CDV Empress Carlotta

This is a Carte De Visite CDV albumen photo measuring 2.5x4 inches.

Empress Carlotta was the wife of the emperor Maximilian of Mexico. The only daughter of Leopold I, king of the Belgians, and Princess Louise of Orléans, Carlota married at age 17 the archduke Maximilian, brother of the emperor Francis Joseph of Austria. They lived as the Austrian regents in Milan until 1859, when Austria lost control of Lombardy. In May of 1864 she accompanied Maximilian to Mexico to accept the Mexican crown offered him by Napoleon III of France.