In January, 1796, Marie-Therese, the only surviving child of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI arrived in Vienna in the care of her first cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, who had smuggled her out of France after the Reign of Terror. For three years Francis tried to convince Marie-Therese to assert her hereditary rights and allow him to invade the newly vulnerable democracy, but Marie-Therese refused, ultimately fleeing her cousin's Hofburg Palace for Mittau, where her exiled uncle, King Louis XVIII, married her off to his son. At Mittau, Marie-Therese wrote her memoirs, and, upon their publication, immediately became the enduring symbol of the Bourbon Restoration and a figure of fascination around the world.
Yet for all of her fame Marie-Therese's later life remains shrouded in mystery. To this day, many believe that the real Marie-Therese, traumatized following her family's sudden execution, was spirited away to Eastern Europe, where she switched identities with a childhood playmate and lived out the rest of her life in seclusion as 'The Dark Countess'.
Now, two hundred years later, this theory is finally put to rest. Interweaving extensive details gleaned from an impressive cache of undiscovered Bourbon family letters, and Marie-Therese's previously unpublished journals Nagel tells the remarkable story in full and draws a vivid portrait of an astonishing woman who both defined and shaped an era.
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Inaugurated for a second term on March 4, 1873, Ulysses S. Grant gave an address that was both inspiring and curiously bitter.
This is my ground, and I am sitting on it.” In May, Sioux leaders traveled to the capital, where Grant renewed efforts to persuade them to relocate to Indian Territory, “south of where you now live, where the climate is very much better ...
After whites massacred black militia in South Carolina, Grant warned that unchecked persecution would lead to "bloody revolution." As violence spread, Grant struggled to position limited forces where they could do the most good.
During the winter of 1864–65, the end of the Civil War neared as Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant maintained pressure against the dying Confederacy.
In his third annual message to the nation, Ulysses S. Grant stated the obvious: "The condition of the Southern States is, unhappily, not such as all true patriotic citizens would like to see.
Initial enthusiasm soon gave way to rancor, as factions split over where to place the fair. Grant favored Central Park, but public sentiment intervened, and funding evaporated. By March, Grant resigned.
In spite of his public silence, Grant was caught in the dispute between Congress and President Andrew Johnson. His position became intolerable after Johnson publicly accused Grant of dishonesty.