Hello everyone!! I thought for a mid-summer treat (as we all stay in to beat the heat), I'd do a quick contest. Comment on any post this week to be entered to win a bag of historical film DVD's, Austen notebooks, and signed books by me. (you can also enter by signing up for my newsletter, email amccabe7551 AT yahoo.com with NEWSLETTER as a subject) I'm also pulling out a bit of research tidbits for fun again...
My most recent series, The Dollar Duchesses, is set in the 1870s, centered around the Wilkins sisters, 3 daughters of a millionaire American who end up married to English dukes (Lily because she wants an independent life where she can take care of her younger twin sisters, Violet because she thinks it will be convenient to pretend to be engaged to her grumpy nemesis—ha!, and Rose because she is young and idealistic and romantic, until she finds out how hard marriage can be—and how much she really loves her husband...)
A definition of “dollar princess” I found says—“A Dollar Princess referred to an American heiress, often from newly wealthy families, who married a title-rich but cash-poor British nobleman” (ancestry.com). These girls and their ambitious mothers, often cut off from New York high society (even more strict and exclusive than in Europe!) often used the help of well-connected but poor English ladies such as Lady Heath (who is based on real-life Lady Paget) to make their way in London Society. There were also books like Titled Americans: The Real Heiress's Guide to Marrying an Aristocrat (1890) to assist. In 1895 alone, nine British noblemen (including a duke, an earl, and several barons) married Americans.
Some of the most famous were Jennie Jerome, Lady Randolph Churchill (mother of Winston); Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough; Frances Woke, Lady Fermoy (ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales); Mary Leiter, Lady Curzon; Consuelo Yznaga, Duchess of Manchester; Nancy, Lady Astor; and Kathleen Kennedy, Marchioness of Hartington.
I became so intrigued with these womens’ stories, some of which ended in contentment and fulfillment, more of which ended in disillusionment. What was it like for them to navigate a new land, a new way of life? How did they come to see their husbands and their new “jobs” as noblewomen? It was so much fun to explore these questions through the Wilkins sisters and their romances!
Research Recess!
Warning: I went super history geek on Violet’s book, Playing the Duke’s Fiancee, and this post includes lots of resources I happily pored over! Feel free to skip, LOL.
Violet, the second of the Wilkins sisters to find her HEA, was really a favorite of mine. High-spirited, funny, a bit hoydenish, and dedicated to her art (the new medium of photography), she didn’t have time to look for a titled husband like her older sister Lily. And she really didn’t have time for the grumpy, strait-laced Duke of Charteris! But when they realize they can help each other avoid the Marriage Mart, they join up in an uneasy partnership that quickly turns into something more. All with the backdrop of a lavish royal wedding!
When I started writing Violet’s story, I was so excited to combine two of my old passionate interests into one book—the history of the British royal family, and nineteenth century Russia! I also got to bring in another interest of mine, which might not really seem to fit into the 1870s—1930s screwball comedies! I love it when strait-laced Cary Grant begins to enjoy life thanks to Katherine Hepburn or Irene Dunn, learning to have fun at last. I also got to learn something quite new to me, Victorian photography.
Much like Prince Charles and Lady Diana in the 1980s, Prince Alfred (second son of Queen Victoria, a career naval officer) and Grand Duchess Marie, only daughter of Tsar Alexander II (who had many, many sons!) was the wedding of the year. They met in 1868, but neither family approved of the match, and they didn’t marry until January1874. It was a very lavish wedding at the Winter Palace, an Orthodox ceremony followed by an Anglican blessing, then a banquet for 700 and ball for 3000 until the early hours of the morning. It was the sensation of the newspapers, with a Whose Who guest list of people like the Prince and Princess of Wales, Princess Royal Vicky and her husband, Prince Arthur, and the elderly Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Coburg (who had no legitimate children so Alfred eventually was his heir). (For more wedding details, I love the sadly now defunct blog, Order of Sartorial Splendor, whose archives are a gold mine!).
The couple had five children, one son and four daughters (including the famous Marie of Romania), but it was not a happy union in the end. They had little in common, and the prince was often gone on his naval assignments. They moved often, including to Malta and Coburg, and came to be titled Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. Marie did not like English life, and was a Russian Orthodox grand duchess all her life. She died in 1920 in Switzerland, long after her husband, in reduced circumstances. I am sure Violet and William are MUCH happier in their life together!
(One quick note on the photographic exhibit Violet visits—it’s based on a famous display in 1864, a “Bazaaar for the benefit of female artists” at the Horticultural Gardens at Chiswick. The photographers Julia Cameron, Clementina Hawarden, Lewis Carroll, and Oscar Rejlander are of course real figures, as are the royal family.
If you’re curious about the time period, I loved these sources for further study! And visit me at ammandamccabe.com for more info!
Photography
--Todd Gustavson, Camera: A History of Photography (2009)
--Alma Davenport, The History of Photography: An Overview (1991)
--Bruce Bernard, Photo Discovery: Masterworks of Photography 1840-1940 (1980)
--Victoria Olson, From Life: Julia Margaret Cameron (2003)
--Victorian Giants: The Birth of Photography (exhibition catalog)
--BEC Howarth-Loomes, Victorian Photography (1974)
Royalty
--Daphne Bennett, Queen Victoria’s Children (1980)
--John Van Der Kiste, Alfred: Queen Victoria’s Second Son (2013)
--Julia Baird, Victoria the Queen (2016)
--Adrian Tinniswood, Behind the Throne: A Domestic History of the British Royal Household (2018)
--Daphne Bernard, Vicky: Princess Royal of England and German Empress (1971)
--Jane Ridley, The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII (2013)
--Marie, Queen of Romania, The Story of My Life (reprint 2019)
--Richard Hough, Edward and Alexandra
Russia
--Stefano Papi, Jewels of the Romanovs (2010)
--Mathilde Kschenssinskaya, Dancing in Petersburg (1961)
--The Last Grand Duchess: Memoirs of Grand Duchess Olga (1964)
--Russia: Art, Royalty, and the Romanovs
--Susan McCaffray, The Winter Palace (2018)
