The Emperor Who Asked About Breakfast

A Borrowed Crown

At three in the morning on June 19, 1867, the firing squad at the foot of Cerro de las Campanas in Querétaro received their emperor.

Maximilian wore a black uniform, the Order of the Golden Fleece pinned to his chest, and walked to the earthen wall. The squad leader offered him a black cloth. He shook his head and pushed it back with two fingers. Then he asked the squad a question:

"Have you had breakfast?"

No one answered. He nodded, took his place against the wall himself, and said: "Aim for the chest. Not the face."

Before the shots, he looked one last time at the Mexican sky. He had looked at that sky for three years and had never grown used to it. Too high, too bright, the clouds moving faster than in Europe.

I

July 6, 1832, Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna. When the second son of Archduke Franz Karl was born, the court recorder wrote a name in the register: Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph. Behind that name followed a very long list of titles, but his actual position was very short: second son of the House of Habsburg, a spare part in the line of succession.

His mother Sophie wrote in her diary: "The child has very bright eyes, like his father." But a court tutor later wrote something else in a report: "His Imperial Highness is more interested in botanical specimens than in court etiquette."

At sixteen, he shut himself in a room in a side wing of Schönbrunn. On the table lay more than three hundred dried botanical specimens, each labeled in Latin. Franz Joseph passed by, opened the door, glanced in, said, "You should be practicing riding," and closed the door. The sound of the door closing was not loud, but Maximilian's tweezers stopped for three seconds.

He later asked on his own initiative to join the navy. No one in the family objected. After all, if a second son went into the navy, he posed no threat to the throne and at least had a proper occupation. He stayed for several years at the port of Trieste, personally involved in planning the naval base, crouching on the docks with engineers to measure water depth. In 1854 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Austrian navy. He was twenty-two that year, the first person in the House of Habsburg who could read a naval budget.

In 1857 his elder brother gave him a larger position: governor of Lombardy-Venetia. Milan. He went, carrying a set of ideas of his own. Religious tolerance, improving the lives of the poor, giving the region more autonomy. The light in his Milan office often burned late; the desk was piled with petitions from local authorities, and on every one he wrote a specific instruction for handling it.

Replies from Vienna came slowly, and grew colder and colder. Franz Joseph I wrote in a letter: "What you are doing in Milan exceeds the authority of a governor." He did not answer the letter. He folded it and put it in a drawer, together with the label paper for his botanical specimens.

In 1859 Austria was defeated in Italy. On the day Franz Joseph I signed the peace treaty, he relieved his brother of the governorship. The telegram contained one line: "Return to Vienna immediately."

It was raining the day Maximilian returned to Vienna. He did not go to the palace. He went straight to the railway station and bought a ticket to Miramar. Miramar Castle faced the Adriatic. There he had a botanical study, and on the windowsill stood twenty-seven glass jars containing algae specimens he had collected on the Dalmatian coast.

He wrote in his diary: "It rained for three days. I rearranged the specimens. Some labels have faded and have to be rewritten."

Then he crossed out the three words "have to be rewritten" and changed them to "can be rewritten."

II

In the autumn of 1863, when the invitation from Mexico arrived at Miramar, he was repotting a newly arrived tropical orchid. His fingers were covered in soil; the wax seal on the envelope bore the emblem of the Mexican conservatives' Assembly of Notables.

He read the letter, put it on the workbench, and went on repotting. At dinner that evening he mentioned it to Carlota: "Some people in Mexico want me to go and be emperor." Carlota put down her fork. He added: "Absurd."

But Carlota had begun researching. She looked into Mexico's silver production, the size of the French garrison in Mexico, and the precedents of European royal restorations over the past twenty years. Three days later she sat in his study with a handwritten analysis of pros and cons and talked for two hours.

He listened to the end, then said: "I do not know that land."

Carlota said: "You do not need to know the land. You need a place that belongs to you."

The sentence struck somewhere. He did not answer. He lowered his head and went on tying a support stick to the orchid. He tied it three times before it was secure.

Napoleon III's letter arrived afterward and was more specific than Carlota's arguments: French troops already controlled Mexico City; the conservatives controlled the main ports and mining regions; Britain and Spain had withdrawn, but France would not. The phrase "the full strength of the French Empire" appeared twice in the letter. Maximilian read it three times, then underlined "full strength" in pencil and put a question mark beside it.

