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Carlotta and Maximilian
In very short order, Charlotte became his little princess in deed, as well as fact. Charlotte was named for her father’s first wife, who was the daughter of George IV of England. That beautiful young princess had died as a result of attempting to give birth to Leopold’s first child. Even Charlotte’s mother, Leopold’s second wife who was the daughter of Louis Philippe King of France, approved the choice of this name.
When she was 16, Charlotte met a tall blue eyed and blond Austrian prince, the Archduke Maximilian, who was the 25 year old younger brother of Franz Joseph Emperor of Austria. Maximilian fell in love at once with the lovely little Charlotte. The only reservation he ever expressed about her was that she was far too intellectual. He actually expressed the opinion that time might fix this flaw. When Charlotte was 17, she married her handsome prince and went off to Austrian ruled northern Italy to Maximilian’s new post of governor at Milan. Maximilian, as a younger brother, would never become Emperor of Austria. His ambition to “do something” was unsatisfied. There are times in history, however, when everything just seems to fall into place, and even imperial longings can be satisfied.
By throwing France’s power behind Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia, the Turks, and the British in the Crimean War, and entering into European disputes as a peacemaker, Napoleon III earned the title of “Arbiter of Europe.” He fostered France’s trade and commerce and cast his eye on Mexico as a possible extension of his empire. Mexico had a troubled history dotted with revolutions, a short-lived Empire of Augustine Iturbide and the dictatorship of Santa Anna. Santa Anna had lost Texas in 1836 and its north-western area, the Mexican Cession, to the United States in 1848. In 1861, a native American named Benito Juarez was president of a very weak Mexico. In 1823, the United States, not yet 50 years old, served notice on the world that the Americas were no longer up for European colonization in the Monroe Doctrine, but in 1861 the United States was embroiled in a great Civil War. The U.S. was in no position to take on a European power in a contest over the rulership of Mexico.
South America already had one empire, Dom Pedro II’s Empire of Brazil. In Napoleon’s mind, the time was right for a second. In looking about Europe, for a candidate for his Mexican adventure, his eye fell on Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria’s younger brother, Maximillan, the former regent of Milan. As a member of the ancient imperial house of Hapsburg, Maximilian was a natural candidate for the imperial purple. Maximilian was willing to go to Mexico as was his archduchess Charlotte, who would become the Empress Carlotta (also spelled Carlota), which was the Spanish form of Charlotte. Napoleon III did not miss the fact that she was of the royal house of Orleans and Saxe Coberg und Gotha and thus was related to the ancient throne of France, as well as the thrones of Britain, Belgium, Denmark, and Greece, as well as Spain through her Burbon cousins.
The royal couple went to Mexico on a large Austrian man-of-war and landed to the cheers of tens of thousands of Mexicans. To the new emperor and empress, it was obvious that they were loved and wanted. What they did not see was the countryside where republican hopes refused to die and the tiny five-foot-two president of the Republic of Mexico, Benito Juarez, who traveled about the nation in his coach which was fitted out like a rolling office. Here in his coach, Juarez fired off letters to Abraham Lincoln and others pleading for help against the French and Maximilian. Lincoln wrote back to Juarez. All he could give was encouragement in the dozens of letters that he sent. Lincoln’s own civil war had just started to turn in favor of the Union. Juarez hoped for a Union victory so that the United States could then pressure the French to get out of Mexico in the name of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine. Carlotta and Maximilian threw themselves into their new duties as Emperor and Empress of Mexico. Mexican aristocracy flocked to their glittering court held at the beautifully refurbished Chapultepec Castle. The castle was now a true royal palace. Napoleon III had even sent gifts of high style furniture and Sevres porcelain. Yet, the royal couple had their troubles. Carlotta could not have children. The dynastic succession was not secured. In time, the problem seemed to be solved in an innovative way. Maximilian and Carlotta adopted the grandson of the former, and short-reigned emperor of Mexico (1822-1823), Augustine Iturbide. Now there was a true Mexican heir to the throne of the Imperial Mexican Empire.
