The last Portuguese monarch sought to keep the collections and the assets of the House of Bragança intact, so he requested the establishment of various bodies to serve this initial purpose, bequeathing all of his goods to the Museum of the House of Bragança, and thus to “my beloved homeland”.

As such, the Portuguese Government passed legislation in order to comply with the King’s wishes. Decree 23240, drafted by the Ministry of Finance, was published in Series I, 266 of the Government Gazette of 21 November 1933, rendering the Foundation legal.

Once it had been constituted, the Foundation required another legal instrument in order to ‘acquire the right of use’ from the two queens, Amélie and Augusta Victoria, and to become fully operational. The Portuguese Government again passed legislation to this effect, publishing Decree 33726, again devised by the Ministry of Finance, in Series I, no. 116 of the Government Gazette of 21 June 1944, which authorised this acquisition, together with a loan to the Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Crédito e Previdência for this purpose. This loan was made out for 20 years and was fully paid off in 1964.

The decrees also provided for the constitution of the Junta da Casa de Bragança committee and its Administrative Council, which oversee the aims of the Foundation as a private and exclusively Portuguese body.