This is the story of the glamorous French Empress who escaped from
a vengeful mob in 1870 and spent the next fifty years in exile in
England. With a broad brush approach to the political events it
shows her life and times from a different angle, exploring subjects
often relegated to mere footnotes. Aided by the increased
digitalisation of sources which produced many new and interesting
discoveries, the book features 53 images of the important people
and places Eugenie was born in a makeshift tent during an
earthquake in Southern Spain but this impetuous and beautiful young
woman's life changed dramatically when she married Napoleon III in
1853. She was to become a worldwide fashion icon but was much more
than a trophy wife even though she suffered from a philandering
husband. An early feminist with a social conscience, her
achievements were negated by many because she wasn't French,
becoming the inevitable scapegoat for the ills of the Empire. Yet
in November 1869 when Eugenie opened the Suez Canal she was the
most famous woman in the world. Less than a year later she made a
dramatic escape from those who blamed her for a disastrous war that
caused the collapse of the Second Empire. Helped by her American
dentist, Eugenie was smuggled out of Paris enroute to England and
exile. The early death of her husband was followed a few years
later by that of her son whilst with the British army in South
Africa. A close friend of Queen Victoria, Eugenie lived in
Farnborough, a small Hampshire town for 4 decades, building an
Imperial Mausoleum for her husband and son and dressing in black
for the rest of her days. Condemned in her own mind to live for a
hundred years she then recovered her zest for life. Always keen to
move with the times she embraced new technology, travelled
extensively and maintained her links with the European royal circle
whilst becoming a familiar and much respected figure in her
neighbourhood. Eugenie remained remarkably loyal to France and
never relinquished her sense of duty, giving up part of her home to
be an army hospital during World War 1. She died in 1920, aged 94
and is buried alongside her husband and son in St Michael's Abbey
in Farnborough.
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