The Last Emperor of Mexico

'Hilarious, heartbreaking and utterly extraordinary.' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times Books of the Year 'Superbly entertaining.' Financial Times 'Jaw-dropping.' Sunday Times 'Fascinating.' Guardian 'Gripping.' The Times 'Terrific . . . A page-turning history of imperial hubris and nemesis, deceit and delusion, love and betrayal on a grand scale.' Sunday Times In 1864, a young Austrian archduke by the name of Maximilian crossed the Atlantic to assume a faraway throne. He had been lured into the voyage by a duplicitous Napoleon III. Keen to spread his own interests abroad, the French emperor had promised Maximilian a hero's welcome. Instead, he walked into a bloody guerrilla war. With a head full of impractical ideals - and a penchant for pomp and butterflies - the new 'emperor' was singularly ill-equipped for what lay in store. This is the vivid history of this barely known, barely believable episode - a bloody tragedy of operatic proportions, the effects of which would be felt into the twentieth century and beyond.

'Hilarious, heartbreaking and utterly extraordinary.' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times Books of the Year 'Superbly entertaining.' Financial Times 'Jaw-dropping.' Sunday Times 'Fascinating.' Guardian 'Gripping.' The Times 'Terrific . . . A page-turning history of imperial hubris and nemesis, deceit and delusion, love and betrayal on a grand scale.' Sunday Times In 1864, a young Austrian archduke by the name of Maximilian crossed the Atlantic to assume a faraway throne. He had been lured into the voyage by a duplicitous Napoleon III. Keen to spread his own interests abroad, the French emperor had promised Maximilian a hero's welcome. Instead, he walked into a bloody guerrilla war. With a head full of impractical ideals - and a penchant for pomp and butterflies - the new 'emperor' was singularly ill-equipped for what lay in store. This is the vivid history of this barely known, barely believable episode - a bloody tragedy of operatic proportions, the effects of which would be felt into the twentieth century and beyond.

The "superbly entertaining and well-researched" ( Financial Times ) history of Maximilian and Carlota, the European aristocrats who stumbled into power in Mexico--and faced bloody consequences. In the 1860s, Napoleon III, intent on curbing the rise of American imperialism, persuaded a young Austrian archduke and a Belgian princess to leave Europe and become the emperor and empress of Mexico. They and their entourage arrived in a Mexico ruled by terror, where revolutionary fervor was barely suppressed by French troops. When the United States, now clear of its own Civil War, aided the rebels in pushing back Maximilian's imperial soldiers, the French army withdrew, abandoning the young couple. The regime fell apart. Maximilian was executed by a firing squad and Carlota, secluded in a Belgian castle, descended into madness. Assiduously researched and vividly told, The Last Emperor of Mexico is a dramatic story of European hubris, imperialist aspirations clashing with revolutionary fervor, and the Old World breaking from the New.

The "superbly entertaining and well-researched" ( Financial Times ) history of Maximilian and Carlota, the European aristocrats who stumbled into power in Mexico--and faced bloody consequences. In the 1860s, Napoleon III, intent on curbing the rise of American imperialism, persuaded a young Austrian archduke and a Belgian princess to leave Europe and become the emperor and empress of Mexico. They and their entourage arrived in a Mexico ruled by terror, where revolutionary fervor was barely suppressed by French troops. When the United States, now clear of its own Civil War, aided the rebels in pushing back Maximilian's imperial soldiers, the French army withdrew, abandoning the young couple. The regime fell apart. Maximilian was executed by a firing squad and Carlota, secluded in a Belgian castle, descended into madness. Assiduously researched and vividly told, The Last Emperor of Mexico is a dramatic story of European hubris, imperialist aspirations clashing with revolutionary fervor, and the Old World breaking from the New.