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In HBO's the Gilded Age, we meet Gladys Russell as a young teenage beauty who wants very much
to be out from under her domineering mother's thumb.
Her real life counterpart is most certainly Consuelo Vanderbilt, daughter of Alva Vanderbilt.
The actress Carrie Coon who plays Bertha Russell in HBO's The Gilded Age said in an interview
that her character is based upon Alva Vanderbilt, which would naturally lead to the conclusion
that Gladys Russell's character is inspired by the real life story of Consuelo Vanderbilt.
I did a video on who the real historical Alva Vanderbilt was, during the time period of
HBO's The Gilded Age, so if you want to know more you can find that in my channel list
of videos.
While researching the life of Consuelo Vanderbilt, I came across a Shocking Truth About Consuelo
that no one seems to be talking about.
In this video, I will cover Consuelo Vanderbilt's life story as well as reveal the source and
information that provides a deeper look into Consuelo as more than just the sad heiress
forced to marry a man she did not love.
Stay to the end of the video to get that new information.
And where else to begin but with her relationship with a mother that treats her daughter as
an object to be used for gain in the quest to climb the social ladder of New York City's
Gilded Age at the turn of the 20th century.
The Domineering Mother
Consuelo's mother was Alva Vanderbilt, a remarkable woman in her own right who was also a domineering
mother.
Consuelo wrote an account of her life in a memior called, The Glitter and The Gold in
which she describes her upbringing at the mercy of a mercurial mother who insisted that
Consuelo was not to think and only do what she was told.
From a young age, Consuelo was groomed to be married into European nobility much like
a trainer puts a filly through her paces.
As author Amanda Mackenzie Stuart, writes in her book, Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt,
The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age.
"It's clear that from very early on, Alva decided that Consuelo would marry into the
European aristocracy, and the British aristocracy in particular.
She named her daughter after an old friend, Consuelo, Duchess of Manchester, the only
duchess she knew at that time.
She made sure Consuelo could speak, read and write French and German by the time she was
eight.
She ensured that Consuelo was well traveled and highly educated."
Consuelo reveals in her own book that her mother made her wear a steel brace strapped
to her back and neck that would ensure prefect posture and that she had to endure long and
lonely hours of private tutoring supervised by her mother.
She was instructed in history, literature, mathematics, Latin and science by private
tutors as well in special small-scale classes for girls.
Her long days were topped with music lessons and an hour of exercise in Central Park.
The importance of good manners was relentlessly drilled into her, day in and day out.
The Secret Engagement
When Consuelo was sixteen, she met 29 year old Winthrop Rutherfurd, a friend of her father's.
He was a dashing gentleman, tall, handsome, and of so-called good stock, and Consuelo
fell immediately in love.
His feelings were mutual and the two had a brief courtship, which Alva did not approve
of.
Even though Winthrop was from a prominent, old money family, he just didn't fit into
the plan Alva had for her only daughter.
Even after Alva forbade the relationship, Winthrop and Consuelo still managed to meet
and agree to a secret engagement the day before Consuelo was set to board a ship, along with
her parents, to travel to Europe to be sold off to English nobility.
Winthrop was also on that ship but Alva managed to keep Winthrop from Consuelo throughout
the entire five month journey.
She made sure that her daughter did not send or receive any letters from Winthrop, and
he was denied admittance to be any where near Consuelo.
The Dollar Princesses
One thing to know is that it was not uncommon for American daughters to be married off to
nobility during this time in history.
They were called, Dollar Princesses, because they were essentially sold to cover the expenses
of cash poor European aristocrats in exchange for marrying into a blood line that would
passed along to their children.
And there were no better aristrocrats than the English who where at the top of the totem
pole of European nobility in the late late 19th century and World War II.
In fact the British series Downton Abbey, Lady Cora Grantham (played by actress Elizabeth
McGovern) was based on the real life American heiress, Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of
Carnarvon whose vast dowry helped save Highclere Castle.
In 1895 alone, nine American girls including Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill, Frances
Ellen Work La Roche, Millicent Rogers and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney were all married
into the British aristocracy.
It was a trend that Alva eagerly embraced.
A Forced Marriage
Back to 16 year old Consuelo who was madly in love with the dashing Winthrop Rutherfurd.
Consuelo attempted to battle against her mother's wishes to marry the targeted aristocrat, the
ninth Duke of Marlborough with the lengthy name of Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill
who went by the nickname Sunny, after his courtesy title of Earl of Sunderland.
The Duke had a castle called, Blenheim Palace that was in dire need of repair which meant
he needed the Vanderbilt money as much as Alva Vanderbilt her daughter to marry into
nobility.
