Princess Charlotte of Belgium,
whose full name was “Marie Charlotte Amélie Augustine Victoire Clémentine
Léopoldine”, was the youngest child and only daughter of King Leopold I of
Belgium and his second wife, Princess Louise of Orléans. Charlotte was a descendant
of the royal houses of France, Sicily and Naples, Spain, Poland, and the Holy
Roman Empire through her mother (who was the daughter of Louis Philippe I, King
of the French and Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily) and a descendant
of German royalty through her father. Charlotte was born on June 7, 1840 at the
Royal Palace of Laeken in Brussels. Though her parents had three sons before
her, their eldest boy had died in infancy in 1834. Thus, Charlotte had two
surviving older brothers – the future Leopold II of Belgium and Prince
Philippe, Count of Flanders. Through her father, Charlotte was the first cousin
of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, as well as Ferdinand II of
Portugal.
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| The young Princess Charlotte of Belgium (Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1842) |
Charlotte was named after her
father’s first wife, his beloved Princess Charlotte of Wales (the only
legitimate child of George IV of the U.K.), who had died in childbirth in 1817
after her marriage to Leopold a year earlier. Although Leopold cared for and
respected Charlotte’s mother and his second wife, Louise, his true soul mate
would always be the late Princess Charlotte. He remained haunted by her tragic
death for the rest of his life. Little Charlotte, who was undoubtedly her
father’s favorite child, inherited both of her parents’ good looks. She was a
fair-skinned, slender young girl with long locks of black hair and expressive,
dark eyes. She had a good relationship with both of her parents, who loved and
adored their children, but her closest confidante was her maternal grandmother,
Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies (on Charlotte’s wedding day, she wore a
bracelet adorned with a miniature portrait of her grandmother). Charlotte was
an intelligent and kindhearted girl, just like her mother, who possessed a
lively and dedicated persona. She never declined to perform her royal duties
and was very serious about everything she did, even when it came to attending
social events. Her parents made sure that she received an excellent education,
which included studying philosophy, math, and literature (a subject she
especially adored).
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| Princess Charlotte of Belgium in her youth (Hermann Fidel Winterhalter, 1840's-50's) |
When Charlotte was ten, her
mother succumbed to tuberculosis, an event that changed her life forever. After
her mother’s death, a close family friend, the Countess of Hulste, took
Charlotte into her own household to continue her education but for a few weeks
out of the year, Charlotte stayed in Claremont with her maternal grandmother.
In the summer of 1856, Charlotte met her second cousin, the Archduke Maximilian
of Austria, for the first time. Maximilian was the handsome but naïve younger
brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and the second son of Francis
Charles, Archduke of Austria and Princess Sophie of Bavaria (the maternal aunt
of the famous Bavarian Duchesses). Maximilian was an attractive and charming
blonde with a friendly and humorous disposition but unlike his older brother,
he was a hopeless romantic who always had his head up in the clouds. Charlotte
and Maximilian fell in love after meeting each other and before long,
Maximilian asked Charlotte’s father for his daughter’s hand in marriage.
Leopold was not too enthusiastic about the match, since he wanted Charlotte to
marry King Pedro V of Portugal, but he knew that the only brother of the
Emperor of Austria was an impressive suitor so he told his daughter that she
had his permission to marry the Austrian Archduke if she so pleased.
The two were engaged by the time
Maximilian came to Belgium to visit Charlotte for a second time, where the
couple bonded and became even closer than before. Both shared a liberal but impractical
view of the world and Charlotte soon grew to adore and worship her fiancée. On
July 27, 1857, the nearly seventeen year old Charlotte became an Archduchess of
Austria when she married the twenty-five year old Maximilian in Brussels. Soon
after the wedding, the newlyweds went to Maximilian’s home of Vienna where
Charlotte became acquainted with her husband’s family. Her uptight and rigid
mother-in-law, Princess Sophie of Bavaria, approved of her daughter-in-law, as
she saw her as the perfect example of a royal wife. But Charlotte didn’t get
along as well with her husband’s sister-in-law, Elisabeth of Bavaria, the wife
of Franz Joseph I. Elisabeth, who was very much disliked by Sophie of Bavaria,
was close to Maximilian because they shared many common interests. Charlotte
felt threatened by their relationship, especially considering Elisabeth’s
extreme beauty and charm. The happy couple later went from Vienna to Italy
where Maximilian was appointed the Viceroy of Lombardy and Venice. Charlotte
loved Venice, although the Italians didn’t care for her, and lived quietly in
the villa Miramar. She spent her time reading, writing, swimming, sailing, and
painting while her husband worked. But since his older brother had given
Maximilian his new position, it was clear to Maximilian and Charlotte that the
job was only nominal and the Emperor wielded the real power. They were content
with their life in Italy for now but as the years went on, the couple’s desire
to do something truly influential only deepened.
