Maximiliano I of Mayagua

Maximiliano I (1792-1854) was the first King of Mayagua, and reigned between 1820 and 1854.

He was the youngest child of the Franz, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf. In 1820, the crown of the newly independent state of Mayagua was offered to a series of princes from prominent European dynasties, but no major power wanted to risk a Latin American adventure with little chances of success. So, instead, the authorities searched for princes from minor ruling dynasties, and that is how they came up with the 27-year-old Maximilian of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. The prince, in his late twenties, was pushed by his brother Leopold (later King of the Belgians) to accept the crown, and so he quickly converted to Catholicism and found a wife. He left Europe for La Libertad, the capital of the kingdom, and was proclaimed king and sworn as such in front of the National Congress.

In 1820 he married Princess Sophie of Salm-Salm, from an ancient German noble family. They had four children: Sofía (*†1821), Juan (b. 1823), Pío (b. 1825) and Carolina (b. 1827).

He died in 1854, and was succeeded by his son, Juan I.