Tuesday Tidbits: DOLLAR PRINCESSES

Consuelo Vanderbilt

What and who were they?

In the Gilded Age (post Civil War), the nouveau riche (new money) had it all. Vast wealth to buy anything and everything they wanted. Homes that were well insulated and heated, indoor plumbing with hot and cold running water, the most expensive clothes, jewels, and anything else money could buy. They had more money than they knew what to do with.

So why wasn’t that enough?

The old money people thought the upstarts weren’t good enough—even if they had more money—and wouldn’t allow them in high society social circles. All their new wealth couldn’t buy them into this elite class. Old money held power over new money by denying them acceptance. Some things money just couldn’t buy.

Or so they thought.

This is where dollar princesses came in. England had been a huge food producer to the world. When America’s vast prairies and farmland opened up to the west, this unseated England in the agricultural arena. The large estates that survived because of the tenant farmers working the land suddenly weren’t producing and their income dried up. With no revenue, the estates and mansions fell into disrepair and many a penniless noble was at risk of bankruptcy.

Jennie Jerome

Wealthy American businessmen and their wives saw an opportunity to elevate themselves by acquiring a title into the family. So they arranged marriages between their heiress daughters and titled Englishmen. Sell your daughter with a huge dowry and raise yourself in American society. It seemed like a win-win situation.

However, these heiresses went from homes with the most up-to-date modern conveniences to moving across the ocean into ancient, drafty mansions that hadn’t been updated in a century or more. They left all their friends and family behind to marry a man they likely didn’t love or know. But their fathers and families back home gained the prestige of their titles, and their new husbands had a whole lot of cash to do with as they pleased.

Sounds like a win-win-LOSE situation.

Here are a few notable dollar princesses.

Lord Randolph Churchill & Lady Jennie Churchill

The first of these dollar princesses was Jennie Jerome. Unlike most, she was eager to marry an English noble. In 1874, she married Randolf Henry Spencer-Churchill. Churchill, you say? Yep, that Churchill. Jennie was the mother of Winston Churchill who became a British Prime Minister.

John, Jennie, & Winston Churchill

What about American roots in British Royalty? In 1880, Frances Ellen Work married James Boothby Burke Roche, the son of First Baron Fermoy, at her grandmother’s insistence. Her father didn’t approve of the marriage and wrote Frances out of his will so Roche wouldn’t get anymore of his money. Roche gambled away most of Frances’s $2.5 million dowry. They divorced ten years later. However, her great-granddaughter Diana Spencer became Princess Diana when she married Prince Charles, so the marriage wasn’t a total loss.

Frances Ellen Work

Next we have Consuelo Vanderbilt. Her parents arranged a marriage between her and the ninth duke of Marlborough. Both Consuelo and the duke were in love with other people. The unhappy couple wed in November of 1895. Consuelo Vanderbilt said, “I spent the morning of my wedding day in tears and alone; no one came near me.” Since the marriage was coerced and their hearts belonged to others, they each had affairs.

Consuelo Vanderbilt

Consuelo Vanderbilt

Between post Civil War and WWII, it is estimated that around 350 American heiresses married English nobility, infusing the equivalent of a billion pounds (around $25 billion in today’s dollar) into the floundering British economy and saved many an estate—at least for a while.

In the series Downton Abbey, Lady Cora Grantham was a dollar princess. Her dowry money helped to save the ancestral home. The fictional “Lady Grantham” character was based on real life Lady Almina married to the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon. Her dowry helped restore Highclere Castle where Downton Abbey was filmed.

Lady Almina, Countess Carnarvon

In my Quilting Circle series, book 2, The Daughter’s Predicament, Isabelle’s stepmother is set on turning her own daughter, Adelaide, into a dollar princess and claim a title for their family. This poses a challenge for my heroine, Isabelle, who, like all the other heroines in this series, has a mind of her own.

