Charlotte of Belgium (7 June 1840 – 19 January 1927) was a Belgian princess who became Empress of Mexico. In 1857 she married the Habsburg Archduke Maximilian, but feuded with the Empress Elisabeth in Vienna, and was glad when her husband was posted to Italy. At this time, he was selected by the Emperor Napoleon III as a figurehead for his proposed French empire in Mexico, and Charlotte overcame her husband’s doubts about the plan. Maximilian and Charlotte (known by the Spanish ‘Carlota’) were duly crowned in Mexico City in 1864, but Napoleon was losing interest and withdrew support. Charlotte returned to Europe to try to change Napoleon’s mind, but her failure seemed to affect her own mental stability, and she suffered wild delusions for the rest of her life. After her husband was deposed and executed by the Mexicans, she was looked after by members of the Belgian and Austrian monarchies. Charlotte is believed to have been the natural mother of the French general Maxime Weygand.
The only daughter of King Leopold I of the Belgians and Louise of Orléans, Charlotte was born at the Royal Castle of Laeken, Belgium. She was named after her father's first wife, Princess Charlotte of Wales. Charlotte had three brothers: Louis-Philippe, who died in infancy; the future Leopold II of Belgium; and Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders. She was close to her maternal grandmother, Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies, Queen of the French, and the two regularly corresponded.
When Charlotte was ten years old, her mother, Queen Louise-Marie, died of tuberculosis and Charlotte was entrusted to the Countess of Hulst, a close family friend. Although young, the princess had her own household; but for a few weeks out of the year, Charlotte stayed in Claremont with Maria Amalia and the rest of her mother's family in exile.
It was rumored that, in 1866, Charlotte was having an affair with Belgian officer Colonel Alfred Van der Smissen [nl] and that she gave birth to a son, Maxime Weygand, in Brussels on 21 January 1867. Weygand refused to confirm or deny the persistent rumor and his parentage remains uncertain. Weygand was a French military commander in both World Wars I and II.
In her youth, Charlotte resembled her mother, and was noted to be a beauty, possessing delicate features. Combined with her status as the only daughter of King Leopold, she was a desirable bride.
On July 27, 1857, Charlotte married her second cousin Archduke Maximilian of Austria in Brussels, the idealistic younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Napoleon III gave Charlotte and her husband Maximilian a beautiful bisque bust of Charlotte as a wedding gift. In the Court of Vienna she was much prized by her mother-in-law, Princess Sophie, who saw in her the perfect example of a wife to an Austrian Archduke. This contributed to the strained relationship between Charlotte and Empress Elisabeth of Austria, wife of Franz Joseph, whom Sophie treated rather cruelly. It is said that Charlotte disliked the deep connection that existed between Elisabeth and Maximilian, who were confidantes and shared the same tastes for many things, especially because her sister-in-law was universally admired for her beauty and charms.
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