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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

A fight over Januaria's will



May 8, 1902

The sons of the late Princess Januaria of Bourbon-Two Sicilies have filed suit in Nice in an attempt to overturn her will and to "invalidate the bequest by means of which she left the greater part of her fortune to her great-grandson," according to the Marquise de Fontenoy.

The late Princess January was the sister of Dom Pedro II, the last Emperor of Brazil.  Januaria was the heiress presumptive to the Brazilian throne until her brother's marriage and the birth of his children. 

 On April 28, 1844, she married Prince Luigi of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Count of Aquila,  brother of Dom Pedro's wife, Teresa Cristina.

Her two sons,  Prince Luigi, Count of Roccaguglielma, and Prince Filippo, claim their mother became an Italian citizen when she married, although the late princess remained Brazilian.

Princess January considered herself to be Brazilian.  When she prepared her final will, she "invoked the services of both the Brazilian Consul at Nice," where she was living," and Brazil's Envoy in Paris.  Her sons claim that the Brazilians had no jurisdiction in the matter, and the "services of the Italian Ambassador and Consult should have been invoked." 

The two princes want the will to be considered invalid because Januaria did not use Italian officials, and her fortune"must be shared in equal parts by her two sons, all her bequests being of no account.

Princess Januaria died on March 13, 1901, in Nice.

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