Cecil Rhodes: Man and Empire-Maker

Cecil John Rhodes (1853 - 1902) was a Britishborn South African businessman, mining magnate, and a politician. He was the founder of the diamond company De Beers, which today controls 60% of the world's diamonds and at one time, 90%. In the last years of his life, Rhodes was stalked by a Polish princess named Catherine Radziwill (1858-1941), born Rzewuska, married into a noble Polish- Lithuanian dynasty called Radziwill. Radziwill falsely claimed to people that she was engaged to Rhodes, or that they were having an affair. She asked him to marry her, but Rhodes refused. She eventually got revenge by falsely accusing him of loan fraud. He had to go to trial and testify against her accusation. He died shortly after the trial in 1902. She wrote a biography of Rhodes called Cecil Rhodes: Man and Empire-Maker which was published in 1918. Her accusations were eventually proven false.