Ranavalona III became Madagascar’s last queen in 1883, sharing a court in which her husband, the prime minister, held much of the political power. French conquest ended her reign, and she was sent into exile in 1897, first to Réunion and then to Algeria. She repeatedly sought permission to return home and was refused. Her story makes the losses of colonial conquest personal: a woman, a country and a future that others claimed the right to decide.