Carlota - Empress of Mexico
Empress Carlota of Mexico was installed in Mexico by Napoleon III, with her husband Maximilian, and removed a few short years later. After talking her husband out of abdicating, she returned to Europe, slipped into lifelong "mental aberration," and never knew of her husband's execution.
Placed on the throne in Mexico with her husband, Maximilian, by Napoleon III, she soon discovered that the people of Mexico preferred self-rule. She returned to Europe to find support for her husband, and ended up "hopelessly insane," as contemporary records tell the story.
Encyclopedia Britannica profile of Empress Carlota.
Information on letters of Princess Charlotte (Empress Carlota), written 1846-1865, which are at the Woodson Research Center, Rice University. Some of the
letters are online in digitized form, and some of the
photographs have been converted and placed online as well, including
one of Carlota herself.
1939 film with Bette Davis as the Empress Carlotta.
Article by John S.C. Abbott,
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, October 1868. Page images. A sympathetic portrait, written just a year after Maximilian's execution. Includes, on pages 669-670, several paragraphs about Carlota's early life, and on following pages, a description of her years in Mexico, and on page 676, some delicate description of her "delirium" and "insanity."
Andrew Burgess photograph of Carlota's husband.
Some mentions and photos of Chapultepec Castle, originally built for Maximilian and Carlota, now the National History Museum with some rooms preserved which were used by the Emperor and Empress. (The background makes the page difficult to read; you might have to turn images off in your browser to read the text, and back on to view the photos.)
The story of Carlota and Maximilian from the Grand Opera.
