Agustín Jerónimo Iturbide Huarte

Agustín Jerónimo de Iturbide y Huarte (30 September 1807 – 11 December 1866) was the eldest son of the first Emperor of Mexico, Agustín I of Mexico. He was the heir apparent to the First Mexican Empire and a member of the Imperial House of Iturbide. Later in life, he served as a military officer in South America and also worked as a diplomat for the United Mexican States at the Mexican embassy in the United States and in London, after his military career had ended in South America.[1]

Biography

Agustín Jerónimo de Iturbide y Huarte was born in the city of Valladolid in the state of Michoacán in New Spain. His parents, Agustín de Iturbide and Ana María de Huarte y Muñiz, were Spanish-Basque aristocrats and owned large tracts of farmland,[2][3] the two haciendas of Apeo and Guaracha, as well as more land in nearby Quirio.[4] Agustín had several other siblings, including:

• Sabina de Iturbide y Huarte
• Juana de Iturbide y Huarte
• Josefa de Iturbide y Huarte
• Ángel de Iturbide y Huarte
• Isis de Iturbide y Huarte
• Dolores de Iturbide y Huarte
• Salvador de Iturbide y Huarte
• Felipe de Iturbide y Huarte
• Agustín Cosme de Iturbide y Huarte

He spent his early years with his mother and other siblings on their two haciendas, as his father was fighting in the Mexican War of Independence and was not often at home with his children. Eventually, he was able to build a successful military and political coalition and managed to capture Mexico City on 27 September 1821, decisively ending the war.[5] On 19 May 1822, his father was elected Emperor of Mexico by the Mexican Congress. Young Agustín reportedly became so dizzy that he could hardly stand when he heard the news of his father's election as emperor of the new nation.[6][7]

Only three days later, on 22 June 1822, the young Agustín was made heir apparent to the throne with the title of Prince Imperial of Mexico, which came with the style of Imperial Highness and the honorific title of "Don". All of his other siblings received the title of Prince or Princess of Mexico, with the style of Highness. The new imperial family moved into the Palace of Iturbide in Mexico City, where Agustín de Iturbide had lived before, when he was the President of the Regency.[8]

Agustín de Iturbide was deposed on 19 March 1823 in the Plan of Casa Mata, initiated by the two generals Antonio López de Santa Anna and Guadalupe Victoria. Subsequently, the entire imperial family was forced to flee the country and left for Europe in the English ship Rawlins, shortly after the successful coup d'état.[9][10][11]

Post monarchy

The imperial family first travelled to Livorno in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany but was eventually forced to leave by the authorities, due to pressure from the Spanish King. The former imperial family then reluctantly moved to the United Kingdom.[12] Here, Agustín attended the prestigious Roman Catholic boarding school Ampleforth College, located in North Yorkshire.[13] Agustín de Iturbide was eventually convinced by conservative political factions to return to Mexico and Don Agustín was left to his studies back in England with some of his siblings.[14] Agustín de Iturbide returned to his homeland with his wife and two children on 14 July 1824,[15][16] but was captured and executed shortly after.[17] On his father's death he became the Titular Mexican Emperor and he would be a claimant to his father's empire for forty years until the Second Mexican Empire was established under Maximilian I of Mexico.

Bolívar's friend

Iturbide completed his education at Ampleforth College and received a letter of recommendation saying that he was "a good son, a good brother and a good patriot who will use his experiences and riches for God and for good".[18]

After just a few years, Don Agustín left the UK and travelled to New Granada (present-day Colombia and Panama) where he eventually met and befriended Simón Bolívar, the military and political leader of Venezuela. Don Agustín was made an Adjutant General under Bolívar.[19][20] When the Mexican foreign minister complained about the presence of the Prince Imperial in South America, Bolívar who wanted only to protect the young and unfortunate prince, replied this: "You must calm your mind to his presence, because he would not compete for his father's throne for a thousand reasons". Don Agustín accompanied Bolívar until his final moments in life and it is described in the official report on the hero's death: "Bolívar leaned on his boyfriend and assistant Iturbide, when he helped him up the stairs to his bedroom just before nightfall".[21] In 1831 the Mexican Congress declared that the banishment decree on the former imperial family had been lifted and the Prince Imperial subsequently returned to his homeland.

Later life and death

On his return to the United Mexican States he started working as a Mexican diplomat. He first served at the Mexican embassy in the United States, a post he would retain until 19 March 1833, and would later be transferred to London where he would be stationed until 1835. He was making only 3,500 pesos a year, but he still maintained the large fortune gathered by his deceased father.[22] He also served as a volunteer in the Papal Zouaves, an infantry force created to protect the Papal States. At the outbreak of the Mexican–American War he decided to participate in the defence of his homeland. During the Battle of Padierna on 19 and 20 August 1847, he took command over the Celaya Regiment and tried to rouse his men with his famous patriotic cry: "With me boys! My father is the father of our independence".[citation needed]

When the Mexican monarchy was revived as the Second Mexican Empire under Maximilian I of Mexico, Don Agustín gave up his claim to the throne and voluntarily approved of the new emperor; he also approved Maximilian's request to adopt two of the Prince Imperial's nephews, Agustín de Iturbide y Green and Salvador de Iturbide y de Marzán. He remained the head of the former Imperial House of Iturbide. Though Don Agustín de Iturbide y Green was proclaimed the new heir apparent he never received his uncle's title of Prince Imperial; this was due to Don Agustín still being alive.

