It is a drama of ambition.
Everything they did or tried was doomed to pathetic failure.
In this new episode of the Europe 1 Studio podcast "At the heart of History", Jean des Cars tells you about the tragic fate of Maximilian of Austria and Charlotte of Belgium, ephemeral emperor and empress of Mexico.
A wobbly marriage, a clash with Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, a life of disillusionment ... In this new episode of the Europe 1 Studio podcast "At the heart of history", Jean des Cars looks back on the story of Maximilien and his wife Charlotte, their meeting, their marriage and their disappointed ambition.
After three years of laborious negotiations, Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg, younger brother of the Emperor of Austria Franz Joseph, finally decided to accept the throne of Mexico, at the cost of heavy personal sacrifices.
He had to give up not only his rights to the succession of the Crown of Austria but also all that belongs to him of the "Heritage of the illustrious House of Austria", that is to say his inheritance.
He is extremely hurt.
On the other hand, his wife Charlotte, daughter of Leopold I, first King of the Belgians, is very happy.
She rejoices, seeing only one seductive reality: they finally become Emperor and Empress of Mexico.
What revenge for this couple, until then deprived of any political responsibility since the Italian Unity!
Maximilian wanted his access to the throne to take place in his castle at Miramare, in the Gulf of Trieste.
This castle is his work.
For him, it was unthinkable that this ceremony would take place in Vienna.
On the morning of April 10, 1864, Max, in full uniform, accepted the Mexican Crown before the Mexican Delegation that had come to offer it to him.
He takes an oath on the Bible, like Charlotte.
Suddenly, the Delegation exclaims: "Viva el Imperador Mexicano y viva la Imperatriz Carlotta!"
Want to listen to the other episodes of this podcast?
>> Find them on our Europe1.fr site and on Apple Podcasts, Google podcasts, Deezer, Dailymotion, YouTube, or your usual listening platforms.
>> Find here the user manual to listen to all the podcasts of Europe 1
The Mexican flag is hoisted on the roof of Miramare.
Twenty-one cannon shots were fired from the frigate Novara.
A French building, the Themis, also fired a salvo as well as the cannons of the citadel of Trieste.
After a Te Deum, celebrated in the small chapel of the castle, the new emperor will sign the Miramare Convention.
This treaty binds Mexico to France, the France of Napoleon III, which supports Emperor Maximilian.
The evening of this enthronement, a big dinner is planned in the immense Salon des Mouettes, on the first floor of the castle.
But Maximilian, completely distraught and exhausted, took refuge in his apartments on the ground floor.
His friend, Marine doctor Auguste Jilek, finds him so overwhelmed that he advises him to retire to the Castelletto, a pavilion in the park of Miramare, to rest.
Charlotte is therefore alone to chair the gala dinner to which the Mexican Delegation, the French Delegation and the main personalities of Trieste are invited.
Radiant, she does the honors of Miramare with all the dignity and grace of which she is capable, speaking French to some, Italian to others and Spanish to her new subjects.
An invisible orchestra plays delicious music.
This spring evening on the Adriatic is a delight.
It will leave an unforgettable impression on the guests.
With, no doubt, the regret that the Emperor Maximilian, was not part of the party ...
During the following days, Maximilian grew more and more gloomy.
When Charlotte hands her husband a telegram from Napoleon III, he throws it away and says: "I don't want to hear from Mexico anymore!"
This dispatch from the Emperor of the French was, however, benevolent.
She assured Maximilien of her support.
Strange situation!
Does the new sovereign suddenly realize that he is embarking on an uncontrollable adventure, a trap?
The day before his departure for Mexico, all this does not bode well ...
Maximilian or the curse of the cadets
Archduke Maximilian is, after François-Joseph, the second son of Archduke François-Charles, younger brother of Emperor Ferdinand I.
Their mother, Archduchess Sophie, is the daughter of the first king of Bavaria.
She is still represented as Sissi's wicked mother-in-law, but she had been a lovely young woman, very intelligent, married to an archduke who, for his part, neither shone with her wit nor with her charm ...
A rumor circulated about the birth of Maximilien in 1832: Sophie, already mother of François-Joseph, had a weakness for the son of Napoleon and his sister-in-law Marie-Louise.
The pretty Sophie was often seen on horseback with the young man, titled Duke of Reichstadt, in the Viennese forest.
However, the one who remained l'Aiglon for the French died of tuberculosis a few days after the birth of Maximilien.
Sophie is so upset and desperate that she falls into a very disturbing state of prostration.
Had something happened between them?
We talked about it for a long time ... In any case, officially, Maximilien is the son of François-Charles.
Very quickly, he becomes his mother's favorite.
François-Joseph suffers from this preference.