By 1865, it was all over. Far from being weakened by the Civil War, the north had become an industrial and military powerhouse. In 1861, the Federal fleet had consisted of 36 wooden war ships. By 1865, the fleet had grown to more than 600 ships of war, including sea-going ironclads. The Federal army had grown to well over 2,000,000 men. This fact was not lost on Napoleon III’s minister to the United States. He had witnessed the great two day army review in Washington. He reported back to Napoleon III that, “This vast American army could march around the world!” Napoleon was most impressed, and he informed Maximilian that the French were leaving Mexico in response to American pressure. President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward were determined to enforce the Monroe Doctrine and had the might to do it. Napoleon III did not fancy a war with the United States. Maximilian fretted, but the French were both packing up and packing it in. Juarez’s forces were massing to attack the Imperial Mexican Army. After the French left, Maximilian had only his loyal Mexican forces led by Generals Miramon and Mejia. Carlotta saw it as her duty to go to Europe and beg support for Maximilian from Napoleon, Franz Joseph, and even Pope Pius IX. Napoleon III would do nothing. He had even kept her waiting for days before he saw her. Franz Joseph, Maximilian’s brother had just suffered a horrible defeat at the hands of Prussia in the Seven Weeks War. Austria was in no position to help anybody.
Pius had been driven out of his capital by Giuseppi Mazzini in 1848, who then established a republic in Rome. The French and Austrians put down Mazzini’s government in 1849 and restored Pius IX to the Papal throne. Pius, like Franz Joseph, was in no position to help anyone. Within three years, Italian troops would march into Rome and take over the city after the French withdrew to fight their own war with Prussia. The armies of Juarez closed in on Maximilian. By May of 1867, even his generals Miramon and Mejia could see that the imperial cause was lost. Juarez’s armies swept to victory, and Maximilian and his general were taken. They were tried by court martial and sentenced to be shot for crimes against the sovereignty of the Mexican Republic. Maximilian took great pains to arrange his death with great care. He was only 35 years old, and he wanted his mother to be able to view his body, for the last time, in reasonably good shape. He was sentenced to be shot by a seven man firing squad. To insure that his face would not be marred, he paid each man 20 pesos in gold to shoot him in the chest. Hapsburgs knew how to die with dignity. He even went so far as to place a red bit of cloth over his heart to mark the spot where he wanted to be shot. This had shaken the composure of at least one member of the firing squad who missed his mark and shot poor Maximilian in the eye. When Maximilian’s body was embalmed and prepared for shipment back home to Austria, his poor eye had to be replaced by a glass eye. This all took place on June 10, 1867. According to one source, the unfortunate 27 year old Empress had made it to Rome. By then, she began begging the powerless Pius IX to intercede with Europe’s rulers to help her husband. When Pius made it clear that there was no hope of any assistance, Carlotta fled to the Pope’s bedroom and shut herself in, refusing to be removed. The Pope sent for her brother, King Leopold II of the Belgians to come and comfort her and indeed remove her from Rome. Carlotta had gone quite mad. She had been pushed beyond all endurance. Her slender coil of sanity had snapped. The reality of the loss of her husband-emperor was more than she could stand. She was taken back to her homeland. For the next 60 years, she fled into the dark world of insanity. She was still addressed as Carlotta, Empress of Mexico. In her Belgian castle, she was untouched by the world as the years and then decades drifted by. Even World War I came and went without her notice. She outlived Napoleon III, Pius IX, Leopold II, Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Franz Joseph, and all the great people she had known. Even the German, Austrian, Russian and Turkish Empires had died. In 1927 she passed from history in her 87th year to join Maximilian. Benito Juarez governed Mexico until 1876. He was succeeded in that year by dictator Porfirio Diaz who lasted until he was thrown out by a revolution in 1911. For the next couple of decades, Mexico was torn by civil war, dictatorial rule, and violent anti-clerical rule. I doubt if Maximilian’s rule could have been worse than that. Even his designated heir was a full blooded Mexican and a constitutional monarchy was bound to have evolved based on the British model. If you want to meet me at the coin shows, you can catch up with me at Ernie Botte’s Westford Show on April 23, 2006 in Westford, Mass. at the Westford Regency Inn on Rt. 110. To get there, just take Exit 32 off Rt. 495 and follow the signs to Rt. 110. It’s easy. Show hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. On Sunday, May 7, 2006, I’ll be at Ernie Botte’s Auburn Show at the Elk’s Hall on Rt. 12, just off Exit 10 from the Massachusetts Turnpike. Hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. On Sunday, May 28, 2006, I’ll be back at Ernie Botte’s Westford Show. Sorry to say my computer died. So, my email is out of use right now. I’ll advise you on the communications situation. I want to express my gratitude to Fetchin Holmes for the use his coins and photographs for this article. |
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