Don Agustín died on 11 December 1866 in New York City. He had been an important figure in both the imperial monarchies; he was largely overlooked when working for the United Mexican States, but did gain some notoriety while serving under Simón Bolívar. The Prince Imperial was buried in Philadelphia next to his mother. Many members of the former Imperial family House of Iturbide would be buried at the same location. Because he died without ever marrying or fathering any legitimate children, his title of Prince Imperial of Mexico was transferred to Maria Josepha Sophia de Iturbide, the daughter of Don Salvador de Iturbide y de Marzán.

He fathered an illegitimate daughter by Nicolasa Fernández de Pierola, a woman from Arequipa in Peru. The daughter, called Doña Jesusa de Iturbide, would later marry the prominent Peruvian politician Nicolás de Piérola (They were first cousins).[23] The current head to both the former imperial houses and the title of Prince Imperial of Mexico is Count Maximilian von Götzen-Iturbide.[24][25] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agust%C3%ADn_Jer%C3%B3nimo_de_Iturbid...

Índice

   1 Datos personales

   2 Príncipe heredero de México

   3 Exilio

   4 Últimos años y fallecimiento

   5 Notas y referencias

   6 Bibliografía

Datos personales

Fue primogénito del general Agustín de Iturbide, quien luego se coronaría emperador de México, y su esposa Ana María Huarte, fue bautizado en el Sagrario Metropolitano de la Ciudad de México, el 30 de septiembre de 1807. Tuvo siete hermanos: Ángel, Salvador, Felipe, Juana, Jesús, Josefa y Sabina.1 Príncipe heredero de México

Cuando en julio de 1822 el Soberano Congreso Constituyente mexicano proclamó a su padre como Emperador Constitucional de México con el título de Agustín I, este lo designó heredero de la corona y le otorgó los títulos de de Príncipe Imperial y Caballero de la Orden de Guadalupe. Al momento de la renuncia de su padre, muchos monarquistas fieles[cita requerida] al Imperio, le declararon Emperador con el nombre de Agustín II. Exilio

A la caída del Imperio, en marzo de 1823, se trasladó con sus padres a Europa, donde permaneció aún cuando aquellos regresaron a México. Antes de partir su padre le dejó en el Ampleforth College, en Yorkshire, Inglaterra; y se despidió con una carta en la que le recomendaba ser "un buen hijo, un buen hermano, un buen patriota para desempeñar dignamente los cargos que la Providencia divina te destina".2

A los veinte años, Agustín pasó a Colombia donde permaneció hasta 1830 a las órdenes del libertador Simón Bolívar,1 de quien fue nombrado ayudante, y que lo estimaba mucho.2

Pero Bolívar, que sólo deseaba amparar a un joven valiente en desgracia, ante una reclamación del ministro de Relaciones Exteriores mexicano, mandó decir que "calmase el ánimo, pues este asunto no le competía por mil razones".2 Iturbide acompañó a Bolívar hasta los últimos momentos de su vida. En el informe oficial sobre la muerte del héroe (Boletín de la Academia Nacional de la Historia, no 104. Caracas) se explica que "jugó a la manilla, apoyado en su edecán Iturbide... que a poco le ayudó a subir la escalera antes de acostarse".2

Bolívar falleció el 17 de diciembre de 1830 y Agustín Jerónimo regresó a su patria integrándose al Servicio Exterior mexicano.3 El Congreso mexicano había levantado la proscripción de la antigua familia imperial y en marzo de 1831 el expríncipe heredero fue nombrado secretario de la legación de México en Estados Unidos, con un sueldo de 3500 pesos anuales; desempeñó el cargo hasta el 29 de marzo de 1833. Al día siguiente fue trasladado a Londres con el mismo sueldo y en 1835 pasó a desempeñar las funciones de encargado de negocios, hasta 1838.2

En diciembre de 1855 los conservadores, en respuesta a la expedición de las primeras Leyes de Reforma, promulgaron el Plan Definitivamente Regenerador4 que en su artículo 4.° proponía coronar como emperador a Agustín Jerónimo de Ituribe, en caso contrario sería nombrado en su lugar Antonio de Haro y Tamariz. El artículo 14.° del plan indicaba, además, que si el emperador era soltero debería contraer matrimonio con una “mexicana directamente procedente de la raza originaria indígena”.5 No existen noticias de que Agustín Jerónimo de Iturbide haya aceptado la propuesta, el plan no tuvo repercusión política alguna. Últimos años y fallecimiento

Agustín Jerónimo pasó los últimos años de su vida en los Estados Unidos de América trabajando como diplomático. A la llegada al trono de Maximiliano I, firmó un pacto con él, por el cual le reconocía como emperador de México y se obligaba a exiliarse a cambio de una pensión.6 Murió en Nueva York el 11 de diciembre de 1866 en el Hotel Clarendon,1 a causa de complicaciones de la enfermedad de Bright.

