Charlotte of Belgium

Charlotte of Belgium , from its complete name Marie, Charlotte, Amélie, Augustine, Victoire, Clementine, Léopoldine, princess of Belgium, duchess of Saxony, princess of Saxony-Cobourg-Gotha, archduchess of Austria, wife of the Viceroy of Lombards and Venice and Impératrice of the Mexico, was born with Laeken, the June 7th 1840. Léopold Ier of Belgium would have wished a third wire and did not dissimulate its disappointment. But, very quickly, the considerations of the policy yielded in front of the affectionate dashes of a father quinquagénaire.

With died of her mother, Charlotte was ten years old; the turbulent and expansive little girl became a pensive teenager, folded up on itself. Its religious instruction was entrusted to the father Victor-Auguste Deschamps, to brother of the Foreign Minister and, later, to cardinal-bishop of Malines.

When Charlotte entered her sixteenth year, two applicants requested his hand: the prince Georges of Saxony and the king of the Portugal Pierre V. This last was the candidate of the queen Victoria. But, in May, the princess met with Brussels the archduke Ferdinand-Maximilien of Austria, younger brother of the emperor François-Joseph. She was charmed by the slim stature and the elegance of most tempting of Habsbourg. The marriage was celebrated on July 27th, 1857, with the royal palace. Meanwhile, the emperor had named his brother general governor of the lombardo-Venetian kingdom.

The September 6th 1857, the archdukes arrived at Milan. They intended to control according to liberal principles and they succeeded in so much being made like that one considered the foundation of an independent lombardo-Venetian State under their sovereignty. But nationalist fermentation was too strong in the peninsula and the army rabble Austrian of the Gyulay general went each more hateful day. Indicator envenimer the situation, Maximilien asked for the concentration of the civil and military capacities. The April 10th 1859, the emperor answered this wish, but by stripping his/her brother of the civil capacities to the profit of the count Gyulay! It was disgrace. The militarist party of Vienna had never forgiven with the archduke his liberal tendencies. Maximilien and Charlotte withdrew themselves in the villa of Miramar, built with the one of the ends of bay of Trieste. Secrecies disagreements already seemed to separate the young husbands. The inactivity humiliated them one and the other. The October 3rd 1863 occurred in Miramar a delegation of Mexican emigrants, which officially offered to the archduke the crown of her country.

Actually, the negotiations on this subject had been in hand for more than two years; Napoleon III dreamed to create a Latin empire and catholic who had limited the influence of the the United States of America; he said himself ready to support Maximilien militarily, if this one agreed to leave for the country the pronunciamientos. But the archduke hesitated. Of London, the Victoria queen begged her Charlotte cousin not to engage in this guêpier. Sovereign the British suspected of sordid calculations, in particular those of the Swiss banker Jecker who had convinced Napoleon III to help it to recover a loan of two thousand percent: a credit of 15 million dollars for a loan of 650 000!

The April 10th 1864, in the large living room of Miramar, the Mexican delegates informed the archduke of the results of a referendum, without insisting on the French bayonets which had protected the voters. Maximilien declared to them whereas it " the crown of the hands of the nation mexicaine" accepted; and the Jura " to ensure by all the means the wellbeing, prosperity, the independence and the integrity of this nation".

The Mexican adventure started. " It will be, known as Charlotte, an occupation for Maximilien". The sovereigns made their solemn entry with Mexico City, on June 12th 1864, with the cry " Viva el Emperador". It hardly took them time to measure the insecurity and the anarchy which reigned in their empire: the French intervention, succeeding a long civil war, had very disorganized. It also appeared very quickly that it was a minority which had appealed abroad. Maximilien and Charlotte however began their reign with a generous confidence. The emperor carried out the test of a conciliation of the parties, while the empress made herself popular while penetrating courageously in Veracruz where two French miles had died of the Yellow fever and of the " vomito negro".

But the drama of the lombardo-Venetian kingdom was renewed in Mexico: while Maximilien and Charlotte tried to alleviate the spirits, the French marshal Bazaine and colonel Dupin wasted all the chances by their stupid brutality. Consequently, the relationship between France and Mexico became increasingly hateful; the republicans of the Zapotèque Benito Juarez benefitted from it to multiply the knacks and to enlist many elements come from the United States. Giving up the part with as much unconscious culprit than it had started it, Napoleon III decided to point out the Bazaine army in France. Maximilien had nothing any more around him but some Belgians and Austrians!

July 9th, 1866, the empress left Mexico City bound for the Europe. She went to plead the cause of her husband with Paris and Rome. Alas! Napoleon III did not want to hear any more of Mexico and the pope Pie IX did not have any reason to compromise the Church in this business. Feeling abandoned all, Charlotte gave the first signs of serious mental disorders. October 7th 1866, the count de Flandre ran to Rome, and, two days later, took along his/her sister to Miramar. In prey with obsessions, the unhappy one suspected everyone of wanting to poison it. In fact, Charlotte was literally sequestered in Gasthaus de Miramar which supervised of the agents of Austrian safety. It was quasi of force that the queen Marie-Henriette removed her sister-in-law and brought back it to Belgium.

The return of Maximilien in Europe could perhaps have restored the balance of the empress. But, instead of this return, it is the news of a dreadful death which it was necessary to make have a presentiment of: June 19th 1867, the emperor of Mexico had been shot by the republicans with Queretero. After one moment of clearness caused by the emotion, Charlotte sank definitively in darkness of the madness.

It died the January 19th 1927, with the Château of Bouchout that the king Léopold II had acquired for the unfortunate princess.

Evocations in the literature

Liliane Wouters, Charlotte or the Mexican night , Brussels, Editions Eperonniers, 1989
Michele Fabien, Charlotte , Brussels, Labor Editions, 2000.

References

Michel of Greece, the Empress of the good-byes , Presses of the City, 2000

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