  History, like good fiction, can be colorful, romantic and tragic all at once. And perhaps no greater tragic story can be told of Old Mexico than the one about the man and his wife that came to rule a perfect world only to find disappointment, heartbreak and a merciless death for one, and a life-long committment to a mental institution for the other.
Our story starts in 1864 when Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and Archduchess Maria Charlotte, both of royal blood, were appointed Emperor and Empress of Mexico by Napoleon III of France. Ferdinand was the son of Carlos, the ruler of Austria, and related by blood or marriage to every ruling family in Europe. Charlotte was daughter of King Leopold of Belgium, cousin of Queen Victoria of England and grand-daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte III, the King of France.
The young couple had been married a scant seven years at the time of their appointment and were very much in idealistic love. Reluctant at first, Ferdinand was finally convinced by Napoleon and a group of Mexican government conservatives-in-exile that Mexico anxiously awaited a liberating ruler to take them into the next era of Meso-American history.
A natural linguist and talented writer, Charlotte was slender and petite, with dark eyes and dark brown hair. When she knew she and Maximilian would be going to Mexico she had immediately hired a Spanish teacher to teach her the language. Shortly after arriving in Mexico, she changed her name to Carlota, and adopted the Spanish spelling.
Maximilian was described as extremely personable, handsome, idealistic and trusting. He was also naive and extremely gullible. Though not as adept at learning languages as Carlota, he spoke several, including passable English.
While the United States was busy with its Civil War and the Monroe Doctrine was merely paper, a group of conservative Mexicans and the French Emperor Napoleon III contrived to put Maximilian on the Mexican throne because the Mexican government of Benito Juarez was far too liberal for some Mexicans. Napoleon wanted to collect a debt from Mexico and further his imperialist dreams in the Americas. The debt Mexico owed the French was $15 million on which Juarez had suspended payment. To further this scheme, Maximilian was lied to and believed the Mexican people had voted him their king. He agreed to move to Mexico as elected emperor backed by support from the French army.
In June of 1864, Ferdinand and Marie-Charlotte-Amelie-Augustine-Victoire-Clementine- Leopoldine (know as Carlota to her friends), daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians, set sail for Mexico to claim the throne.
Maximilian had grandiose plans for changing things for the good of the people that included bringing in European scholars to teach the mainly illiterate Mexicans to read and write their own language, and inspire them to bring Mexico into what he termed “the Golden Age of growth and enlightenment.”
 The couple settled in Chapultepec Castle just outside Mexico City and Maximilian wasted no time in advancing some of his policies for change. He started restoration of the beautiful castle that had been allowed to fall into ruin, and began touring the country in an effort to meet the people and explain that he had arrived to restore their independence. He decreed the end of the mistreatment of workers and limited the hours they could be forced to work. His decrees were never implemented.
Things came to a head when Maximilian received word from Napoleon that he must rescind the Reform Law that Juarez had passed, and return the land and power over the Mexicans back to the Catholic Church. Maximilian refused, thus alienating Napoleon, the only man, it was thought, who may have been able to intercede and save his life.
Meanwhile, Carlota had traveled back to Europe to enlist the aid of Royal family members. She then suffered a complete mental and emotional collapse and never returned to Mexico. She spent the rest of her life in seclusion in Laeken, Belgium in a mental institution where she died in 1927. Ferdinand never knew of her fate.
 .Napoleon ordered the French troops that had been placed in Mexico to protect Maximilian, to return to France. Bravely, Maximilian and his diminished army fought on, but all chances of escape were cut off as the army of Juarez closed in. The reign of Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico ended when he and two of his generals stepped out of their headquarters carrying white flags. Accepting their swords in surrender, the receiving officer said: “Your Majesty is my prisoner.” The liberal general of Juarez’s army offered free passage of escape to Maximilian, but he refused because his loyal generals were not included in the offer. Maximilian remained brave and noble throughout his ordeal.
Maximilian died by firing squad, June 19, 1867, at the Hill of the Bells in the state of Queretero. Asked if he wished to say anything, he replied: “Pardon everyone and pray that all pardon me. I hope that my blood flows for the good of this earth. Viva Mexico!”
Parts of this history have been taken from Ruth Ross Merrimer’s book Tall Tales & True Stories of Mexico
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Brownsville
Little Napolean of France decided to assert his influence in Mexico in the 1860s in spite of the United States Monroe Doctrine that prohibited French rule in the Americas. But the short-lived term of Maximillian and his wife Charlotte brought little fame or wealth to the French Emperor, and only tragedy to Max and Carlota.