The Real "Buccaneers": The Gilded Age’s Million Dollar Princesses

The Gilded Gentleman

In the latter part of 19th-century America, over 200 young women married into British and European noble families. Some Gilded Age families wanted their daughters to gain titles to secure their social standing, and many willing aristocrats needed the significant marriage settlements to repair crumbling estates and fill up their bank accounts. From the marriage in 1874 of Jenny Jerome to Lord Randolph Churchill, many mothers and daughters went in search of eligible nobles to marry.

This episode looks into the marriage of Jenny Jerome, mother of Winston Churchill, as well as perhaps the most famous aristocratic match - Consuelo Vanderbilt's marriage to Charles Spencer-Churchill, the 9th Duke of Marlborough, in 1895, to see what motivated these matches and what they were like in reality.