Paula was described as "filled with peace, fortitude and resignation", or "the most quiet and gentle of Leopoldina and Pedro's children" and seldom complained, even though she had suffered from frequent health problems ever since infancy; she was often so sick that she could not do her lessons with her siblings.
She had never been robust or entirely healthy until the middle of 1831, when she had a bout of strength: she was able to lead an active life and grew taller.

However, at the end of 1832, she became severely ill.
Historian Roderick Barman suggests that Paula had meningitis; however scholar Mick Isle introduces the theory that Paula had malaria.
Isle further states that the royal doctors administered quinine (both orally and anally), soups, leeches, mustard plaster and applied acidic substances to her skin; this made the Princess "scream out in pain."

Nonetheless, these techniques were useless, for Paula died on 16 January 1833, one month shy of her tenth birthday.
Upon learning of his daughter's impending death, the Duke of Braganza, who was in Porto, made two requests to Bonifácio: "the first is to keep for me a bit of her beautiful hair; the second is to place her in the convent of Our Lady of Good Aid and in the same spot where her good mother, my Leopoldina for whom even today I still shed tears of longing, is located ... I ask you as a father, as a pitiful desolate father, to do me a favor and go in person to deposit next to the body of her mother this fruit of her womb and on this occasion pray for one and other."
Paula was given a grand state funeral which was not seen again until the death of Pedro II's son, Prince Imperial Afonso, in 1847.
Her current burial place is in Rio de Janeiro's Convent of Saint Anthony, next to her brother João Carlos and later her nephews Afonso and Pedro.
Her death made her siblings feel even more abandoned.
In 1834, the Duke of Braganza also died.
Paula was described as "filled with peace, fortitude and resignation", or "the most quiet and gentle of Leopoldina and Pedro's children" and seldom complained, even though she had suffered from frequent health problems ever since infancy; she was often so sick that she could not do her lessons with her siblings. She had never been robust or entirely healthy until the middle of 1831, when she had a bout of strength: she was able to lead an active life and grew taller.
However, at the end of 1832, she became severely ill. Historian Roderick Barman suggests that Paula had meningitis; however scholar Mick Isle introduces the theory that Paula had malaria. Isle further states that the royal doctors administered quinine (both orally and anally), soups, leeches, mustard plaster and applied acidic substances to her skin; this made the Princess "scream out in pain."
Nonetheless, these techniques were useless, for Paula died on 16 January 1833, one month shy of her tenth birthday. Upon learning of his daughter's impending death, the Duke of Braganza, who was in Porto, made two requests to Bonifácio: "the first is to keep for me a bit of her beautiful hair; the second is to place her in the convent of Our Lady of Good Aid and in the same spot where her good mother, my Leopoldina for whom even today I still shed tears of longing, is located ... I ask you as a father, as a pitiful desolate father, to do me a favor and go in person to deposit next to the body of her mother this fruit of her womb and on this occasion pray for one and other." Paula was given a grand state funeral which was not seen again until the death of Pedro II's son, Prince Imperial Afonso, in 1847. Her current burial place is in Rio de Janeiro's Convent of Saint Anthony, next to her brother João Carlos and later her nephews Afonso and Pedro. Her death made her siblings feel even more abandoned. In 1834, the Duke of Braganza also died.
Princess Paula of Brazil