Wednesday, April 6, 2011

American Royalty

Prompted by a query from an American monarchist, I suppose this is as good a place as any for a list of American women who have married into royal families. (Men of course generally cannot obtain royal titles by marriage, unless they marry a female sovereign; no American man has ever done this.)

Elizabeth Patterson
(1785-1879) married Napoleon's brother Jerome Bonaparte (1784-1860), later King of Westphalia, in 1803; the marriage was annulled in 1805, but they had a son who founded an American line of Bonapartes that flourished (with some distinction) until 1945.

Alice Heine (1858-1925) married Prince Albert I of Monaco (1848-1922) in 1889; they separated in 1902 but never divorced.

None May "Nancy" Stewart Worthington Leeds (1878-1923), a wealthy widow, married Prince Christopher of Greece (1888-1940), youngest son of King George I, in 1920; she was granted the title "Princess Anastasia of Greece." Her son from her first marriage, William B Leeds, then married into royalty as well, wedding his new stepfather's niece Princess Xenia of Russia.

Wallis Warfield Simpson (1896-1986) married the former King Edward VIII (1894-1972), who had famously abdicated the British throne for her, in 1937, becoming the Duchess of Windsor.

Grace Kelly (1929-1982) married Albert I's great-grandson Prince Rainier III of Monaco (1923-2005) in 1956.

Hope Cooke (b 1940) married Palden Thondup Namgyal (1923-1982), the last King of Sikkim (1963-75) in 1963. Sikkim was annexed by India in 1975 and they divorced in 1980.

Lisa Halaby (b 1951) married King Hussein of Jordan (1935-1999) in 1978, becoming Queen Noor.

Marie-Chantal Miller
(b 1968) married Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece (b 1967) in 1995.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Also:
Mrs. Nevada Stoody Hayes, from Ohio married (1917) D. Afonso Braganza, Duque of Porto, brother of D. Carlos I of Portugal who was nurdered in 1908.
And:
Mrs. Anita Rhinelander Stewart from New Jersey, married (1909) D. Miguel Braganza who renounced the portuguese throne.
Greetings from Portugal!

Theodore Harvey said...

Thanks. A revised list now appears at my website: http://www.royaltymonarchy.com/royfacts/americanroyalty.html

Daniel Corston said...

From the Imperial House of Russia:
Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich of Russia married Audrey Emery. Also a lot of the grandsons of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia married American women.

Royal House of France:
Prince Charles Phillipe of Orleans, Duke of Nemours, of Vendôme and d'Alençon (1905- 1970) married 1928 Margaret Watson (Richmond, Virginia 22 Feb 1899-Bayonne 27 Dec 1993)

Theodore Harvey said...

Thanks. I had never heard of Margaret Watson but should have remembered Audrey Emery, especially as I've visited both the Cincinnati Romanov exhibit opened by some of her descendants and the Palm Beach church where her son's funeral was held in 2004.

I don't think I will count morganatic descendants of royalty such as the grandsons of "Sandro" and Xenia, however.

Daniel Corston said...

Another few cases. The Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha with Kelly Rondestvedt in 2009.

The golfer Daria Pratt with Prince Alexis Karageorgevich in 1913.

Duke Heinrich Borwin of Mecklenburg(Schwerin) married two American ladies.

And from a reigning family Prince Charles of Luxembourg and Joan Dillon in 1967.