 in the Palace of São Cristóvão, in Rio de Janeiro, capital of the Empire of Brazil.
Through her father, Emperor Dom Pedro I, she was a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza (Portuguese: Bragança) and was referred to using the honorific "Dona" (Lady) from birth.
Career
Through her only surviving daughter, she is an ancestor of Prince Henri, Count of Paris, the present Orléanist pretender to the French throne. Her name in full was Francisca Carolina Joana Carlota Leopoldina Romana Xavier de Paula Micaela Gabriela Rafaela Gonzaga. Her mother was the Archduchess Maria Leopoldina of Austria, daughter of Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor.
Francisca married Prince François of Orléans, third son of Louis Philippe I and his Italian Queen Maria Amalia of Naples.
The bride was 19, the groom 25. Her portrait was painted when she arrived in Paris, in 1844, by Ary Scheffer (coll Musée de la Vie romantique, Paris).
Her son Pierre never married, but had two illegitimate children by a married woman. When the Orléans family fled France, they settled in England living at Claremont.
lieutenant was there that Francisca gave birth to a still born daughter in 1849.
The next year, the exiled King Louis Philippe I died himself. After the fall of the House of Bonaparte of the Second Empire, the Orléans family returned to France. Francisca herself died in Paris aged 73.
Her husband outlived her by two years, dying in Paris in 1900.
Prince Pierre, Duke of Penthièvre (4 November 1845 – 17 July 1919) never married. Princess Marie Léopoldine of Orléans (30 October 1849) stillborn daughter born at Claremont.
2 August 1824 – 1 May 1843: Her Highness Princess Francisca of Brazil
30 May 1837 – 27 March 1898: Her Royal Highness The Princess of Joinville.