Animosity even crept between the two brothers.
The second reason for jealousy for François-Joseph, Maximilien is handsome and charming.
When he appears in parades and military magazines, he is always highly applauded.
He is undoubtedly more successful than his older brother ...
Maximilian was 16 when François-Joseph became Emperor of Austria at 18 under chaotic conditions.
The revolutions of 1848 also affected Vienna and the sovereign family had to leave the capital.
Emperor Ferdinand I is forced to abdicate.
His brother, François-Charles, is considered unfit for the exercise of power.
Archduchess Sophie is on the move.
Being "the only man in the family", according to Talleyrand, she had François-Joseph enthroned in Olmutz, far from Vienna.
Maximilian then finds himself faced with the problem of all the cadets: to find his place to try to exist with an all-powerful brother.
François-Joseph sends him to Trieste to serve in the Austrian Navy.
He visits the Orient aboard the Vulcain corvette.
In 1850, he was appointed lieutenant of the navy and seemed well on his way to command, later, the Austrian Fleet.
In love with an ambassador's daughter deemed unworthy of marrying him by her family, she was sent on a trip again, this time aboard the frigate Novara.
During a stopover in Lisbon, he fell in love with the daughter of the Emperor of Brazil, Maria-Amélia de Braganza.
This time, the engagement is approved by both families ... but the princess has tuberculosis.
She was sent to Madeira for treatment where she died on February 14, 1853. Maximilien was in despair.
The following year, he was promoted Rear Admiral, Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian Fleet based in Trieste.
This Fleet comprises only five frigates, ten corvettes and two battleships.
Maximilien is therefore responsible for enlarging it.
His promotion and his installation in Trieste will allow him two things that will count in his life: first, he transforms the small port of Pula, in Istria, into a large Austrian military port on the Adriatic.
He reinforces the Imperial Navy and therefore succeeds perfectly in the mission entrusted to him.
The other important event for him at this time was due to chance.
In the fall of 1865, in Trieste, he embarked on a warship.
The terrible icy wind coming down from the Alps, the Bora, prevented him from regaining Trieste.
It then takes shelter in the small cove of Grignano, protected from the gusts of the sea.
He spends the night in a very small fisherman's house and, in the morning, he discovers, amazed, the admirable landscape which embraces the entire Gulf of Trieste.
The place is magical.
He tells himself that this is where he will build his residence, a magnificent castle.
It will be Miramare, written with an e, in the Italian style.
It was then that François-Joseph decided to test his brother in other functions: he entrusted him with the role of itinerant Imperial Ambassador to visit the main European Courts.
Maximilien first traveled the Italian Boot then Spain, from Granada to Madrid.
In May 1856, he passed through France, just after the signing of the Treaty of Paris which ended the Crimean War.
He was very kindly received at the Tuileries and Saint-Cloud by Napoleon III and Eugenie.
A little snobbish, he was shocked by the familiarity of French sovereigns.
He finds the atmosphere a little too bourgeois compared to the Court of Vienna.
Even Versailles disappoints him.
He prefers Schönbrunn which is, however, only a kind of copy ...
The marriage of Maximilien and Charlotte
After Paris, it was the first King of the Belgians, Léopold I, who welcomed him to Brussels with his family, his two sons, the Duke of Brabant, the future Leopold II and Philippe, Count of Flanders, as well as his daughter Charlotte, then 16 years old.
The latter is very impressed by the elegance and charm of Archduke Maximilian.
Even if he did not come to Brussels to find a new bride, King Leopold I, who did not escape his daughter's interest in the Archduke, thought he could make a very suitable…
Charlotte is pretty, brunette with very white skin, she is a serious and cultivated princess, but whose childhood has been a little tormented.
Adored by her mother, Queen Louise, daughter of Louis-Philippe, her little girl's world collapsed when she died of tuberculosis in October 1850, two months after the death of her grandfather, Louis-Philippe therefore, that she also loved dearly.
Charlotte often went to her mother's family, to the Château de Neuilly, near Paris, to spend a happy holiday in the company of her Orleans cousins.
A great contrast with the severe and orderly life imposed on the castle of Laeken.
When her mother died, when she was only 10 years old, she said to her father: "Sweet mother is gone. I will never be able to laugh again".
It is true that from this misfortune, Charlotte's character changes.
She, so gay, so joyful, becomes sad and austere, closed in on herself.
She has a tendency to neurasthenia… She does not want to reveal any of her deep sorrows and will continue to do so.
She takes refuge in study, working diligently with her tutors, and in reading, her favorite pastime.
Her father, Leopold I, thinking it was time to marry her, suggested that she choose between two candidates: Prince Peter V of Portugal and Archduke Maximilian of Austria.
