Empress Carlotta of Mexico

A carte-de-visite portrait of Empress Carlotta, wife of the ill-fated Maximilian, who was briefly Emperor of Mexico until the withdrawal of the French troops that enforced his regime, and his execution by a firing squad at Queretaro.

Carlotta (1840-1927) was the daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians, uncle of both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Christened Marie Christine Amélie, she married Maximilian in 1857 and accompanied him as Empress when he went to Mexico. After the withdrawal of French troops, she went to Europe to seek the aid of Napoléon III and the Pope, but her mental health broke down under the strain of her failure. She never returned to Mexico, but lived on after her husband’s execution for sixty unhappy years. She spent many of these in an asylum, finally dying in Belgium in 1927.

Photographed by Aubert of Calle San Francisco, Mexico City.