Originally published in Tinsley's Magazine (Tinsley Brothers) vol.1 #1 (Aug 1867).
On the 6th of July 1832, the late Emperor of Mexico, Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, Archduke of Austria, was born. Europe was just settling down after the political convulsions created by the July revolution in France, and the expulsion of the Bourbon dynasty in favour of the constitutional régime. Metternich was at the height of his reputation; Vienna was the chosen home of that absolutist faith of which the Holy Alliance had been the external manifestation. Francis I., a sovereign who had been Emperor of Austria before the Great Napoleon was ever heard of, but now the father-in-law of the Corsican usurper, still sat, an old man of sixty-seven, on the throne of Rudolph of the Iron Hand. The boy prince was almost a child in arms when his grandfather died, and was succeeded by his son and heir, Ferdinand I. Throughout the years of Maximilian's boyhood this easy half-witted monarch reigned as a sort of Roi d'Yvetôt. He was not exactly imbecile; indeed, he went through the ceremonials of court life as well as wiser potentates; he was not exactly right in his mind. But aided by Prince Metternich he carried on government on paternal principles indifferently well, and north of the Alps was not unpopular amidst his own subjects. During the late war he is recorded to have remarked, that "they put him on one side because he was a fool; but that for his life he could not see how he could have managed worse than the clever ones who had succeeded him;" and the remark, like many of his sayings, had a gleam of shrewd sense about it.
So King Log lived quietly and simply at Schönbrunn till the revolution of 1848 upset well-nigh every throne in Europe. With Hungary in arms, Italy in revolt, Vienna in open insurrection, and the whole of Germany in revolution, the fate of the Austrian empire seemed desperate; and by the advice of his ministers, Ferdinand I. resolved to resign the reins of government into younger and more vigorous hands. On the 2d of December 1848, Ferdinand I. abdicated the crown. His lawful heir was his half-brother, the Archduke Francis Charles, a man in the very prime of life. But the Archduke declined to ascend the throne, and resigned his claims in favour of his own eldest son, the present Emperor Francis Joseph. On that day, then, the anniversary of Austerlitz, a day of ill-omen in the annals of Austria, Maximilian became heir-presumptive, in default of any issue to his eldest brother, to the crown of the great east German Empire.
The Archduke Francis Charles had married a Bavarian princess, and by her had three sons, the eldest being the Emperor of Austria; the second, the late Emperor of Mexico; and the third, a major-general in the Austrian service. Francis Joseph was only eighteen when he came to the throne, and Maximilian was but little over sixteen at the period of his brother's coronation. For some ten years but one life stood between him and the throne of Austria. In 1854, his brother married a cousin, the Princess Elizabeth of Bavaria; and on the 21st August 1858 an heir-apparent to the imperial crown was born. During the early part of his brother's reign, Maximilian took no active part in public life. He turned to the navy as a profession, and cruised for nine years about the coasts of the Mediterranean. In 1852, he was appointed to the command of the Austrian corvette Minerva; and in 1854 was raised to the rank of rear-admiral, and assumed the command of the imperial navy, which under his direction had been made an object of much greater attention than had been the case previously. In the summer of 1855 the Archduke made a lengthened tour, and visited Greece, Syria, and Egypt. The following year, he travelled through the West; and on his return through Brussels he was a guest at the court of King Leopold, and there made the acquaintance of the only daughter of the King of the Belgians.
The year 1857 must, we should think, have been the brightest period of the ill-fated Prince's life. Order once more reigned throughout Austria; Hungary was crushed, to all outward seeming; Italy was not more discontented than usual; Sardinia was giving but little trouble; and Prussia, under the vacillating rule of Frederick William IV., had ceased to be a formidable rival in Germany to the power of Austria. It was resolved at Vienna that the time had come when a policy of conciliation might be tried with advantage south of the Alps; and it was thought the local pride of the northern Italians would be gratified by the appointment of the Emperor's own brother to the governorship-general of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. So Maximilian went to Italy in the spring of 1857, with instructions to try and make Austrian rule popular among the Italians. In the summer of this year 1857, he married the Belgian princess whose acquaintance he had made the year before; and in company with the unhappy lady, whose loss of reason is not the greatest of her many sorrows, he returned to the Lombard provinces with regal pomp and splendour. The young couple did their utmost to win the hearts of their subjects. Probably, if circumstances had been more favourable, the fresh winning manners of the Archduke and the grace of the Archduchess might have endeared them to a southern population. But they failed utterly to check or even to modify the deep popular antipathy between the Latin and Teutonic races, which was gradually preparing the way for the approaching crisis. It is said that the lavish magnificence with which the Archduke upheld the state of his office involved him in serious pecuniary difficulties, not without a fatal influence on his subsequent fortunes. In 1858 the birth of the Prince Imperial of Austria gave a death-blow to his hopes of succeeding to the throne; and from that time his evil star appears to have been in the ascendant. From the famous New-Year's day of 1859, when the Emperor of the French warned the ambassador of Austria that the relations between Germany and Italy were such as to threaten the peace of Europe, each day brought the approach of war nearer; and the position of the Archduke as Governor of Lombardy became absolutely untenable. At last, shortly before the outbreak of hostilities, he retired with his wife to Venice; and after a very brief sojourn there quitted the scene of his vice-royalty never to return.
