Among the great adventures of history, few are as tragic and absurd as that of Maximilian I (1832-1867), the Austrian Archduke and brother-in-law of Sissi, who ended up before a firing squad in Mexico as the unusual and flamboyant Emperor of the North American country. Everything in Maximilian’s life (and death) is surprising, including his bizarre forked beard and the way he cared for his enemies and embalmed them very roughly (there is a photo). Together with his Belgian wife, the Archduchess and later Empress Carlota (sister of Leopold II), he wanted to transfer the customs and etiquette of the Habsburg court to a landscape and rural population as diverse as Mexico. The tragedy (or tragicomedy) of his failed venture could be summed up in one succinct sentence: For this reason, it is better not to have left. Now the British historian Edward Shawcross (London, 39 years old) is dedicating an insightful and very readable biography to the figure: The Last Emperor of Mexico (Ático de los Libros, 2023), in which he pursues an existential and political adventure that fascinated me ” Narratively, it’s candy,” he claims.
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Fernando Maximiliano José María de Habsburgo-Lorena, Maxi for the family, was not only able to prevail (logically) against Benito Juárez, the President of the Republic of Mexico and the man who refused to commute his death sentence (despite express requests). by Victor Hugo), but to Ulysses S. Grant, then President of the United States, who viewed the establishment of Maximilian’s Mexican Empire, which the Confederates had supported, as an act of war against his country, and to Karl Marx, who called it that one of the most egregious undertakings in the annals of international history. Two years younger than his brother Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, with whom he had a complex relationship, he placed his project of creating a new monarchy in Mexico in the hands of another European emperor, the French Napoleon III. which revealed a dramatic Don Quixote. It’s hard that when you have such relatives and employers and were born in Schönbrunn Palace, you end up on a barren hill in Querétaro (the Cerro de las Campanas), with your back to a poor mud wall in front of the muzzles of the guns seven ragged Mexican soldiers.
“The Execution of Maximilian” by Manet.
Shawcross tells Maximilian’s story by carefully weaving it into the geopolitical plot upon which the imperial adventure unfolded. He sees this as a challenge from old dynastic Europe to young republican America. Recall that the new emperor arrived in Mexico in 1863 with the support of France and relied on the bayonets of the French army of Napoleon III. entered the country as part of an intervention under the pretext of the country’s default on payments, which shares characteristics with the subsequent US attacks in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Maximilian’s election came after examining other candidates in response to the fact that the Archduke was free, although rumors of a connection with France continued to circulate: the possibility that this was the result of his mother, Princess Sofia of Bavaria,’s love for the Archduke was Duke of Reichstadt. , the unfortunate son of Napoleon Bonaparte with Maria Luisa of Austria.
The scholar agrees that Maximilian’s adventure in Mexico was a great adventure, but points out the comical aspects. “It’s a story that you wouldn’t publish if you presented it as fiction because it would be too unbelievable,” Shawcross emphasized in an interview in Barcelona. “Episodes like Maximilian, a science lover who becomes fascinated by butterflies during a shootout, or Carlota, who loses her temper in front of the Pope, are incredible.” The book shows that Maximilian’s tragedy was a tragedy foretold. How come they didn’t realize what they were getting into? “Hubris, pride; The story of Maximilian and Charlotte follows the classic structure of failure and fall due to arrogance. It’s clear that they must have seen what was going to happen. There were many red flags. But they were very ambitious and convinced that a great destiny awaited them. He was also a dreamer, obsessed with his dynasty. He was in line to the throne of the Austrian Empire, but his older brother didn’t trust him and pushed him out. Maximilian, who was more liberal than Franz Joseph, whom I liked, led a very boring life as commander of the Austrian navy and viceroy of Lombardy-Veneto in his fairytale castle Miramar (in Trieste). He was “like an over-the-top janitor,” he said. And when the plan arose to make him Emperor of Mexico, he accepted.” Curiously, it was precisely between France and Austria that disputes arose over the Italian cause, and Franz Joseph I had been humiliated at Solferino. “Yes, but that was something different, and the Austrian Emperor always viewed the offer to his brother as something private and as an enterprise in which he did not want to interfere, but which could give him some advantages without great expense. Napoleon III On his part, who ultimately abandoned him, successfully sold the motorcycle to Maximilian and presented Mexico as a place full of resources and great opportunities.”
Maximilian receives the proposal to become Emperor of Mexico. Painting by Cesare Dell’Acqua.
