Dollar Princesses

I always thought of Winston Churchill as nothing but British, especially coming from the Spencer-Churchill family. But I was shocked to learn that his mother was American! Apparently he was also one of only 8 people who received honorary American citizenship.

Their mothers were basically pimping their own daughters out. Consuelo's mother was downright cruel.

I'm glad Consuelo Vanderbilt found love the second time around. She deserved it after everything her mother put her through.

I think the parents' relationship in Downton Abbey is based on this time period/concept of rich American women marrying British nobles

Nancy Astor's banters with Winston Churchill were the best 😂 Churchill: *made some kind of comment along the lines of having a woman in Parliament is like having a woman intrude on him in the bathroom * Nancy: Sir, you are not nearly handsome enough to have such fears. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

This probably helped in the long run when it came to the issue of inbreeding because practically every noble family was related through blood in one way or another, so marrying these "dollar princesses" allowed new blood to be introduced into a family line which might've saved a few lines from dying out.

I love how many of these dollar princesses have a connection to Winston Churchill in some way, whether it is his own mother, in-law, or acquaintances

I’m not going to lie Lindsay, your videos are one of the things i look forward to most in life

Lady Diana Spencer, who became Diana, Princess of Wales after she married Prince Charles, was related to Winston Spencer Churchill.

I think it’s important to note that Nancy Astor was the first woman to sit parliament not the first elected. The Irish Countess Markievicz was elected in 1918 to represent Dublin but like many Irish elected officials at the time refused to take her seat in protest of British occupation in Ireland and was part of the first Irish Dáil (Parliament). She was also the Irish Minister of Labor for a time! (Comparable in the US to the Secretary of Labor). She often gets erased when talking about women in British parliament in part because she was so influential in the Irish War for Independence and was decidedly opposed to British imperialism in Ireland. She also was dedicated to the poor by the time she died she’d given away so much of her wealth she died in poor ward. Nancy Astor was elected in 1919 and was the first woman to take her seat in Parliament but was definitely not the first woman elected. That said I absolutely love these videos and they’re great! Maybe someday you’ll consider doing a video on Countess Markievicz she’s absolutely fascinating!

There is a mini series on this called Buccaneers, about rich American heiresses marrying British aristocrats. I enjoyed watching it☺️

Sorry, but another comment: William Astor (not his wife) battled with his sister-in-law Caroline over who should be "the" Mrs. Astor as he was the son of the older brother. He built the Waldorf Hotel right next door to Caroline's house to spite her (her son John Jacob IV built the Astoria hotel on the site of their old house to be taller than the Waldorf before agreeing that the smartest move was to join the two hotels rather than competing = Waldorf Astoria Hotel).

A fall at 7 months pregnant huh? Reminds me of something my grandmother once said. "Cows and countesses both take 9 months, but it's amazing what an eager bride can do!" Well said Nana.

Yes! I think I had commented about this before. My theory is..these marriages are what really cemented the USA on the UK side in ww1.. there were so many of German descent Americans in the period... so their upper class USA/UK marriages really made a difference

Yay! I've been waiting for this one! Dollar Princesses have always been fascinating to me. 👸🏰 But I can't help but feel sorry for a lot of them, especially the dollar princess who was bullied by her gold-digging mother. I'm glad transactional marriages have fallen out of fashion in favor of marrying for love. ❤️

This came right on time Lindsay!!! I am going through an intense fascination with The Gilded Age—and primarily with Consuelo, the Vanderbilt heiress. I just began reading her autobiography, and she is easily my favorite of the Dollar Princesses. You did a fantastic job covering her in this video! Thank you!!!

I feel bad for Consuelo. Poor girl, I just wanna give her a big hug (Vanderbilt)

Downton abby is based on this for all of you that didn't know

Just a very slight comment. Lady Astor was not the first female member of the British Parliament. The first woman elected to British Parliament (MP) was Countess Constance Markievitz. However, as she was an Irish Republican, she did not take her seat in Westminster. So Lady Astor was the first female member of British Parliament to take her seat in Westminster

That was the foundation story for Downton Abbey. A wealthy American woman marries a financially strapped noble and brings money to his family and the story then revolves around their family dynamics.