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Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Arámburu (September 27, 1783 – July 19, 1824) was Emperor of Mexico from 1822 to 1823.

Biography

Iturbide was born in what is now the modern-day city of Morelia, in the state of Michoacán, Mexico, then called Valladolid. It was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. He was the son of Spanish parents who had come to Mexico shortly before his birth.

He joined the Spanish army in 1798 and by 1810 had risen to the rank of lieutenant. That year the Mexican War of Independence broke out, and Iturbide at first fought alongside the Spanish troops in attempting to suppress it.

He was an able military commander and in 1816 was put in command of the Spanish forces in the north of Mexico.

He gradually grew more sympathetic to the Mexican cause, however, and began secret negotiations with rebel leader Vicente Guerrero. In 1820 Iturbide joined the rebels, taking most of his loyal army with him. The resulting army was known as the Army of the Three Guarantees. In February of 1821 Iturbide and Vicente Guerrero issued the Plan de Iguala, calling for a unified, separate, and completely independent Mexico.

They succeeded in rallying the other rebels together and driving the Spanish royalists from the country. Iturbide became the head of the new government junta. In an historic mistake, he signed an agreement with the departing Spaniards that they could leave with the value of their land holdings in hard currency. As Spaniards held title to most of the best land in the country, this quickly depleted Mexico of all its currency; even silver church bells and gold altarpieces were melted down in an attempt to pay off the debts, and Mexico entered the world as a new nation in a state of bankruptcy.

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 advisors to be named Emperor in the manner of Napoleon I.

Iturbide did this with some genuine reluctance, since he sincerely believed in the Divine Right of Kings, and thought that as someone without royal blood he was unworthy. On the evening of May 18, 1822 he was proclaimed emperor by soldiers in the street. He appeared at his balcony and declined the honor without a resolution of Congress. Early the following morning Congress was assembled, and it voted 77-15 to name him emperor. On July 21, 1822, he was crowned Augustus I, Constitutional Emperor of Mexico.

Iturbide attempted to run the nation as he had led the army, giving orders and commanding that those who disagreed with him be imprisoned. Opposition to his administration soon grew, and in 1823 various regional governors and military commanders, among them Guadalupe Victoria and Antonio López de Santa Anna, issued the Plan de Casa Mata, calling for Iturbide's overthrow and declaring Mexico a Republic.

On 19 March, 1823, Iturbide abdicated and agreed to leave the country without a fight, in exchange for which he was granted a pension. He sailed to exile in Italy, then moved to London where he published his autobiography Statement of Some of the Principal Events in the Public Life of Agustín de Iturbide. He decided to return to Mexico, and landed there in Soto la Marina, Tamaulipas on July 15, 1824, where he was immediately arrested and soon after shot by the local authorities in the town of Padilla.

In 1838 the Conservative government of Anastasio Bustamante moved Iturbide's body to the Cathedral in Mexico City and reburied him in splendor with the title of "National Liberator".

In 1865 Iturbide's grandson Agustín de Iturbide y Green was adopted and named heir by the nation's only other emperor, Maximilian I of Mexico.

Issue

Agustín was married on the 27 February 1805 to Ana María Josefa Ramona de Huarte y Muñiz (1786 - 1861) they had 10 children:

• HIH Don Agustin Jerónimo de Iturbide y Huarte, Prince Imperial of Mexico (1807 - 1866)
• HH Doña Sabina de Iturbide y Huarte (1809 - 1871)
• HH Doña Juana María de Iturbide y Huarte (1811 - 1828)
• HH Doña Josefa de Iturbide y Huarte (1814 - 1891)
• HH Don Angel de Iturbide y Huarte (1816 - 1872) father of Agustín de Iturbide y Green
• HH Doña María Isis de Iturbide y Huarte (1818 - 1849)
• HH Doña María de los Dolores de Iturbide y Huarte (1819 - 1820)
• HH Don Salvador de Iturbide y Huarte (1820 - 1856) father of Salvador de Iturbide y de Marzán
• HH Don Felipe Andrés María Guadalupe de Iturbide y Huarte (1822 - 1853)
• HH Don Agustín Cosme de Iturbide y Huarte (1824 - 1873)

See also

• History of Mexico
• Antonio Valero de Bernabe

External links

• Imperial House of Mexico
• Manifiesto o Memoria handwritten document by Agustín de Iturbide, hosted by the Portal to Texas History.

• 1783 births
• 1824 deaths
• Executed royalty
• Independent Mexico
• Mexican emperors
• American royal families
• People from Morelia
• People of the Mexican War of Independence