The American Heiress

Between the years 1870 and 1914, hundreds of American heiresses flooded the shores of

Continental Europe. To this day, their influence (and lineage) can be traced through many noble

European households, and even some royal ones (Princess Diana was descended from New York

heiress Frances Work and the mediatized House of Croÿ is lead by the grandson of an American

heiress). Despite protestations to the contrary, Americans have always been fascinated by titles,

whether royal or noble, and prior to the massive influx of American girls in the late Victorian

era, there was a little wave of Anglo-American matches in the colonial and Federal eras (1780s-

1830s). In 1798, a daughter of the governor of Pennsylvania married the Marquess de Casa Irujo,

the Spanish minister to the United States, and John Jay, the first US Chief Justice, had two

granddaughters who married successively, the 6th Viscount Exmouth. Three Caton

granddaughters, descendants of a co-signer of the Declaration of Independence, married the 7th

Duke of Leeds, the 8th Baron Stafford, and the 1st Marquess Wellesley, brother of the Iron

Duke, and the first royal-American match was made between Betsey Patterson and Jerome

Bonaparte, future King of Westphalia.

The spark that lit the flame of Anglo-European matches after a forty year hiatus was the

1874 marriage of Jennie Jerome of Brooklyn, New York and Lord Randolph Churchill, second

son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough. Certainly Jennie and Randolph never thought their

impulsive love-match would trigger the ambitions of social-climbing American millionaires born

of the post-Civil War, but the subsequent marriage of her friends Consuelo Yznaga to the

dissipated Viscount Mandeville (future Duke of Manchester) two years later, and Minnie Stevens

to Colonel Arthur Paget two years after that sealed the fate of the American heiress. Cut from
exclusive American circles, newly rich mamas made a mad dash for London and Paris, where,

under the influence of the Prince of Wales, society craved the spirit and independence (and

money) of the American girl. Of course all was not smoothly run in the early years of the rush, as

evidenced by Jennie’s mother-in-law and her circle who “looked upon [the American girl] as a

strange and abnormal creature, with habits and manners something between a Red Indian and a

Gaiety Girl. Anything of an outlandish nature might be expected of her.”

In 1895, nine American heiresses married titled British men, including a duke, an earl

and three barons. But soon there was a flaw in the plan: the system of primogeniture only gave

the eldest son a title and put him in line to inherit a greater one. For Catholic American girls, and

those who were too impatient to wait for a father-in-law to die, the hunt on the Continent yielded

better results: one could become a Princess; that must certainly be higher than a Duchess! And

so, the princely and noble titles of Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy and Spain were also

blessed by Providence with restored coffers and manor houses. Russia was not for the feint of

heart. If one wished to brave the bracing weather, and cold Romanov court, princely titles

abounded (and some even related to the Romanovs–though if one aimed too high, as in the case

of Harriet Blackford, who wished to marry Grand Duke Nicholas, the Imperial Family was apt to

deal harshly with both parties).

Though many European-American alliances ended dreadfully, a few American women

proved their mettle by assisting their husband’s ambitions. Mary Leiter, who married George

Nathaniel Curzon in 1895, eventually became Vicereine of India–the highest social and political

position in the British Empire behind the Queen. Despite being relegated to the shadows of

history, Mary Endicott, wife of Joseph Chamberlain, was her husband’s partner and equal

during his long and controversial political career.

 Another American heiress who held all the cards was Anita Rhinelander Stewart. In

1909 she met Prince Miguel de Braganza, whose father was referred to as the Pretender to the

Portuguese throne and three months later, they were engaged. At first it was announced that the

marriage would be morganatic, but Anita refused to accept anything less than the title of

princess. And she got it: Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary, who extended hospitality to

the exiled Braganzas, created the tenacious American the Duchess Vizeu & Princess de Braganza

in her own right.

Before Grace Kelly, there was another American Princess of Monaco: Alice Heine of

New Orleans and widow of the Duc de Richelieu. Alice married His Serene Highness, Prince

Albert I of Monaco in 1889. To their marriage she brought a strong business acumen and worked

hard to change the reputation of the principality from a gambling den to a place of culture. It was

she who established the Opera house and installed a director who brought the world’s greatest

operas to Monaco. Alice and Albert’s relationship cooled and she took a series a lovers, the most

notorious being Isidore de Lara. Fed up with his wife, Albert made public their break when he

slapped Alice in the face at the Opera when she stopped to whisper to her lover. She packed her

bags in 1902 and left Monaco forever.

Besides Lady Randolph Churchill, the best-known American heiress is the Duchess of

Marlborough, née Consuelo Vanderbilt. This derives partly from the delightful memoirs she

published in the 1950s, and partly by the fact that she was one of the wealthiest heiresses of her

time, with a dowry of approximately $2.5 million ($75 million in 2008 dollars), and wed, in

1895, one of England’s premier dukes. In her memoirs, she recounts the vigorous training and

tutoring enforced by her mother Alva, and the secret fiancée she was forced to release when her

mother set her sights on Consuelo marrying a titled European. Though no one knew it then, Alva
Vanderbilt feigned mortal illness to convince her daughter to accept the proposal of the 9th Duke

of Marlborough, and the poor girl wept the entire way to her wedding. Their marriage was

obviously unhappy, the duke informing Consuelo he’d given up the woman he loved to marry

her on their honeymoon, and by the birth of their second son (she coined the phrase “the heir and

the spare”), their marriage was on the rocks.

When they petitioned for divorce ten years later, the scandal rocked English society and

King Edward made his disapproval known. From familial pressure, and the possible revelation of

Consuelo’s aborted elopement with the also married Viscount Castlereagh, they settled for a

legal separation. Both now banished from court circles, Consuelo turned her pain into helping the

needy and raising her sons. They eventually divorced, Consuelo to marry Jacques Balsan and

Sunny, another American, Gladys Deacon, in 1921.

American women continued to marry European noblemen after the Great War, but the

men were different, and so were the women. The devastation of the war created hundreds of

nationless aristocrats, and also hundreds of fake aristocrats, who were eager to take part in the

frantic pace of the 1920s and 1930s. But to take part, they needed money, and as aristocrats they

were unaccustomed to work and most likely had no qualifications for work. These aristocrats

became out and out fortune hunters, and as before, the American heiress (many of this new

generation, free from parental control, were more susceptible to blandishments given by a shiny

coronet) stepped in to fund the playboy lifestyle. America is built on democracy, but the lure of a

title will forever play into the daydream of the fairy tale.