A popular fashion (similar to the case of Napoleon III)
was imitating the wild beard of Maximilian, younger brother of Austrian Emperor
Franz Josef I. With French help, Maximilian became Emperor of Mexico, but in
the following civil war, his adventurous life was ended by a republican
execution squad. His pride in his ginger beard even contributed to his death,
when he refused to escape capture by hiding in a nunnery, since shaving off his
beard was out of the question.
