ITURBIDE, AUGUSTIN. - Emperor of Mexico, b. 27 Sept. 1783 at Valladolid (present-day Morella), d. 19 July 1824 at Padilla. Having entered the army, he rose to the rank of general. After 1820 he was one of the leaders of the independence movement and, after occupying Mexico City on 23 Sept. 1821, he became first president of the Governing Junta and then of the Regency. On 18 May 1822 he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico under the name Agostino I. In the following months, however, Colonel Santa Anna promoted an uprising against the new Empire and, when the republic was proclaimed in Dec. 1822, the very generals who had previously assisted I. joined the rebels. I. was therefore compelled to abdicate on 20 March 1823 and had to leave the country, having always acted with respect and devotion toward the Church.
Congress designated Italy as his place of exile. Having arrived in Livorno on 20 Aug. 1823, I., after visiting Firenze, intended to settle in Roma. Having appealed, after the death of Pio VII, to the College of Cardinals for permission to reside in the Eternal City, he received from Mons. Nazio, secretary of the Conclave, a refusal attributable to the pressure exerted by the Marquis Vargas, Spanish ambassador to the Holy See, who accused him of having been chiefly responsible for Mexico’s separation from Spain. He then went to London, where he learned of the wretched conditions in which his homeland lay. He therefore decided to return there and informed Congress of his intention to offer the aid of his arm and his possessions for the good of the country. Upon landing, however, he was made prisoner and shot pursuant to a law, enacted in the meantime, which declared him a traitor. His eldest son, of the same name, served as a volunteer in the dragoon regiment of the papal army between 1860 and 1870 and was particularly dear to Pio IX.