Ana María Huarte

According to the standards of her time, Ana Maria possessed great beauty with features likened to that of the Madonna. She showed grace, great beauty and exquisite manners while in Colegio Santa Rosa Maria, and it was in this school where she met the young Agustin de Iturbide. The young Agustin was considered very handsome and came from a very wealthy Basque noble family. Their marriage was considered by many as a perfect match.

On a Friday afternoon, 27 February 1805, at one o'clock, the 19-year-old Ana Maria married the 22-year-old Agustin de Iturbide. Ana Maria arrived in the Cathedral of Valladolid dressed as an Austrian princess, adorned with white lace and fringed combs. Their wedding was a great social event, as women wore their best jewels and sumptuous dresses, while men were dressed in strict formal attire.

Ana María provided a dowry of one hundred thousand pesos, with which the couple bought a hacienda in the town of Maravatío.[2]

Together they had 10 children:

• Agustín Jerónimo de Iturbide y Huarte, Prince Imperial of Mexico (1807–1866) father of Jesusa de Iturbide Fernández
• Sabina de Iturbide y Huarte (1809–1871)
• Juana de Iturbide y Huarte (1811–1828)
• Josefa de Iturbide y Huarte (1814–1891)
• Ángel de Iturbide y Huarte (1816–1872) father of Agustín de Iturbide y Green
• María de Iturbide y Huarte (1818–1849)
• Dolores de Iturbide y Huarte (1819–1820)
• Salvador de Iturbide y Huarte (1820–1856) father of Salvador de Iturbide y de Marzán
• Felipe de Iturbide y Huarte (1822–1853)
• Agustín Cosme de Iturbide y Huarte (1824–1873)

Agustín de Iturbide's coronation was held at the Mexico City Cathedral on 21 July 1822, Ana María was crowned empress, in an elaborate ceremony.[3] It was attended by the bishops of Puebla, Guadalajara, Durango and Oaxaca and presided over by Archbishop of Mexico Fonte.[4]

After the coronation, the couple lived at the 18th-century palace of the Marquis of San Mateo Valparaiso along with the sum of one and half million pesos for expenses. Empress Ana Maria was accompanied by a leading lady, seven ladies-in-waiting, nine honorary ladies, seven ladies of the chamber, ladies in charge of her wardrobe, and a personal doctor, while her children were given guardians, tutors and governesses.

When the problem within the Mexican Empire started, the empress and her children took refuge in the convent. She soon joined her husband into exile when he abdicated the throne on 19 March 1823. The imperial family was accompanied by their loyal subjects and was escorted by Gen. Nicolas Bravo. The family sailed on a ship filled with food, wine, jewelry and artwork until they finally reached Italy. Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany allowed the Imperial family to stay in Livorno, where they rented a small country house. But then, the King of Spain pressured the Grand Duke of Tuscany to expel the Imperial family, and in so, the empress and her family left for London.

Her husband, the former Emperor, continued to receive reports from Mexico as well as advice from supporters that if he returned he would be hailed as a liberator and a potential leader against the Spanish invasion. Iturbide sent word to congress in Mexico City on 13 February 1824 offering his services in the event of Spanish attack. Congress never replied. More conservative political factions in Mexico finally convinced Iturbide to return. Accompanied by his wife, two children, and a chaplain (Joseph A. Lopez), Agustin de Iturbide landed at the port of Soto la Marina on Mexico on 14 July 1824, where he was arrested and later executed by a firing squad on 19 July 1824. Ana Maria was pregnant with her youngest child during these times.

The Mexico Congress allowed the empress and her children go to the Gran Colombia and granted the family an annual pension of 8,000 pesos. But there was no ship to take them. The family instead settled in the United States. Ana Maria gave birth to her tenth child in New Orleans and then resided at Baltimore and then settled in a small house in Georgetown, just outside Washington. The former empress, along with her two daughters, were finally stationed in Philadelphia, while the children continued their studies in various places. On 1847, the Mexican Government stopped giving her pension befitting of a former empress. She was also received by former US President James K. Polk in the White Houses as she sought help about her pension.

Empress Ana Maria donated several portraits and family memorabilia of the exiled imperial family to a convent, such as a crown of woven material made out of gold and silver. She experienced the pain of the death of two of her daughters as well as the marriage of her sons Salvador and Angel. The empress never approved of the marriage of her son Angel to Alice Green, the American great-granddaughter of George Plater, Governor of Maryland.

On the night of Thursday, 21 March 1861, at 75 years old, Ana Maria Josefa Ramona de Huarte de Iturbide y Muñiz, the former Empress of Mexico, died at her residence in Philadelphia. She was buried in the vault IX of the Cemetery of the Church of St. John the Evangelist.

The service was very simple. No former associates of this noblewoman, born to one of Spain's most aristocratic families and who once wore a crown, gave their final respects. A few men in Philadelphia, whose high social position had acquainted with the former imperial family, attended the funeral. Only one in ten thousand of Philadelphia's population knew that the woman laid there to rest briefly was an empress.