John Van der Kiste has written over seventy books, including historical and musical biographies, true crime, local history and fiction. He has contributed to various journals, reviewed records and books for the national and local press and is a contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. His other titles include A Beatles Miscellany, We Can Swing Together: The Story of Lindisfarne, While You See a Chance: The Steve Winwood Story and All Around my Hat: The Steeleye Span Story. He lives in Devon.

• Introduction; 1 Francis and Ferdinand; 2 `A young man of great promise’; 3 `All power stays in my hands’; 4 `The smile of an angelic sphinx’; 5 `Death at Mayerling; 6 Death at Geneva; 7 `He no longer understands the times’; 8 `A higher power has restored the old order’; 9 `Then it will be the end’; 10 `I renounce all participation in the affairs of state’; 11 `An eminently lovable if weak man’ ;12 The imperial survivors; Endnotes’ Bibliography; Index.

John Van der Kiste has written over seventy books, including historical and musical biographies, true crime, local history and fiction. He has contributed to various journals, reviewed records and books for the national and local press and is a contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. His other titles include A Beatles Miscellany, We Can Swing Together: The Story of Lindisfarne, While You See a Chance: The Steve Winwood Story and All Around my Hat: The Steeleye Span Story. He lives in Devon.

• Introduction; 1 Francis and Ferdinand; 2 `A young man of great promise’; 3 `All power stays in my hands’; 4 `The smile of an angelic sphinx’; 5 `Death at Mayerling; 6 Death at Geneva; 7 `He no longer understands the times’; 8 `A higher power has restored the old order’; 9 `Then it will be the end’; 10 `I renounce all participation in the affairs of state’; 11 `An eminently lovable if weak man’ ;12 The imperial survivors; Endnotes’ Bibliography; Index.

John Van der Kiste has written over seventy books, including historical and musical biographies, true crime, local history and fiction. He has contributed to various journals, reviewed records and books for the national and local press and is a contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. His other titles include A Beatles Miscellany, We Can Swing Together: The Story of Lindisfarne, While You See a Chance: The Steve Winwood Story and All Around my Hat: The Steeleye Span Story. He lives in Devon.

• Introduction; 1 Francis and Ferdinand; 2 `A young man of great promise’; 3 `All power stays in my hands’; 4 `The smile of an angelic sphinx’; 5 `Death at Mayerling; 6 Death at Geneva; 7 `He no longer understands the times’; 8 `A higher power has restored the old order’; 9 `Then it will be the end’; 10 `I renounce all participation in the affairs of state’; 11 `An eminently lovable if weak man’ ;12 The imperial survivors; Endnotes’ Bibliography; Index.