The Last Emperor of Mexico: A Disaster in the New World

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Edward Shawcross has penned a gripping account of Austrian Archduke Maximilian's attempt to be Mexico's reforming emperor. Pictured: Manet’s painting of Maximilian’s execution Emily Ratajkowski reveals plans to write a book about divorce from ex-husband Sebastian Bear-McClard as she stars in shoot for Vogue Australia Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1888). History of Mexico Volume VI 1861-1887. The Bancroft Company. pp.221–222. Chisholm, Hugh (1911). "The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information". By now I found myself desperately rooting for this deluded couple and was relieved to read that their entry into Mexico City was happier: triumphal arches, crowds lining the streets, balls and banquets. But if you read the small print, you see that ‘Juarez still held much of the north, west and south of the country’.

There are portrayals of Maximilian on stage, in film and television. In theater, the play by Franz Werfel Juarez and Maximilian focuses on the two historical figures; it was performed in Berlin in 1924, directed by Max Reinhardt. In cinema, the 1934 Mexican film Juárez y Maximiliano he is played by Enrique Herrera; in the 1939 American film Juarez by Brian Aherne. In the 1939 film The Mad Empress, about his wife, Maximilian was played by Conrad Nagel. Maximilian is portrayed in one scene in the 1954 American film Vera Cruz, played by George Macready. In the Mexican telenovela El Vuelo del Águila, Maximilian was portrayed by Mexican actor Mario Iván Martínez. [ citation needed] The German-produced Netflix historical drama The Empress, premiering in 2022, centers on the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Maximilian's sister-in-law. Maximilian, played by actor Johannes Nussbaum, is portrayed in an unfavorable light. [ citation needed] McAllen, M.M. (2014). Maximilian and Carlota: Europe's Last Empire in Mexico. Trinity University Press. p.124. ISBN 978-1-59534-183-9. Stacey Dooley shows off daughter Minnie's lookalike red hair as she stuns fans with a HUGE announcement: 'This can't happen already!' The sentence was carried out in the Cerro de las Campanas at 6:40a.m. on the morning of 19 June 1867, when Maximilian, along with Generals Miramón and Mejía, was executed by a Republican firing squad. He spoke only in Spanish and gave each of his executioners a gold coin in traditional European aristocratic fashion. His last words were, "I forgive everyone, and I ask everyone to forgive me. May my blood which is about to be spilled end the bloodshed which has been experienced in my new motherland. Long live Mexico! Long live its independence!" A photo of Maximilian's firing squad is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilman Collection. [133]

Art 3 °. The imperial crown of Mexico is offered to S. A. I. and R., Prince Maximilian, archduke of Austria, for himself and his descendants.

Maximilian's upbringing was closely supervised. Until his sixth birthday, he was cared for by Baroness Louise von Sturmfeder, who was his aja (then rendered "nurse", now nanny). His education was then entrusted to a tutor. [17] Most of Maximilian's day was spent in study. The hours per week of classes steadily increased from 32 at age seven to 55 by the time he was 17. [18] The disciplines were diverse, ranging from history, geography, law and technology, to languages, military studies, fencing and diplomacy. [18] From an early age, Maximilian tried to surpass his older brother Franz Joseph in everything, attempting to prove to all that he was the better qualified of the two and thus deserving of more than second-place status, [19] but with primogeniture, Maximilian was destined for secondary status. Taylor Swift 'is more free' with Travis Kelce than ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn due to NFL star's comfort with fame:'He's used to fans going crazy in football' Two bloody battles against the Juaristas (republicans under the command of Benito Juarez) had to be fought to get hold of the central city of Puebla. This was clearly not going to be a walk in the park. Treats for under the tree: Top 10 festive gift ideas that promise to be all THEY want for Christmas Maximilian was no dummy, and he could tell from his toddling years that his brother Franz Joseph was the star of the family. This drove the little boy nearly mad with jealousy, and he started trying to compete with his brother in everything he could, from academic studies to military accomplishments. Yeah, the Austrian royal family was more than a little messed up—and there was more where that came from.I'm A Celeb's Grace Dent sparks concern with her 'scarily unwell' appearance after one week in the jungle: 'I didn't even recognise her' Art 4 °. In the event that, due to circumstances impossible to foresee, Archduke Maximilian did not take possession of the throne that is offered, the Mexican nation refers to the benevolence of HM Napoleon III, emperor of the French, to be instructed by another Catholic prince. Such an easy assumption of an improbable sexual relationship", said Alan Palmer, "fails to understand the nature of the attachment binding" Sophie and Reichstadt, who saw themselves as alien misfits stranded in a foreign court. [13] To Palmer, their "confidences were those of a brother and elder sister rather than of lovers". [13] "There is no documentary evidence to suggest that she and the Duke of Reichstadt were ever lovers", according to Joan Haslip. [158] "Whether the young Napoleon was actually the father of Maximilian could only be the subject of fascinating conjecture, something for courtiers and servants to gossip about on the long winter nights in the Hofburg [Palace]", said Richard O'Connor. [159] "There is not a shred of evidence to support the rumors", affirmed Jasper Ridley. [16] "It was said that Sophie confessed", continued Ridley, "in a letter to her father confessor, that Maximilian was the son of Napoleon, and that the letter was found and destroyed in 1859, but there is no reason to believe this story ... would she have had a sexual relationship with a boy whom she regarded as a child and a younger brother?" [160] The birth of two more sons after the death of Reichstadt in 1832 lessened even more the credibility of these claims. [160] The Assembly met in July 1863 and resolved to invite Maximilian to be Emperor of Mexico. The executive triumvirate was formally changed into the Regency of the Mexican Empire. An official delegation left Mexico, arriving in Europe in October. Upon meeting the delegation, Maximilian set forth the condition that he would only accept the throne if a national plebiscite approved of it. [76] By February 1864 French forces controlled territory comprising the majority of Mexico's population. The Mexican plebiscite duly held in occupied territory "was a farce", but Maximilian accepted the proclamation that a majority of Mexicans voted in favor of him as emperor. [77]

Maximilian wrote his final letter to Carlota. The last act of his life, on a cloudless morning, was to pay the executioners to aim straight at his heart. A major aspect of liberalism in Mexico was the curtailment of the power and privileges of the ideologically conservative Roman Catholic Church, including the forced sale of Church-owned property and freedom of religion, removing Roman Catholicism as the sole religion of the nation. The papal nuncio, Pier Francesco Meglia, arrived in Mexico in December 1864, and informed Maximilian that the liberal laws were to be reversed, Church property was to be returned and religious toleration rescinded and Catholicism as the sole religion reinstated. Maximilian refused, decreeing freedom of worship and confirmed the sale of Church property, as well as other liberal reforms. The pope's representative wrote to Maximilian, saying that the Church had supported the establishment of the empire, but now threatened that it would no longer do so if the regime were "ungodly." [95] Maximilian's alienation of the high clergy was in line with his liberal views, but it removed a major pillar of conservative support for the empire. [ citation needed]The couple sailed to Mexico in April 1864, arriving at an eerily quiet Veracruz, the population cowering behind closed doors, suffering from yellow fever.