The fact is that the creation of a new monarchy in itself, the historian emphasizes, was not such a crazy idea at the time, they had re-established themselves in Greece, Sweden and Belgium, and things weren’t looking bad. The conditions in Mexico were completely different.
Shawcross admits to feeling some sympathy for Maximiliano and Carlota, but at the same time acknowledges the destruction and pain they have brought to the Mexicans. “They released the couple in the middle of a chaotic context to force a monarchy and then they dumped them. They are two very contradictory but very human characters. Certainly, despite his good intentions, the outcome was poor. We must not forget that they arrived as part of a brutal French invasion and that the impact of the imperial adventure in Mexico, which had a constitutional president, Juárez, and a democracy, was terrible.” Could the Maximilian Option have somehow worked? “It is very unlikely, it is true, that when they arrived there was some support for the initiative, from the conservatives and the church, and the French troops were there, and the United States was in civil war, so their hands were bound.” and the Monroe Doctrine was repealed. But the results were discouraging from the start. Maximilian had to give in when he saw that the conditions did not correspond to the promised conditions. On the other hand, he never distanced himself from the invading force, and as Napoleon III. Withdrew his troops claiming there was already peace, like Bush did in Iraq, he and Carlota had not won the hearts of the Mexican people.
Visit of Franz Joseph I and Sissi in Miramar, the castle of Maximilian and Charlotte in Trieste. Painting from 1865 by Cesare Dell’Acqua.
The history of the French invasion (in principle hand in hand with Great Britain and Spain) and the creation of Maximilian’s empire (the second after that of Agustín de Iturbide from 1821 to 1823, when independence occurred) is full of remarkable episodes. including the legendary defense of Camarón (Camerone), the great founding moment of the epic of the French Foreign Legion, or Prim’s participation as commander of the Spanish expedition, which he led in contrast to Napoleon III. and Maximilian I withdrew, leading some to maintain that the Catalan soldier would have liked to proclaim himself emperor. “It’s a very broad story with a lot of sidebars and it was impossible to go into depth about everything,” laments Shawcross, who says the book would have had “500 more pages.” Among the unique characters the historian points out is Francisco José and Maximilian’s little brother, Luis Victor, a cross-dressing homosexual who could have been the King of Brazil. And the Prussian Prince Félix Salm-Salm, a soldier of fortune who supported Maximilian and whose wife Ines, who was born in a circus, is said to have offered herself naked to one of the colonels who guarded the emperor as a prisoner, is said to have helped free him become.
His most beautiful moment in the adventure of Maximilian, who adopted traditional clothing and rode a horse with a broad hat and charro saddle, is the arrival of him and Carlota in Veracruz, when they see their kingdom for the first time. “You come with all the pomp and find the streets deserted and dusty. And the buzzards fly overhead. Then they will have the big reception in Mexico City, but the first thing is like a premonition.” Can Maximilian’s execution be compared with the death of his nephew Rudolf, heir to the Austrian Empire, in Mayerling? “Mayerling’s thing is a suicide pact, and the other thing is an execution, these are very different things and contexts. But everything, like the murder of Sissi (who, by the way, hated each other with Carlota, whose dog killed the other’s dog, a topic worthy of the current tabloid press) or that of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, is part of the great tragedy of the Habsburgs. They certainly weren’t a happy family.”
The train that shot Maximilian I.
The historian is struck by the pathos of Maximilian’s execution, which was a very unusual act (Napoleon I was not executed, nor was the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, although it is true that the first Emperor of Mexico, Iturbide, was executed). Charlotte had previously traveled to Europe to seek help for her husband and his dying empire, particularly from Napoleon III. She suffered from mental health problems and gradually lost her mind, although she had moments of clarity where she cried for her husband. They had no children and he apparently took in an Indian mistress in Cuernavaca.
The embalmed body of Maximilian I.
Was Maximiliano’s strange beard common? “It was more common than today and was considered very posh, today it gives it a hipster vibe.” He didn’t even agree to cut it to escape prison. Napoleon III On the other hand, he was very famous for his mustache, which he let grow.” While Édouard Manet’s painting of Maximilian’s execution shows him completely intact before his release, the photo of his embalmed body is powerful. “Manet’s painting has errors, Maximilian was not in the center but on the right from the firing squad’s perspective, and he was not wearing a hat, although the impression of calm he gives is accurate. As for his dead photo, after his execution Maximilian was very badly embalmed by doctors who treated his body with contempt and without any respect. “Then his body was used for negotiations with Austria and he spent six months half-decomposed in Mexico City until his transfer to his country was authorized.”
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