Heavy metal act Armahda has posted a new single entitled “Last Farewell” in tribute to Brazil’s last emperor Dom Pedro II, whom died 124 years ago in 1891. The track refers to his last days as emperor of Brazil and his journey to exile in France when the Republic was proclaimed. The research for the preparation of the lyrics included references provided to the band by the actual heirs of the royal family in Brazil.

Born in Brazil, Dom Pedro II was raised by tutors designated by the Brazilian Assembly, since he was 5 years old. He was raised by tutors because his father, Dom Pedro I, abdicated the throne, returning to Portugal with the rest of the family to confront his brother Dom Miguel, the Usurper. He was called "the nation's orphan": a child raised by the government to be a monarch, with a huge weight on his shoulders, as the absence of his father led the country to pressure from the separatist armed movements. 

The vast majority of the soldiers who were part of the coup troops on November 15th was not aware that it was intended to overthrow the monarchy. Desiring to avoid bloodshed, the old Emperor Dom Pedro II declined to resist the coup and went into exile with his entire family on November 15th, 1889.

2 years later, on December 5, 1891, Dom Pedro II passed away, staying in an unpretentious hotel in Paris, and was buried like the head of state by the French. On the day of the Emperor’s death, when Count d’Eu opened the closet where Dom Pedro II’s personal belongings were stored, he found a small package containing a dark substance and a note with the following message: "This is the soil from my country; I wish it to be put in my coffin, if I die away from my homeland." He was buried with his head resting on a pillow containing Brazilian soil. The blood that was not shed in 1889, shed profusely during the next 10 years, as the result of the shock between expectations and the reality of the new republic, with episodes of massacres, beheadings, civil wars, and terror.