Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico

By: Charles River Editors, Gustavo Vazquez Lozano
Narrated by: Colin Fluxman
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £6.99

Buy Now for £6.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Once upon a time, when a Civil War threatened to fracture the US, there was a monarchy south of the Rio Grande. That kingdom was called Mexico. It had a magnificent castle, a beautiful princess and a tall, handsome prince; he was noble and idealistic, he had fire in his heart, but he was weak and gullible. A fool, some would say. One day, when he was still a teenager, he wrote, "Ambition is like the balloonist. To some extent, the rise is nice and he does enjoy a splendid view and a vast landscape. But when he rises more, vertigo occurs, the air becomes thin and the risk of a big fall increases." With this parable, the Austrian Archduke Maximilian of Hapsburg inadvertently predicted the destiny to which he would bravely ride, despite the warnings and the sweet talkers. In any case, he followed his heart's mandate. And Charlotte, the princess, was "one of the most cultured and beautiful" in Europe. Since she was a girl, she'd known that one day she would become a queen or an empress.

When it was first hinted that they would be offered the crown of Mexico, she was 22 and he was 28, and they were surrounded by the intrigue and ambition of their own brothers, who could not wait to have them removed from the picture. So when, three years later, the couple received the official diplomatic mission which affirmed Mexico required their presence, the proposition was like a fairy tale come true. In the imagination of the era, Mexico was the distant paradise described by the great geographer Alexander von Humboldt: thick jungles and forests, steaming volcanoes, copious gold and silver mines, infinite beaches and exotic birds.

©2016 Charles River Editors (P)2017 Charles River Editors
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Peter the Great & Catherine the Great: Russia's Greatest Tsar and Tsarina cover art
China Only Yesterday: 1850-1950 cover art
Tsar Nicholas II: A Life From Beginning to End cover art
Adolf Hitler cover art
Improbable Patriot cover art
An Unlikely Prince cover art
Battles of Lexington and Concord cover art
The Great Upheaval cover art
For Liberty and Glory cover art
Mecca cover art
Napoleon cover art
Character Is Destiny cover art
The French Revolution: A Captivating Guide to the Ten-Year Revolution in France and the Impact Made by Napoleon Bonaparte cover art
French Revolution cover art
A History of Britain: Volume 1 cover art
Cleopatra: The Egyptian Queen: The Entire Life Story cover art

What listeners say about Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.