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Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico, (July 6, 1832 – June 19, 1867) was a member of Austria's Imperial Habsburg family. With the backing of Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican conservatives, he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico on April 10, 1864. Many Mexicans and foreign governments refused to recognize his government and Maximilian was executed after his capture by Mexican republicans.

Early life

Maximilian was born in Schönbrunn, Vienna, Austria, the second son of Archduke Franz Karl of Austria and his wife Sophie Friederike Dorothee Wilhelmine, Princess of Bavaria. His brother was Emperor Franz Josef of Austria (sometimes identified by the English spelling Francis Joseph). Maximilian was born as His Imperial and Royal Highness Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, Prince Imperial and Archduke of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia.

He was a particularly clever boy, showing considerable taste for the arts and displaying an early interest in science, especially botany. He was trained for the navy, and threw himself into this career with so much zeal that he quickly rose to high command, and was mainly instrumental in creating the naval port of Trieste and the fleet with which Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff won his victories in the Italian War. Very much influenced by the progressive ideas in vogue at the time, he had some reputation as a Liberal, and this led, in February 1857, to his appointment as viceroy of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia.

He married Princess Charlotte of Belgium (also known as Empress Carlota of Mexico), daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians, on July 27, 1857, in Brussels, Belgium.

They lived as the Austrian regents in Milan until 1859 when Emperor Franz Josef dismissed Maximilian. The emperor was angered by the liberal policies pursued by his brother in Italy. Shortly after Maximilian's dismissal, Austria lost control of most of its Italian possessions. He then retired into private life, chiefly at Trieste, near which he built the beautiful castle Miramare.

Offer of a Mexican crown

Portrait of Maximilian I of Mexico, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

In 1859 he was first approached by Mexican monarchists with a proposal to become the Emperor of Mexico. He did not accept at first, but sought to satisfy his restless desire for adventure with a botanical expedition to the tropical forests of Brazil. However, after the French intervention in Mexico, under pressure from Napoleon III and after General Élie-Frédéric Forey's capture of Mexico City and the plebiscite which confirmed his proclamation of the empire, he consented to accept the crown in 1863 (Maximilian was not told of the dubious nature of the plebiscite, which was held while French troops were occupying the city.) His decision involved the loss of all his noble rights in Austria, though he was not informed of this until just before he left. Archduchess Charlotte was thereafter known as Her Imperial Majesty Empress Carlota.

On the voyage to Mexico, instead of reading the books on Mexico that were offered to him, Maximilian spent his time writing a manual of court etiquette.

Emperor of Mexico

Replicas of Maximilian's helmet and Imperial Crown

Maximilian landed at Veracruz on May 28, 1864; but from the very outset he found himself involved in serious difficulties since the Mexican liberals, led by Benito Juárez, refused to recognize his rule and there was continuous warfare between his French troops and the Mexican republicans.

The Emperor and Empress set up their residence at Chapultepec Castle, located on the top of a hill in the outskirts of Mexico City that had been a retreat of Aztec emperors. Maximilian ordered a wide avenue cut through the city from Chapultepec to the city center; originally named Avenue of the Empress, it is today Mexico City's famous Paseo de la Reforma (The Reform Promenade).

As Maximilian and Carlota had no children, they adopted Agustín de Iturbide y Green and his cousin Salvador de Iturbide y de Marzán, both grandsons of Agustín de Iturbide, who had briefly reigned as Emperor of Mexico in the 1820s. They gave young Agustín the title of "His Highness, the Prince of Iturbide", and intended to groom him as heir to the throne.

To the dismay of his conservative allies, Maximilian upheld several liberal policies proposed by the Juárez administration – such as land reforms, religious freedoms, and extending the right to vote beyond the landholding class. At first Maximilian offered Juárez an amnesty if he would swear allegiance to the crown, which Juárez refused. Later Maximilian ordered all captured followers of Juárez to be shot: a tactical mistake that only exacerbated opposition to his regime.

After the end of the American Civil War the United States began supplying arms to the republicans. By 1866 the imminence of Maximilian's abdication was apparent to almost everyone outside Mexico.

In 1866 Napoleon III withdrew his troops in the face of Mexican resistance and U.S. opposition under the Monroe Doctrine. Carlota travelled to Europe, seeking assistance for her husband's regime in Paris and Vienna and, finally, in Rome from Pope Pius IX. Her efforts failed, and she suffered a profound emotional collapse (some say insanity) and never went back to Mexico. After her husband was executed by Mexican republicans the following year, she spent the rest of her life in seclusion, first at Miramar Castle near Trieste, Italy, and then at the Château de Bouchout in Meise, Belgium, where she died on January 19, 1927.

Execution of the Emperor by Édouard Manet

Though urged to abandon Mexico by Napoleon III himself, whose withdrawal from Mexico was a great blow to the Mexican Imperial cause, Maximilian refused to desert his followers. Withdrawing, in February 1867, to Querétaro, he sustained a siege for several weeks, but on 11 May resolved to attempt an escape through the enemy lines. He was, however, intercepted before he could carry out this plan and, following a court-martial, was sentenced to death. Many of the crowned heads of Europe and other prominent figures (including the eminent liberals Victor Hugo and Giuseppe Garibaldi) sent telegrams and letters to Mexico pleading for Maximilian's life to be spared, but Juárez refused to commute the sentence, believing that it was necessary to send a message that Mexico would not tolerate any government imposed by foreign powers.

The sentence was carried out on June 19, 1867 when Maximilian was executed (together with his generals Miguel Miramón and Tomás Mejía) by a firing squad. Although he bribed the seven riflemen to not shoot him in the head, one did anyway. Maximilian's body was embalmed and displayed in Mexico before being buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna, Austria, early the following year.

Trivia

Franz Liszt wrote a Funeral March in Maximilian's honour in 1867, which was published as No. 6 of Années de Pèlerinage, Troisieme Année in 1883.

In the 1939 film Juarez Brian Aherne gave a very sympathetic portrayal of Maximilian.

External links

*Imperial House of Mexico

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Maximilian I of Mexico: Encyclopedia BETA

Contents

Maximilian I of Mexico

Early life

Offer of a Mexican crown

Emperor of Mexico

Further reading

See also

Trivia

External links