It was 1859. Footmen lined the corridors of the Tuileries Palace, waiting for Empress Eugénie who would preside over a government meeting.

Suddenly there she was, emerging from her quarters in an elegant gown shimmering with jewels, and whizzing toward the council chamber.

She was on roller skates.

Clearly, Eugénie de Montijo, the last empress of France, was not your ordinary ruler.

She was an extraordinary woman whose accomplishments in women's rights, LGBTQ issues, health and education and a myriad of other causes were key to transforming France and making it a modern country. She was a fierce critic of antisemitism and said Jews, Christians and Muslims all worshipped the same god. She fought to get French women the right to be educated and earn degrees; she essentially created haute couture, turning the fashion industry into a cornerstone of the French economy. She also put the first woman into the Legion of Honor.

Eugénie was the only woman of her time to wield genuine political power. Others, like Queen Victoria of Britain and Empress Elisabeth in Austria, were figureheads. But Eugénie was granted complete power by her husband, Napoléon III, to govern France whenever he was out of the country.

And yet, despite everything she did for France, Eugénie was looked down on by others and ridiculed - especially by men – who were jealous or felt threatened. “She's nothing but a fashion plate, an ornament of the throne, “scoffed one government minister.

“And he's a fool! “the empress snapped back.

When France suffered a crushing defeat in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, it was the empress who was blamed and made the scapegoat. She had to flee for her life when she was chased from the palace by a howling mob calling for her to be sent to the guillotine. “No one who has not heard it can realize the horror of the crowd that has only one desire – to tear you to pieces,” she said.

Exile in England, however, did not end her determination to improve lives around her, especially those of women. She supported suffragists, defended Dreyfus and backed Pasteur in his research. At age 70 she learned to ride a bike; when she turned 80 she climbed Mount Vesuvius. Eugénie also competed in ocean racing and traveled the world. She said it was the only way she could escape the sadness and depression that weighed on her after the death of both her husband and her son, her only child.

Eugenie's death in 1920 at age 94 brought 60,000 people to her funeral in England. All the royal families of Europe were in attendance… but not a single representative of the French government was there.

Her remains and those of her husband and son now lie in Farnborough guarded devotedly by monks of the abbey Eugénie established.