The QUILTING CIRCLE Series

Historical Romance

THE WIDOW’S PLIGHT (Book1) – Will a secret clouding a single mother’s past cost Lily the man she loves?

THE DAUGHTER’S PREDICAMENT (Book2) *2020 SELAH Awards Finalist & WRMA Finalist* – As Isabelle’s romance prospects are turning in her favor, a family scandal derails her dreams.

THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (Book3) *2021 SELAH Awards Winner& WRMA Finalist* – Nicole heads down the mountain to fetch herself a husband. Can she learn to be enough of a lady to snag the handsome rancher?

THE DÉBUTANTE’S SECRET (Book4) –Complications arise when a fancy French lady, Geneviève, steps off the train and into Deputy Montana’s arms.

THE LADY’S MISSION (Book5) *2023 SELAH Awards Finalist* – Will Cordelia abandon her calling for love?

MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE LADY’S MISSION. Her other novels include MRS. WITHERSPOON GOES TO WAR, THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (Quilting Circle 3) is a Selah Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; THE WIDOW’S PLIGHT, THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection , Prodigal Daughters Amish series, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of thirty-eight years and one cat. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:

Books2Read  Newsletter  Blog   FB  FB Readers Group   Amazon   GoodReads   BookBub

Resources:
https://historycollection.com/16-facts-about-dollar-princesses-the-american-girls-who-were-sold-into-royalty/3/
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2022/06/22/gilded-age-dollar-princesses/?firefox=1
https://www.history.com/news/american-heiress-marry-british-aristocrat
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/02/14/dollar-princesses/?firefox=1
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-gilded-ages-real-life-dollar-princesses/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Randolph_Churchill
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consuelo_Vanderbilt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Ellen_Work
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Curzon,_Baroness_Curzon_of_Kedleston

Tuesday Tidbits: NURSE EDITH CAVELL: SAVING LIVES ONE WAY OR ANOTHER

“Someday, somehow, I am going to do something useful, something for people. They are, most of them, so helpless, so hurt, so unhappy.” ~Edith Cavell

Born Edith Louise Cavell on December 4, 1865 in Swardeston, England where her father was a vicar for forty-five years. After a regular education, she became a governess for various families and served as a governess in Brussels, Belgium from 1890 to 1895. When her father fell seriously ill, she went home to nurse him back to health. In helping her father, she discovered her passion for nursing. At age thirty, she applied to become a nurse probationer at the London Hospital.

She worked in several different hospitals in England. Then as a private traveling nurse, she treated individuals in their homes in villages across England. Her patients’ ailments included gout, eye afflictions, appendicitis, pneumonia, pleurisy, and cancer, among others, giving her a wide range of experience. When typhoid broke out in 1897 in Maidstone, Cavell was sent to help. For her work there, she and others were awarded the Maidstone Medal.

In 1906, she took a temporary post at a private nursing institution. Later that year, Dr. Antoine Depage recruited her to be matron at a newly established nursing school in Brussels. By 1910, Cavell launched a nursing journal in Belgium. Within a year, she was training nurses for three hospitals and dozens of schools.

When World War I broke out, Cavell had been visiting her widowed mother. Instead of remaining in England, she returned to Brussels, where she knew her skills would be badly needed. Her clinic and nursing school had been taken over by the Red Cross. Cavell was firm with her nurses that they were to attend to everyone in their care equally regardless of their nationality. The Germans advanced and, in November 1914, Brussels fell. Sixty English nurses returned home, but Cavell and her assistant remained.

Two British soldiers managed to make their way to the hospital. Cavell hid them for two weeks before helping them get to neutral Netherlands. As other British, Belgium, and French soldiers made their way to the hospital, Cavell aided them in safe passage to the Netherlands, as well as French and Belgium civilians of military age. This scheme had been devised by Prince and Princess de Croÿ of Belgium (brother and sister). The escapees were given money, papers, and guides to get them to safety over the Dutch border.

