Hapsburg Tragedy Part I: Maximilian and Carlota

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
---George Santayana

This is the first in a three part series about three tragic members of the imperial family of Austria-Hungary, or the house of Hapsburg-Lorraine. The Hapsburgs ruled over portions of Europe from Spain to the Balkans for centuries. The assassination of one of their family members, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, led to World War I. Here I will present Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph or Maximilian for short. He was the archduke’s uncle and was executed years before in a foreign land where he had journeyed to rule with the best of intentions.

On June 19, 1867 under the Mexican sky a tall, blonde Austrian of 35 faced a firing squad along with two Mexicans who had been his loyal generals. Far away in Europe, his wife was descending into madness after fleeing Mexico to unsuccessfully plead her husband’s case to the heads of France and Austria, and the pope. The Austrian who stood ready to die that day was the former emperor of Mexico, Maximilian or Maximiliano I. Who was Maximilian and how did he who was Austrian and who grew up along the Danube end up in Mexico?

Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, the future Emperor Maximilian I, was born in Vienna, Austria on July 6, 1832. He was the second son of the Archduke Franz Karl and his wife Sophie. From the beginning there were contradictions about Maximilian. He looked nothing like his father or his brothers. In fact, it was said that he closely resembled Napoleon II, the Duke of Reichstadt who was the son of Napoleon I and the Archduchess Marie Louise. Maximilian’s mother Sophie had developed a tender friendship with the Duke that might have been transformed into passion love. From the time she had arrived in Vienna when she was 19 and the Duke had been 14, they had been extremely close. They had shared similar interests in books, beauty, opera, and liberalism. Napoleon II was the opposite of Sophie’s husband and siblings who were dull and prodding. In contrast to them, the Duke was tall, blonde, and glittering, especially once he became a man. Was Maximilian the product of this intense friendship? No one will ever know. When the Duke died at 21 of tuberculosis or as some have suggested, poisoning, Sophie never recovered from the loss of her best friend.

Maximilian would grow up to have a sparkle and a contradictory uniqueness about him. His dabbling in liberal politics would cause his elder brother Franz Joseph, the last emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, fits. Maximilian was an eager learner showing early on a love for the arts and science. He also loved the military, and rose quickly to become a high ranking officer in the Austrian navy. His first stint as a ruler was as viceroy of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia.

In 1857, he married Princess Charlotte of Belgium. The two were opposites in looks and temperaments. Where Maximilian was tall and fair, Charlotte was short and dark. Maximilian could be lively and frivolous, while Charlotte was quiet, serious, loved the music of Bach and books on history. In their case, which is often the case, opposites did attract.

Maximilian’s half brother, the Emperor Franz Joseph finally got fed up with his younger brother’s progressive policies. So he dismissed him from his position as viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia. Maximilian and Charlotte retired from public life and lived in Milan.


In 1859, Maximilian was faced with a highly unexpected proposal. He was approached by Mexican conservative monarchists to be their candidate as the emperor of Mexico. Maximilian eventually consented to the proposal, since he had a love for adventure and the exotic. His decision also fell in completely with Napoleon III’s desire to have permanent European control of Mexico.

In May of 1864, Maximilian and Charlotte landed in Veracruz, Mexico. Maximilian had spent the time since he had accepted the throne, learning enthusiastically all he could about his new country. Mexico was in turmoil when the couple arrived. French troops had been sent there after Mexico’s president Benito Juarez had been unable to repay foreign loans which Mexico had received from France, Spain, and Britain. Napoleon had used the issue of the loans to intervene militarily in Mexico. Maximilian and Charlotte had unknowingly arrived in the war torn country believing that a plebiscite by the Mexican people had declared him emperor. The plebiscite had been done under the gun with French troops around dictating that the Mexicans vote according to French plan. The majority of the population did not want foreigners running their country. They already had a leader, President Benito Juarez.

Like Maximilian, Benito Juarez was a remarkable individual. Where Maximilian had come from the halls of palaces, Benito Juarez had come from the dust. Juarez was an Amerindian of peasant stock. He said of his parents that they were "Indios de la raza primitiva del país," which in English means, "Indians of the primitive race of the country." He was the first pure blooded Indian to rule a nation in the Americas in over three centuries. Juarez grew up not even speaking Spanish. He spoke an Indian language, Zapotec. Until he was nearly a teenager, he worked as a farmer and a shepherd. A lay Franciscan noticed his high intellect and encouraged him to go into the priesthood. Juarez was a dedicated seminary student for awhile, but eventually his interests turned to law. He graduated from the seminary, but he also went on to earn a law degree.

