Why a Booktrail?
1860s: A fictional account of a true story – always good for a booktrail as the places are real and historical!
The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire
What you need to know before your trail
A sweeping historical novel of Mexico during the short, tragic, at times surreal, reign of Emperor Maximilian and his court.
The American Civil War is raging north of the border, and a bunch of Mexican conservative exiles and clergy convinced Louis Napoleon to invade Mexico and install the Archduke of Austria as Emperor.
A year later, the childless Emperor took custody of the two year old, half-American, Prince AgustÃn de Iturbide y Green, making the toddler the Heir Presumptive.
He refused to return the child to his distraught parents, even as his empire began to fall, and as a result, the Empress Carlota descended into madness, and an international scandal resulted.
Travel Guide
A journey across time and history
During the 1860s in America, the Civil War was raging and the country was in turmoil. Many of these events we know well having read about them at school or since. However at the very same time just a few miles away across the River Grande which separates the US from Mexico, that country was also undergoing dramatic upheaval.
This is the fictional and human side of the story set in Mexico at the time that Archduke Maximilian I of Austria reigned as Emperor of that country for three years. after President Juarez had been overthrown.
“He, Maximilian was the descendant of the kings of the Holy Roman Empire, rulers by divine right”
The history and attention to detail are second to none for we get a sense of who was to become Maximillian’s successor – a child by the name of Augustin Iturbide y Green as he becomes the “last prince of the Mexican Empire.” Since Maximillian and his wife had no children, a choice of someone else had to be made.
The child is chosen, taken away and trained for his destiny. But the real parents have not been told the whole truth and they go in search for it. His mother, in the search for her son and for some answers take her to Rome and the Vatican and also to Napoleon himself.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire
Author/Guide: C M Mayo Destination: Mexico Departure Time: Various
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