Rosemary took a keen interest in Gunsmoke and Kitty. East of Eden was a family classic, especially when Cal introduced his brother to his mother, the prostitute. What we are looking at is the End of the Wild West. Vic’s father was a professional gambler who lived on a houseboat in Crockett California where I talked to the curator of the Crockett Museum – who knew Hugo Presco. There were around fifty gambling joints and houses if ill repute in Crockett. Hugo married Melba Broderick whose father was a executive for the California Barrel Company. Rosemary showed me a copy of the infamous Blue Book that William Broderick got down in New Orleans while delivering barrels to Bootleggers.
There it is, the missing link in those who defied the thirteenth amendment. Behold those agents and cops smashing barrels and letting the booze roll into the gutter. Some one made and delivered those barrels that were essential in breaking the law. Did the feds go after the barrel makers, or, were they that stupid.
William Broderick married Alice Stuttmeister, the daughter of Augustus Janke who married William Stuttmeister. The Jankes are co-founders of the city of Belmont where they had a bottling company and sold sarsaparilla laced with cocaine. They opened a German theme park that brought folks from San Francisco on the train. Carl brought six portable houses around the Cape on a ship and errected them in Belmont in 1849 – allegedly for those who struck it rich in the gold mines. However, Italians were already settling in the Bay Area, one of them, Count Leonetto Cipriani who errected a portable house with over five thousand screws that later became the home of William Ralston the ‘Man who built San Francisco’.
William and Augustus Janke were married at Ralston Hall. It was there three daughters that offered my father a moving company in San Francisco when he turned twenty one. He turned his great aunts, down. Victor was the male heir – of what? This offer is what Rosemary refered to when she said on several occasions;
“Your father is a made man.”
I looked at why Remmer did not whack my father, he knowing how much my mother hated him, and how he neglected his four children, so much so that Rosemary had to turn to prostitution and becoming a porno star. If Bremmer was Mafia, then he had access to a list of made men. In the article on the Mafia in Emeryville there is wonderment about why the Mafia never got a foothold in California. It is suggested the reason was the cops could not be bribed. However, I suspect there was a powerful origination taking root here – The Illuminati. Count Ciprian was the bitter enemy of Mazzini who was getting close with the Bonaparte family who had design on vast lands in Mexico. Cipriani led a cover wagon train from Missouri and stopped in Utah where he met with Bringham Young. Consider the Romney compound in Mexico. I suspect Cipriani was trying to get the Mormons to move to Mexico in what constitutes the most secret land grab in world history.
Rosemary lived a double life, and it was hard for her to keep all her secrets from her children. She told me about the Guinari sister’s father (a Italian) who owned a garbage collecion company and was a made man. These sisters were my sisters friends. Rosemary must have met their father at Bremmer’s abode, or, place of business. The Emmeryville landfill is famous, it creating bay front property worth millions.
The Stuttmiesters were Forty-Eighters, Free-thinkers from Berlin. They were members of the Trunverein, that is also Tanforan, the name that the Jankes gave to their German theme park. The Turneverein Jews built colonies in Israel and are responsible for Israel being a nation again. Then there is John Fremont and Jessie Benton who led the Bear Flag revolt that grabbed millions of acres from Mexico.
“Patterned after the beer gardens of their German heritage, it offered a 300 person dance pavilion, a carousel, a running track and walking trails, an ice cream parlor, plenty of picnicking space and of course drinks â beer and plenty of sarsaparilla (which might have been spiked with cocaine in that era). The Jankes made a mutually profitable deal with the Southern Pacific to run weekend picnic special trains from the city to Belmont Park.”
So, it looks like MY FAMILY were selling cocaine in California long before anyone else, and then they would put them on joyful rides for the time of their lives – long before Dizney came along. Consider my friend Paul Drake being blown off the roller coaster in Santa Cruz by Clint Eastwood after a drinking bout on the beach got out of hand. Paul and I have done cocaine.
