Carlotta, Span. Carlota [key], 1840–1927, empress of Mexico, daughter of Leopold I of Belgium, christened Marie Charlotte Amélie. She married (1857) Maximilian, archduke of Austria and accompanied him when he went to Mexico as emperor (1864). After Napoleon III decided to withdraw the French troops from Mexico and the fate of the empire became apparent, she went to Europe (1866) and sought the aid of Napoleon III and the pope. Her pleas were in vain, and she broke down under the strain of her failure. The Mexican empire ended with the execution of Maximilian in 1867, but the unhappy empress survived him by 60 years.
See studies by E. Corti (1928, repr. 1976), J. Haslip (1971), and J. Taylor (1976).
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