If she marries Pierre, she will be queen of Portugal.
If she marries Max, she will be Archduchess of Austria and will have no chance to ascend a throne.
Charlotte is ambitious.
She would like to be queen, but she finds the Portuguese, Pierre, too childish.
His choice therefore falls on Maximilian.
Leopold I takes the matter in hand and asks one of his nephews to "test" the Archduke.
This responds favorably to the Belgian proposal.
But the statement he then makes is startling: "She's short, I'm tall, which must be. She's brunette, I'm blond, that's fine too. She's very smart, which is a bit boring. , but I will undoubtedly overcome it… "
This is how Charlotte and Maximilien got engaged in December 1856. A grand dinner and a court ball were given in Brussels.
Charlotte is radiant, Max a little less.
A pretender of Charlotte, Prince George of Saxe, told King Leopold of his reservations about this union.
He considers Max calculating and interested.
Would he not marry Charlotte for her dowry, which is considerable?
Maximilien has little income.
And it has very expensive tastes!
He began the construction of his splendid Miramare Palace in the Bay of Trieste, which cost him a fortune.
It is true that he fiercely negotiated Charlotte's dowry and succeeded in increasing it considerably.
It is a first shadow to this marriage, apparently perfect ...
At the same time, François-Joseph decided to promote his brother.
He is about to appoint him Governor General of the province of Lombardy-Veneto.
This prospect excites Charlotte.
She dreams of Italy, learns the language and studies its history.
On April 24, 1857, Maximilien took up his new duties in Venice, where the reception was freezing.
It goes a little better in Milan where he gives a skillful speech, talking about his Italian ancestry.
Even Cavour, the Prime Minister of King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, is worried.
He declares: "Archduke Maximilian is the only adversary I fear, he is the only one who can abort Italian Unity."
The wedding takes place in Brussels on the following July 27.
If all the Orleans and Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha relatives have moved, the only Habsburgs present are an uncle and an aunt of Maximilian, the Archduke Louis and his wife.
Minimum service!
We shouldn't know anything about the wedding night.
But the private diary of Léopold, Charlotte's brother, enlightens us a little: "Grandmother, Queen Marie-Amélie, had said a word to Charlotte about the duties of marriage and the natural operations of this act. It seems that she Was not afraid. In the evening, Max tried the operation. They slept together. Charlotte, according to her husband, was very reasonable. Everything worked out. My sister was only very surprised and repeated without ceases: "How surprised me, how surprised I am!" Needless to say, they had a very bad night and are very excited. "
This story is puzzling!
Two days later, the bride and groom left for Vienna where François-Joseph and Sissi very kindly received them in Schönbrunn.
Then they reach Trieste and the Villa Lazarovitch, the official residence of the archduke there.
Obviously, Maximilien shows Charlotte the Miramare site.
A week later, they reach Venice.
Amazed, Charlotte discovers the palaces, churches and museums.
She is dazzled.
On September 6, they made their solemn entry into Milan.
Charlotte, very skillfully, gives a speech in Italian which is much appreciated.
The couple then settled in Monza, in the Villa Réale, a splendid residence built by Empress Marie-Thérèse in the 18th century.
They spend a very social and lively summer with dinners of a hundred covers.
All their families come to see them, the Archduchess Sophie, the Joinville, the Montpensiers… It's a funny honeymoon: the bride and groom are never alone!
The last host of the season is Charlotte's younger brother, the Count of Flanders.
They take him to spend a fortnight in Venice.
He lodged in the Royal Palace, this palace built by Napoleon at the end of Saint Mark's Square.
Every evening, Maximilien abandons his wife and his brother-in-law to go to sleep on board his ship when he is no longer in charge of the Austrian Navy.
He seems to be running away from his wife.
But as always, she cuts a fine figure.
To her grandmother's questions about a potential pregnancy, she replies: "It will be as God wishes!"
Miramare or disappointed ambitions
The political situation is worsening in Italy.
After the interview of Napoleon III and Cavour in Plombières in 1858, a war to drive the Austrians out of Lombardy and Veneto seemed inevitable.
In April, François-Joseph dismisses his brother from his post.
Max resumes his command of squadron vice-admiral.
War is declared in the spring of 1859. In Solferino and Magenta, Austria is defeated.
Lombardy, Modena and Tuscany are lost to the Habsburgs.
They only have Veneto left.
Max and Charlotte find themselves facing themselves.
Their kingdom is limited to Miramare.
It's very narrow for these two ambitious, annoyed and overwhelmed ...
Admittedly, Miramare, this vessel of white stones anchored to its promontory, does not lack allure or charm, even if the interior is a little heavy and too decorated, but it is the fashion of the time.
The couple's bedrooms are on the ground floor.
