Handwritten postcard from Princess Isabel (1910)

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Princess Isabel sends New Year's wishes, in perfect French, with a picture of her grandchildren.

New Year's postcard, in the form of a family photograph, with a dedication from Princess Isabel to an unknown recipient. One page. In French. 8.9cm x 14cm. Probably in Castelo d´Eu, France, in 1910. Excellent condition. Single piece.

Very happy new year!
affectionately
Isabelle Comtesse d'Eu
Pierre-Henri et Louis Gaston

Here Princess Isabel, aged 63 or 64, landed with her grandchildren Pedro Henrique and Louis Gaston, children of her second son and heir D. Luiz de Orleans e Bragança, the Perfect Prince. Exiled since 1889 and having moved several times, Gastão ended up buying the Castelo d'Eu in Normandy, his grandfather's former home, without having actually regained his former position in the Orleanist line of succession to the French throne. The couple's three children had entered a military school in Vienna, while the princess continued her charitable work linked to the Catholic Church. 

Isabel never imagined assuming the position of monarch of Brazil and wrote the day after the republican coup d'état: "if abolition is the cause of this, I do not regret it; I consider it worth losing the throne for her" .  The Princess was happy with an aristocratic life, focused on family and religion, taking care of charitable works, enjoying the arts such as theatre, painting or music.

This family photograph and this cheerful little text reveal a Princess without much responsibility, relieved, living happy moments, just a few years before a devastating First World War.