Maria Pia de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança

Maria Pia de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança (March 13, 1907 – May 6, 1995 ), also known by her literary pseudonym Hilda de Toledano, was a Portuguese writer and journalist who claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of King Carlos I of Portugal.

Maria Amélia Laredó e Murça was not married at the time she gave birth to her daughter on March 13, 1907.

Maria Pia of Braganza claimed that, shortly thereafter, she was taken by her mother and grandparents to Madrid, Spain.

There, she said, she was baptised in the Church of Saint Fermin de los Navarros on April 15, 1907, and that the baptism was registered at the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and Saint Aloysius.

She claimed that her baptismal registration recorded that her father was "D. Carlos de Sassonia-Coburgo y Savoya de la Casa de Braganza de Portugal".

This clearly refers to King Carlos I of Portugal, who at the time was married to another woman, Princess Amélie of Orléans.

It has been suggested that Maria Pia of Braganza was, in fact, one Hilda de Toledano, a girl of modest birth adopted by a Brazilian family.

The original baptismal registers of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and Saint Aloysius were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, and no original birth record of Maria Pia of Braganza has ever been made public.

Maria Pia of Braganza also claimed that in the archives of the Diocese of Madrid-Alcalá there was a copy of a document signed by King Carlos March 14, 1907 in which he recognised Maria Pia of Braganza as his daughter and that "she may be called by my name and enjoy from now on the use of this name with the honours, prerogatives, rank, obligations and advantages of the princes of the House of Braganza of Portugal".

Like the baptismal certificate, the original of this document did not survive.

In 1925, at the age of eighteen, Maria Pia of Braganza married Francesco Javier Bilbao y Batista, a Cuban playboy twenty years her senior.

He came from a rich family of cattle breeders.

Since Bilbao was divorced, the marriage was a civil one only and took place in the Cuban embassy in Paris.

In the early 1930s she had a number of articles published in two Spanish newspapers Blanco y Negro and ABC.

From 1932 she also claimed the right to the title of Duchess of Braganza and to be the rightful heiress to the throne of Portugal.

Maria Pia of Braganza claimed that King Carlos I legitimized her through a royal decree and placed her in the line of succession, however no proof was presented to demonstrate this and the King similarly did not have the personal authority to do so.

Maria Pia's paternity was never proven and her claim to the throne or of royal ancestry never widely accepted.

Maria Pia de Saxe-Coburgo Gotha e Bragança was born Lisbon, Portugal, allegedly as the royal bastard daughter of an adulterous relationship between King Carlos I of Portugal, then married to the Princess Amélie of Orléans, and Maria Amélia Laredó e Murça, the daughter of a wealthy Brazilian couple who had moved to Europe: Armando Maurício Laredó and Maria Amélia Murça e Berhen.

Maria Amélia's parents are sometimes given the title "baron", but they did not actually hold any noble title; their wealth and patrician status, however, may have allowed them to use such a title unquestioned.

They had one daughter, Fátima Francisca Xaviera Iris Bilbao de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança, in 1932, who became a cloistered nun in a convent.

Maria Pia of Braganza lived briefly with Bilbao in Cuba, before returning to Spain.

Maria Cristina Blais de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança (in Spain also called María Cristina Blais de Sajonia-Coburgo Braganza) married the Spanish sculptor Miguel Ortíz y Berrocal (1933–2006) and together they lived in Verona and had two sons: Carlos Miguel Berrocal de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança (born 1976) and Beltrão José Berrocal de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança (born 1978).

Bilbao died November 15, 1935.

In 1937, Maria Pia wrote her first book La hora de Alfonso XIII (The Hour of Alfonso XIII) published in Havana, Cuba, by Ucar, Garcia y Companía.

This work, written in Spanish and published under the name "Hilda de Toledano", is a defence of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, who was living in exile at the time.

In 1939 the Vicar-General of the Diocese of Madrid-Alcalas issued a baptismal certificate to Maria Pia of Braganza with information provided to him at that time by Don Antonio Goicoechea y Cusculluela, a member of the Spanish parliament and the Governor of the Bank of Spain, who had reportedly been present at the baptism.

Subsequently, Maria Pia of Braganza used this baptismal certificate as evidence for her claim to be the recognised daughter of King Carlos.

In 1939, she married Giuseppe Blais, a colonel in the Italian carabinieri.

At the time, members of the carabinieri were forbidden from marrying foreigners.

The marriage was, therefore, celebrated clandestinely, and was not registered civilly until August 5, 1946.

The union proved much happier and together they had a daughter, Maria da Glória Cristina Amélia Valéria Antónia Blais de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança, born in 1946.

In 1985, Maria Pia of Braganza married António João da Costa Amado-Noivo (January 28, 1952 – December 29, 1996).

At the time of the wedding, Maria Pia was 78, Amado-Noivo 33.

Like many society ladies, Maria Pia of Braganza supplemented her income by writing.

In 1954, Maria Pia wrote Un beso y ... nada más: confidencia consciente de una pecadora inconsciente (A Kiss and ... Nothing More: Conscious Confidences of an Unconscious Sinner) published in Madrid by Plenitud.

This novel was also written in Spanish and published under the name "Hilda de Toledano".

In 1957, Maria Pia wrote Mémoires d'une infante vivante (Memoirs of a Living Infanta) published in Paris by Del Duca.

Francisca died unmarried in 1982.

To escape the Spanish Civil War, Maria Pia of Braganza moved with her mother to Rome.

General Blais died in 1983.