Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/306

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
270
MAXIMILIAN
MAXWELL

milian. authorizing Lopez to treat secretly for surrender, which would brand the emperor as a coward, but so far these attempts seem to have failed signally, as contemporaneous trustworthy witnesses have shown that it was an impossibility that Maximilian could have written the letters, and even the unfortunate prince's most violent political opponents in Mexico never questioned his undoubted courage and singularly high char- acter. Maximilian's writings have been collected and published under the title " Aus meinem Le- ben ; Reiseskizzen, Aphorismen, Marinebilder " (7 vols., Leipsic. 1867). See also Emile de Kera- try's " L'Empereur Maximilien, son elevation et sa chute " (Paris, 1867) ; Hellwald's '• Maximilian I.. Kaiser von Mexico, nebst Abriss der Gesehichte des Kaiserreichs " (Vienna, 1869) ; and Kendall's " Mexico under Maximilian " (London, 1872). — His wife, Charlotte Marie Aiuelie, b. in Brus- sels, 7 June. 1840, is the daughter of King Leo- pold I., of Belgium, and his wife. Princess Marie Clementine, of Orleans, and married Maximilian, 27 July, 1857. She resided with her husband at the castle of Miramar, and with him became a pa- tron of art and litera- ture. She exercised great moral influence on the yielding and romantic character of her husband, which she used in 1863 to induce Maximilian to accept the crown of 3I('xico. On their ar- rival in that country she took an active part in public affairs, and favored every im- provement that was proposed during her short reign. She laid the corner-stone of a hospital in 1865, founded many benev- olent societies, was foremost in charita-

ble work, and, being

an accomplished amateur artist, gave several of her paintings to be sold for the benefit of the poor. She often urged the emperor to adopt a policy of moderation, in opposition to the counsel of the French chiefs and his official advisers, and espe- cially tried to prevent the proclamation of 8 Oct., 1865, outlawing the Republicans in arms, about which she had a serious difference with the minister Lacunza and Archbishop Labastida. When Gen. O'Horan in an audience, intending to please the empress, said that he was glad to be the first to tell her that the Republican generals Arteaga and Salazar had been shot in Uruapam, in consequence of this decree, she was so indignant that she insist- ed upon his immediate deposition. In December of that year she prevailed upon the emperor to adopt young Agustin Iturbide as his heir, but even at that time she seems to have had a foreboding of coming events, as, in communicating the news of this adoption to the empress of Austria, she wrote : " Now I consider my being childless as a blessing from heaven, for I already foresee an orphan in this prince." In the beginning of 1866 a journal- ist was court-martialed for having published an insulting poem against the empress, but she called him to her presence and pardoned him, asking him what office he had filled under Juarez, and reinstating him in it. When Almonte commu- nicated from Paris that he had been unable to shake Napoleon's resolution to evacuate Mexico, Charlotte offered to go to Prance to try to per- suade the emperor to change his mind. She left Mexico on 8 July, 1866, and sailed from Vera Cruz on the 13th, arriving in Paris on 9 Aug., and on the following day she had an interview with the French emperor, who received her coldly, and, notwithstanding her repeated pleadings, refused to make any change in favor of Maximilian in his dispositions regarding Mexico. This disappoint- ment affected her deeply, and, in the hope of ob- taining something through the influence of the pope, she left on the 23d for Rome by way of Mi- ramar. This visit to the scenes of the first happy years of her married life, combined with mental anxiety for the fate of her husband, affected her mind, and on the day following her arrival at Rome she showed signs of insanity. Her sad con- dition was officially declared on 4 Oct., and she was removed to the chateau of Tervueren in Belgium, where she has lived for many years, apparently hopelessly insane, yet with some lucid intervals, in which she is said to busy herself writing recollec- tions of the Mexican empire. Since the burning of the chateau in 1879, she has been confined in Bouchoute, and her mental condition is not much changed, although hopes of her recovery have been entertained. There is little doubt that sorrow for having influenced her husband's acceptance of the crown has contributed to her insanity. An eye-witness of the last interview between Miramon and his wife, on 16 June, 1865, relates that the general said in the presence of Maximilian, " If I had followed my wife's advice, I should not be here " ; and the emperor answered, " I am here for following the advice of my wife."


MAXTLA, or MAXTLATON (mast-lah), king of the Tepanecs, b. in Atzeapotzalco late in the 14th century ; d. there in 1430. He was the son of King Tetzotzomoc, who gave him the government of Coyoacan, whence he intrigued against his brother-in-law, Huitzilihuitl {q. v.), king of Mexico, whose eldest son, Aeolnahuatl, Maxtla ordered to be assassinated, as he feared that Tetzotzomoc might elect him as his successor. At the death of the latter, in 1427, he appointed his son Tayatzin as his successor, but Maxtla revolted against him, and captured and assassinated him, and in revenge for the assistance given him by Chimalpopoca {q. v.), he took that king of Mexico prisoner and put him in an iron cage, where he died of hunger. The same year he sent assassins against Netzahual- coyotl {q. v.), whose kingdom Tetzotzomoc had usurped in 1419, as he feared that the young prince might through his popularity cause a rising of the Acolhuas. Exasperated by Maxtla's arrogance and repeated cruelties, the kings of Mexico and Tlalte- lolco formed an alliance with Netzahualcoyotl and the republics of Huexotzingo and Tlascala against him, and the war began with varying success. At last a numerous army of Tepanecs mai'ched against Mexico, which was occupied by the allied armies under the chief command of Netzahualcoyotl, and made a furious attack that was nearly successful. The allied forces had begun to waver, when the young prince with Montezuma, general of the Mexicans, made a desperate charge, and the latter killed the Tepanec general Mazatl, and routed his army. The allies pursued the enemy next day, entering Atzeapotzalco, where they found Maxtla' hidden in a temaxcalli, but he was dragged forth and sacrificed by Netzahualcoyotl.


MAXWELL, Augustus Emmet, jurist, b. in Elberton, Ga., 21 Sept., 1820. After his graduation