He wrote a letter to Archduke Albrecht of Bavaria. One sentence in it was later quoted repeatedly: "If I go, it will be nothing less than walking into a trap and becoming a pawn in a game among powers." But writing was writing. After the letter was sent, he began looking at maps of Mexico.

On April 10, 1864, he signed the Treaty of Miramar. Before signing, he asked the French envoy: "Is the guarantee of French troops a treaty obligation or a political promise?" The envoy replied: "The emperor's promise is a treaty obligation." He looked at the envoy once, and signed.

That night he wrote only one line in his diary: "Signed. Carlota is pleased."

III

May 28, 1864, the port of Veracruz. It was two in the afternoon when the ship docked; the sun had bleached the concrete of the pier white. Maximilian came down the gangway and saw two rows of people standing on the pier: one row in French uniforms, one row in the black formal dress of Mexican conservatives. There was no crowd, no flowers, no band.

At the end of the pier, by the wall, an old man selling coconuts looked up at him once, then went back to splitting coconut husks with a machete.

He later wrote to his mother: "The pier was quiet." But the same day Carlota wrote to her Belgian family: "The reception was solemn." The two letters described the same thing with different words.

After arriving in Mexico City, he moved into Chapultepec Castle. The castle was large, with many windows, and drafty in winter. He had the largest south-facing room converted into a botanical specimen room; the specimen cabinets shipped from Europe took up half a wall. On the workbench stood a row of glass bottles containing plant samples sent from various parts of Mexico. The labels had not yet been written.

He began issuing decrees. Child labor was banned, working hours limited, religious tolerance proclaimed, and some land reform measures of Juárez's government retained. He read every decree line by line and sometimes changed the wording. He changed "We believe" to "the imperial government believes," and "graciously permit" to "permit." The secretary asked why. He said: "It sounds less like one man's word."

Conservative nobles began to stop coming to meetings. One count wrote in a private letter: "We did not invite an emperor; we invited Juárez in imperial robes." The letter was later intercepted, and Maximilian saw it. He put it on the table without anger and said to his secretary: "Next time we hold a meeting, put the chairs closer together. Empty chairs look bad."

But there were more and more empty chairs. Meanwhile, Juárez's Republican forces waged guerrilla war in the northern mountains, and their slogan changed from "Drive out the French" to "Drive out the foreign emperor." He sent people to negotiate peace, offering that if Juárez recognized the empire, he would pardon all Republican soldiers. Juárez's reply was one sentence: "Mexico has no place for an emperor. Either leave, or we fight."

He read the reply twice, then told his secretary to file the negotiation documents. On the cover, when filing them, he wrote one word: "To be continued."

IV

October 3, 1865, the Black Decree. Before signing, General Bazaine's aide placed the text on his desk. He read it item by item, the tip of his pen hovering above the signature line.

"All captured Republican soldiers?" he asked.

"All persons bearing arms against the imperial government," the aide corrected.

"Without trial?"

"Military courts have the authority to sentence directly."

He put down the pen and walked to the window. Outside was the garden of Chapultepec Castle; a gardener was watering a row of cacti. He watched for about ten seconds, came back, and signed.

That evening the dinner sent up by the kitchen was returned untouched. The chef asked anxiously, "Not to his taste?" The attendant said: "He didn't touch it. He just looked at it."

In the six weeks after the decree was issued, executions were carried out in various places. Accounts differ, but conservative estimates put the number in the hundreds to a thousand. When news reached Europe, Hugo wrote articles denouncing him from exile, and Garibaldi publicly condemned him in Italy. In his Mexico City office he received a pile of clippings. He did not throw them away. He clipped them together and put them in a drawer.

The drawer had previously held botanical specimen labels. Now specimen labels and clippings were mixed together.

He wrote to Carlota: "I have signed a document I hate. Every day people die under that decree. I meant to bring peace, and now every day I am making widows."

Carlota replied: "You are emperor. An emperor must do what an emperor must do."

He put that reply in the drawer too.

V

In February 1866, Napoleon III's order to withdraw arrived. General Bazaine handed him a copy while he was eating breakfast. He read the order, put down the spoon, and its handle knocked against the rim of the bowl.

"General, could you—"

"Your Majesty, my task is to withdraw the army." Bazaine straightened his cap. "Not to protect an abandoned emperor."

