Empress Carlota, born Charlotte of Belgium (1840-1927), consort of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. Only daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians (previously married to Princess Charlotte of Wales) and Louise of Orléans. Married at age 17, becoming Empress consort of Mexico in 1864, after her husband accepted French Emperor Napoleon III’s offer of the Mexican crown. Spent her life as a recluse in Italy and Belgium from 1866 onwards, her mental condition having deteriorated upon the failure of her attempts to obtain continued French support for her husband’s struggling regime and news of his 1867 execution.
Figure 1.1. Isidore Pils (French), Portrait of Empress Carlota of Mexico, c. 1865, Hofburg, Vienna, source: Wikimedia Commons.
1860s
Footwear
Her-storic Royal Dress 