I will be sending this history and family photos to the Peninsula Museum of Art located on the grounds the Janke built his park now called Twin Pines park. Weddings are still being held at Ralston Hall.
Jon Presco
Copyright 2012
“Returning to Paris in October, 1855, he was warmly received
by his friend Prince Napoleon who overwhelmed him with questions
about his travels in America. “I answered them the best I could.”
Cipriani wrote, “But , it is a veritable deluge….We keep talking
about my journeys, of the Sanora, of conquering it.” Perhaps he
thought of seizing it for France and hoped the prince might persuade
his cousin the Emperor to finance the undertaking. “It is an idea in
the air,” he added, “that I would willingly undertake, if necessary
capital and men were available.”
Count Cipriani was born in Centuri Corsica, on October 10,
1812. On his father’s side he is descended from an old Florentine
family of Ghibellines, which after a long struggle with the vitorious
Guelfs, found refgue in Corsica in the fifteenth century. On his
mother’s side he is descended from Saint Francis Caracciolo of
Naples, and thus Saint Aquinas. This struggle inspired Shakespear to
write ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and thus the question “What is in a name?”
came to be.
California and overland diaries of count Leonetto Cipriani; from 1853 through 1871, containing the accvount of his cattle drive from Missouri to California in 1853; a visit with Brigham Young in the mormon settlement of Salt Lake City; the assembling of his elegant prefabricted home in Belmont, the first of consequence on the San Francisco peninsula, later to become the Ralston mansion. Translated and edited by Ernest Falbo.
Daily Alta California, Volume 42, Number 14175, 24 June 1888 STUTTMEISTER-JANKE.
One of the most enjoyable weddings of the past week took place at Belmont, Wednesday morning last, the contracting parties being Miss Augusta Janke, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. August Janke of Belmont,
and Dr. Wm. Stuttmeister of San Francisco. The house was handsomely decorated with a rich profusion of ferns and flowers, and at the appointed hour was filled with the relatives and intimate friends of the contracting parties. At 11 oâclock the wedding march was played and the bridal party entered the parlor. The bride was attended by Miss Alice Stuttmeister, a sister of the groom, and Miss Minnie Janke, a sister of the bride, as bridesmaids, and Dr. Muldownado and Wm. Janke, a cousin of the bride, were groomsmen. The Rev. A. L. Brewer
of San Mateo performed the beautiful and impressive ceremony under an arch composed of flowers and greens very prettily arranged, after which the guests pressed forward and offered their congratulations. The bride was attired in a very pretty and becoming costume of the crushed strawberry shade, and wore a corsage bouquet of orange blossoms. She carried a handsome bouquet of white flowers.
After the guests had paid their compliments the bride and groom led the way to the dining-room, where the wedding dinner was served and the health of the newly married pair was pledged. The feast over, the guests joined in the dance, and the hours sped right merrily, interspersed with music singing and recitations, until the bride and groom took their departure amid a shower of rice and good wishes. Many beautiful presents were received. Dr. and Mrs. Stuttmeister left Thursday morning for Santa Cruz and Monterey, where they will spend the honeymoon. On their return they will make their home in Belmont. 1911: Dr. Willian O. Stuttmeister was practicing dentistry in Redwood City, CA.
Peninsula Museum of Art is one of three art organizations housed inside Twin Pines Art Center, in Belmontâs Twin Pines Park. I travelled to Belmont for the sole purpose of visiting Peninsula Museum of Art when I came across the Art Center and the Park, which you can also read more about on the blog in the separate entries Iâve done over the past three weeks. Peninsula Museum of Art (sometimes called Peninsula Art Museum on their website, which is a little confusing) is a great little spot where I discovered some of the most moving art Iâve seen in a while. I was at the museum just as the exhibition âCollectively Alone,â by Sherry Karver, was coming to an end. Wow, her work in this collection evokes such emotion and really speaks to what people are going through in their daily lives. I think in a place like the Bay Area we can relate to her work as it is based in the experience of urban living, at least in this particular installation. If you have never seen Sherry Karverâs work, you are in luck as she is currently part of a show (20 artists in total) going on at the Performance Art Institute in San Francisco.
