Maria Pia of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza (March 13, 1907 – May 6, 1995), also known by her literary pseudonym Hilda de Toledano, was a Portuguese writer and journalist who claimed to be the bastard daughter of King Carlos I of Portugal. From 1932 she also claimed the right to the title of Duchess of Braganza and to be the rightful heiress to the throne of Portugal. Maria Amélia's parents are sometimes given the title "baron", but they did not actually hold any noble title; their wealth and patrician status, however, may have allowed them to use such a title unquestioned.
thumb|left|Number 26 [[Avenida da Liberdade (Lisbon)|Avenida da Liberdade, in Lisbon, where Maria Pia of Braganza was born.]]
Maria Amélia Laredó e Murça was not married at the time she gave birth to her daughter on March 13, 1907. Maria Pia of Braganza claimed that, shortly thereafter, she was taken by her mother and grandparents to Madrid, Spain. There, she said, she was baptised in the Church of Saint Fermin de los Navarros on April 15, 1907, and that the baptism was registered at the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and Saint Aloysius. She claimed that her baptismal registration recorded that her father was "D. Carlos de Sassonia-Coburgo y Savoya de la Casa de Braganza de Portugal". This clearly refers to King Carlos I of Portugal, who at the time was married to another woman, Princess Amélie of Orléans.
The original baptismal registers of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and Saint Aloysius were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, and no original birth record of Maria Pia of Braganza has ever been made public. In 1939 the Vicar-General of the Diocese of Madrid-Alcalas issued a baptismal certificate to Maria Pia of Braganza with information provided to him at that time by Don Antonio Goicoechea y Cusculluela, a member of the Spanish parliament and the Governor of the Bank of Spain, who had reportedly been present at the baptism. Subsequently, Maria Pia of Braganza used this baptismal certificate as evidence for her claim to be the recognised daughter of King Carlos.
thumb|left|The Church of Saint Fermin de los Navarros, in [[Madrid, where Maria Pia de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança was baptized.]]
Maria Pia of Braganza also claimed that in the archives of the Diocese of Madrid-Alcalá there was a copy of a document signed by King Carlos on March 14, 1907 in which he recognised Maria Pia of Braganza as his daughter and that "she may be called by my name and enjoy from now on the use of this name with the honours, prerogatives, rank, obligations and advantages of the princes of the House of Braganza of Portugal". Like the baptismal certificate, the original of this document did not survive.
Marriages and children
In 1925, at the age of eighteen, Maria Pia of Braganza married Francesco Javier Bilbao y Batista, a Cuban playboy twenty years her senior. He came from a rich family of cattle breeders. Since Bilbao was divorced, the marriage was a civil one only and took place in the Cuban embassy in Paris. They had one daughter, Fátima Francisca Xaviera Iris Bilbao de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança, in 1932, who became Sister Francisca, a cloistered nun in a convent.
Maria Pia of Braganza lived briefly with Bilbao in Cuba, before returning to Spain. Bilbao died November 15, 1935. Francisca died unmarried in 1982.
To escape the Spanish Civil War, Maria Pia of Braganza moved with her mother to Rome. In 1939, she married Giuseppe Blais, a colonel in the Italian carabinieri. At the time, members of the carabinieri were forbidden from marrying foreigners. The marriage was, therefore, celebrated clandestinely, and was not registered civilly until August 5, 1946. The union proved much happier and together they had a daughter, Maria da Glória Cristina Amélia Valéria Antónia Blais de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança,
General Blais died in 1983. In 1985, Maria Pia of Braganza married António João da Costa Amado-Noivo (January 28, 1952 – December 29, 1996). At the time of the wedding, Maria Pia was 78, Amado-Noivo 33.
Literary career
Like many society ladies, Maria Pia of Braganza supplemented her income by writing. In the early 1930s she had a number of articles published in two Spanish newspapers Blanco y Negro and ABC.
In 1937, Maria Pia wrote her first book La hora de Alfonso XIII (The Hour of Alfonso XIII) published in Havana, Cuba, by Ucar, Garcia y Companía. This work, written in Spanish and published under the name "Hilda de Toledano", is a defence of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, who was living in exile at the time.
In 1954, Maria Pia wrote Un beso y ... nada más: confidencia consciente de una pecadora inconsciente (A Kiss and ... Nothing More: Conscious Confidences of an Unconscious Sinner) published in Madrid by Plenitud. This novel was also written in Spanish and published under the name "Hilda de Toledano".
