Execution. Miramare Castle and Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, Trieste, Italy
In April 1864 Fernando Maximiliano José María de Habsburgo-Lorena (1832-1867) became Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. He was not some extremely conservative royalist, but rather a broad-minded thinker who naively sought to 'improve' Mexico politically and socially. He'd reckoned though without the influence of the USA which was still then caught up in their own Civil War. That war however ended and the US with heavy hand meddled in Mexican politics, backing the so-called liberal counter forces to Maximilian's haphazard social rule.
It was a messy time, and soon the emperor was captured (1867) and quickly executed by firing squad (see the inset painting by Édouard Manet [1832-1883]). Maximilian remained much-loved in Habsburg territories, and the German sculptor Johannes Schilling (1828-1910) was commissioned to fashion his statue (1875, inset above left). The statue had a moveable history but now graces the Piazza Venezia near our apartment.
Maximilian was the guiding force behind the construction and execution of Miramare Castle (1856-1860) just up the coast from Trieste; but as is clear from the above he and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, enjoyed its pleasures for only a very short time.
PS I think it's rather curious to call the Emperor 'I', given that there was no successor.
Execution. Miramare Castle and Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, Trieste, Italy
In April 1864 Fernando Maximiliano José María de Habsburgo-Lorena (1832-1867) became Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. He was not some extremely conservative royalist, but rather a broad-minded thinker who naively sought to 'improve' Mexico politically and socially. He'd reckoned though without the influence of the USA which was still then caught up in their own Civil War. That war however ended and the US with heavy hand meddled in Mexican politics, backing the so-called liberal counter forces to Maximilian's haphazard social rule.
It was a messy time, and soon the emperor was captured (1867) and quickly executed by firing squad (see the inset painting by Édouard Manet [1832-1883]). Maximilian remained much-loved in Habsburg territories, and the German sculptor Johannes Schilling (1828-1910) was commissioned to fashion his statue (1875, inset above left). The statue had a moveable history but now graces the Piazza Venezia near our apartment.
Maximilian was the guiding force behind the construction and execution of Miramare Castle (1856-1860) just up the coast from Trieste; but as is clear from the above he and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, enjoyed its pleasures for only a very short time.
PS I think it's rather curious to call the Emperor 'I', given that there was no successor.