Back to Peninsula Museum of Art (I was too enchanted by âCollectively Aloneâ not to elaborate). Aside from the main exhibition gallery, there is a reference library and a Collections room. The Collections Room rotates peopleâs personal collections, such as action figures, toys, and memorabilia; something you wonât really find at larger museums. Admission is free and you can simultaneously experience the Belmont Arts Council gallery, also housed at Twin Pines Art Center. Admission is free and you can simultaneously experience the Belmont Arts Council gallery, also housed at Twin Pines Art Center. Peninsula Museum of Art is a great, accessible, small art venue where you may just be surprised by the depth of the work you find there.
Today’s Twin Pines Park in Belmont, a refuge for kids, families and the arts, conceals a rowdy past. Here’s an easy cache to introduce its history.
In the 1870s, Belmont was a whistle stop on the Southern Pacific railroad, an aspiring suburb to San Francisco and a base for tycoons like William Ralston who had built country mansions in the canyons and hills to the west. In 1876, two German immigrants brought some industry to town. Carl Augustus Janke and his son Carl Ferdinand founded the Belmont Soda Works just north of The Corners (now Ralston and El Camino). The Jankes manufactured a variety of fizzy drinks, most notably sarsaparilla, and delivered them to San Francisco and points south along the railroad.
The Jankes turned out to be entertainment entrepreneurs as well. They bought up a dozen acres on the south side of Belmont Creek and established Belmont Park and picnic grounds. Patterned after the beer gardens of their German heritage, it offered a 300 person dance pavilion, a carousel, a running track and walking trails, an ice cream parlor, plenty of picnicking space and of course drinks – beer and plenty of sarsaparilla (which might have been spiked with cocaine in that era). The Jankes made a mutually profitable deal with the Southern Pacific to run weekend picnic special trains from the city to Belmont Park. The place often hosted large crowds, with one notable affair being 8,000 people for an Odd Fellows fraternal gathering.
With drink and crowds came trouble. Drunken brawls were not uncommon, and on one occasion a shoot-out between gangs left a man dead (some modern problems are not new.) A private jail was installed at the park, beneath the dance hall floor, and the Southern Pacific put special police on its excursion trains. But as Belmont and other Peninsula settlements grew, the weekly influx of rowdies was seen as a problem that outweighed their commercial benefits. Under pressure from the locals, the railroad cancelled its party train specials by 1900. Belmont Park went into a quick decline, and was mostly subdivided for other uses. The present park and the civic center are part of its remains, with little to show of its checkered past.
Months after my sisterâs death I went to the Sacramento Library and looked at microfish about a legal battle between the heirs of Carl Jankeâs estate in Belmont that appeared in the San Francisco Call. I lost the copy I made of that article that I am certain mentioned William O. Stuttmeister, and the sisters of Augusta Stuttmeister-Janke. Carlâs sons did not want Minni and Cornillia, to have anything, and one brother (or cousin) took their side, and was cut out. This has to be William, or W. JANKE. âThe bride was attended by Miss Alice Stuttmeister, a sister of the groom, and Miss Minnie Janke, a sister of the bride, as bridesmaids, and Dr. Muldownado and Wm. Janke, a cousin of the bride, were groomsmen.â When Victor Presco turned twenty-one, the the Janke spinsters offered him a moving company in San Francesco. Apparently they saw him as the heir to the Stuttmiester legacy, and the Hope of a return to former glory because they had no children. How about their brother, William? Rosemary said this; âYour father was a made man.