''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,
