15 Facts About James Harden-Hickey

James Harden-Hickey was the founder of the self-proclaimed Principality of Trinidad, claiming title over the uninhabited island of Trindade in the South Atlantic Ocean.

The nephew of Napoleon I left his mark on James Harden-Hickey by making France a wild, flamboyant stage for ornate theatrical displays and public works, and mystifying ceremonies.

James Harden-Hickey entered the French military academy, Saint-Cyr, at 19.

Three years later, James Harden-Hickey married the Countess de Saint-Pery and fathered two children.

On November 10,1878, James Harden-Hickey first published the newspaper Triboulet, named for a jester of King Louis XII, eight years after Napoleon's fall from power.

James Harden-Hickey was made a baron of the Holy Roman Empire for his strong defense of the church in his works and in practice.

James Harden-Hickey's novels include the following, all published under the pen name Saint Patrice:.

Sometime after, James Harden-Hickey divorced his first wife and renounced Catholicism; he acquired an interest in Buddhism and Theosophy.

James Harden-Hickey returned to Paris and met Annie Harper Flagler, daughter of John Haldane Flagler, head of a successful pipe company and one of Andrew Carnegie's partners in the steel business.

James Harden-Hickey lived with and off the Flaglers in New York for two years.

James Harden-Hickey noticed that the tiny island of Trinidad in the South Atlantic Ocean had never been claimed by any country and was, legally, "res nullius".

James Harden-Hickey claimed the island and proclaimed himself James I, Prince of Trinidad.

James Harden-Hickey wanted an independent state with himself as military dictator, and later in 1893, he got just that.

Trinidad was seized by Great Britain in 1895 as a telegraph cable-relay station, and James Harden-Hickey I was forced to surrender it to them, leaving him with only a homemade crown, and a schooner.

James Harden-Hickey gave the managing editor and a reporter for the Times the Order of Trinidad for their understanding of his passion.