So in 1808, Portugal was caught between a rock and a hard place. The rock was England and the hard place was France. Rather than claim loyalty to either, the Portuguese King elected to run to Brazil. It was the first time a European monarch had visited a new world colony. The king ran out in the middle of the night and left his country to fend Napoleon for themselves. This book chronicles that run and the King's court's time in Brazil through the 1820's. It's an interesting history that I hadn't been aware of. Learned a lot.