Inside the jaw-dropping world of highly-sexed American dollar princesses ‘sold’ to Brit toffs – like Downton’s Lady Cora

THEY were the Dollar Princesses, the 19th-century American heiresses married off to English aristocrats in a mutual arrangement of cash in exchange for titles and prestige. 

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes is working on The Gilded Age, a prequel to his much-loved period drama revolving around American Cora Crawley’s romance with, and marriage to, the Earl of Grantham. Set in New York, it is expected to air later this year. We bring you the stories of the real-life Dollar Princesses whose lives were stranger than fiction. 

APJulian Fellowes is working on a prequel to Downton Abbey revolving around American Cora Crawley’s romance with, and marriage to, the Earl of Grantham[/caption]

RexBefore Meghan Markle, before Wallis Simpson, there was Consuelo Vanderbilt, the American swan par excellence[/caption]

GettyConsuelo Vanderbilt’s marriage to the Duke of Marlborough, in November 1895, was the wedding of the year, causing a public stampede that Meghan could only have dreamed about[/caption]

BEFORE Meghan Markle, before Wallis Simpson, there was Consuelo Vanderbilt, the American swan par excellence. 

Her marriage to the English Duke of Marlborough, in November 1895, was the wedding of the year, causing a public stampede that Meghan could only have dreamed about. 

The 18-year-old bride, daughter of railway tycoon William Kissam Vanderbilt, was so beautiful that people ran along the street to catch a glimpse of her in her carriage.

Her features were even and delicate, and her figure was the perfect hourglass beloved of late 19th- century painters. Moreover, Consuelo was a “Dollar Princess”, the greatest heiress in New York, worth an estimated $4billion — equal to around £95billion today. 

But as she stood at the altar of St Thomas’s Episcopal Church in New York in her satin dress with the 5ft train, Consuelo was sobbing behind her bridal veil.

 She was marrying against her will, to an aloof and supercilious British aristocrat chosen for her by her ferociously ambitious mother, Alva, who had literally whipped her daughter into submission, and threatened to murder the young American with whom Consuelo was in love. 

Financial ruin

For social climber Alva, love didn’t come into it. She had her eye on Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of her prospective son-in-law, Charles Spencer Churchill, Ninth Duke of Marlborough, who belonged to the highest echelons of British society. 

Alva and her husband were so keen for a connection to these circles that they had paid the Duke $25million — around £550million today — to wed their unhappy daughter. 

By the 1870s, social and economic factors had threatened many members of the British aristocracy with financial ruin and the loss of their estates. The Duke told Consuelo coldly after their wedding that he had married her “to save Blenheim Palace”.

For just as the old moneyed families in Britain were in decline, a new class of nouveau riche was emerging in America. Money made on Wall Street, from oil fields, railroads and retail was creating fortunes on a scale never seen before. 

These new American “barons” loved conspicuous spending, building huge houses in Newport and Palm Beach and creating what became known as The Gilded Age, because of their penchants for gold and marble. But money could not buy respectability and an entree into old New York society, which snubbed them and their offspring. However, the “barons” and their wives had a trump card. The cash-strapped English upper class was proving not to be so choosy, and if their daughters could acquire a title through marriage then even the most snobbish American matrons would vie for their presence at their soirees. And so the Dollar Princesses were born.

Between 1874 and 1911, 300 Dollar Princesses like Consuelo married into the British aristocracy. 

 In 1874, Minnie Stevens, the daughter of a wealthy American hotelier, had gone to Europe to buy a titled husband, and had married a grandson of the Marquess of Anglesey, Sir Arthur Paget.

 Lady Paget, as Minnie became, was a highly eccentric woman who kept a cheetah as a pet. Her hats were so big and ornate that she had her carriage doors enlarged to accommodate them. This pioneering Dollar Princess set herself up as an unofficial marriage broker-cum-matchmaker, giving parties where handpicked Englishmen could meet rich American girls.

At the same time, a New York subscription periodical, the Heiresses’ Guide, was launched. It not only listed every member of the British peerage and their marital status, but published titillating gossip about their sexual proclivities, and the characters and foibles of their relatives.

“Lord Arthur’s mother is a gorgon,” read one entry. Another said: “The dowager Marchioness has a liquor cabinet in her bed chamber, of which she takes full advantage before breakfast.” A third said: “Lord Robert is rumored to enjoy le vice Anglaise.”