“I can’t stop while there are lives to be saved.” ~Edith Cavell

Cavell helped about 200 Allied soldiers over the course of a year, until August 3, 1915 when she and several others were arrested for harboring Allied soldiers. Confined in Saint-Gilles prison for ten weeks, she spent the last two in solitary confinement. She was tried and found guilty of treason.

Ordinarily, medical personnel were protected under the First Geneva Convention. However, if that position was used for any belligerent action the protection was forfeited. According to German military law, this type of action was punishable by death.

On October 7, 1915, Cavell and the others were brought before a court-martial. Cavell herself signed a confession of her actions on October 9 and was sentenced to death. She knew from the onset of her actions that this would be the outcome if caught, and yet she chose to offer aide anyway.

Due to the provisions of the First Geneva Convention, Britain was powerless to do anything to help her. However, the United States had not yet joined the war and tried to put diplomatic pressure on Germany to spare her life. Spain also tried to gain her a reprieve, to no avail.

Chaplain Reverend Horace Gahan met with her the day before her execution. She told him she had come to peace with her actions and fate, and held no resentments. She spoke these words to him on the eve before her execution.

“I am thankful to have had these ten weeks of quiet to get ready. Now I have had them and have been kindly treated here. I expected my sentence and I believe it was just. Standing as I do in view of God and Eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.” ~Edith Cavell

Cavell and one other in the group arrested were put to death by firing squad. Others, including Princess de Croÿ, were held in prison. Cavell was forty-nine.

A shock wave raced around the world at the news of her death, and it united people in pride and grief. It also sharply increased anti-German sentiment. The Allies refused to let her death be in vain and used it in propaganda.

The first films about Cavell and her execution were in 1916, followed by more films, plays, and television shows decade after decade. Songs and an opera were written in her honor as well. She had monuments and statues dedicated to her.

After the war, her body was transported from Belgium to England where the King granted special permission for her to be buried on the grounds of Norwich Cathedral.

At the time, Britain denied Cavell was involved in any kind of espionage. However, in recent years, a former head of MI6 revealed new evidence that strongly suggests Cavell had assisted in smuggling information as well as soldiers.

I marvel at individuals like Edith Cavell, who risk their lives for strangers. For my children, grandchildren, family and loved ones, I could see myself doing this, but I don’t know if I’m brave enough or strong enough to do that for strangers.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man to lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

I can see why, two months later, the parents of Edith Piaf (my previous post) named their daughter after this brave martyr. World War I was raging, and Edith Cavell’s death was fresh on everyone’s mind.

The QUILTING CIRCLE Series 

Historical Romance

THE WIDOW’S PLIGHT (Book1) – Will a secret clouding a single mother’s past cost Lily the man she loves?

THE DAUGHTER’S PREDICAMENT (Book2) *2020 SELAH Awards Finalist & WRMA Finalist* – As Isabelle’s romance prospects are turning in her favor, a family scandal derails her dreams.

THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (Book3) *2021 SELAH Awards Winner & WRMA Finalist*– Nicole heads down the mountain to fetch herself a husband. Can she learn to be enough of a lady to snag the handsome rancher?

THE DÉBUTANTE’S SECRET (Book4) –Complications arise when a fancy French lady, Geneviève, steps off the train and into Deputy Montana’s arms.

THE LADY’S MISSION (Book5) *2023 SELAH Award Finalist – Will Cordelia abandon her calling for love?

MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE LADY’S MISSION. Her other novels include MRS. WITHERSPOON GOES TO WAR, THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (Quilting Circle 3) is a Selah Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; The Widow’s Plight, The Daughter's Predicament, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection , Prodigal Daughters Amish series, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of thirty-eight years and one cat. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:

 Books2Read  Newsletter  Blog   FB  FB Readers Group   Amazon   GoodReads   BookBub

Sources:
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Edith-Cavell/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edith-Cavell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell
https://www.azquotes.com/author/21237-Edith_Cavell
https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2015/oct/12/edith-cavell-nurse-martyr-and-spy