Beauharnais, Auguste

The eldest son of Eugene Beauharnais , stepson of Napoleon and Princess Augusta Amalia of Bavaria ^[1] . His paternal dynastic ties were exceptional: his sisters were Josephine , wife of King Oscar I of Sweden and Amelia , wife of his future father-in-law Pedro I. Later, his brother Maximilian will become the husband of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna , the eldest daughter of Nicholas I.

His maternal grandfather, King of Bavaria, Maximilian I , gave Eugene Beauharnais the title of Duke of Leuchtenberg on November 14, 1817 after losing in 1815 his titles received from Napoleon and related claims to the Kingdom of Italy and the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt .

Despite the promise of an independent principality contained in the final agreement, the Vienna Congress was interrupted without creating a planned state. King Maximilian ceded to his son-in-law for 5 million the duchy (landgrafism) of Leuchtenberg and the principality of Eichstedt . Auguste became the heir to this property when Eugene Beauharnais died on February 21, 1824.

On May 26, 1834, young Mary II was proclaimed Queen of Portugal. She had to choose a husband whose dynastic status would be completely based on the constitutional structure of Portugal. The choice fell on Auguste Beauharnais, who did not pose a threat to the Great Powers, since he did not belong to the already ruling dynasty and did not have conflicting foreign obligations or aspirations. In 1830, he was already considered for these qualities as a candidate for the throne of Belgium. He was also the elder brother of Empress stepmother Maria Amelie, the second wife of her late father.

The proxy wedding took place in Munich on December 1, 1834 . The groom was almost twenty-four years old, the bride only fifteen years old. On the wedding day, Auguste received the Brazilian and Portuguese title of "His Imperial and Royal Highness Prince Consort of Portugal, Duke of Santa Cruz", became the Portuguese Chief Marshal. He arrived in Portugal shortly after, and the couple had already personally married in Lisbon on January 26, 1835 . However, Auguste fell ill with croupous tonsillitis and died only two months later.

The deceased childless, Auguste was succeeded in Bavaria by his younger brother, who became Maximilian, 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg . He founded the line of the Dukes of Leuchtenberg in the kingdom of his father-in-law, Russia. After the death of Maximilian, the principality of Eichstedt was returned to the Bavarian king in 1855 .

• Genealogy of Beauharnais
• Dukes of Leuchtenberg