José María Gutiérrez was born on October 17, 1800, to a wealthy Yucatecan family which allowed him to receive a formal education in Mexico City.

At the age of twenty eight, he was sent by president Guadalupe Victoria on a diplomatic mission, serving under the Ministry of Foreign relations headed by Lucas Alaman.

At this time he also married to the sister of José Justo Gómez de la Cortina, thus uniting two families of great wealth.

In 1831, he was elected senator for the state of Yucatan and as he belonged to the Conservative Party he gained the enmity of congressional Liberals, particularly Manuel Crescencio García Rejón.

These connections helped him be named the Minister of Foreign relations, by president Santa Anna in 1835, a position which would prove to be the height of his political career.

By the time he was appointed minister, Mexico had only attained recognition on the American continent from the United States and Peru and in Europe from England, Holland, France, Prussia and the Holy See.

He then traveled to Europe on his own account, and while in Madrid was designated Mexican ambassador to Great Britain, and tasked with lobbying against recognition of Texan independence and for British opposition to the American annexation of such.

[2] He strongly criticized the notion that there was one ideal form of government for all nations and all circumstances and pointed out the troubles that liberals even in France were experiencing trying to set up republic in recent times.

Despite the initial negative reception, the Mexican–American War eventually bore out some of Estrada's predictions, encouraging and vindicating him in his continued campaign to establish a monarchy.

[6] In 1853, a coup overthrew president Mariano Arista, and the conservative statesman and monarchist Lucas Alamán invited Santa Anna to assume the presidency of the nation, intending for him to hold power only until a foreign monarch could be found.The government established contact with José María Gutiérrez Estrada and granted him official diplomatic credentials, instructing him to start looking for a royal candidate among the courts of Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, and Madrid.

[7] Upon the suggestion of Estrada, another monarchist, Jose Maria Hidalgo was granted a diplomatic post in Spain in order to seek a Spanish candidate for the throne.

As the United States then began to get involved in its Civil War however, Napoleon finally had a pretext and a free hand to carry out the plans that had been laid out to him by Estrada, Hidalgo and Radepont.

[12] After Charles de Lorencez's small expeditionary force was repulsed at the Battle of Puebla, reinforcements were sent and placed under the command of Élie Forey.