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| Princess Charlotte of Belgium and her husband, Archduke Maximilian of Austria (1857) |
Soon enough, their chance to grab
some power of their own came knocking from a place they never fathomed –
Mexico. Napoleon III, the Emperor of the French, wanted to transform Mexico
into a satellite state during the ongoing French intervention in Mexico, also known
as the Franco-Mexican War. France had captured Mexico and Napoleon III was in
search of a suitable candidate who could rule as his titular emperor of Mexico.
He set his sights on Maximilian since he knew that the Austrian Archduke was
frustrated with his powerless position in Italy. So, the French Emperor offered
the crown of Mexico to Maximilian, who accepted on April 10, 1864 against his
brother’s advice. On May 24, 1864, Charlotte and her husband landed in Veracruz
and were crowned at the Metropolitan Cathedral. The new Emperor and his Empress
Consort (who decided to take the Spanish version of her name – “Carlota”) chose
Mexico City as their royal seat and set up their residence at Chapultepec
Castle. Although Carlota had initially entered Mexico with a positive outlook,
she soon began to realize the reality of her new situation. She was shocked by
the poverty of most of the Mexican people, as well as their ignorance and lack
of education. She tried to help some poverty-stricken citizens by giving them
jobs in the palace but her efforts failed, as most of them left after a day
with stolen items from her household. Most of the country was not accepting of
her or her husband because they did not take well or consent to being under
French control.
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| Empress Carlota of Mexico (Albert Gräfle, 1865) |
But Carlota tried to make the
best of her situation by working diligently to raise money for charities and
sponsor the building of schools, hospitals, and homes. She toured the country
on behalf of her husband and visited far-away places of significance in Mexican
history, such as the ruins of Uxmal and the untamed Yucatan Peninsula. When her
husband was away, she would rule in his place as regent and it quickly became
apparent to the Mexicans and French that Carlota was the dominant and stronger
partner in the marriage. But just as the Mexican population was not welcoming
to their new sovereigns, Carlota and her husband were not fond of the people
who had put them on the throne in the first place. They shared a deep mistrust
of the French troops stationed in Mexico, especially the army’s commander. Even
the succession became a troublesome matter. Despite their efforts, Carlota
could not become pregnant but the couple desperately needed an heir to cement
their legitimacy. They decided to adopt two grandchildren of the original
Mexican Emperor, Agustin de Iturbide, in 1865 – two boys named Agustín de
Iturbide y Green and Salvador de Iturbide y Marzán. Carlota was not too fond of
raising strange and foreign children as her own but she saw it as part of her
royal duty, so she went about her task without complaining.
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| Empress Carlota of Mexico (1864) |
Just months after the royal
couple adopted the two Mexican princes, Carlota received the heartbreaking news
that her father had died back in Belgium on December 10, 1865. By this time,
the Civil War in America had ended, which allowed American troops to put
pressure on the Mexican border, since the U.S. was opposed the idea of a
monarchy so close to home. Eventually, this combined with Napoleon III’s
troubles at home (his military conflict with the Prussians and his increasing
unpopularity) prompted him to completely go back on his word to Maximilian and
withdraw his support in early 1866. He ordered his troops in Mexico to come
back to France and told Maximilian that he would give him no more support in
the form of manpower or money. This shattered Carlota’s almost persistent optimism
and triggered the start of her emotional and mental collapse. She convinced her
husband not to abdicate just yet, as she made a last-ditch effort to save his
throne by traveling back to Europe to confront the French Emperor directly. She
arrived in France on August 8, 1866 and Napoleon, who claimed to be ill upon
her arrival, refused to see her. She then went to his wife and her friend, the
Empress Eugenie, and with her help she managed to worm her way into the
Emperor’s presence. Her confrontations (she met him three times) with Napoleon
were fiery, condescending, and emotional but despite her words and tears,
Napoleon refused to back Carlota and her husband any longer. After her failed
mission in France, she descended into a state of paranoia (she began constantly
hiding her face from sight, ordered her coachmen to drive as fast as possible
for no reason on one occasion, and believed that a farmer her carriage passed
by was actually an assassin sent to kill her). At first, she went back to her
old home in of Miramar in Italy but soon she received a message from her
husband asking her to go directly to the Pope to plead for support. Needless to
say, her visit to the Vatican was a complete disaster, as her husband was
unaware that his wife was in the bouts of a nervous breakdown. Upon arriving,
she barged into the papal apartments, threw herself at the Pope’s feet in a fit
of hysteria, and claimed that everyone around her was trying to poison her so
she was starving herself out of fear of dying. She then tasted some of the
chocolate milk the Pope was drinking with her finger and abruptly asked to stay
at the Vatican because it was the only place she would be safe. The extremely
shocked and confused Pope had no choice but to agree and set up a bed for her
in the library, which made Carlota the only woman to have ever slept overnight
in the Vatican.
