 He settled first in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, in the palace of the Grão-Pará, and then in the neighborhood of Retiro, also in Petrópolis.His cousin, Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza, the eldest son of Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, challenged Pedro Henrique's claim to the succession in 1946, on the basis that his father's renunciation had no legal force.In 1951, D. Pedro Henrique bought a farm, Fazenda Santa Maria, in the town of Jacarezinho, interior of Paraná.