Even as she was only a docile teenager who lived in fear of her controlling mother, Consuleo
resisted as best she could while her mother cajoled, wheedled, begged, and then ultimately
ordered her daughter to marry Marlborough.
When Consuelo made plans to elope with her great love Winthrop Rutherfurd, she was locked
in her room.
Alva even threatened to murder Rutherfurd but Consuelo did not give in.
It was only when Alva took to her sick bed and claimed that her health was being seriously
and irretrievably undermined by Consuelo's stubbornness and only when she appeared to
be at death's door did Consuelo gave in.
Alva made an astonishing recovery from her phantom illness and proceeded to plan the
wedding that would be the talk of the town.
Consuelo married The 9th Duke of Marlborough at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York City
on November 6th 1895.
She would go on to bear him two sons.
An heir and a spare, as she famously called them.
When the wedding took place, the press reported that Consuelo stood at the altar weeping behind
her veil and while everyone felt sorry for her, the duke himself was also forced to give
up his love back in England in exchange for 2.5 million dollars which would be approximately
75.2 million in today's money.
The Shocking Inner Truths About Her Marriage
The forced marriage of Consuelo to the Duke of Marlborough has been the source of pity
for Consuelo since she wrote and published her memoir called The Glitter and The Gold
in 1952, but there is a bit more to the story.
In it, Consuelo reveals that while they were on their honeymooned in Europe, Marlborough
heartlessly told Consuelo that he loved another woman and only had married her to save Blenheim
castle.
History and perpetual readings of the incident have often elicited pity for poor Consuelo
but this enduring myth has recently been shattered with the publication of a biography of the
9th Duke, written by his great-grandson Michael Waterhouse entitled, The Churchill Who Saved
Blenheim: The Life Of Sunny, 9th Duke Of Marlborough.
In the biography Waterhouse exposed a never-before published letter, said to be long and despairing,
that the Duke wrote in January 1901 to his lawyer.
The letter details how Consuelo had told him, a few years into their marriage, that she
was deeply in love with another man with whom she wanted to elope even though she was married
to the Duke.
And that man was none other than Winthrop Rutherfurd.
It seems that Rutherfurd had come back into Consuelo's life three years after her marriage
to the duke and that she had spent two weeks in a Parisian hotel with her illicit lover.
But here is the kicker.
It turns out that according to the great-grandson Michael Waterhouse, the Duke was actually
devastated, and he even reluctantly gave his permission for Consuelo to explore this plan,
only for the Rutherfurd to decline to elope with her after all.
Waterhouse writes that it is impossible not to feel the Duke's anguish expressed in the
letter or to admire his great grandfahter's dignified efforts to do the right thing by
his adulterous young wife.
The truth is that both Sunny and Consuelo were unhappy in the loveless marriage that
lasted 26 years and bore 2 sons.
They were both known to have had affairs over the course of the marriage and were both relieved
they were divorced in 1921 and the marriage was annulled at the duke's request and with
Consuelo's assent on August 19th 1926.
I think what is so shocking here is to find that Consuelo was much like her mother and
that she had learned to manipulate the truth of her marriage, all for the sake of image.
In her memoirs, Consuelo describes her marriage to the Duke as loveless and her husband heartless
and caring only for his precisous Blenheim.
She paints herself as a victim, and the Duke as making no effort to even be civil to her.
'How I learned to dread and hate these dinners, how ominous and wearisome they loomed at the
end of the day,' she wrote.
So what do you think?
Was this unfair of Consuelo to not tell her husband's side of the story with some compassion
as to what he was feeling and how he was actually sympathetic towards his young wife's tribulations
of the heart?
Let me know in the comments below while I continue to finish up this video with how
Consuelo's life went after the annulment.
Finally Married For Love
Quickly I'll end by telling you that Conseulo was able to marry for love when she married
the dashing lieutenant colonal Jacques Balsan, a record-breaking pioneer French balloon,
aircraft and hydroplane pilot on July 4th, 1921.
He had been a suitor of hers when she was a teenager in her mother's house in New York
and he had been in love with her even then.He married her immediately after her divorce
from the 9th Duke of Marlborough.
This was the Gold of her 1953 memoir where she told of a very happy marriage that lasted
until Jacques' death in 1956.
After many years living abroad, facing war in Europe and a harrowing escape from the
Nazi's by Balsan, the couple eventually returned to the United States to live out their years
together.
Jacques Balsan died on November 4th, 1956 at his home, 1 Sutton Place New York City.
Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan died at Southampton Long Island on December 6th, 1964.
She was buried alongside her younger son in the churchyard at St Martin's Church, Oxfordshire,
England, very near her former home, Blenheim Palace.