THE DOLLAR DUCHESSES

who sparkled before Meghan Markle

The crowds had gathered several hours earlier. Schoolchildren, bouquets in hand, dutifully practised their curtsies and the band tuned its instruments in anticipation. People jostled for position desperate for a view of the couple – and especially of her. For months they had pored over newspaper coverage of the stylish American who would call England her home. Now the chance to lay eyes on her had drawn hundreds on to the streets.

No, this wasn’t a public appearance by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. It was 1896 and the Duchess of Marlborough – American-born Consuelo Vanderbilt – was arriving at Woodstock in Oxfordshire, her first visit since marrying the duke the previous year.

When Meghan marries Harry next month she will follow in the well-trodden footsteps of those mega-rich American brides who married English aristocrats at the turn of the 20th century – more than 100 of them between the 1870s and the start of the First World War. (Think Downton Abbey’s Lady Cora, bringing her father’s Cincinnati millions to the Grantham estate.) But these were mostly naive Fifth Avenue princesses and Southern belle heiresses who came in search of titles and brought large dowries to secure them. By contrast, Meghan, independent and successful in her own right, is marrying for love and is aware of the change in lifestyle ahead of her. So will she face the same challenges as the dollar princesses of more than a century ago?

ACE THE ETIQUETTE

For an outsider marrying into the British royal family, the complicated code of conduct is a steep learning curve. The Duchess of Cambridge had years of practice as Prince William’s girlfriend before she married him; Meghan hasn’t had the same preparation. However, Meghan can take heart from the American debutantes who navigated the upper classes in Edwardian Britain. One such young woman was 25-year-old Mary Goelet from New York, who married Henry, Duke of Roxburghe, in 1903 and found herself chatelaine of Floors Castle in Scotland. She would have studied etiquette manuals to learn how to host lavish parties as the duchess of a great estate. Likewise, Meghan’s tentative curtsy to the Queen at Sandringham at Christmas may have revealed her concerns at mastering royal manners.

Unattached American heiresses could consult Titled Americans, a book listing the most eligible nobles to home in on during the London Season. English aristocratic ladies would coach the debutantes, advising them which social

Harry and Meghan announce their engagement, November 2017