â Two days ago, in an e-mail, my cousin Daryl Bulkley confirmed my suspicions that âStuttmeisterâ was not the original name of the folks from Berlin. I suspect they were a branch of the Glucksburg family who became Calvinist Evangelicals, and perhaps Rosicrucians. In the top photo we see Minni and Corniallia Janke in the family vault that William Stuttmeister purchased for $10,000 dollars to put the reains of the Jankes and Stuttmeisters in after they were evicted from the Oddfellow cemetery. That William Ralston was a Oddfellow that put up a large sum of money to establish the Oddfellows in Germany â and perhaps elsewhere â makes me wonder about his alleged suicide by plunging into the bay. I am reading articles on the internet about the Oddfellows being the founders of the Welfare State in America, where being charitable to the poor, the infirmed, and the widows, was paramount. They also paid much attention to burying their dead, which suggests they believed in a different hereafter
That the Oddfellows titled women as Rebekahs, suggests they are Rechabites, who have been associated with the Nazarites who composed the first Christian church called âThe Church of Godâ. That Jesus came to be seen as God âthe Fatherâ is a usurption that began with Paul of Tarsus. That the fall of the Oddfellows in the Bay Area happened overnight, and all traces of their demise, all but disappeared, tells me there was a real Judas and purge. That Daryl pointed out in her research that we knew next to nothing about the Stuttmeisters, whose tomb was lost until seven years ago, tells me William Stuttmeister retired to the Geronimo Valley a disillusioned man, who played a rare violin, and left his Stuttmeister-Janke legacy to his housekeeper. And then he is dead, his remains put in the vault that I went to visit with my daughter and grandson. Before I left for California I told my friend Joy Gall, that I wanted a AA coin to put in this tomb in honor of Christine Rosamond Benton whose funeral fell on he first sober birthday in AA. As I lined up to view my sister in her casket, I did consider the Nazarite Vow I took in 1989. As fate would have it, I ended up putting this coin in William Oltman Stuttmeisters crypt because there was an opening made by the earthquake of 1989.
On this coin is an Angel. In 1992 I began a biography of my family called âBonds With Angelsâ. It begins with an account of the Blue Angel that appear at the foot of Christineâs bed that woke her and Vicki, who crawled into Christineâs bed and beheld her. Vicki was six years of age, and is clean and sober this day. The Nazarite Vow bids one to not ingest alcohol, not get drunk, so that the Holy Spirit may speak through you, use you as a Horn of Power to broadcast the Word of God. When I entered the tomb of my ancestors and sat down on the marble bench, I noticed the letter A made of brass lying behind the faux fern plant. I picked it up. It was the A in JANKE that had come lose in the earthquake. I looked up at the stained glass window and read; âIn loving memory of my beloved wife, Augusta Stutteister,â Was Augusta the Angel that came to visit my sisters? May our bonds with Angels continue â forever more! Amen! Jon Prescok (Reference: University of California, Directory of Graduates,
1864-1910, page 133).
Records from Tombstones in Laurel Hill Cemetery, 1853-1927 â Janke
– Stuttmeister
Mina Maria Janke, daughter of William A, & Cornelia Janke, born
February 2, 1869, died March 1902.
William August Janke, native of Hamburg, Germany, born Dec. 25,
1642, died Nov. 22, 1902, son of Carl August & Dorette Catherine Janke. Frederick William R. Stuttmeister, native of Berlin, Germany, born
1612, died January 29, 1877.
Mrs. Matilda Stuttmeister, wife of Frederick W.R. Stuttmeister, born
1829, died March 17, 1875, native of New York.
Victor Rudolph Stuttmeister, son of Frederick W.R. & Matilda
Stuttmeister, born May 29, 1846, died Jan. 19, 1893, native of New
York.
Twin Pines Art Center
Who We Are
The Twin Pines Art Center is a coalition of studio artists and three arts organizations:
Peninsula Arts Council of San Mateo County, the Belmont Arts Council, and the Peninsula Museum of Art.
Peninsula Arts Council is the County’s Local Arts Partner, dedicated to supporting and strengthening our cultural organizations, improving the quality of life, and promoting our culturally rich community. The Belmont Arts Council’s Gallery offers changing exhibitions of work by local artists.
