According to article 105 of the Constitution of 1824, the title should be used to designate to the first in line to the imperial throne. The Constitution also specifies that the eldest son of the Imperial Prince should be designated Prince of Grão-Pará, indicating the second in line of succession. The last emperor of Brazil, Pedro II, died in 1891, two years after the abolition of the Brazilian monarchy. His daughter, Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, was the last holder of the title during the existence of the Empire. Since then, the title has been used by the heir to the head of the Brazilian Imperial House. All the Brazilian princes were guaranteed a seat in the Senate after they reached the age of 25. However, for various reasons, including premature death and marriage with foreign dynasts, only Isabel actually sat in the Senate, becoming the first Brazilian woman to be a senator. Finally, according to the Constitution and some later rules created by the Brazilian Imperial House, the princes in the line of succession must marry with members of other dynastic houses in order to keep the égalite de naissance to maintain their imperial titles. A princess who marries the head of another dynastic house would not transmit her Brazilian titles to their offspring, and the princes could not assume a foreign throne and keep their Brazilian titles. These restriction are aligned to Portuguese and French royal traditions, although the Brazilian rules of succession are not directed by Salic law.
Isabel, the last Princess Imperial, never ascended the throne because it was overthrown by coup d'état in 1889. After the 1891 death of her father, the last Brazilian emperor de facto, she became the Head of the Imperial House of Brazil, and gave the title of Prince Imperial to her eldest son, Prince Pedro de Alcântara of Orléans-Braganza. The title was not recognized by the Brazilian government, which had adopted a republican constitution. Pedro de Alcântara died in 1940, the last member of the Brazilian Imperial House who had lived at the time of the Empire. His son, Prince Pedro Gastão, challenged Pedro Henrique's right to the succession in 1946, on the basis that his father's renunciation had no legal force. As a result, the Brazilian imperial family was split between a branch living at Petrópolis, led by Pedro Gastão and descended from Pedro de Alcântara, and another at Vassouras, led by Pedro Henrique and descended from Luiz. ;Claimants descended from Prince Luiz ;Claimants descended from Prince Pedro de Alcântara