From 1859 to 1863, Maximilian led a retired life, residing chiefly at Miramar, with occasional visits to Vienna. His marriage proved a childless one; but owing to the delicate health of the young Prince Imperial of Austria, he retained sufficient prospect of reversionary interest in the throne to give him the character of a potential heir. Possibly on this account he was not regarded with great favour by the reigning sovereign. It was understood, too, that his views about the internal and foreign policy expedient for Austria to pursue were of a more liberal character than those in favour at the Hof Burg; and he was thought not to share the strong ultramontane and centralist opinions which at that time were held so tenaciously by Francis Joseph. Suddenly, in the early part of 1863, Europe learnt with astonishment and incredulity that Napoleon III. had selected this almost-unknown cadet of the royal House of Austria as the future sovereign of the empire France was about to establish in Mexico. The exact aim that Napoleon III. had in view when he determined on interfering actively in the affairs of Mexico is still unknown, and very possibly will remain unknown for many years to come. It is probable, however, that he under-estimated the inherent difficulties of the enterprise; it is certain that he based his calculations on the hypothesis that the Confederate States would succeed in establishing their independence. If the South had won the day, the Union being divided between two rival and hostile powers, the master of Mexico would have commanded the situation. Persons who have reason to be well informed assert that the intervention in Mexico was only the first step in a great scheme, which was to lead to the recognition of the Confederacy, the intervention of France to restore peace between North and South, and, as the price of this intervention, the restoration of Louisiana to the mother country. On the other hand, people equally well informed hold that the main object of inducing Maximilian to accept the throne of Mexico, which weighed with Napoleon III., was the desire to shift the responsibility he had assumed from his own shoulders to those of a foreign prince.
When it became clear that France entertained the design of establishing a dynasty in Mexico, England and Spain withdrew from the joint intervention, and France was left to carry on the enterprise single-handed. It was not till July 1863 that any active steps were taken to bring about the election of Maximilian to the vacant throne. On the 8th of that month, an assembly of notables was held at the capital,—the assembly being held under the instructions of Marshal Forey, the commander-in-chief of the French expeditionary corps,—and decided by a majority of 250 votes to 20, that the government of Mexico should be henceforth a constitutional and hereditary monarchy under a Catholic prince; that the throne should be offered, in the first instance, to the Archduke Maximilian; and that failing his acceptance, the Emperor Napoleon should be requested to nominate another Catholic candidate. These resolutions were formally protested against by the national republican assembly then sitting at San Luis Potosi. A deputation was sent to Europe during the summer, to offer the crown to the Archduke Maximilian; but it was October before the delegates were officially received at Miramar. It seems to be admitted on all sides that from the first the Archduke was disposed to accept the offer. In his own land, after all, he was, and could only be, a person of second-rate rank and importance, compelled by the exigences of his position to sacrifice his own independence to the will of the sovereign.
Across the Atlantic he had a great and independent career open to him. It is understood that the Emperor Francis Joseph was always opposed to his brother's accepting the throne; indeed, he steadily refused his consent, except on the condition that Maximilian formally resigned all claim, under any circumstances, to the crown of Austria. On the other, Leopold I., who had an extraordinary reputation for sagacity, urged upon his son-in-law the acceptance of the offer. All the influence, too, that the Emperor Napoleon could bring to bear was exerted to induce the Archduke to give a favourable hearing to the deputies; and it cannot be doubted that, whether with reason or not, Maximilian came to the conclusion, the power of France would be exerted to maintain him on the throne. On the 3d October he received the Mexican deputation at Miramar, and accepted the imperial crown, subject to two conditions, first, that the Mexican people should confirm by some free manifestation of their will the choice of the notables; and that, secondly, "the integrity of the new empire should be assured by firm guarantees against any dangers which might hereafter threaten it."
