Seven extraordinary young men led South America to freedom. Treated with contempt by their Spanish overlords, given to dissipation and debauchery and high-sounding proclamation, they nonetheless achieved military feats unsurpassed elsewhere in history. Francisco de Miranda impressed both George Washington and Catherine the Great, narrowly escaped the guillotine in revolutionary France, and became dictator of Venezuela before capture and death in a Spanish gaol. The aristocratic Simon Bolivar, inconsolable widower (with countless lovers), led his guerrilla armies through swamp, jungle and Andean ice to surprise his enemies and liberate most of northern South America. Meanwhile the inarticulate San Martin had joined Bernardo O'Higgins, illegitimate son of a Spanish viceroy, to do the same in the south.