Still not suspecting that they were dupes, Maximilian and Charlotte planned to have a coronation in the Metropolitana Cathedral in Mexico City. The coronation was never held because of constant unrest in the country. Maximilian and Charlotte made their home in Chapultepec Castle which is on a hill which had once been a retreat of the Aztec emperors. Since they were childless, they adopted a young Mexican child named Agustin de Iturbide y Green and his cousin Salvador. Both had been the grandsons of a former emperor of Mexico who had been forced to abdicate and was later executed. Agustin was to be Maximilian’s heir. Maximilian’s decision like so much he did in the beginning was an attempt to pacify the masses. Agustin was of Mexican, Spanish, and American descent. His mother had been an American named Alice Green. Perhaps Maximilian thought that by declaring a child of Mexican, Spanish, and American blood as his heir apparent, the Mexicans, Europeans, and Americans would see in a future ruler of mixed heritage someone who might be less threatening to their interests in the region. America was still engaged in its’ own turmoil with the Civil War. However, even though with it’s plate full, the American government did not feel comfortable with French interference in Mexico. The Monroe Doctrine clearly stated that European countries were not to interfere in any of the newly created states in the Americas. After the Civil War was over, the Doctrine would spell the end of Maximilian’s adventure.

Mexico had two rulers now: the Emperor Maximilian and President Benito Juarez. Maximilian began to steal ideas from the Juarez camp in an attempt to buy the trust of the Mexican people. He copied Juarez’s ideas on religious freedom, land reform, and voting rights which would go beyond the landholding classes. He offered Juarez amnesty if he would only swear allegiance to the crown. Juarez and the people were not about to be pacified by an unwelcomed, usurping foreigner. When pacification did not work, Maximilian ordered that all followers of Juarez be shot. This was in response to the republican (Juarez’s) force’s practice of executing followers of the empire. This draconian measure really turned the tide against Maximilian’s rule.

Once the American Civil War had come to a close, the US government began to ship arms to Juarez’s government. Napoleon III got nervous. With so much unrest in Mexico, being slapped by the Monroe Doctrine, and worries about mounting German power on the European continent, he suddenly withdrew all French forces leaving Maximilian and Charlotte (now Carlota) to fend for themselves. Betrayed and alone except for a few loyal followers, Carlota encouraged Maximilian to never waver in his determination. She reminded him that being a man of honor, it would be better to fight it out and die than to run back to Austria in defeat and disgrace. When they had accepted the throne of Mexico, they had relinquished any titles they had had back home. While Maximilian tried to hang on to power, Carlota went on an odyssey to France, Vienna, and Rome to plead her husband’s cause. When everyone looked the other way, including Napoleon III, who had been Maximilian’s chief supporter, Carlota had a nervous breakdown which turned into insanity. For 50 more years she would live in seclusion dying in 1927 at age 86.

Back in Mexico, Maximilian tried to hold out again the republican forces of Benito Juarez. While trying to escape through enemy lines, he was captured. He was imprisoned, court-martialed and sentenced to death. Many of the crowned heads of Europe including the author Victor Hugo sent letters and telegrams to the Mexican government begging that Maximilian’s life be spared. Benito Juarez refused. He wanted to send a clear message to the world that any government imposed on Mexico by foreigner powers would never again be tolerated. So on June 19, 1867, the former emperor of Mexico, Maximilian I was shot along with two of his generals Tomas Mejia and Miguel Miramon.

This is Eduard Monet’s artistic view of the event. Maximilian did not wear a sombrero, and he did not stand in the middle. He asked that his executioners fire at his heart because he wanted his mother’s last view of him to be with a face unmarred by bullets. However, a possible stray bullet hit him in the eye. When his body was embalmed, a glass eye was positioned where the bullet had struck him.

Maximilian’s last words may have been either,

“Mexicans! Today I die for a fair cause: the freedom and independence of Mexico. May God allow my spilling blood to put an end forever to the disgraces of my new homeland. ¡Viva México!"

or

"I forgive everybody. I pray that everybody may also forgive me, and my blood which is about to be shed will bring peace to Mexico. Long live Mexico! Long Live Independence!”

Like his great aunt Queen Marie Antoinette 70 years earlier, Maximilian had been died violently so far from home. This macabre photo is of Maximilian's corpse.

In 1939, Warner Brothers Pictures produced the drama Juarez with Brian Aherne as Maximilian, Bette Davis as Carlota, Paul Muni as Benito Juarez, and Claude Rains as Napoleon III. Aherne's Maximilian is almost saintly in his idealism. Also in the movie, Juarez’s hero and role model is President Abraham Lincoln, whose portrait he always keeps with him almost as if it is a religious icon. When Juarez asks one of his spies about the appearance of Maximilian, the man describes him as a “magnifico, who is tall and fair with hair like the summer corn.”

Below are two clips from the movie. In the tragedy of Maximilian and Carlota, the lessons of history have been forgotten by many, especially when we look at some recent events that have occurred on the world stage.