DECEMBER 15 of last year marked the anniversary of the death of Sophie Dawes ­— the daughter of an alcoholic IW smuggler.

Much of Sophie’s childhood was spent in the Island’s workhouse, and a new book by IW author, Adrian Searle, tells the story of her spectacular rise to prominence.

Entitled The Infamous Sophie Dawes: New Light on the Queen of Chantilly, it takes the reader on an evolutionary journey in search of the truth.

The book details the character traits, experiences and influences which underpin her extraordinary rise to prominence and eventual descent into an infamy which has extended well beyond its original historical setting amid France’s tumultuous post-revolutionary era.

An image of Sophie Dawes as the Queen of Chantilly was for many years a popular feature of the famous Osborne Smith Wax Museum in Brading. Picture by Adrian Searle.

An image of Sophie Dawes as the Queen of Chantilly was for many years a popular feature of the famous Osborne Smith Wax Museum in Brading. Picture by Adrian Searle.

But how should we judge this low-born Englishwoman who charmed, ensnared and then, having secured high society status, prestige and ample financial rewards, presided over the decline and dramatic downfall of the last Bourbon Condé prince before inheriting a vast slice of his immense fortune?

It is easy to condemn the legendary Queen of Chantilly for her undoubted greed, cruel treatment of her ageing aristocratic lover and relentless pursuit of self-aggrandisement.

Yet, it is also possible to admire and marvel at the achievement of a poverty-stricken young girl ­— a smuggler’s daughter and graduate of the Island’s workhouse ­— in escaping a life of servitude and drudgery through wit, determination and burgeoning feminine wiles.

The thatched roof farmhouse at Cliff Farm, Shanklin, survives today. It was from here Sophie began her extraordinary adventure in mainland England and later, infamously, in France. Picture by Matt Searle.

The thatched roof farmhouse at Cliff Farm, Shanklin, survives today. It was from here Sophie began her extraordinary adventure in mainland England and later, infamously, in France. Picture by Matt Searle.

It is up to the reader to decide whether this appreciation of Sophie’s early life counterbalances the later actions of a woman whose arch scheming with Louis Philippe, the last King of the French, may well have led directly, as this book suggests, not only to the sensationally suspicious death of the Prince of Condé in 1830, but also to those, soon afterwards, of two of her own relatives.

Much of her childhood was spent in the Island’s workhouse, yet Sophie Dawes threw off the shackles of her downbeat formative years to become one of the most talked-about personalities in post-revolutionary France.

It was the ultimate rags to riches story which would see her become the mistress of the fabulously wealthy French aristocrat Louis Henri de Bourbon, destined to be the last Prince of Condé.

Although photographed at a much later period, this Edwardian image of Sophia’s IW birthplace and childhood home shows the cottage in near original condition — its sloping thatched roof a prominent feature. Picture by Adrian Searle.

Although photographed at a much later period, this Edwardian image of Sophia’s IW birthplace and childhood home shows the cottage in near original condition — its sloping thatched roof a prominent feature. Picture by Adrian Searle.

Her total subjugation of the ageing prince, her obsessive desire for a position among the highest echelon of French royalist society following the Bourbon restoration, and her designs upon a hefty chunk of Louis Henri’s vast fortune, would lead to scandal, sensation and infamy.

The Infamous Sophie Dawes takes an in-depth look at her IW roots and her extraordinary rise from obscurity to ruling the prince’s château at Chantilly as its unofficial queen.

The book examines the mysterious death of Louis Henri in 1830, and incorporates newly discovered evidence in a bid to determine the part Sophie may have played in his demise.

The Infamous Sophie Dawes: New Light on the Queen of Chantilly.

The Infamous Sophie Dawes: New Light on the Queen of Chantilly.

Author and journalist, Adrian Searle, has covered a range of historical topics over the years, unearthing previously hidden aspects of history.

Born on the IW, he returned in 1984 to edit a local newspaper and has worked in a freelance capacity since 1989.

Working with publisher Pen and Sword, his previous titles include The Quintinshill Conspiracy, a collaboration with Jack Richards examining Britain’s worst rail disaster, and Churchill’s Last Wartime Secret, revealing a hushed-up German raid on an IW.