The Museum includes the formal Gallery, Museum Store, and Art Reference Library.
Twelve rooms on the second floor (and penthouse) provide working studios for visual artists.
About the Building
In 1908 George Center, a close associate of Senator Ralston, built his estate in what we know now as Twin Pines Park. Reacting to the 1906 Earthquake, Mr. Center built very, very solidly with reinforced concrete foundations, walls, and even the upper floors.
Inside, the finishing touches range from fine to faux. Look closely at the paneling and moldings, which range from Honduras mahogany to oak to Douglas fir faux-finished to mimic mahogany.
The Center property was sold in 1925 to a group of doctors led by Dr. Rebec, and the property became a well-known psychiatric hospital.
When the Manor House became the Twin Pines Hospital, the original kitchen was removed and the annex was built to provide an institutional kitchen with medical consulting rooms above. The administrative offices added to the North side of the building were ultimately used by the Belmont Police Department.
In the mid-1970’s, state funding of community mental health facilities was eliminated, and the Twin Pines Hospital (and many others) closed.
The City of Belmont acted quickly, passing a bond measure in order to purchase the entire property and create Twin Pines Park.
The San Mateo County Arts Council leased the Manor House from the City and moved in during September of 1976. k
Among the early settlers in Belmont was Colonel Leonetto Cipriani. This soldier built a chateau in Belmont in 1853 and extended his property in both 1857 and 1859. By 1862, the retired Colonel was made an Italian count and appointed to the Italian Senate. He sold his chateau to William C. Ralston, returning to Italy. Colonel Cipriani’s name is well known in Belmont today with both a school and a boulevard named after him.
Anarchists, Jacobites, Masons & Manifest Destiny
Senator Thomas Hart Benton is the author of Manifest Destiny. He was
a Freemason. He and his brother, Jesse, got into a gun and knife
fight with Andrew Jackson who was also a Mason. Thomas’s daughter,
Jesse Benton was maried to John Fremont. They had a bodyguard of
famous Hungarians who fought with Austria. The City of Belmont
California was founded by Count Cipriani who appears to be related to
the Anarchists of Italy, who may have had something to do with
Sissi’s assasination. Anarchists Clubs sprang up in Italy in response
to the Hapsburg’s and Austria coming to rule Italy. Opposed by the
Piedmontese and the Milanese, Count Leonetto Cipriani would champion
the cause of a free and democratic Italy.
“A writer hostile to Cipriani accused him of forbidding his
son Italian citizenship because he did not want the boy to be a
subject of an Italy that, after 1882, was allied with the traditional
enemy, Hapsburg Austria. Cipriani seldom forgave and never forgot an
enemy.”
Whether Leonetto Cipriani is related to the infamous Italian
Anarchist, Amilcare Cipriani, I do not know. But, they surely had the
same cause, that would come to shape the culture of San Francisco, if
not the whole Pacific Coast, and not just the Italian community. It
appears that Cipriani was successful in uniting the House
of Savoy with the Bonapartes, and thus the House of Stuart. Prince
Napoleon Joseph Charles Paul of France, Pr Napoléon, married in Turin
in 1859, Princess Clothilde of Savoy daughter of Victor Emanuel. From
this union would come other Bonapartes with the name Victor. Prince
Napoléon Victor JérÎme Frédéric, Prince LOUIS JérÎme Victor Emmanuel
LĂ©opold Marie, and, Prince Charles Marie JĂ©rĂŽme Victor
Was the Jacobite ‘Order of the White Rose’ somewhat successful
in their plan to put the Stuarts on a throne and rule the world?
There appears to contention with the Prussians who can claim the same
ancestry through the Winter Queen of Bohemia, Elizabeth Stuart,
daughter of King James, and thus the Hanovers who are in all regards,
the Windsors.