It was not till April 1864 that this conditional acceptance was finally ratified. During the interregnum Mexico was ruled by a provisional government, composed of General Almonte, Don Salas, and the Archbishop La Bastida. Meanwhile the real direction of affairs remained in the hands of General Bazaine, who had succeeded Marshal Forey in command of the French troops. President Juarez still kept up the semblance of a government; and though driven from place to place, he finally set up his quarters at Monterey, near the American frontier, and thence issued decrees to the outlying provinces which still remained faithful to his rule.
At last, by the beginning of April, all the preliminary arrangements were completed; and on the 28th the Archduke again received the deputation, and assumed the throne under the title of Maximilian I. The Empress made a journey to Rome, on purpose to receive the blessing of the Holy Father; and the Emperor paid farewell visits to the courts of Vienna, Paris, Brussels, and London. Early in May the imperial couple sailed from France for Mexico; and after landing at Vera Cruz on the 28th of May, entered Mexico in triumph, on the 12th of June. According to the French papers, their Majesties were received with extreme enthusiasm. Non-official accounts state that such enthusiasm as there was was due solely to the hope that Maximilian's arrival would be the signal for the departure of the French army of occupation, which had already become bitterly unpopular in Mexico.
The first year of the new empire was one of continued warfare. Till the close of the year a series of small successes appear to follow the imperial cause; but with the last days of 1864 the Juarists recommenced the struggle with renewed activity. Possibly an explanation of this recandescence of vigour may be found in the fact that in these days the North was rapidly gaining ground in its contest with the South; and that in the middle of December the Congress at Washington had passed a motion censuring Mr. Seward for having used language in his communications with the French Government which might possibly be interpreted as sanctioning the existence of the Empire in Mexico. The Juarists, who were thought to have been crushed, showed that they were still unsubdued. Vigorous though unsuccessful attacks were made by them upon Colima and Mazattan; and in the neighbourhood of this latter town a French detachment was attacked by the Juarists, abandoned by the native forces, and taken prisoners. On New-Year's day Benito Juarez issued a proclamation as President of the Mexican Republic, calling on the nation to continue the struggle till the stranger is expelled from the soil of Mexico. The Juarists reappeared in force even on the high-road between Vera Cruz and the capital; and General Bazaine felt it necessary to strike a decisive blow in the interests of the empire. With this object he quitted the capital to direct in person the siege of Oaxaca. On the 9th of February this stronghold surrendered, and the garrison of 7000 men were taken prisoners. In April the Juarist commander, Negrete, reoccupied Saltillo and Monterey, and laid siege to Matamoras. Two months elapsed before the imperialist forces had received sufficient reinforcements to enable them to dislodge Negrete from his position and to reoccupy Saltillo. With the exception of a trifling affair about the same period,—in which a detachment of the Belgian Legion were captured by the Juarist general Regulus, who in his turn was defeated as soon as the Belgians had received French reinforcements,—the raising of the siege of Matamoras closes the military record of the first twelve months during which Maximilian reigned over Mexico. The general nature of the contest may be easily gathered from this recital. Whereever and whenever the French regular troops could meet with any valid opposition, they carried all before them; but the moment they had passed on, their enemies gathered again in their rear; and the native population never gave more than passive adhesion to the cause of the Franco-Austrian empire.
Meanwhile, in civil matters the empire made little progress. The Emperor made a tour through the provinces occupied by the French, and was received with considerable outward demonstrations of loyalty. Indeed, during this tour he is said to have formed a conviction that he was personally very popular amidst his new subjects—a conviction which no subsequent experience could modify till it was too late to retrieve the consequences of his error. The first internal difficulty with which he had to contend was the question of the church lands, on which every successive government in Mexico has made ship-wreck. The clerical party had relied upon his supporting all their pretensions, and rescinding the decrees by which Juarez had secularised the whole of the church property. Not being able to decide on either breaking with the Church or on throwing himself into their cause, he adopted a middle course, which dissatisfied both the clerical and the popular party. Within six months of his ascending the throne, he issued a decree announcing that the sales of church property which had already been concluded in accordance with the laws would be held valid; but that provision would be made from the receipts of the properties still undisposed of for the support of the clergy. On this decree being promulgated, the Papal Nuncio declared that he had no authority to accept the compromise; and the Mexican clergy began forthwith to stir up intrigues against the empire. In consequence of their intrigues a series of pronunciamientos took place throughout the country in favour of the Church, and in opposition to the imperial régime; and these demonstrations had to be put down by armed force, the French troops being called upon to support the authority of the empire against the clerical revolutionists. Maximilian could not adhere to his original policy; and when he discovered in the early months of 1865 that the Juarists were again gaining ground, he sought to win back the support of the clergy by a decree declaring that the laws enacted by Juarez with reference to the church domains should be subjected to revision at a future period; in other words, he threw doubts upon the titles by which the purchasers of church property held their lands, and thereby diverted from his cause the sympathies of all those who had interests connected with the maintenance of the existing settlement.
