Brazil's last emperor took the throne at five and reigned for 58 years
When his father sailed for Europe in 1831, a five-year-old boy was left behind as emperor of Brazil. Pedro II grew into a shy, bookish ruler who oversaw the longest and steadiest reign the country has known, backed the end of slavery, and was pushed into exile by a military coup in 1889.
Rio de Janeiro's São Cristóvão palace was his birthplace on 2 December 1825; he was the seventh child of Pedro I and Maria Leopoldina of Austria. That Austrian side made him a nephew of Napoleon and a first cousin of Franz Joseph I. His mother died when he was one. After Pedro I abdicated on 7 April 1831 and left with his second wife, Amélie, the boy was raised by a guardian, José Bonifácio de Andrada; by his governess Mariana de Verna, whom he called Dadama; and by Rafael, an Afro-Brazilian veteran of the Cisplatine War who watched over him for life. His days were study with two hours of play, and he found refuge in books.
A regency ruled in his name, riven by faction and revolt. By 1840 the politicians had lost faith in themselves, and on 23 July the General Assembly declared the fourteen-year-old of age; his coronation followed in July 1841. At first a clique of courtiers steered him. His marriage to Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies began badly: meeting her in 1843, he wept to his governess that he had been deceived. By the mid-1840s, grown to 1.90 metres and famously self-controlled, he quietly removed the courtiers from his circle.
Between 1848 and 1852 he faced three tests. British warships were seizing Brazilian vessels over the illegal slave trade until an 1850 law let Brazil suppress it; the Praieira revolt in Pernambuco was put down; and an alliance with Uruguay and rebel Argentines toppled the Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas in the Platine War.
Later wars in Uruguay and Paraguay also ended in victory, and Europeans saw a parliamentary monarchy with a free press amid a continent of dictators. He ultimately enabled abolition. Deposed in 1889 by officers wanting a republic, he refused to risk civil war and died in European exile on 5 December 1891. Historians now often rank him as Brazil's greatest ruler, and his remains were brought home with honours.
Source: Pedro II of Brazil
