Ferdinand Maximilian von Hapsburg was born in Vienna, Austria in 1832, younger brother of Kaiser Franz Josef. Made Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy and later Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia in 1857 he married Princess Charlotte of Belgium (aka Carlota in Mexico) the daughter of King Leopold I. After the French intervention in Mexico the conservatives of the country invited him to assume the throne. In 1864 he was crowned Emperor of Mexico in Mexico City. His efforts to build a grand imperial monarchy angered liberals while his impartiality and refusal to grant favors angered conservatives. Doomed after the French withdrawl he chose to stay on and fight to the death with his loyalists. Betrayed at the siege of Queretaro he was executed by the republican leader Benito Juarez in 1867.
From The Mad Monarchist (3 June 2012)
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