Editing Maxime Weygand (section)

== Early years ==
[[File:Van20derSmissen-Alfred.jpg|thumb|left|Alfred Van der Smissen (1823–1895)]]
[[File:Time Maxime Weygand 10 30 33.jpg|thumb|right|Weygand on ''Time'' magazine in 1933]]

Weygand was born on 21 January 1867 at 39 Boulevard de Waterloo in [[Brussels]] of unknown parents.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Maxime Weygand {{!}} Chemins de mémoire |url=https://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/en/maxime-weygand |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr}}</ref> {{sfn|Clayton|2015|p=3, noting that the birth certificate of that date gives no parental names and that the address was a storehouse}} The biographer Bernard Destremau gave five possible sets of parents: [[Leopold II of Belgium|Leopold II]] with either the wife of the Austrian diplomat [[Count Zichy]] or an anonymous Mexican woman (dismissed as doubtful); [[Charlotte, Empress of Mexico|Charlotte]], wife of then-Archduke [[Maximilian I of Mexico|Maximilian of Austria]], and the Belgian officer [[Alfred van der Smissen]] (dismissed as impossible); a tutor named David Cohen and a French woman named Thérèse Denimal ("lacks credibility"); Charlotte and a Mexican Colonel Lopez ("difficult to hide"); and, according to Antony Clayton most likely, Maximilian of Austria and a Mexican dancer called Lupe.{{sfn|Clayton|2015|pp=3–4}} The various theories of Mexican extraction, however, require some kind of record forgery; regardless, Weygand's short stature and appearance may suggest a partially-European antecedence with a connection to the Austrian court suggested by the funds provided for his education in youth.{{sfn|Clayton|2015|pp=4–5}} In 2003, the French journalist Dominique Paoli claimed to have found evidence that Weygand's father was indeed van der Smissen, but the mother was Mélanie Zichy-Metternich, lady-in-waiting to Charlotte (and daughter of Prince [[Klemens von Metternich]], Austrian Chancellor). Paoli further claimed that Weygand had been born in mid-1865, not January 1867 as is generally claimed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Paoli |first=Dominique |title=Maxime ou le secret Weygand |date=2003 |publisher=Racine |isbn=978-2-87386-301-2 |series=Les racines de l'histoire |location=Bruxelles}}</ref>

Regardless, throughout his life, Weygand maintained he did not know his true parentage. While an infant he was sent to [[Marseille]] to be raised by a widow named Virginie Saget, whom he originally took to be his mother.{{sfn|Clayton|2015|p=5}}{{sfn|Singer|2008}}{{page needed |date=May 2024}} At the age of seven, he was transferred to the household of David Cohen, an Italo-Belgian leather merchant in Marseille, with partner Thérèse Denimal (later de Nimal). Then-called Maxime de Nimal, he attended schools in Cannes and then Asniéres, fees likely paid by the Belgian royal household or government, where his scholastic accomplishment were recognised.{{sfn|Clayton|2015|pp=5–6}} He was transferred to a boarding school in Paris and thence to the [[Lycée Louis-le-Grand]] where Maxime was baptised Catholic.{{sfn|Clayton|2015|p=6}} After a disciplinary issue he was expelled and barred from Parisian schools, ending up at schools in Toulon and then [[Aix-en-Provence]]. Returning to Paris some years later, he was rejected from the French Navy and decided to seek admission to the [[École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr]]. Admitted in the top half of the class, he was denied a full French uniform due to his unclear heritage, but the slight ignored he graduated in the top ten of his class.{{sfn|Clayton|2015|pp=7–8}} Highly competent at fencing and horsemanship, he was accepted as a junior cavalry officer at Saumur – connecting him to a network of upper-class officers – but again rejected as a non-citizen. After some payments by David Cohen, Maxime was adopted by an accountant in Arras called Francis-Joseph Weygand. Taking the name Maxime Weygand, he was posted to a French cavalry regiment in October 1888.{{sfn|Clayton|2015|p=8}}

He says little about his youth in his memoirs, devoting to it only four pages out of 651. He mentions the ''gouvernante'' and the ''aumônier'' of his college, who instilled in him a strong [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] faith. His memoirs essentially begin with his entry into the preparatory class of [[École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr|Saint-Cyr]] Military School in [[Paris]].{{citation needed |date=May 2024}}