His paternal grandparents were Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Princess Clémentine of Orléans (daughter of King Louis Philippe of France).

[1] Due to the lack of heirs by the Princess Imperial and the miscarriage suffered by Dona Leopoldina in her first pregnancy, there were high expectations surrounding the birth of Dom Pedro Augusto.

Pedro Augusto was born at 16:10 on 19 March 1866 at the Leopoldina Hall; his birth was announced with three rockets fired from the Imperial Palace of São Cristóvão, followed by volleys of guns of the forts and ships anchored in the bar.

[6] A few weeks after the birth of her fourth and last son, Dom Luís Gastão, Dona Leopoldina contracted typhoid fever and died in Vienna on 7 February 1871, at twenty-three years of age.

The alleged religious fanaticism and the policies of Dona Isabel ended up creating a climate in which a faction of the elite favoured a future Third Reign by Dom Pedro Augusto.

[18] Indeed, on his European tour, in all countries and royal houses he visited, Dom Pedro Augusto was received with the pomp worthy of an heir to the throne.

Support for the prince grew in number and political weight: Baron of Estrela, Count de Figueiredo, the Marquis of Paranaguá - among other leading politicians - and even the empress herself became his partisans.

[20] Dom Pedro Augusto learned of the military coup that resulted in the Proclamation of the Republic hours after the incident, when returning from a horseback ride.

[22] Restrained and locked in his cabin, he was stricken with persecutory delusions, and ended up wrapping his body in a lifeguard buoy, fearing that the ship was being bombed.

A few weeks later he was discharged and met with his grandparents when they received the news of the death of Dona Teresa Cristina, the only family ally in his pretensions to the throne.

[25] In October 1893, articles published in French and Argentine newspapers recognized the status of his cousin Dom Pedro de Alcântara as the rightful claimant to the imperial throne.

[27] Admitted by his father to a sanatorium in Tulln an der Donau, "The Preferred" spent the rest of his life believing that he would one day become Emperor of Brazil.