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| Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico (1860's) |
During her time in Italy, she
experience further episodes of mental instability (she took a glass from the
Pope to drink from a fountain and tied live chickens by their legs to her table
so that she could watch as her servants killed, cleaned, and cooked them in
order to make sure no one slipped poisoned her food), which her family in
Belgium heard about. Her brother, Prince Philippe, personally came to the
Vatican to take her back to Miramar where her husband’s family, who allowed her
no visitors because of her condition, could watch her. Doctors were brought in
to examine Carlota and she was soon deemed insane. In her quiet yet familiar
surroundings, her physical condition began to improve but her fragile mental
state remained unchanging. During her time as a virtual prisoner, rumors began
to fly that she had left Mexico because she had become pregnant by her reputed lover,
a Belgian officer named Colonel Alfred Van der Smissen, and gave birth to a son
in 1867 who was later said to be a French military commander named Maxime
Weygand (who never knew his parents). There is no evidence to support this
farfetched claim and it is totally unlikely that a woman as devoted to her
husband as Carlota could betray him romantically, especially considering how
fractured her sanity was at this time.
Back in Mexico, in the beginning
of 1867, Napoleon III was in the process of sending all of his soldiers back
home so he asked Maximilian to come back with them. Although Maximilian
considered the offer, he ultimately refused to give up the throne (his family
had commanded him to maintain his position as long as possible to sustain the
dignity of the Hapsburg name) and, staying true to his romantic ideals, decided
to stage his last stand in a battle against the republican Mexican forces at
Queretaro, which failed. The rest of the Western world was shocked when President
Benito Juárez of the Republic of Mexico had Maximilian executed by a firing
squad on June 19, 1867. He died at the age of thirty-four and his body was sent
back to Austria to be buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.
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| Empress Carlota of Mexico (1860's) |
Charlotte’s mental state only deteriorated
further after she learned of her husband’s execution. It is said that she died
with her beloved Maximilian on that horrible day in June. Her Belgian family
tried to have her live with them back in Laeken but she could not function around
other people, so she spent the rest of her years in isolation at the Castle of
Bouchout in Meise. Although she still maintained her beautiful appearance and
took comfort in reading and painting, she would have episodes where one moment
she would be laughing hysterically and the next she wouldn’t be able to stop
crying. Sometimes she would talk nonstop about a specific topic and other times
she would speak in gibberish. During her worst episodes, she would fall into a
furious rage and destroy everything she could get her hands on, including her
furniture, vases, and her prized books and paintings. But strangely enough, she
never ruined anything that had once belonged to Maximilian or was connected to
her memory of him in some way. She remained passionately in love with her dead
husband until her own death and even slept with a doll that she called Max.
Although her brother, King Leopold II, never came to visit her, his wife, Queen
Marie Henriette, often took her daughters with her on her frequent trips to see
their deranged aunt. In 1914, when World War I began and Germany invaded
Belgium, Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered his troops not to disturb the home of
Charlotte (the sister-in-law of Germany’s Austrian ally, Franz Joseph I) or
bother her in any way. Thus, she was spared seeing the atrocities of the Great
War but it is uncertain just how in touch she was with reality at this time
anyway. She lived the rest of her life in a fragile and unstable mental
condition, sometimes aware of reality and completely out of touch with the
world, until she died of pneumonia brought on by influenza on January 19, 1927.
She died in her home of Bouchout Castle, aged eighty-six and was buried with
her parents in the Royal Crypt of Laeken.
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