Fue sepultado en la ciudad de Filadelfia, en la capilla de San Juan, donde está enterrada la mayoría de la denominada Familia Imperial. Al morir sin descendencia legítima, le sucedió en la jefatura de la familia su sobrino Agustín de Iturbide y Green, hijo de su hermano Ángel de Iturbide. Notas y referencias

   Rivera, 1994; 215

   Casa Imperial de México, Sitio con Información de la Casa Imperial de Iturbide.

   Méndez, 1996; 64

   «Plan Definitivamente Regenerador proclamado en el Llano del Rodeo». University of St Andrews. Consultado el 16 de julio de 2012.

   González, 2006; 962

   Pacto de Chapultepec.

Bibliografía

   González Navarro, Moisés (2006). «La Ley Juárez». Historia Mexicana (México: El Colegio de México) LV (003):  pp. 947-972. ISSN 947-972. Consultado el 5 de julio de 2012.

   Méndez Reyes, Salvador (1996). El hispanoamericanismo de Lucas Alamán (1823-1853). Toluca: Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México. ISBN 968-835-309-4. Consultado el 16 de julio de 2012.

   Rivera, Agustín (1994). Anales mexicanos: la Reforma y el Segundo Imperio. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. ISBN 968-36-3393-5. Consultado el 16 de julio de 2012.

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The Imperial House of Iturbide eventually settled in the United Kingdom although Augustin would return to Mexico with his wife and two youngest children in 1824 after being persuaded that his expertise would be required to head off the potential Spanish reconquest that many in the country feared was coming. Landing in Soto La Marina he was greeted enthusiastically by the local population but before he could meet up with his supporters was arrested by the garrison commander, charged and found guilty in a sham trial of high treason Augustin was executed by firing squad on the 19th of July. This left his eldest son the Prince Imperial Augustin Jeronimo, being educated at the prestigious Ampleforth college in North Yorkshire, as heir and claimant to the vacant Mexican throne. After completing his studies young Augustin moved to New Granada where he became fast friends with Simon Bolivar whom he worked and travelled extensively with until his death, after which Augustin returned to Mexico in 1831 when the embattled and unpopular regime rescinded the exile order of the still popular Imperial Family. Like his father before him Augustin Jeronimo considered himself foremost a patriot and avoided competing for his rightful throne for fear of pushing the country into a civil war far deeper and far worse than the ever shifting regime of de Santa Anna and his rotating band of allies and enemies that had seen the country experience every possible combination of of democracy, dictatorship, liberalism, conservatism, federalism and unitaryism.

Delighted at the chance to do some good for his country however he worked for Mexico’s Foreign Ministry utilising the extensive diplomatic contacts developed in his long exile, being first assign to the London Office until 1835 and afterward working in Peru. It was in Peru that Augustin met his first and by all accounts only love Nicolasa Fernández de Pierola, the daughter of a prominent plantation owner in Arequipa. Their romance would be cut short however when he and the Peru delegation were recalled to Mexico due to the establishment of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation. While the pair had not married the relationship was not without issue, following perhaps an impassioned final goodbye Nicolasa became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter she named Jesusa. Augustin sadly never saw Nicolasa again as she was an unintended casualty of the Confederation Wars that swept aside the former confederation and established the Andes Republic we know of today. Jesusa grandfather initially took the little girl in, but deeply upset over the loss of his daughter and simultaneously horrified at the reminder of her ‘fallen’ nature the daughter represented he sent her on to be with her father in Mexico, now an officer in the army.

- Augustin Jeronimo Iturbide as an army officer in full regalia

Augustin was equally devastated by the loss of his brief lover and indeed would never go on to marry but he was supremely joyed to have a daughter, a living embodiment of his union with Nicolasa, even if she was illegitimate. As an army officer Augustin acquitted himself in an exemplary fashion and was highly adept at motivating his men, becoming very popular with both his peers and the men in general, wary of this however, he was never allowed to rise to far by the regimes in Mexico City. We will thus never know if he would have been able to slow or turn back the tide of losses of mexican territory the country further suffered which culminated in the Mexican-American war that finally toppled Mexico’s republican era. De Santa Anna, whose personal incompetence saw the loss of the Texan War of Independence had managed to wrangle his way back into power when the Texan Republic began negotiations with the United States for annexation, panicked that he may never get a chance to undo the great blunder he promptly declared war on Texas and invaded. A surprised Texas was quickly overwhelmed but the US responded with a counter invasion of it’s own, having last minute dropped negotiations and admitted the entire republic as a single state. Outnumbered and outgunned by the superior US Army the Mexicans were chased all the way from Houston to the outskirts of Mexico City itself where the American advance was halted at the Battle of Padierna after a fed up Augustin had illegally taken charge, much to the delight of the men. With the lone victory Mexico had won a slim chance but there was one final humiliation in store for the country, the Yucatan rebellion.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Nov 3 2019, 15:21:22 UTC