Bertrand of Orléans-Braganza

The third son of Pedro Henrique of Orléans-Braganza and Princess Maria Elisabeth of Bavaria, his elder brothers are, in order, Luiz of Orléans-Braganza who claimed to be Head of the Brazilian Imperial Family until 2022 and Eudes of Orléans-Braganza, who renounced his dynastic rights to the Brazilian throne in order to marry a commoner.

As the activist and spokesman of the Brazilian Imperial House for the restoration of the monarchy, Bertrand has gained prominence in the national media and, on some occasions, international media, with the rise and spread of monarchist movements throughout the country. He participates annually in public meetings with monarchists, in addition to attending other meetings and conducting lectures, often at the invitation of private institutions, municipal governments and legislative assemblies, mainly for public events related to Brazil's monarchical past. In 2016 he gave an interview to Mariana Godoy on her program on RedeTV!, gaining notoriety with the general public. On 22 September 2017 Bertrand participated in the program The Noite com Danilo Gentili, currently the largest talk show in the country, breaking the program's record of audience. Despite the campaign, politically the monarchist movement is still small, with 11% of support among the population, according to a survey.

Both he and his elder brother, Luiz, were engaged in monarchist proselytism in Brazil. They both played main roles during the campaign for the 1993 plebiscite, which represented the hitherto only real opportunity for a return of the monarchy since the proclamation of the republic, in 1889. In it, the people were asked to choose which form of government (presidential or parliamentary) and which form of state organization (republic or constitutional monarchy) Brazil should have. The monarchist cause was not successful, receiving only 13.4% of the vote.

In Brazil, the family settled first in the Grão-Pará Palace in the state of Rio de Janeiro, where he carried out part of his secondary studies in the Jesuit St. Ignatius College. Later his family moved to Paraná, where his father bought a farm and Bertrand spent his childhood. When he was 18 years old, he went to São Paulo, where he achieved a bachelor's degree in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of São Paulo in 1964. He still lives in São Paulo.

Bertrand of Orléans-Braganza (born Bertrand Maria José Pio Januário Miguel Gabriel Raphael Gonzaga de Orléans e Bragança; 2 February 1941, in Mandelieu-la-Napoule, Vichy France) is the head of the Vassouras branch of the House of Orléans-Braganza and one of two claimants to the defunct Brazilian throne. He succeeded his brother Luiz of Orléans-Braganza to the claim on 15 July 2022. The Vassouras branch claims the throne in opposition to the Petrópolis branch of the Orléans-Braganzas, headed by Pedro Carlos Orléans-Braganza. Although Bertrand and Pedro Carlos respectively were and are great-grandchildren of Princess Isabel (daughter of Emperor D. Pedro II), of the House of Braganza, they disputed leadership over the Brazilian Imperial Family due to a dynastic dispute concerning their fathers, who were cousins.

As with his two elder brothers, Bertrand was born in southern France, 1941, even though the exile imposed on the family had already been revoked, in 1920, due to the Second World War. He came to Brazil after the end of the conflict.