Princess Charlotte’s life went from fairy tale to hell. This is the story of that hell.

Act I. In 1862, Napoleon III established a monarchy in Mexico, south of the Rio Grande, with Maximilian of Austria and Charlotte of Belgium as its young and idealistic monarchs. Under pressure from the US, the French withdrew in 1867. The emperor Maximilian died by firing squad. And Charlotte?

Act II. The Empress was reduced to princess once again. Charlotte, King Leopold I’s dearest child and Maximilian’s lovesick wife, became the pariah of the European monarchies and spent the next sixty years of her life in madness and isolation. This book is the first to reveal what really happened to one the most famous “mad royals” in the six decades she survived after the fall of the Mexican Empire, and the true nature of her “madness”. Now, we can recover the voice of her doctors, eyewitness testimony, travelers’ logs and – above all – Charlotte’s own voice through her recently discovered diaries. Step by step, it becomes clear how the “world's saddest princess” ended up a pawn. And how, from the ruins of Maximilian’s Mexico, emerged King Leopold II’s bloody empire in the Congo.

Editorial reviews

Impressive! The figures of Maximiliano and Carlota are already tragic and romantic enough to guarantee a compelling read. However, Vázquez Lozano accomplishes something challenging: he writes a book about Carlota that sets itself apart from the many, perhaps hundreds of other works (novels, essays, plays, movies, etc.) that have been created about her. He does so by addressing a simple question: What happened to Carlota once Maximilan was shot, and the Mexican Empire vanished? While we knew she lost her mind and lived in Belgium with her family until her death, there is little else known. What was her life like during that time? Who was with her? Was she truly as crazy as history claims? What occurred during her moments of lucidity, which were many and very long? In a well-documented, agile, and captivating style, this book makes us realize, once again, that in history, no one is entirely good or entirely bad.
—GoodReads