Infanta Maria Adelaide of Portugal

Maria Adelaide
Infanta of Portugal
Born	(1912-01-31)31 January 1912 Saint-Jean-de-Luz, French Republic
Died	24 February 2012(2012-02-24) (aged 100) Lisbon, Portuguese Republic
Spouse	Dr. Nicolaas van Uden
Full name Maria Adelaide Manuela Amélia Micaela Rafaela
House	Braganza
Father	Miguel, Duke of Braganza
Mother	Princess Maria Theresa of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg

D. Maria Adelaide of Braganza, Infanta of Portugal, (31 January 1912 – 24 February 2012) was a member of the royal House of Braganza,^[1] daughter of Miguel, Duke of Braganza and Princess Maria Theresa of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. She was born in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France. Her godparents were King Manuel II, the last reigning king of Portugal, and Amélie of Orleans.

Life

Infanta Maria Adelaide was educated at the Sacre Coeur College in Riedenburg, Germany. She was married in Vienna, 13 October 1945, to Dr. Nicolaas van Uden (Venlo, 5 March 1921 – Lisbon, 5 February 1991) who was Dutch and who became a naturalized Portuguese citizen in 1975. He was a medical biochemist and a great scientific authority in the field of yeast development.

Infanta Maria Adelaide lived in Vienna, Austria, working as a nurse and social assistant. During World War II, when there were bombardments, she travelled at night to the place to provide aid to the victims. She was part of the Nazi resistance movement, and the Gestapo sentenced her to death. The Portuguese President of the Council of Ministers, António de Oliveira Salazar intervened with the Germans, claiming that Infanta Maria Adelaide was a national heritage. This intervention of the Portuguese diplomacy resulted in the release and her immediate deportation, after which she settled in Switzerland. It was there that her brother Dom Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza and sister-in-law Francisca lived. After the war, the family finally returned to Austria.

In 1949, Dona Maria Adelaide settled in Portugal. Meanwhile, her husband graduated in medicine from the University of Vienna and specialized in diseases of the skin. But when Dr. Nicolaas van Uden arrived in Portugal his qualifications were not recognised as equivalent to the Portuguese ones, and therefore he could not practice medicine. As there was no other solution, he went to work for a small research laboratory at the Faculty of Science and stayed there for several years, until the opportunity to work in partnership with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation arose. Due to such a collaboration the Gulbenkian Science Institute was born and it promotes scientific research in various areas since the 1950s to date.

The van Uden family originally lived in the Quinta do Carmo, in Almada. Infanta Maria Adelaide began working as a social assistant in some initiatives, because that area of Trafaria in Monte da Caparica, was very poor. She developed an intensive career, especially in the area whereby newborn poor or orphaned children were collected and then taken to the D. Nunes Alvares Pereira Foundation, of which she was President.

Her nephew D. Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, is the present head of the House of Braganza and, therefore, a claimant to the former Portuguese throne.

Issue

Honours

National dynastic honour

• Portuguese Royal Family: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Isabel^[2]

National honour

•  Portugal: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit^[3][4]

Genealogy

Ancestry

References

External links / Bibliography

• Ochoa, Raquel, (“A Infanta Rebelde”), Published by Oficina do Livro, 2011.