In 1957, Maria Pia wrote Mémoires d'une infante vivante (Memoirs of a Living Infanta) published in Paris by Del Duca. This work, written in French and published under the name "Maria Pia de Saxe-Cobourg Bragance", is an autobiography. It marks the first attempt of Maria Pia to receive widespread public recognition for her claim that she was the bastard daughter of King Carlos I of Portugal. In the book, however, Maria Pia makes no claim to any dynastic rights. The book closes with the sentence, "I claim no sceptre but my pen, no crown but that bequeathed by my father and mother: my dignity." Instead, Maria Pia of Braganza suggests that the rightful heir to the Portuguese throne should be Princess Isabelle d’Orléans, eldest child of Henri, Count of Paris.
Controversies
Claim to the Portuguese throne
thumb|Maria Pia of Braganza in a public speech to the Portuguese people.
For at least several decades Maria Pia had claimed to be the bastard daughter of King Carlos I, and even to be entitled to the style "Her Royal Highness" and the title "Infanta". It was not, however, until 1957 that she claimed to be the rightful queen of Portugal in succession to Manuel II, the son of Carlos I (and the purported half-brother of Maria Pia) who had died childless in 1932.
On July 15, 1957, a group of ten Portuguese monarchists published a petition asking Maria Pia to claim the throne. In 1958 she went to Portugal where she was received by the President Francisco Craveiro Lopes; the Prime Minister, António de Oliveira Salazar, however, refused to meet her. In the presidential elections that year Maria Pia supported the failed candidacy of Humberto Delgado. She continued to support Delgado after he went into exile in Brazil.
From this point forward Maria Pia used the title Duchess of Braganza. She attracted the support of a small minority of monarchists who were actively opposed to Salazar. In August 2010, Poidimani won a decision against Sainty in the court of Vicenza; for defamation allegedly caused by the article, Sainty was ordered to pay €20,000 in the judgment. However, that judgment was reversed by the Italian Court of Appeal of Venice, no. 730/2016 published March 30, 2016, RG n. 2667/2010, Repert. n. 680/2016 of March 30, 2016.
In 2007, Poidimani was arrested on the charge of fraud in connection with the alleged sale of diplomatic passports; he claimed that he had the right to issue these passports as head of the Royal House of Portugal and as president of the (IIRD), an entity founded by Poidimani himself. The Court of Busto Arsizio initially sentenced him to five years in prison in January 2011. However, on April 15, 2013, the Court of Appeal of Milan overturned the conviction and sentence. Poidimani has also initiated a number of complaints and lawsuits against Duarte Pio and against numerous Portuguese government officials.
Death
Maria Pia of Braganza died in Verona, Italy, in 1995. She was buried with her second husband, General Blais, in the Cimitero Monumentale of Verona.
Analysis
Maria Pia's claims, and those of Rosario Poidimani, have hinged upon the truth or falsehood of the following:
- that she was the illegitimate daughter of King Carlos I;
- that Carlos I had the constitutional power and the political clout (at a time shortly before his death and the overthrow of his son) to alter the line of succession to the Portuguese throne;
- that Carlos I both recognized Maria Pia of Braganza as his daughter and declared her a legitimate heir, despite her birth from an adulterine union;
- that Carlos I was able to do the above without causing public scandal or friction within the royal house, particularly in relation to Amélie of Orléans, his wife and their two sons;
- that Maria Pia of Braganza, supposedly heir-presumptive, could then marry foreigners and/or commoners (which she did twice), in apparent violation of the Constitution and/or the laws of the Portuguese royal house;
- that her daughter Maria Cristina of Braganza , and Maria Cristina's sons, all waived their rights of succession;
- that she adopted Rosario Poidimani according to Italian laws comparable to those of Portugal; and that this adoption did not violate the Portuguese royal house's laws and/or the Constitution; and
- that she could alter the succession line in favour of Rosario Poidimani, a foreigner and adopted son without authenticated blood relationship to her, although he claimed to be a descendant of Luis I of Portugal.
There are no original documents to support Maria Pia's claims to be both a daughter of Carlos I and an heir to the Dukedom of Braganza and pretender to the throne of Portugal. Maria Pia's baptismal certificate from 1907 was destroyed and there is only a copy of the document in which Carlos I supposedly granted succession rights to her. Nonetheless, there are some records concerning a relationship between Maria Pia's mother Maria Amélia Laredó e Murça and King Carlos I. A biography of Infanta Eulalia of Spain purports to reveal some letters of the Portuguese King and also reveals the existence of Maria Pia of Braganza as King Carlos I's bastard daughter. King Alfonso XIII of Spain and his son Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia seem to have had an ongoing friendship with Maria Pia; her supporters have interpreted this relationship as an affirmation on the part of Alfonso and Jaime that they recognised Maria Pia of Braganza as Carlos's bastard daughter. In fact, most of the letters cited by Maria Pia in support of her claim were simply courteous replies by royals to her numerous queries and salutations.