Princess Charlotte of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria and Empress of Meixco
The only daughter of
Leopold I,
King of the Belgians (1790--1865) by his second wife,
Louise-Marie, Princess of
France (1812--1850). When
Charlotte was ten years old, her mother, Louise-Marie, died of tuberculosis and Charlotte was entrusted to the
Countess of Hulste, a close family friend.
On 27 July
1857 in
Brussels, Charlotte married her second cousin
Archduke Maximilian of Austria, the idealistic younger brother of
Emperor Franz Josef of Austria. In the Court of
Vienna she was much prized by her mother-in-law, who saw in her the perfect example of a wife to an
Austrian Archduke. Charlotte disliked
Empress Elizabeth (also known as
Sissi,
Franz Josef's wife). It is said that the archduchess disliked the deep connection that existed between the empress and
Maximilian, who were confidantes and shared the same tastes for many things, especially because her sister-in-law was universally admired for her beauty and charms.
Charlotte spent several relatively happy years in
Italy as Maximilian's wife while the archduke served as governor of the provinces of Lombardy and Venetia. Although Lombardy and Venetia were then under the rule of the
Austrian Empire, neither Maximilian nor Charlotte held real power, and both were fatally eager for more challenging roles in life.
Maximilian and Carlota were crowned in
1864 at the
Catedral Metropolitana in
Mexico City.
In the early
1860s, the ambitious
Napoleon III initiated the
French intervention in Mexico. France, eager to turn
Mexico into a satellite state, searched for a suitable figurehead to serve as the nominal emperor
of Mexico. Maximilian accepted the
Mexican crown and the couple sailed for the
New World. The imperial couple were crowned at the Catedral Metropolitana in 1864 and chose as their seat Mexico City, making their home in the
Neoclassical Castillo de Chapultepec. As
Empress, Charlotte took the name of Carlota (
Spanish for Charlotte). Carlota tried to take her imperial duties seriously, and even undertook a tour of the remote
Yucatán frontier, visiting the ruins of
Uxmal.
Only months after the coronation, however, Napoleon III began signaling his abandonment of Maximilian, and the
French began to withdraw their troops from Mexico. This strategic pullback was a potentially fatal blow to the infant Mexican monarchy. The situation was exacerbated by a
United States blockade that prevented French reinforcements from landing. In a desperate attempt to save her husband's throne, Charlotte returned to
Europe, seeking assistance for her husband in
Paris, Vienna, and finally in
Rome from
Pope Pius IX. Her efforts failed; she manifested symptoms of paranoia, suffered a profound cognitive and emotional collapse, and never returned to Mexico.
Charlotte and Maximilian had no children, but in 1865 the imperial couple adopted
Agustín de Iturbide y Green and
Salvador de Iturbide y de Marzán -- grandsons of
Agustín de Iturbide y Arámburu, an earlier emperor of Mexico (r. 1822-23). They gave two-year-old Agustín the title of "
His Highness,
The Prince of Iturbide" —similar imperial titles were accorded to various members of the child's extended family—and intended to groom him as heir to the throne. The explosive events of 1867, however, dashed such hopes, and after he grew to adulthood, Agustín renounced all rights to the Mexican throne, served in the
Mexican army, and eventually established himself as a professor at
Georgetown University.
President Benito Juárez of the
Republic of Mexico oversaw the execution of Maximilian in 1867. (His last words were reportedly of his absent wife: "Poor Carlota!"). The empire had collapsed after only three years. Carlota's mental state continued to be poor. Her brother
Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders, had her examined by alienists (psychiatrists), who pronounced her insane. She spent the rest of her life in seclusion, first at
Miramar Castle near
Trieste, Italy, and then at the Castle of Bouchout in Meise,
Belgium. During
World War I, her
Belgian estate was surrounded by the occupying
German army, but the estate itself was sacrosanct because
Austria was one of
Germany's chief allies and she was the widowed sister-in-law of the
Austrian emperor.
As Charlotte's illness progressed, her paranoia faded. She remained deeply in love with her husband. After his death, she cherished all of the surviving possessions they had enjoyed in common. The bias of the historiography of the time makes it difficult to assess to what extent she suffered from alleged mental conditions such as psychosis, paranoia and monomania. Her considerable fortune as one of the richest women of Europe was administered by baron de Goffinet, a servant of
King Leopold II, who ensured that the money was used for his personal colonization of the
Congo.
Charlotte died of pneumonia brought on by influenza at the
Bouchout Castle, in Meise, Belgium, on
19 January 1927, and is buried at the
Church of Our Lady of
Laeken.