Portugal's last king left his collections to the nation, and Salazar's government put the whole Bragança estate into a state foundation over the claimant's protest

Manuel II became King of Portugal at 18, after his father and elder brother were shot in Lisbon on 1 February 1908. The republic deposed him in 1910, and he lived in exile at Fulwell Park in Twickenham. In a will dated 20 September 1915 he asked that all his collections form a museum "for the use of Portugal". He died suddenly on 2 July 1932, aged 42, with no children. The estates of the Dukes of Bragança were centred on the ducal palace at Vila Viçosa in the Alentejo, built from 1501^†. Salazar's government did not want them to pass to Manuel's mother, Queen Amélia, or his widow, Queen Augusta Victoria. Decree-Law 23240 of 21 November 1933 created the Fundação da Casa de Bragança to carry out the will and gave it the estate. Duarte Nuno, head of the rival Miguelist branch and the monarchist claimant, protested to Salazar on 19 February 1934. He argued that the House of Bragança was a special kind of private property that could not be divided or left by will. The protest failed. In 1944 another decree funded a state-guaranteed loan to buy out the queens' life interest and repair the palace. In 2026 the foundation owns the Vila Viçosa palace, five castles and farmland in 12 municipalities, where cork is its main income. Duarte Pio, Duarte Nuno's son and today's claimant, does not own it.