House of Braganza great difficulty under the reign of King João II. By the tenure of the third duke, Fernando II, the House of Braganza was undoubtedly one of the greatest noble houses of Portugal and Iberia as a whole. Fernando II continued the House's legacy of acquisition and gained the title of Duke of Guimarães. To the Duke and the House's downfall, however, King João II's reign concerned itself with the royal consolidation of power and the diminishment of the nobility. In his mission to centralize power, the King executed many nobleman of the great houses of Portugal, alongside confiscating their properties
Princess Pia Maria of Orléans-Braganza Princess Pia Maria of Orléans-Braganza Princess Pia Maria of Orléans-Braganza (; 4 March 191324 October 2000) was a Princess and member of the House of Orléans-Braganza and the Brazilian Imperial Family. With the premature death of her father, Prince Luís of Orléans-Bragzna, in 1920, and the following year, the death of her grandmother, Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, in 1921, Pia Maria's older brother Prince Pedro Henrique of Orléans-Braganza claimed the title Prince Imperial of Brazil in 1920, and the position of head of the Imperial House of Brazil in 1921. At the time of the latter claim, Prince Pedro