Franco came to prominence during the years of David Lloyd George and Woodrow Wilson, yet he lived well into the era of Richard Nixon and Harold Wilson. Having joined the army when he was 15, by 1926 Franco had become the youngest general in Europe, and having survived the Spanish Civil War and World War II, he continued as dictator of Spain until his death in 1975. But behind the military heroics and dextrous political footwork lay an insecure and deeply vengeful man. Although he shrouded his personality and ambitions behind a number of masks, he was wracked by contradictory impusles and was convinced that his destiny was bound up with the medieval kings of Spain and God himself. Drawing upon psychological thinking, this biography considers Franco's mental health, as well as his political motivations.