ABSTRACT
T HE national disorders under the regency urged the im-portance of an early marriage for Dom Pedro, to help stabilize the throne and to secure the Bragan~ succes-
sion. Already in 1841, at about the time of his coronation, search for a bride had begun. Since it seemed desirable that Dom Pedro ally himself with the House of Austria from which his mother came, the imperial agent, Bento da Silva Lisboa, was sent first to Vienna to ask in behalf of the Emperor the hand of one of his Habsburg cousins. By now, Ferdinand I was on the Austrian throne, but he and his ministry were unfavorable to Silva Lisboa's proposal, doubtless because they recalled all too well the tragic experience of Ferdinand's sister Leopoldina as wife of a Bragan~.