In 1895 alone, nine American heiresses married Englishmen with noble titles. These included the voluptuous young Mary Leiter, who wed George Nathaniel Curzon, future Marquess of Kedleston.

 Mary became famous for commissioning the most expensive dress in history, constructed from gold and silver thread and wire, which weighed 10lb and cost £2million in today’s money. 

Consuelo Marlborough was faring less well. Her position as a duchess, her beauty and her sweet nature made her popular in England but she remained unhappy with her husband, who treated her with calculated disdain, and she detested the cold, wet English weather.

At least she found sympathy from her American-born godmother and namesake Consuelo Yznaga. Miss Yznaga had been one of the early Dollar Princesses. The spirited, cigarette-smoking daughter of a wealthy Cuban-American landowner, she had married the moneyless George, Viscount Montagu, future Eighth Duke of Manchester, in 1874.

Sadistic streak

Initially, the Duke’s family had not been pleased. However, a large settlement had persuaded them to overcome their scruples. The new Duchess of Manchester became something of a trendsetter and was the first female member of English society to wear trousers in public. Despite, or because of their travails, the Dollar Princesses caught the public imagination on both sides of the Atlantic and became the biggest celebrities of their day, as famous as Rihanna or the Kardashians.

Women copied their hair, milliners ran up cheap knock-offs of their hats, their photographs were sold in shops.

Some of the Dollar Princesses were to shape the course of history, particularly in the case of the ravishing and witty Jennie Jerome, who might be called the mother of “the Special Relationship”.

Jennie was the Brooklyn-born daughter of a philandering and wealthy speculator, Leonard Jerome.

 Independent-minded and sensuously beautiful, Jennie was one of the first women to sport tattoos and was described by one admirer as “more panther than woman.” Both Jennie and her father had set their sights on English aristocrat Lord Randolph Churchill, who was also a rising politician. His conservative parents were initially nervous about the engagement until a dowry of $4.3million (£95million today), paid by Leonard, calmed them down. 

Jennie’s marriage to Lord Randolph in 1874 made her one of the most influential society hostesses in England. The Churchills entertained both Prime Ministers and members of the Royal Family.

Jennie was highly sexed and frequently unfaithful to her husband. Her lovers included the Prince of Wales, Herbert Bismarck and King Milan of Serbia. Nevertheless, she and Lord Randolph had two sons, one of whom was Winston Churchill.

Jennie, Consuelo and Mary often met at parties, balls and country house weekends. But while Jennie and Mary thrived, Consuelo was increasingly desperate. Both she and the Duke, who had a cruel sadistic streak involving flagellation, were now having numerous affairs, and their behaviour threatened to become an open scandal.

Even with the best of husbands, American brides sometimes found the transition to English upper-class wives hard. They were used to some independence but found themselves virtual prisoners in stately homes. 

Some marriages were happy, such as that of Anne Tredick Wendell, another New York heiress. She married the Sixth Earl of Carnarvon and was the model for Cora, Countess of Grantham, in Downton Abbey, filmed at the Carnarvons’ family seat, Highclere in Berkshire.

Other unions were so wretched that the wives eventually moved back to America. After decades of misery and giving birth to two sons, Consuelo Marlborough and the Duke divorced.

 More scandalously, a few years later the marriage was annulled when Alva Vanderbilt admitted publicly that her daughter had been coerced.

 Consuelo fell in love with a French aviator, Jacques Balsan, remarried and died in 1964 at Casa Alva, the ornate Palm Beach mansion she built on her return to the States.

She became very close to Winston Churchill, who used to stay with her there, and where in 1946 he is said to have composed his famous “Iron Curtain” speech, warning of the dangers of Communism. The house still stands, in all its romantic magnificence, a fitting testament to the remarkable and often star-crossed lives of the Dollar Princesses.

AlamyConsuelo was marrying against her will, to an aloof and supercilious British aristocrat chosen for her by her ferociously ambitious mother, Alva[/caption]

Matrix PicturesFilming for Downton Abbey prequel The Gilded Age[/caption]

AlamyIn 1895 alone, nine American heiresses married Englishmen with titles. These included the voluptuous Mary Leiter, who wed George Nathaniel Curzon, future Marquess of Kedleston[/caption]

GettySome of the Dollar Princesses were to shape the course of history, particularly in the case of the ravishing and witty Jennie Jerome – who married Lord Randolph Churchill and had two sons, one of whom was Winston[/caption]