MEMORY OF THE PAST

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 15, 19 January 1927, Page 9

MEMORY OF THE PAST

EX-EMPRESS OP MEXICO

(United Press Association.—Copyright.) BRUSSELS,' 19th January. The ox-Empress Charlotte of Mexico, whose mind has been deranged ever since the death of her husband, the Emperor Maximilian, in 1867; is reported to be dying. •

According- to the "Almanach de Gotha," which is usually accurate, the ex-Empress died on 24th March, 1925, in the Castle of Bouchout, where she had lived in a state of harmless insanity for over fifty years. She was born in 1840, the daughter of Leopold 1., King of the Belgians, and married Maximilian, second son of the Archduke Francis Charles of Austria, in 1857. Maximilian in 1859, while living at the beautiful castle of Miramar, which he had built on the Adriatic coast, was approached by Mexican exiles to become a candidate for the throne of Mexico. lii 1863, under pressure from Napoleon 111., and after General Forry's capture of the City of Mexico, and the plebiscite which confirmed his. proclamation of the Empire, he consented to accept the crown. He landed at Vera Cruz in 1864, but found himself in.trouble from the outset. Napoleon withdrew from Mexico but Maximilian refused to desert his followers. He was besieged in Queretaro in 1867, but was captured while attempting to escape. He was tried by court-martial, sentenced to death* and shot on 19tli June, 1867. His Consort's mind became unhinged by her terrible experiences, but she survived her husband nearly sixty years.