Old Money Heiresses Bought Their Way Into Europe. It Destroyed Every One Of Them

By 1915, a single register called Titled Americans counted 454 American heiresses who had married into the European aristocracy, and their fathers' fortunes crossed the Atlantic with them. Anna Gould inherited around $15 million and watched a French count spend close to $10 million of it on a pink marble palace. Clara Ward threw away a Belgian throne at 23 to run off with a Gypsy violinist, and died with more than $1 million despite the legend that she died penniless. Alice Heine became the first American Princess of Monaco in 1889, 60 years before Grace Kelly, and was struck across the face at her own opera house. Alice Thaw was kept waiting at the altar in front of 5,000 people while her groom, the Earl of Yarmouth, renegotiated his price. Five fairy tales, and every one of them curdled. In this video, we talk about the American dollar princesses who bought their way into Europe and what it cost them, including Anna Gould and Boni de Castellane's pink marble Palais Rose, the $10 million spending spree, the divorce Rome refused to erase, Clara Ward's scandalous elopement with Rigo Jancsi and her poses plastiques at the Folies Bergere, Alice Heine's rise from a New Orleans bank to the throne of Monaco and the public slap that ended it, Helena Zimmerman's marriage to a duke who was bankrupt before the wedding, Eugene Zimmerman's trust that walled off $10 million from a serial bankrupt, the eventual sale of Kimbolton Castle, Alice Thaw's wedding-day dowry extortion and the annulment that declared the marriage was never real, the Stanford White murder that engulfed the Thaw family, and the quiet marriage settlement that ended up setting these women free. Subscribe to Feminine Legacies so the women history filed away as vain girls who bought coronets finally get told as the strategists and survivors they were. Comment where you are watching from and tell me which of these five women you think truly won her bargain, and which one paid the highest price. Share this with anyone who loves Gilded Age history, on Facebook, on Reddit, or in your group chats, because you are the reason this channel exists. #DollarPrincess #GildedAge #AnnaGould #ClaraWard #AliceHeine #HelenaZimmerman #Heiress #OldMoney #CashForCoronets #FeminineLegacies #PowerfulWomen #WomensHistory #Aristocracy #Monaco #DukeOfManchester #BelleEpoque #TransatlanticMarriage #EuropeanRoyalty #AmericanHistory #Documentary #History