Maximilian's is the exact copy of his cabin he loved so much on the frigate Novara where he used to sleep when he was staying in Venice.
Charlotte's bedroom has two large mahogany beds and is reminiscent of Franz Joseph's and Sissi's shared bedroom in Schönbrunn.
The only difference is that Charlotte will be alone in her twin-bedded room, her husband preferring his cabin ... If, to the great despair of Queen Marie-Amélie, the couple has no children, it is quite simply because that this couple is not one ...
In Miramare, Charlotte and Max receive a lot.
Sissi stopped there on May 18, 1861 on his return from Madeira.
A large painting immortalized this visit.
Alas, during this stay, the big dog of the Empress makes short work of the little dog of Charlotte.
She is beside herself!
The incident does not improve the relations of the two sisters-in-law ... This permanent holiday resort begins to weigh on the false couple formed by Maximilien and Charlotte.
This is when the dream of a Mexican Empire will be offered to them ...
A Mexican Empire for Maximilian and Charlotte
Mexico, independent since 1821, initially had a Mexican emperor for two years.
General Santa Anna succeeded him who, because of a war against the United States, will cause the country to lose Texas, California and New Mexico in 1848. The liberal Juarez takes power in 1855 and begins a struggles against the Church whose property he confiscates.
In addition, it no longer recognizes Mexico's foreign debts.
Its creditors, France, England and Spain, then began a common struggle in 1861 to recover their due.
The governments of London and Madrid accept Juarez's offers and withdraw their troops.
Napoleon III does not withdraw his.
Strongly pushed by the Empress Eugenie, who put her husband in contact with anti-Juarez Mexicans and by Morny, half-brother of Napoleon III, personally interested in the repayment of these debts, the emperor plans to create an empire in Mexico. Catholic, capable of counterbalancing the United States.
The period is favorable because they are in the midst of the Civil War.
Napoleon III thinks of offering the Crown to Archduke Maximilian.
Diplomatically, that would have the advantage of bringing him closer to François-Joseph, still hurt by the loss of Lombardy.
This could also make it possible to negotiate the integration of Veneto, still Austrian, into the future kingdom of Italy.
In October 1861, the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs came to Miramare to explain Napoleon III's proposal to Maximilian.
If Charlotte is overflowing with enthusiasm, Maximilien would like us to consult the Mexican people first.
During this time, the French Expeditionary Force struggles to conquer Puebla.
It took him more than a year and the sacrifice of the Foreign Legion in Camerone for the city to be taken on May 17, 1863.
It was not until January 1864 that Maximilian accepted the throne of Mexico.
He and Charlotte are celebrated in Paris but above all, Napoleon III and Maximilien agree on a treaty on the engagement of French troops in Mexico, which will only be withdrawn gradually.
The bill to pay is enormous: each French soldier on the spot will cost the future emperor 1,000 Francs per year.
Upon his arrival, Max will have to issue a loan of more than 200 million Francs.
This treaty, known as the Treaty of Miramare, he signed it as I told you at the beginning of this story.
The other note to pay is that imposed on him by his brother François-Joseph.
During a stormy interview at the Hofburg on March 9, 1864, the Emperor of Austria demanded from his brother that he renounce his inheritance rights and his Habsburg heritage.
The confrontation of the two brothers is a terrible scene, which takes place in the presence of their wives.
It is finally in Miramare, the day before the signing of the treaty, April 9, 1864, that François-Joseph arrives, accompanied by his two other brothers Charles-Louis and Louis-Victor, so that Maximilien accepts to sign the family pact. of his renunciation.
They remain locked up for several hours in the library.
At 1 p.m., François-Joseph and his two brothers took the train back to Vienna.
After having saluted Maximilian militarily, he retraces his steps and opens his arms to him, saying only: "Max!"
The two brothers embrace.
They will never see each other again.
I told you about Maximilian taking the oath the next day.
Four days later, on April 14, 1864, at 12 noon, the Max-Charlotte couple boarded their dear Novara.
A large painting immortalized the scene.
When getting on board, Charlotte whispers: "Look at my poor Max… How sad he is".
The incredible Mexican adventure begins.
Bibliographic resources:
Dominique Paoli, L'Impératrice Charlotte, the black sun of melancholy (Perrin, 2008)
Bertita Harding, Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico (Payot, 1935)
André Castelot, Maximilien and Charlotte, the tragedy of ambition (Perrin, 1977)
Jean des Cars, Tragic couples in history (Perrin, 2020)
At the heart of History "is a Europe 1 Studio podcast
Author and presentation: Jean des Cars
Production: Timothée Magot
Director: Jean-François Bussière
Distribution and editing: Clémence Olivier
Graphics: Karelle Villais