#Again I haven't been able to track down the article or any primary source of Mortimer saying this so I could be misattributing it to him

[archduchessofnowhere]

Hi! I've been wanting to look deeper into that, but I haven't yet, so I can't give a definitive answer. But so far in my very superficial research, the oldest I've been able to track back the rumor was around the beginning of the Second French Empire. What's interesting is that it seems that in the earlier version of the rumor it wasn't Archduke Maximilian the alleged love child, but his eldest brother, the newly ascended Emperor Franz Josef. Which makes you wonder how much the tumultuous political mood of the 1850s played a role in the rumor spreading.

Again, I haven't researched deeper into this, but it seems the switch to believing it was actually Max came after the falls of the Second Mexican and French Empires; in retrospective, Napoleon III's fondness of the ill-fated Max and his decision to put him in the Mexican throne was attributed to them being relatives (which makes his eventual abandonment the more cruel).

Another thing that I found interesting is that this rumor seem to have spread in the old fashion way: mouth to mouth. I can count with the fingers of my hand the mentions of it I found in gossip columns from the 19th century, but right after the Habsburgs fell from power it pops out in almost every book about Archduke Maximilian and the Duke of Reichstadt (and to a lesser degree, Franz Josef). And yet no book presents this as brand new information, all authors assume this is common knowledge. So it seems the origin wasn't a particular gossipy newspaper article or a scandalous memoir, but really just people talking to each other (tho keep in mind I may be completely wrong, I only searched for key words in the archive/google books and tried to look for journals and memoirs). I'm not aware of any primary source (say, the correspondance of anyone involved in this) that mentions it, and to be honest I doubt anyone would've even dared to write it down. So we don't know how they felt about it.

The thing that seems to have been common knowledge since always is that Sophie and Reichstadt were close, you can find mentions in the 1830s of Sophie making him take the last sacraments and feeling very afflicted by his death. For exemple, in this article about Vienna written in 1834 by Napoleon d'Abrantes (is this Junot's son??) for the Paris ou Le livre des Cent-et-un, he quoted a letter written after Reichstadt's death by a woman from Vienna that had this line: "Archduchess Sophie, the wife of Archduke Franz [Karl], is inconsolable: she had an affection for this unfortunate young man that he paid back with the most tender return". So I wouldn't be surprised either if I eventually find evidence of the rumor predating the 1850s.

Sorry that my answer isn't more concrete! Rumors are a mess to track down.

It is known when the rumors about Archduke Maximilian's paternity began? Was it right from his conception and birth or when Napoleon III offered him to became the Emperor of Mexico? Was it has his dethronement and execution? Was it along afterwards? If there was prominent during his lifetime, it is know what his action was or his parents or his wife Empress Carlota?

Sorry, I'm totally out of my depths here. I am only dimly aware of these rumours myself, and the one biography of Napoleon II/Duke of Reichstadt that I have read dismissed the idea out of hand.

Maybe @archduchessofnowhere could help?

[themidnightcircusshow]

"#And notably also insisting that Scrope was executed for the Southampton Plot because Henry V was homophobic#(because Scrope's defence was that he was just siding with the conspirator's so he could get information!)#(he was Henry's bed mate so obviously Henry must trust him! [Mortimer's argument beimg Henry killed him for saying they slept together])"

...he WHAT?! He's super weird about Scrope and insists he must be innocent because historians are "confused" about his role and he's the good kind of very religious (y'know, not like Henry V) and well, he said so! But I didn't know he'd gotten even more batshit about Scrope. 😩

I can't find it now, because google is the absolute worse, so keep in mind this is going entirely off memory and I could be wrong. But yeah, in an article I read, I recall it mentioning Ian Mortimer arguing that the reason why Scrope got the most 'humiliating' punishment was because Scrope used he and Henry sleeping together in his defense and Henry was furious at the affront to his masculinity.

Which, if true, is ahistorical to truly impressive proportions.