Isabel, Duchess of Braganza (née Isabel Inês de Castro Curvello de Herédia; born 22 November 1966) is a Portuguese businesswoman who married Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, the current pretender to the defunct Portuguese throne. Born into the family of an old Portuguese nobility, Isabel worked as an assets manager prior to her marriage. Since marrying Duarte Pio, Isabel has left the professional world, devoted her attention to her family, and become patron to several Portuguese charities and non-profit foundations. She and her husband have had three children together, thus securing the continuation of the House of Braganza.

Family

Isabel Inês de Castro Curvello de Herédia was born on 22 November 1966, in Lisbon, to Dom Jorge de Herédia (b. 1934), an architect, and his wife, Dona Raquel Leonor Pinheiro de Castro Curvello (b. 1935). She is a descendant in the male lineage of Francisco Correia de Herédia, 1st Viscount of Ribeira Brava (a Vitalício title, meaning Life peerage) and his wife Dona Joana Gil de Borja de Macedo e Meneses (1851-1925). Although Francisco was a member of the Portuguese nobility, he was a famed republican, who was involved in the failed republican uprising of 28 January 1908. Isabel de Herédia is the first cousin of Manuel Caldeira Cabral, former Portuguese Minister of Economy.

Early life

Isabel lived between metropolitan Portugal and Portuguese Angola until 1975, when Angola was granted independence. Her family subsequently moved to São Paulo, Brazil. There, she studied at the Colégio São Luís, a Jesuit-run institution. In 1990, she obtained a degree in business administration from the Fundação Getúlio Vargas and returned to Portugal to a job in BMF — Sociedade de Gestão de Patrimónios, S.A. She specialized as an asset manager.

Personal life

On 13 May 1995 she married Duarte Pio de Bragança, at Jerónimos Monastery. Present at the ceremony were representatives of various European royal and noble houses: Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, Prince Henri, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Infanta Margarita, Duchess of Soria, among others. The principal Portuguese political figures, including the President of the Republic Mário Soares, Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva and President of the Assembly António Barbosa de Melo, were also present. Following her marriage and the birth of her first child, Afonso, Isabel resigned from her professional life and devoted herself to the management of her family and the patronage of various causes.

Honours

Dynastic honours

Genealogy

Ancestry

Issue

Duarte Pio and Isabel of Heredia have three children: