Salvador de Iturbide y Marzán


Salvador Agustín Francisco de Paula de Iturbide y Marzán was the grandson of Agustín de Iturbide, the first emperor of independent Mexico, and his consort Empress Ana María. He became the adopted son, along with his cousin Agustín de Iturbide y Green, of Mexico's only other royal heads of state—Emperor Maximilian I and Empress Carlota of Mexico.

Biography

Family

Salvador de Iturbide y Marzán, born into the Mexican nobility, was the son of Emperor Agustin I's third son Prince Salvador of Mexico and Rosario de Marzán y Guisasola.
When Maximilian and Carlota ascended the throne of Mexico in 1863 with the support of the French troops of Napoleon III, the new monarchs invited the Iturbide family back to Mexico. As it became clear that Maximilian and Carlota could have no children together, they offered to adopt Salvador along with his cousin, Agustín de Iturbide y Green. They formally adopted the cousins and granted them the title Prince de Iturbide and style of Highness by imperial decree on 16 September 1865. Salvador and his cousin were ranked after the reigning family.
His adoptive mother, Empress Carlota, sent him to France, where he lived at Paris until 1867, when he moved to Hungary. After seeking the right to a pension as an heir to the Mexican throne, he was awarded one by the Emperor Franz Joseph, Emperor Maximilian's brother; Don Salvador regularly petitioned to have it increased.

Marriage

In Vienna, Itúrbide became the friend of a young Hungarian aristocrat, Baron Gyula Gáspár Mikos de Taródhaza who had just returned from a long trip through South America. Itúrbide was invited to the Mikos family estate in Mikosdpuszta, where he was introduced to Baroness Gizella Mikos. On 21 June 1871, Don Salvador and Baroness Gizela were married at the Mikosdpuszta mansion. They had a daughter, Maria Josepha Sophia de Iturbide.
Following the marriage the pair lived in Mikosdpuszta, but the owner of the estate, Baron János Mikos, sold the castle in 1881. Itúrbide and his wife moved to Venice and lived in a palace, rented to Count Zeno. In this place, he became a close friend of Carlos, Duke of Madrid, the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne.

Death

He was a member of the Order of the Grand Cross of Our Lady of Guadalupe and awarded with the Personal Order of Charles.
While visiting Corsica, he became sick and died of a ruptured appendix.

Decree

The Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg decreed on September 16, 1865 the following: