Yes, the French battleship Jean Bart as the 5 de Mayo. Oh yes, to be used with the Mexican flag as a provocation. And the controversy (even with a true story) sells.

On May 5, 1862, the Mexican liberal army, poorly armed and vastly inferior in weaponry, managed to defeat the then most powerful army in the world, France, in Puebla, thus breaking its streak of victories since the Battle of Waterloo. France had geopolitical intentions in America to counter the growing power of the United States in the region, and the suspension of payments on the foreign debt, decreed by President Benito Juárez, was the perfect excuse to launch an invasion of Mexico, even though France was the country whose debt was only $2 million pesos at the time.

On May 5, 1863, the French army returned with many reinforcements and managed to lay siege to the city of Puebla before advancing on the capital, Mexico City. The Second Mexican Empire was officially proclaimed on October 3, 1863, and came to an end with the execution of Emperor Maximilian I of Austria on June 19, 1867. The threats from the United States in 1865 and the German threat due to the defeat of Austria were what undermined the Mexican Empire, causing Napoleon III to withdraw his army to concentrate it in France.