The proposal of the present study is to elucidate aspects of the life and pedagogical thinking of the first master of the emperor D. Pedro II, the preceptors of the Brazilian Imperial House, Mariana Carlota de Verga Magalhães Coutinho, Belmonte’s Countess, analysing it’s importance on the formation of the future sovereign of Brazil at the constitution moment of  a “new” nation, which bet on the second reign as a rupture perspective with the processes inherited from the colony and from the Portuguese domination. D. Mariana, woman of many virtues and admired by D. Pedro I, arrived at Brazil in 1808, with her family, becoming a widow within a short time, after the sudden passing of her husband. The emperor D. Pedro I realized qualities in this woman that detached her from the other ladies in the court and, for so, invited her to live at Quinta da Boa Vista, to be the waiting maid of the prince heir, which would be born within a month. After a year working on her functions from the very birth of the prince, she took the role of a second mother, with the precocious passing of D. Leopoldina, which leaved the prince as an orphan, and she lived to his side until his marriage. In this context, she started to be responsible for the transmission of an education with a severe moral aspect, which was, according to her, necessary for whom, in the future, would become the successor of the Brazilian throne. To the analysis of the trajectory of the Belmonte’s Countess alongside with the prince D. Pedro II will be used collections located on Rio de Janeiro and Petrópolis, counting with inedited documents from the personal archive of a descendent, in addition to historical sources, including letters researched at the Imperial Museum, the National Library and in other institutions of safekeeping of historical documents. The bibliographic revision of the theme proposes a dialog with the works of Lyra (1977) and Schwarcz (2003), aiming to know aspects of the life of D. Mariana and her relevance to the educational formation of D. Pedro II, since both authors approach the emperor biography in their works. The referential used as theoretical contribution will be the work of Vasconcelos (2005), in order to understand the education of the eighteenth-century elites in Brazil, and Gomes (2004) to add on the analysis and interpretation of the available letters. One of the raised hypothesis is that the knowledge transmitted by the Belmonte’s Countess influenced the personality of the young monarch and his political thinking. The dedication of the preceptress to her functions can be verified, amongst others, in the preparation of the book entitled as “Introdução do Pequeno Dicionário Histórico” (Introduction of the Little Historic Dictionary), with the exclusive end to “take the prince lessons”, which the original - that has not yet been studied – is currently in the power of his descendent, and will be analysed as a source in this study. With the knowledge of the Belmonte’s Countess teachings, revealed in various sources, it is possible to recompose aspects of the education considered adequate for the govern of the Brazilian nation, which aspired to free itself from the remains of the colony, and pair with the “civilized nations”.