CHARLOTTE (184o-1927), empress of Mexico, only daugh ter of Leopold I., king of Belgium, and Louise, princess of Orleans, was born at Laeken, near Brussels, on June 7, 1840. She married in 1857 the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, and went with him to Mexico in 1864, when he accepted the Mexican crown. When it became evident in 1866 that Maximilian's position was unten able, she was sent by her husband to Europe to implore the assistance of Napoleon III., who had decided to withdraw the French troops from Mexico. In this mission she failed, and f ore seeing a catastrophe (Maximilian was shot in 1867) she went out of her mind (Sept. 1866) . Charlotte was placed by her family under care in a Belgian château and survived until January 19, 1927. (See also MAXIMILIAN.) See Count Corti, Maximilian and Carlotta von Mexico (1924, 2 vols.) .