House of Iturbide
Country	Mexico
Titles	Emperor of Mexico
Founder	Agustín de Iturbide
Current head	Maximilian von Götzen-Itúrbide
Founding year	1821-1822
Deposition	1823
Ethnicity	Mexican, Basque and Austro-Hungarian

The House of Iturbide is the former Imperial House of Mexico. It was founded by Agustín de Iturbide in 1822 when the newly independent Mexican congress confirmed his title of Agustín I, Constitutional Emperor of Mexico. It is sometimes called the Imperial House of Habsburg-Iturbide as a memoir to Maximilian I of Mexico of the House of Habsburg who ruled as Mexican emperor from 1864-1867 during the Second Mexican Empire.

[edit] History

After Mexico was declared and recognized as an independent state, Iturbide was backed and influenced by Mexico's conservadores who favored an independent Mexico with a monarch from one of the European royal families as head of state. When no European royals accepted Mexico's offer (as Spain still had hopes of taking Mexico back), Iturbide was persuaded by his advisers to be named Emperor in the manner of Napoleon I.

The House of Iturbide still continues today, but the male line had died out with Don Agustin and his cousin Don Salvador, the two adoptive sons of Maximilian I of Mexico. It continues today through the line of Don Salvador's daughter, Doña Maria Josepha Sophia de Iturbide. The House of Iturbide holds no recognition from the Mexican government, nor does it serve in protocolary events.

[edit] External links

• Imperial House site
• The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, a novel based on the true story by C.M. Mayo