'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 TimesIn 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.