James Aloysius Harden-Hickey, man of letters, swordsman, and adventurer, who would proclaim himself James I, Prince of Trinidad, was born in San Francisco on December 8, 1854.

Hickey’s French-born mother soon took him to Paris. Richard Harding Davis, among the last century’s most glamorous reporters, wrote, “When Harden-Hickey was a boy, Paris was never so carelessly gay, so brilliant, never so overcharged with life, color, and adventure.” Napoleon III, the new emperor, was transforming Paris with massive public works and bewitching the public with magnificent ceremonies. At 21, Harden-Hickey graduated with honors from Saint-Cyr, the French military academy. Having inherited an income and the reputation of a master swordsman (he could easily pick the buttons off someone’s waistcoat with a foil), Harden-Hickey took up literature, publishing 11 novels between 1876 and 1880 and receiving the title of Baron of the Holy Roman Empire for his polemics in defense of the Church.

After the fall of the Empire in 1870, royalists unleashed a media blitz against the new republic by financing newspapers, most edited in the spirit of the founder of Le Figaro, Hippolyte de Villemessant, who observed, “If a story doesn’t cause a duel or a lawsuit, it isn’t any good.” Harden-Hickey’s swordsmanship and polemical skills made him the perfect editor. November 10, 1878, saw the first issue of Triboulet, named for King Louis XII’s jester. The cover showed Triboulet clubbing Marianne, symbol of the French republic. The writing was as vigorous as the artwork, and the publication soon had a circulation of 25,000. Within the year, its staff had served collectively about six months in jail; the paper had been fined 3,000 francs, and Harden-Hickey had fought 42 libel suits and at least 12 duels. The fun lasted until the money ran out in 1887.

Then he traveled the world. While crossing the South Atlantic, his ship stopped at the deserted island of Trinidad, some 700 miles off Brazil. Davis wrote, “Trinidad is…but a spot upon the ocean. On most maps it is not even a spot.” Harden-Hickey went ashore and claimed it in his own name.

English astronomer Dr. Edmund Halley had landed in 1698. Some Brazilian Portuguese colonists briefly settled there in 1700. Nonetheless, mariners landing in 1803 and 1822 found only birds and turtles. This strengthened Harden-Hickey’s claim under international law. The English never settled the island; the Portuguese abandoned it. Trinidad was there for the taking.

On St. Patrick’s Day 1891, Harden- Hickey married Anne Flagler, daughter of American financier John H. Flagler, at Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. He lived with his wife’s family while working out his ideas. Then, on Sunday, November 5, 1893, the New York Tribune gave front-page publicity to his scheme for Trinidadian independence. Harden-Hickey argued the island was “rich with luxuriant vegetation … surrounding seas swarm with fish … the exportation of guano alone should make my little country prosperous.”

In January 1894, he proclaimed himself James I, Prince of Trinidad. He purchased a schooner to ferry colonists, supplies, and mail, hired an agent to negotiate the construction of docks, wharves, and houses, and contracted for Chinese coolies to provide an instant proletariat. He commissioned a jeweler to make a golden crown and issued postage stamps. One reporter interviewed Flagler, who said, “My son-in-law is a very determined man… [He] means to carry on this Trinidad scheme, and he will.”

A Parisian friend, the Count de la Boissiere, became foreign secretary, opening a chancellery at 217 W. 36th St., a brownstone just west of Seventh Avenue. Davis visited it in 1894. Children were playing on the stoop. A street vendor was peddling vegetables. On the front door was a handwritten note: Chancellerie de la Principaute de Trinidad.

But in July 1895, the British – then constructing a submarine cable to Brazil – took possession of Trinidad, based on Halley’s discovery in 1698. The Brazilians asserted a claim based upon the Portuguese occupation of 1700.

Boissiere protested to Secretary of State Richard Olney, asking America to recognize Trinidad and guarantee its neutrality. Olney gave copies of the protest to the press corps, who then poked fun at Prince James and at Boissiere, his broken English, and his formal manners. The exception was The Evening Sun, where Davis, finding the Count “courteous, gentle, and … distinguished,” gave Harden-Hickey a straight treatment.

Without his island, Harden-Hickey spiraled into depression as much of the world mocked him for trying to make his dream come true. In 1897, Flagler refused to finance Harden-Hickey’s invasion of England from Ireland. Other attempts to raise money fell through. In early February 1898, Harden-Hickey registered at a hotel in El Paso, Texas. On February 10, 1898, the maids found him on the bed. A half-emptied morphine bottle was on the nightstand and a letter to his wife pinned to a chair.

In his trunk was the crown of Trinidad.