Count Cipriani was born in Centuri Corsica, on October 10,
1812. On his father’s side he is descended from an old Florentine
family of Ghibellines, which after a long struggle with the vitorious
Guelfs, found refuge in Corsica in the fifteenth century. On his
mother’s side he is descended from Saint Francis Caracciolo of
Naples, and thus Saint Aquinas. This struggle inspired Shakespear to
write ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and thus the question “What is in a name?”
came to be.
“Returning to Paris in October, 1855, he was warmly received
by his friend Prince Napoleon who overwhelmed him with questions
about his travels in America. “I answered them the best I could.”
Cipriani wrote, “But , it is a veritable deluge….We keep talking
about my journeys, of the Sanora, of conquering it.” Perhaps he
thought of seizing it for France and hoped the prince might persuade
his cousin the Emperor to finance the undertaking. “It is an idea in
the air,” he added, “that I would willingly undertake, if necessary
capital and men were available.”
To another member of the imperial household, Jerome
Bonaparte, ex-king of Westphalia, Cipriani revealed tha the had
considerable investments in California and hinted at receiving
interest of twelve to fifteen percent a month on his money. He also
boasted of his house in Belmont which “out there is considered
magnificent.”
On behalf of the Emperor Napoleon 3, he visited King Victor
Emanuel of Sardinia to explore the possibilities of a matrimonial
arrangement between the ruling houses as a prelude to a political-
military alliance between France and Sardinia. The conversation
eventually turned to Cipriani’s overland journey of 1853, which
apparently had not escaped the king’s notice. “I have heard tell,” he
said, “of a great journey of yours, with you on horseback and camping
out.”
“For eight solid months, Your Majesty,” Cipriani replied,
making certain to include the time he left San Francisco in February
to October, 1853.
“But it is true.” the king continued, “that you led covered
wagons and crossed the Rocky Mountains where there was roads, and
great rivers without any bridges.”
The above is from the ‘California and Overland Diaries of
Count Leonetto Cipriani’. a journey that may constitute the first
cattle drive. What this diary reveals is France’s plan to conquer
Mexico, and perhaps the Western United States.
Jon Presco
Copyright 2004
“Cipriani must have followed with close interest the
activities of Count Raousset-Boulbon and other French filibusters in
the Sonora province of Mexico. The French consul in San Francisco, in
difficulty with the American government for his alleged support of
such filibustering activity, wrote to the Sardinian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs in 1854 that he was grateful (moral) support he was
receiving from Colonel Cipriani. That Cirpiani had entertained some
such expedition in the Sonora is clear from his memoirs though there
is no evidence of any actual participation.”
With the ‘Gold Rush’ came foreigners who sought to fulfill
the manifest destiny of their nations who now feared the growing
richness and power of America and the role she might play on the
world stage. One could say pre-emptive strikes were made against
the “boastful barbarians” as Count Cipriani titled most of the
Americans he encountered. Without a doubt he followed with interest
the moves of Count Gaston Raousset-Boulbon, who arrived in San
Francisco on August 22, 1850, just at moment US laws segregated the
foreign people who came to search for California riches. His arrival
coincided with the move of thousands of French-people who looked for
a way out of the wars in their country, who came to find substance
and well-being in California. Not finding any gold, Raousett wondered
if California’s gold extended into the Mexican State of Sonora. I am
sure Ciprinai wondered this as well, and he may have organized his
cattle drive for such an expedition, he selling some California
property to the Rothschilds to bank-roll his adventure that the
Bonapartes were well aware of.
Raousset-Boulbon made his first trip to Mexico in February
1852. Once in Mexico City, he met Consul André Levasseur who
introduced him to investors of a company called La Restauradora whose
majority partner was Jecker, Torre and Co. On April 7, 1852,
Raousset-
Boulbon singed a contract with La Restauradora on which he is
appointed jointly with an “agent”, who he met in San Francisco, to
explore all places in northern Sonora, and discover gold mines..
