I was browsing around on some royal family sites and this little factoid caught my attention: while Franz Joseph was ruling Austria-Hungary, his mother was trying to get her homosexual/bisexual son Ludwig Victor married to various royals in Europe. It never worked out. One of the possibilities mentioned was for him to marry Princess Isabel, the only heir of Brazil's Emperor Pedro II.
I've read that one of the reasons the monarchy fell in Brazil is that no one seriously expected it to last beyond Isabel; she eventually married the Count of Eu, a comparatively unimportant noble from a minor cadet branch of the House of Orleans, and he was excluded from all politics by the Emperor, further decreasing the likelihood of a continued monarchy after Pedro II.
So what if she married the brother of the Austrian Emperor? Assuming that the two of them can produce an heir, will his perceived higher rank lend some credibility to the continuation of the Brazilian monarchy? Or is this one of those POD's that doesn't really have any effects besides changing some of the names in brief blurbs about history?
Also, as a personal question not too important to the actual discussion, what would Ludwig Victor be called in Brazil? Gaston of Orleans translated into Gastao D'Orleans in Portuguese...what the heck does a non-Latin name like Ludwig Victor get changed to?!?
I've read that one of the reasons the monarchy fell in Brazil is that no one seriously expected it to last beyond Isabel; she eventually married the Count of Eu, a comparatively unimportant noble from a minor cadet branch of the House of Orleans, and he was excluded from all politics by the Emperor, further decreasing the likelihood of a continued monarchy after Pedro II.
So what if she married the brother of the Austrian Emperor? Assuming that the two of them can produce an heir, will his perceived higher rank lend some credibility to the continuation of the Brazilian monarchy? Or is this one of those POD's that doesn't really have any effects besides changing some of the names in brief blurbs about history?
Also, as a personal question not too important to the actual discussion, what would Ludwig Victor be called in Brazil? Gaston of Orleans translated into Gastao D'Orleans in Portuguese...what the heck does a non-Latin name like Ludwig Victor get changed to?!?
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