Unaware that she was now a widow, Charlotte was brought back to Belgium and confined successively in the Pavilion de Tervueren (in 1867 and again during 1869–1879), the Palace of Laeken (during 1867–1869) and finally at Bouchout Castle in Meise (from 1879), where she remained for the next 48 years in a deleterious mental state, giving rise to much speculation ever since, before dying in 1927 aged 86.

After Madame d'Hulst returned to France, it was Countess Marie-Auguste de Bovée, her new governess, who educated Charlotte, urging her to read and meditate daily on The Imitation of Christ.

It is said that Charlotte disliked the deep connection that existed between Elisabeth and Maximilian, who were confidantes and shared the same tastes for many things, especially because her sister-in-law was universally admired for her beauty and charm.

[37] Charlotte remained alone in Funchal for three months while her husband continued his journey to Brazil, where he visited three states: first Bahia, then Rio de Janeiro and finally Espírito Santo.

The strong-willed Charlotte believed that restoring the Mexican crown would constitute a mission to bring order and civilization under the House of Habsburg, who would once again rule an empire where the sun never sets;[39] she argued decisively to overcome her husband's doubts.

With the port of Veracruz in front of her, Charlotte wrote to her grandmother: "In a few hours we will touch the ground of our new homeland...I am delighted with the Tropics and I only dream of butterflies and hummingbirds [...] I would never have believed that in what regards the regions where we are going to live, my wishes were also completely fulfilled".

He published the "Black Decree" on 3 October 1865, which, while promising an amnesty to the dissidents who surrendered, declared in its first article: "All individuals belonging to bands or armed gatherings existing without legal authorization, whether or not they proclaim a political pretext [...] will be tried militarily by the martial courts.

[76] In January 1866, Emperor Napoleon III, influenced by French public hostility to the Mexican expedition, decided to begin the withdrawal of his troops supporting the Imperial cause in Mexico.

[80][b] On 8 August 1866, Empress Charlotte arrived in Europe with her two adoptive sons and Martín del Castillo, at the harbour of Saint-Nazaire, where they were greeted by Juan Almonte and his wife, instead of an official welcoming ceremony.

She gave a long, impassioned speech reminding Napoleon III of his promises and the Treaty of Miramar, but the Emperor was unwavering in his position, affirming that he could not decide anything without the approval of his ministers and that he refused to negotiate new financial and military guarantees in favour of Mexico.

On 19 August, Napoleon III went personally to Le Grand Hôtel for a third and final meeting with Charlotte, to confirm to her that France would no longer continue to act in Mexico.

[85] Shaken by Napoleon III's refusal, on 21 August Charlotte left France for Miramare Castle in Trieste; on the journey there, her mental health showed signs of worsening — passing by a farmer, she became convinced that he was an assassin.

Three days later, on 27 September, she had an audience with Pope Pius IX, but as was expected, the pontiff was reluctant to use his influence to intervene in French politics on the behalf of the Mexican Empire.

[89] King Leopold II grew worried about the news he received from Charlotte, so he sent his brother Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders to Rome, where he arrived on 8 October 1866.

After examining the Empress, Josef Gottfried von Riedel, a Viennese alienist physician, diagnosed "madness with fixed ideas of persecution",[91] believing that the Mexican climate and the humiliating treatment that Charlotte received in France aggravated her condition.

[92] When the news of the capture of Maximilian by Mexican Republican forces and his execution at Santiago de Querétaro on 19 June 1867 became known, the Belgian royal family interrupted their visit to Paris for the International Exposition, and returned to Brussels in early July 1867.

In July 1867, King Leopold II sent his wife, Queen Marie Henriette of Austria and his confidant Baron Auguste Goffinet to Vienna to plead with the Emperor to allow for the release of Charlotte and her return to Belgium as soon as possible.

[20] When Queen Marie Henriette arrived at Miramare on 14 July 1867,[95] she discovered Charlotte in a terrible physical and mental state, having been treated as a prisoner by the Austrian security forces for the last nine months.

With the help of this medical team, Queen Marie Henriette devised a plan to give her sister-in-law a faked telegram from Maximilian, in which he asked her to come back to Brussels.

There, her fortune was guarded under the care of Eduard von Radonetz, the prefect of Miramare, but when she returned to Belgium, the Viennese court was forced to pay her dowry to Leopold II.

Upon her arrival in Belgium, Charlotte resided until 8 October 1867 in the Pavilion de Tervueren near Brussels, which was built by Charles Vander Straeten for King William II of the Netherlands.

After the Pavilion de Tervueren was destroyed by a fire on 2 March 1879 (which Charlotte was paradoxically delighted by),[103] she resided permanently at Bouchout Castle in Meise (not far from the Palace of Laeken), which her brother, King Leopold II, acquired for her.

She was not informed of the death of her close relatives (King Leopold II in 1909 and her sister-in-law, the Countess of Flanders, wife of her brother Philippe, in 1912), nor that of her servants because she never asked questions about their absence.

In crises of destructive monomania, she gave in to outbursts of uncontrollable anger and destroyed crockery and crystal vases, set her hounds on a maid, and tore up pictures and books.

Only a tiny part of the country remained free of German occupation, the town of De Panne, where King Albert I, Charlotte's nephew, lived until the signing of the Armistice of 11 November 1918.

God willing we are remembered with sadness, but without hatred.»[113]«All that ended without being successful (Tout cela est fini et n'aboutira pas).»[114][115]«I expressed myself badly in words and I will regret it" (Je m'ai mal exprimée en paroles et j'en piitirai).»[115]Three days later, on 22 January, and under heavy snow, her coffin was carried by six former Belgian Legionaries who survived the Expedition to Mexico.

[120] In 1938, the Belgian State bought Bouchout Castle with the intention to establish the National Botanical Garden of Belgium, which had grown too cramped on its Brussels site, and the land was inaugurated 20 years later.

[129] They evoke biographical and personal influences to explain the Empress' dementia, namely: the loss of her mother at only 10 years old (which originated the radical transformation of her playful and expansive character towards introversion), her keen sense of duty, her high religiosity, her latent mysticism, her euphoria during her engagement, her idealization of Maximilian, the absence of conjugal life, the disenchantments and disillusions in Italy, and then in Mexico.

[131] Gustavo Vazquez-Lozano interprets the letters of 1869 within the matrix of apocalyptic language, i.e. relating to the final fate of humanity and the consummation of things, where one or more otherworldly figures reveal a transcendental reality to the visionary.

[133][134] In October 2018, Dargaud published the first volume of a series of biographical comics, Charlotte impératrice - La Princesse et l'Archiduc, by Matthieu Bonhomme (drawing) and Fabien Nury (screenplay).