The second year of Maximilian's reign opened under further evil auspices. With the fall of Richmond and the collapse of the Confederacy, the cause of Juarez rose once more in the ascendant. The moral assistance which his cause derived from the triumph of the North came at a most opportune moment; for in the summer of 1865 the armed resistance of the Juarist party appears to have reached its lowest point. The French armies occupied the province of Chiluahua; and the President was compelled to avoid capture by crossing the frontier, and taking refuge in the territory of the United States. Maximilian now chose to consider that his rule was definitely accepted by the Mexican nation, and issued two disastrous decrees. The first, proprio motu, declared that, failing his own issue, the grandson of the ex-emperor Iturbide was heir to the crown; the second announced that, as the republic had ceased to exist, not only by the will of the nation, but by the expiration of the presidential term of the so-called President Juarez, and his flight to a foreign land, all further armed resistance would be considered brigandage, and all persons taken in arms against the government would be shot as traitors. This ill-fated decree was not allowed to remain a brutum fulmen; for within a few days of its being issued, on the Juarist generals Arteaga and Salazar being captured by the imperial forces, they were tried by court-martial, and shot as traitors.
It was not, however, in Mexico, but at Washington and at Paris, that the fortunes of the empire were really being decided. As the utter downfall of the Confederacy became more apparent, the tone adopted by the Federal government towards that of France became also more imperative and pressing. The correspondence between Mr. Seward and the French Foreign Office, stripped of diplomatic verbiage, amounts to this: that the former declared that the French army of occupation must be withdrawn from Mexico, under peril of war; and that the latter attempted by every artifice in its power to avoid giving any definite reply to the request thus promulgated. At last the French government was driven to the wall; and in January 1866 the Emperor announced in his address to the Chambers that the mission of France being now accomplished, the French army of occupation would be withdrawn at an early period. Negotiations were forthwith entered into between Mexico and Paris; and in April the Moniteur informed its readers that the French troops were to commence their departure from Mexico in the following November. Long before the issue of this announcement, the French regiments—probably in accordance with some agreement with the United States—had been recalled from the outlying provinces; and as fast as they retired the evacuated territory was reoccupied by the partizans of Juarez. After a variety of insignificant skirmishes, the republicans, under General Escobedo, won their first important success by the capture of Matamoras at the end of June 1866.
From that date the decline and fall of the empire proceeded with fearful rapidity. The French troops under orders to leave, hating Mexico, and commanded by a general who was on the worst terms with the Emperor, contented themselves with holding their ground. The Belgian and Austrian volunteer regiments, on whose aid Maximilian had relied, were found of little practical service; and long before the end of last year it became evident to every one except Maximilian himself that the empire would fall to pieces whenever the support of France was finally withdrawn. The Empress Charlotte realised the situation far more thoroughly than her husband, and resolved on going to France in order to make a final appeal to the sympathies of Napoleon III. After a tedious passage she reached France in a state of great bodily fatigue and mental excitement; and on proceeding to Paris, and learning from the mouth of the Emperor Napoleon that no further aid could possibly be rendered to Mexico, her health gave way; and after reaching Rome, where she had gone in despair, her mind received a shock, from which—perhaps happily—it has never yet recovered.
The unfortunate Emperor had hardly received the intelligence of his wife's madness when he was called upon to decide whether, in accordance with the urgent entreaties of the French government, he should quit Mexico with the French troops, or endeavour to reign by the aid of his Mexican partisans. He over-estimated his hold on the native population; he fancied he should compel France, by refusing to withdraw, to come to rescue, and, above all, he scorned the notion that he, a Hapsburg, should desert his throne the moment that its tenure was accompanied by peril. So he elected to remain, with what result the world knows only too well. After a gallant but utterly hopeless resistance against the Juarists, around whose cause the whole nation had rallied as soon as the French had begun to withdraw their armies, he was besieged in Queretaro, betrayed by his own generals, captured, tried by court-martial, and shot, on the 19th of June, scarcely three years after the day when he landed at Vera Cruz to take possession of his new empire. Whatever judgment may be passed by posterity on the Mexican expedition, and on the share which Maximilian played in it, the world will give the luckless Prince credit for having redeemed the errors of his life by a gallant end. In his last hours he might have repeated with truth the words that Valentine in Goethe's Faust murmurs his in his death-agony: he might have said that "through the sleep of death he went to God as a soldier, and a brave soldier too." Not an unworthy epitaph this to be recorded on Maximilian's grave.