Charlotte von Belgien

Charlotte of Belgium was born on 7 June 1840 at the Palace of Laeken as the youngest and only daughter of the Belgian royal couple, Leopold I and Louise of Orléans. Through her mother, she was a granddaughter of the French King Louis Philippe I and his wife, Maria Amalia; through her father, she was related to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. After the 1848 revolution dethroned her grandparents and forced them into exile, Charlotte regularly spent time with her family in England. Her mother’s death in 1850 deeply affected her. The lively child became a thoughtful and reserved adolescent who placed great importance on education, religion, and moral duty. She spoke French, English, and German, and early on developed the conviction that rulers bore an especially serious responsibility before God and humanity. As the daughter of the Belgian king and because of her beauty, Charlotte was considered a desirable marriage prospect. She rejected a proposal from King Pedro V of Portugal despite the prospect of a throne, viewing a crown more as a heavy burden than an attractive goal. In May 1856, she met Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who was eight years her senior. She immediately became convinced that she wanted to marry him. Their engagement was celebrated in December of that year, and they married at the Royal Palace of Brussels on 27 July 1857. The alliance with the House of Habsburg-Lorraine gave the young Belgian dynasty additional prestige. Charlotte’s relationship with Maximilian’s family, however, remained difficult. In Vienna, she came into conflict with Empress Elisabeth, the wife of her brother-in-law Franz Joseph I. Charlotte was particularly troubled by the close bond between Elisabeth and Maximilian. When Maximilian was appointed Viceroy of Lombardy–Venetia in 1857, the couple moved to Milan and spent much time in Venice and at Miramare Castle near Trieste. Charlotte took part in ceremonial duties, visited schools and charitable institutions, and devoted herself to riding, painting, and swimming. She also helped design the gardens at Miramare. At the same time, Maximilian increasingly became distant from her, and Charlotte complained of loneliness and boredom. In 1859, Maximilian was forced to resign his office under pressure from the Viennese court because his policies were considered too liberal, because of his leniency toward Italian rebels, and because of his extravagant spending. The couple withdrew to Miramare. There Charlotte encountered the political plan that would determine the course of her life: Napoleon III of France wanted to establish a Catholic empire in Mexico dependent on France and was seeking a suitable ruler. Mexican conservative émigrés offered Maximilian the crown. Although he hesitated and was given an exaggerated impression of the support he would enjoy in Mexico, Charlotte persuaded him to accept the role as a historic mission to restore order and civilization under Habsburg leadership. On 10 April 1864, Maximilian and Charlotte were proclaimed Emperor and Empress of Mexico at Miramare. After traveling through Rome and across the Atlantic, they reached Veracruz on 28 May and entered Mexico City on 12 June. They made Chapultepec Castle their principal residence and began expensive improvements despite the country’s strained finances. Charlotte played an important role in festivals, parades, and official events and headed the newly created Order of San Carlos. Whenever Maximilian was absent, he appointed her regent. She then presided over the Council of Ministers and held public audiences on Sundays; for this reason, she is regarded as the first woman to rule independently in the Americas. The imperial couple’s rule was unstable from the outset. France, Belgium, and Austria provided Maximilian with military support, but civil war raged between Republicans and supporters of the Empire. Maximilian tried to reconcile liberal and conservative forces. His policy of secularization, however, alienated the conservatives and the clergy, while the Republicans under Benito Juárez continued their resistance. Under pressure from the French army, Maximilian issued a law in 1865 allowing armed opponents to be sentenced to death without regular proceedings. Hundreds of rebels and political opponents were subsequently executed. At the end of 1865, Charlotte undertook a journey to Yucatán, where she received a comparatively warm welcome and visited the ruins of Uxmal. When Napoleon III decided at the beginning of 1866 to withdraw the French troops, the Mexican Empire could scarcely be maintained militarily. In July 1866, Charlotte traveled to Europe to ask Napoleon personally to continue his support. Her talks in France failed. She then sought out Pope Pius IX in Rome, but he also refused to become further involved in the Mexican enterprise. These repeated rejections plunged Charlotte into a severe psychological crisis. She developed fears of persecution and poisoning, at times refused food and water, and even asked the Pope to shelter her in the Vatican. Doctors later diagnosed a serious mental illness, whose precise cause has continued to be interpreted in different ways. While Charlotte was being detained in Europe and eventually taken back to Belgium, Maximilian was captured in Mexico and executed under Benito Juárez on 19 June 1867. Her family initially concealed his death from her. She learned of it only in January 1868 and was devastated. She first lived at the Pavilion of Tervuren and the Palace of Laeken, and from 1879 onward remained permanently at Bouchout Castle in Meise. There she spent 48 years largely shielded from public life. Her mental condition fluctuated between long periods of silence, confused conversations, and violent outbursts of anger. She preserved Maximilian’s memory, occupied herself with walks, embroidery, card games, and music, and received only occasional visits from relatives. Even during the First World War, her life at Bouchout remained largely unchanged. Her status as an Austrian archduchess protected the estate from interference by the German occupying authorities. Charlotte died at Bouchout Castle on 19 January 1927, aged 86, from pneumonia brought on by influenza. She was buried in the Royal Crypt of the Church of Our Lady of Laeken. Her eventful life as a Belgian princess, Austrian archduchess, and Empress of Mexico remained closely bound to the failure of the Mexican Empire, the loss of her husband, and her decades of psychological isolation.