Historical records do not fully agree on whether Bazaine said exactly those words. But Maximilian later wrote something similar in a letter to a friend: "He told me his task was to withdraw the army. I understood."

The French withdrawal was faster than he had expected. By the autumn of 1866 most French troops had withdrawn to the ports. He stood on the terrace of Chapultepec Castle holding a cup of chocolate. The kitchen had made it the way he liked it, with cinnamon, but it had been too hot when brought up, and he waited for it to cool, and while waiting he forgot it.

The cup of chocolate sat on the terrace railing for forty minutes. He held it and did not drink. A ring of dried residue formed along the rim.

Carlota decided to return to Europe to lobby. Before leaving, she spread her suitcase open on the bed and folded her clothes one piece at a time. He stood at the door watching her fold and said: "If it doesn't work, come back." Carlota folded a shirt and said: "It will work."

She hit walls in Paris, hit walls in Vienna, hit walls in Rome. At a court banquet in Vienna she suddenly stood up, screamed, and rushed out, shouting, "They are going to kill my husband." When the attendants stopped her, a tear had opened in her skirt.

When the news reached Mexico, Maximilian was in Querétaro arranging defenses. He read the telegram, folded the paper, and put it in the breast pocket of his uniform. Then he went back to the map and, pointing to a mountain pass, asked a general: "Is one battalion enough here?"

The general said: "Two battalions may not be enough." He said: "Then put two."

VI

In the autumn of 1866 he at one point decided to abdicate. The luggage was packed, a warship had been arranged, and he had written a farewell letter to his mother. Then representatives of the Mexican conservatives came and knelt in a row before him, saying that if the emperor left they would be settled with by the Republican army. He told them to get up. They did not get up. He said: "I will consider it." They still did not get up.

That night he opened the already-packed suitcase, took out the uniform shirt, hung it back in the wardrobe, and buttoned it to the top button. The next morning he told his secretary: "I am not leaving."

The secretary asked why. He said: "If I leave, what happens to them?"

He did not explain who "them" meant.

In February 1867 he withdrew with the remaining troops to Querétaro. The siege lasted seventy-two days. When the food ran out they ate horsemeat; when the horsemeat ran out they ate powder ground from tree bark. Every day he walked once around the city wall. Soldiers straightened when they saw him. He nodded and said nothing. Once a young officer stopped him and asked: "Your Majesty, can we hold out?" He thought for a moment and said: "How old are you?" The officer said: "Nineteen." He said: "At nineteen you shouldn't be thinking about that. Go clean your rifle."

On May 15 the city fell. He was in the church when he was captured. Republican soldiers rushed in. He stood up, pushed the chair back under the table, and held out his hands.

The trial was on June 13. The court accused him of subverting the republic, launching war, and massacring civilians; the core evidence was the Black Decree. In the dock he spoke at length, saying in substance that he had been deceived, coerced, and forced. At the end he said: "I admit my mistakes, but I am not a criminal."

The judge asked him: "Whose signature is on the Black Decree?"

He said: "Mine."

"When you signed it, did you know it would lead to executions?"

He paused for about five seconds. The court recorder wrote in the transcript: "The defendant was silent."

Then he said: "I knew."

VII

European monarchs began to plead for him. Franz Joseph I offered to ransom him with money. President Johnson of the United States sent a telegram. Hugo and Garibaldi wrote a joint letter. Juárez refused them all.

In his reply to Johnson he wrote: "To pardon him would be to tell everyone who wants to be emperor: come to Mexico and try; if you fail, you can leave."

In the early hours of June 19, the firing squad took its position. Maximilian refused a blindfold, refused a priest, and made only one request: do not shoot the face. Then he asked that question about breakfast.

After the shots, the squad leader walked over, looked, and reported: "Hit in the heart."

His body was buried on the spot at the foot of Cerro de las Campanas. A year later the Austrian government shipped the coffin back to Vienna and buried it in the imperial crypt. At the funeral Franz Joseph I stood beside the coffin and said something to an attendant. Versions differ; the most widely circulated is: "He paid the price for his naivety."

But at the same funeral, a court recorder noticed another detail: before the coffin entered the crypt, Franz Joseph I reached out and placed something on the coffin lid. Later, when the crypt keeper cleaned it up, he found it was a naval badge, an old Austrian navy commander-in-chief pattern, 1854 model. The pin was broken, as if someone had gripped it for a long time.