In this first episode of this American Girls trio of episodes, we celebrate the life of Consuelo Yznaga, the first American Girl to marry a Duke, the highest rank in the British peerage. Consuelo makes her match to the Duke of Manchester, but it is for her transatlantic marriage brokerage talents that this duchess is far more remembered.
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Sources:
The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York, by Anne de Courcy (Amazon.com)
The Transatlantic Marriage Bureau: Husband Hunting in the Gilded Age, by Julie Ferry (Amazon.com)
To Marry an English Lord: Victorian and Edwardian Experience, by Gail MacColl and Carol Wallace (Amazon.com)
Million Dollar American Princesses, a Smithsonian Channel documentary series (Amazon.com)
SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: Duke of Manchester is jailed | Daily Mail Online (dailymail.co.uk)
The Dukes of Disgrace: Alexander Montagu, the 13th Duke of Manchester | Express.co.uk (express.co.uk)
Australian man with British title to stay jailed in Vegas | AP News (apnews.com)
The Cigar-Loving Cuban-American Who Charmed Her Way Into The Aristocracy (vice.com)
Dowager Duchess Very Ill (nytimes.com)
Obituary: Miss Emilie Yznaga (nytimes.com)
Consuelo Yznaga, Duchess of Manchester (1853?-1909) and Emilie Yznaga (1859?-1944) (nationalgallery.org.uk)