7 June

Princess Charlotte of Belgium, Empress of Mexico, was born on 7 June 1840. From an early age, she exhibited somewhat fanatical traits, holding herself to excessively high standards of moral conduct and personal dignity. She also developed an exceptional degree of class pride, rare even among the aristocracy. Like a princess from a fairy tale, no suitor seemed noble enough for her—until Archduke Maximilian, then heir presumptive to the Austrian imperial throne. With him, Charlotte envisioned a grand future as an empress, standing alongside Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France.

The “opportunity of a lifetime” came in 1864 when the couple were offered the crown of Mexico—an offer as glamorous as it was ill-fated. From the beginning, their reign was plagued by turbulence. Despite their dedication and reforms, the political instability in Mexico quickly spiralled into chaos. In 1867, Maximilian paid the ultimate price for their ill-starred venture: he was executed by Republican forces.

Charlotte’s mental health could not withstand the sequence of failures, humiliations, and the devastating loss of her husband. She developed a deep paranoia—convinced she was being spied upon or poisoned—and suffered a complete mental breakdown. At just 26 years old, she was placed under house arrest. For nearly forty years, she lived in seclusion in a Belgian castle, dying in 1927 at the age of 82.