The Count returned to San Francisco, and recruited a company
of about 270 men, in addition to weapons and food. On May 19, 1852,
he left San Francisco, on the Archival Gracie to arrive Guaymas,
Sonora, the first day of July, under a spectacular welcome provided
by the Guaymas people and Sonora authorities. But in no time it was
clear he was a rebel. Raousset-Boulbon granted the company with a
flag with the French colors and the words “IndepĂ©ndance de Sonora”.
On October 1852, General Navarro and Blanco faced Roausset
near Hermosillo. The treaty with the French company was dissolved,
but Blanco guaranteed the security of the French. Raousset-Boulbon,
who had hidden in Guaymas, and did not sign the treaty. The project
in ruin, the French nobleman returned to San Francisco where he
consolidated his mission in Sonora:
Becoming rich with the supposed Sonora gold
Putting a stop to the US expansionism.
Reestablish the pure Latin-blood on the Americas.
Taking revenge on Mariano Arista.
Back in Mexico, Arista was deposed and replaced by Juan
Bautista Ceballos as the presidency, then by Manuel MarĂa Lombardini,
who in turn was succeeded by Santa Anna, and Gandsen, US minister to
Mexico. Raousset-Boulbon departed from San Francisco on June 16,
1853, arriving in Mexico City on July 7. He met Santa Anna and
discused with him his colonization project in Sonora by bringing
6,000 emigrants from Upper California from Europe in six years. Santa
Anna refused the proposals and Raousset-Boulbon’s forces were finally
defeated by General JosĂ© MarĂa Yåñez on July 13, 1854. He is shot
dead on August 12, 1854.
Around 1860 a group of rich Mexican emigrants met in Europe,
they had fled the Juarez revolution. Catholic and conservative, they
looked for support in Europe for their plan to establish a monarchy
in Mexico. They needed money, troops and a genuine European noble.
The Bonapartes had tried to bestow nobility upon Cipriani, but he
refused fearing to become more of a puppet then he was. Victor
Emanuel had made him Governor of Balogna, and he would become the
first President of the United Kingdom of Italy. Cipriani would marry
an American, Mary Tolly Worhtington of Baltimore County who a
descendant of George Washington. Cipriani descends from the famous
Caracciolo family of Naples, and appears to be the son of Napoeleon’s
major dommo, Franchesci Cipriani. The whole truth is not being told
here, and Cipriani may have been playing down the royal hand he was
dealt.
Jerome Bonaparte married Elizabeth Patterson, and wealthy
heiress. Emperor Napoleon had marred Marie-Louis von Habsburg, and it
was a Habsburg that be amply qualified to become the first Emperor of
Mexico. Napoleon III. gave the emigrants troops, French financial
circles assured their assistance. The French supported the
conservatives in the civil war with the radicals and occupied the
capital. They planned an expansion of France on the American
continent close to the United States of America, torn up by the civil
war. Maximilian supported aspect of the Confederacy, it said he
financing Quantril. After the Civil War many Confederate officers and
politicians found sanctuary in Mexico.
The brother of the emperor Franz Josef, archduke Ferdinand
Max, seemed to be a suitable candidate. He was married to the Belgian
princess Charlotte. As commander of the Austrian navy and governor
general of Milan, he could not live all his ideas. Poet, lover of
large gestures, an emperor throne was enticing for him. In addition
he was honestly convinced to be able to bring law and peace to
Mexico.
In 1863, pushed by Napoleon III., the ambitious Maximilian
and its wife Charlotte, fulfilled by romantic ideas, are proclaimed
emperor of Mexico. Charlotte saw herself as co-emperor, perhaps even
as the actual emperor, requesting her husband to finally show his
qualities – in Mexico. Perhaps she wanted also to flee the bores the
Miramar castle and the shades of the more beautiful empress
Elisabeth.
