Empress Carlotta of Mexico
(1840-1927)

Grand Duke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria (1832-1867), brother of Emperor Franz Joseph, ruled as Emperor Maximilian of Mexico from 1864 to 1867. Unaware of the political situation before he accepted the position, he was under the impression that he would be welcomed in Mexico and was surprised when he encountered resistance from the deposed president Juarez. When the USA insisted on the withdrawal of the occupying French army, Maximilian was abandoned by his Imperial ally and was forced to assume personal command of his own army. He was captured by Mexican republicans after the siege of Querétaro and executed by a firing squad.

His wife Carlotta was the daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians. Christened Marie Christine Amélie, she married Maximilian in 1857 and accompanied him as Empress when he went to Mexico. After the withdrawal of French troops, she went to Europe to seek the aid of Napoléon III and the Pope, but her mental health broke down under the strain of her failure. She never returned to Mexico, but lived on after her husband’s execution for sixty unhappy years. She spent many of these in an asylum, finally dying in Belgium in 1927.