Welcome to the History Tricks, where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

And here's your 30-second summary!

Title nobility in England were running low on funds.

Wealthy American women on the Friends of Society unable to make the leap to the next level

took a leap of another kind across the ponds to charm and wed.

The nobility got cash, the women got titles, and they all lived happily ever after.

No, not really.

The end.

Welcome to the show!

Now, before we start with the Gilded Age Aresys, I think it's important to tell you to listen to the Mrs. Aster Podcast first.

That'll give you some background.

Really, this is part of a series we're doing here on a Gilded Age, and the Gilded Age Aresys, or the Dollar Princesses, or the Buccaneers,

pick your term, but they all tie into things that we had discussed during the Mrs. Aster Podcast.

So go, stop, listen.

Who ate?

So Old New York was not kind to these upstart bouncers, no matter how much money they had, and some mommas,

rather than be content with second tier and being left out of all the important newspaper articles, etc.

Reading about Mrs. Aster in the paper, they a few brave souls headed across the pond to try the waters in Paris.

But, unfortunately, the Prussian Army, these are my people.

Sorry about that.

They were having a grand old time in Paris, though.

We talked about how the American upper class had this love affair with France and all these French,

...