American Fairy Tales: Real Women Who Became Royalty

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite actresses, Grace Kelly. Everybody knows her story: Hollywood royalty who meets and marries a (sort of) handsome prince and they live happily ever after. So this got me thinking, have any other American women become royalty? And before you accuse me of sexism, know that generally men cannot marry into a title. That's just not the way the system works.

Turns out, there have been lots of American princesses, countesses, ladies, etc.


Nancy Langhorne. 1879-1964. Born in Danville, Virginia. She went to finishing school in NYC, where she met her first husband, Robert Gould Shaw II. She married him at age 18, and it was a complete catastrophe. He hated her for being a 'prudish puritan,' and she hated him for being an 'alcoholic rapist.' She left him numerous times, once during the honeymoon. They had one son, Bobbie. She visited England and loved it there, so she stayed. She was witty and charming, and married another American ex-pat, Waldorf Astor. Despite her husband's American roots, she became the 2nd Viscountess Astor. They were truly in love. Nancy converted to Christian Science, and lost many friends from her obsessive devotion. However, in 1919, Nancy became the first woman to serve in the House of Commons. (Another woman had been elected earlier, but refused her seat for political reasons.) She served until 1945, despite the fact that she was never terribly popular. She and Waldorf remained married until his death in 1952, and they had five children together. Friends with such illustrious minds as Robert Graves, TE Lawrence, and the eternally snarky George Bernard Shaw, she allegedly once told Winston Churchill, "If I were your wife, I'd poison your tea." To which he replied, "If I were your husband, I'd drink it." (However, she and Churchill really were friends. At TE Lawrence's funeral she flung her arms around Churchill and sobbed, 'Oh, Winnie, we've lost him!') I expect there were very few people who could call Sir Winston 'Winnie' and get away with it.


Helen Gould. 1893-1931. Daughter of Jay Gould, a railroad magnate, Helen married John Beresford in 1911 and became the Baroness Decies. They had three children, and she died of a heart attack at age 38.


Jennie Jerome. 1854-1921. Jennie was born in Brooklyn to a relatively well-off landowner. As a young woman she was a magazine editor. At age 20 she married Lord Randolph Churchill, no doubt seduced by his incredible mustache. As you may have guessed, she's the mother of one of the most famous Englishmen of all time, Sir Winston Churchill. Winston was born two months premature, after Jennie fell, just seven months after the wedding. Actually, that's likely a bald-faced lie. She was probably already pregnant at the wedding. Jennie was kind of a slut. Her second son John was probably the son of another Viscount, not her husband. She also had affairs with Karl Kinsky (a German prince), the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), and Otto von Bismarck's son. After Randolph died in 1895, Jennie married an army officer the same age as her eldest son. They divorced and she married Montagu Porch, a civil servant in Africa. He was three years younger than Winston. She and Winston were good friends; she was the cool mom. You know the kind. Her affairs, though not great for her marriage, were swell for Randolph's political career. She was even good friends with Queen Alexandra, Edward VII's wife, who knew all about the affair and couldn't care less. She wrote a play, which flopped, though she was a legitimately talented pianist. I wonder if she had a Brooklyn accent.


Mary Leiter. 1870-1906. Mary was born in Chicago to a wealthy dry goods merchant. She was quite pretty, charming, and stood an imposing (even by modern standards) 6 feet. She married Lord George Curzon in 1895 and became the Baroness Curzon. In 1898, George became the Viceroy of India and Mary the Vicereine. She was a major patron of Indian arts and preferred to wear Indian fabrics. She threw lavish parties. She designed Queen Alexandra's coronation gown, basing it on Indian traditional costume. She became fluent in Urdu, and was an outspoken advocate for women's healthcare and women in the healthcare professions. She was distressed by the dwindling numbers of wild rhinos and had a large wildlife preserve founded to protect them. The couple had three daughters, the youngest of whom was conceived on a golf course. She had a miscarriage and then fertility surgery, and the combination of the two led to a near-fatal infection. She died in 1906, and her husband built an "English version" of the Taj Mahal as an expression of his grief and to honor her love of India.