The story of a fragile woman caught up in an epic battle between church and state, between a powerful religious establishment and a tyrannous dictatorship. From her long-awaited birth in the most opulent city in Europe to her death in much humbler surroundings in Brazil, this gripping biography reads like a novel and puts flesh on the bones of a woman whose misfortune was to inherit the throne at a turning-point in European history. The Madness of Queen Maria provides an intimate glimpse into the world of absolute monarchy, of court life in the old Europe, before the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon brought the Braganza dynasty to the brink of ruin.