The Austrian court was suspicious about this adventure,
Maximilian had to resign any rights of succession to the Austrian
throne. An Austrian volunteer corps followed him. Their uniforms
aroused the mockery of the Mexican children. On the trip the couple
prepared for their new job: How to behave at the audience, how to
place guests at diner, which medals to be given, what uniforms the
guards should wear.
But the emperor found only few followers and an indebted
government. The Mexican empire remained limited to a considerable
number of generals, ministers, chamberlains, stable masters, cooks,
gardeners and palace guards, plus some land owners and businessmen,
who profited from the emperor. Maximilian, a Sombrero on his head,
traveled around the country, gave dinners and distributed medals. He
adopted a small Mexican boy as his son, his mother reclaimed him back
later. This was a gesture my father would imitate as he loved history
and admired the Habsburgs.
The republicans became stronger and advanced. Vienna stood
briefly before the 1866 war against Prussia and Italy, and permitted
only a limited recruitment of volunteers. But they sent from the
imperial collections the shield of Montezuma and the report by Cortez
to Karl V., how he had won victory against the Aztecs.
The USA supported the opponents of the emperor, conforming to
the Monroe doctrine “America the Americans”. They demanded and
obtained that the recruitment of volunteers in Austria was stopped,
2000 men already embarked had to leave their ships. With the victory
of the north in the American civil war 1865 the decision fell also in
Mexico. In vain, empress Charlotte searched assistance. She arrived
in Europe after the battle of KöniggrÀtz. In Paris, which had an
assistance contract with Mexico, she got the answer from Napoleon
III., “it would be good, if her majesty would not hang on to
illusions”.
Napoleon did not want to invest money into an affair without
future. She did not even bother to go to Vienna. Franz Josef did not
want to hear anything of its brother, specially not since the
Viennese rallied after the lost war against Prussia “Vivat emperor
Maximilian”, who seemed to them as more liberal and the better
emperor for Austria. Her last hope was the Pope, who could have
talked to Napoleon and Franz Josef, concluded a concordat with Mexico
and convinced the Mexican catholic church. But Pius IX. only wanted
to pray. Charlotte fell into depression, one night fled from the
hotel and required lodging in the Vatican. Her brother brought the
mentally ill Empress back to Miramar.
The French troops withdrew. Maximilian was on the way back to
Austria, however his Belgian and Austrian advisor’s, specifically
father Fischer convinced him not to give up the throne. Even his
mother now requested from him to endure as long this “can happen with
honor “. His wife had written in a memorandum before her departure
that “abdication is condemning himself, an certification of
inability, acceptable for the old and stupid, but not for a prince of
34 years full of live and future.”
But his armed forces were small and little motivated. On May
15th, 1867 Maximilian handed his sword to the partisan leader
Escobedo. He was taken prisoner. He could have fled, but he had
refused to leave his most devoted officers. He was condemned to
death. In the prison he complained briefly before his execution, that
he was here because he had followed his wife.
Now the diplomacy got into motion to prevent that a member of
the ruling European dynasty would be shot like a simple murderer.
Franz Joseph restored Maximilian’s rights to the succession of the
Austrian throne and asked the American secretary of state to
intervene.
On June 19th, 1867 Maximilian was executed on the Cerro de
las Campanas, a hill near the city Queretaro together with the
generals Miguel de Miramon and Thomas Mejia – latter an Indian –
scarcely 350 years after the murder of Montezuma by Spanish
mercenaries. Maximilian gave a golden piece of twenty pesos to each
soldier of the firing squad.
He was idealist, a human full of liberal thoughts and had
honestly hoped to bring the Mexican people liberty and internal
peace, “a figure of beautiful, pure knighthood, which will teach up-
striving souls that it there is something higher than the bare life
and benefit” wrote Adalbert Stifter.
He was idealist, a human full of liberal thoughts and had
honestly hoped to bring the Mexican people liberty and internal
peace, “a figure of beautiful, pure knighthood, which will teach up-
striving souls that it there is something higher than the bare life
and benefit” wrote Adalbert Stifter.
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