Théodore de Neuhoff, Roi de Corse

Théodore de Neuhoff emerges as a charismatic schemer of the early eighteenth‑century, a man whose talent lay in weaving promises rather than brandishing a sword. Raised amid the courts of the Regent, he drifted through the circles of Gœrtz, Alberoni and Ripperda, always ready with a clever phrase and a daring proposal. When discontented Corsican islanders crowned him king, he found himself juggling lofty vows and fragile alliances, his reign a whirlwind of intrigue that never quite solidified into lasting power.

The author reconstructs this tangled episode with meticulous care, drawing on a wealth of unpublished diplomatic papers from the French foreign ministry, the archives of Genoa, Turin and other European capitals. These documents reveal the shadowy negotiations, the duplicitous courtiers, and the mercantile schemes that surrounded Neuhoff’s short‑lived monarchy. Listeners are offered a vivid glimpse into the covert world of eighteenth‑century politics, where whispered deals in dim chambers shaped the fate of nations more than any battlefield ever could.