History ImpoverishedPatrician / RealLife

** Pu Yi, the [[UsefulNotes/NoMoreEmperors last ruler of a pan-Chinese Empire]], spent time in various prisons and sanitariums after being deposed. After being released from a Communist prison, he was allowed to live in an ordinary residence in Beijing. He spent the last three years of his life working as an editor for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference for 100 yuan per month (which was still good pay for 1967 Beijing).

* [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Imperial Russia]]: Unsurprisingly, impoverished nobles formed the bulk of [[UsefulNotes/PoliticalIdeologies Anarcho-Communism, Communist, and Socialist]] groups' leadership. This is because the middle class was equally prominent among [[UsefulNotes/PoliticalIdeologies Anarcho-Capitalist, Classic Liberal, and Social Liberal]] groups and the two kind of hated one another. The countryside-dwelling peasants who made up the vast bulk of the Russian population tended to be suspicious of the Impoverished Patrician-led groups because Anarcho-Communism was basically advocating a way of life (village communes) that they already had but with some unwanted changes (i.e. the collective ownership of all property), Socialism and Communism focused almost exclusively on urban issues, and Communism also was against private property. The Anarchist Bakunin and Communist UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin were of noble birth, albeit lesser nobility, as was Felix Dzerzhinsky (the founder of [[StateSec VCh]][[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre Ka]]).

*** In a reversal of the above trend, Louis of Battenberg--a junior German prince and son-in-law of UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria--decided to [[ImmigrantPatriotism become fully British]] and join the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy]]. During UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, he disclaimed all his German titles (and what little German property he had), Anglicising his name to Mountbatten. His nephew George V insisted that Prince Louis be made a British peer in compensation (and in recognition of his skill as a naval officer),[[note]]By the start of World War I, he'd risen to the rank of First Sea Lord, ''the'' highest professional position in the entire Royal Navy, only to be forced out of his job in the first months of the war by vicious anti-German sentiment.[[/note]] and initially wanted to make him a duke; Louis had to beg the king to give him some other peerage, as his only income--his naval salary--was not enough to support the style of a duke. George obliged--but made him a marquess (only one step below duke) to show his gratitude.[[labelnote:Postscript]]One of Louis' grandsons was none other than Prince Philip, longtime consort of UsefulNotes/ElizabethII. And one of his sons (Philip's uncle) Louis Mountbatten was an equally prominent Royal Navy admiral and later the last Viceroy of India.[[/labelnote]]

** 3rd century politician and military leader [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Bei Liu Bei]] spent a good portion of his youth making and selling mats and sandals with his mother despite being a distant relative of the currently ruling emperor, although he later managed to lift himself out of poverty due to his hard work, cunning, natural charisma, and a little bit of luck, and he died as a ruler of 1/3 of China.

*** In a reversal of the above trend, Louis of Battenberg--a junior German prince and son-in-law of UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria--decided to [[ImmigrantPatriotism become fully British]] and join the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy]]. He disclaimed all his German titles (and what little German property he had) during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, Anglicising his name to Mountbatten. His nephew George V insisted that Prince Louis be made a British peer in compensation (and in recognition of his skill as a naval officer), and initially wanted to make him a duke; Louis had to beg the king to give him some other peerage, as his only income--his naval salary--was not enough to support the style of a duke. George obliged--but made him a marquess (only one step below duke) to show his gratitude.[[labelnote:Postscript]]One of Louis' grandsons was none other than Prince Philip, longtime consort of UsefulNotes/ElizabethII. And one of his sons (Philip's uncle) Louis Mountbatten was an equally prominent Royal Navy admiral and later the last Viceroy of India.[[/labelnote]]

*** Perhaps the most famous example was of this phenomenon was Jenny Jerome marrying the Duke of Marlborough's uncle, Lord Randolph Churchill, [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII definitely a marriage that had its effect on history]], given that Lord Randolph and Jenny's son was none other than Sir UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill. Despite his reputation as the QuintessentialBritishGentleman, Winston was very proud of his American heritage, once upbraiding British military brass for insulting the US military in his presence. The fondness for America helped his special relationship with [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]], and no doubt his American ancestry contributed to the Congress' decision to grant him honorary citizenship of the United States (the first person so honored).[[note]]Churchill would not at that time have been eligible for actual American citizenship through his mother. In the late 19th century, American women who married foreign men generally lost their American citizenship upon marrying, and even if they retained their citizenship, they could not pass it on to their children born abroad. It wasn't until 1934 that children born outside the US to an American woman married to a non-American man could inherit U.S. citizenship from their mothers, and until 1978 they had to live in the US for a certain amount of time to claim it. In the event, Churchill never qualified. That said, for joke purposes, please feel free to note that under current U.S. law, Churchill would have been considered a "natural-born" citizen of the U.S. and have been able to become President.[[/note]] He even had the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" played at his funeral.

*** In a reversal of the above trend, Louis of Battenberg--a junior German prince and son-in-law of UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria--decided to [[ImmigrantPatriotism become fully British]] and join the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy]]. He disclaimed all his German titles (and what little German property he had) during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. His nephew George V insisted that Prince Louis be made a British peer in compensation (and in recognition of his skill as a naval officer), and initially wanted to make him a duke; Louis had to beg the king to give him some other peerage, as his only income--his naval salary--was not enough to support the style of a duke. George obliged--but made him a marquess (only one step below duke) to show his gratitude.[[labelnote:Postscript]]One of Louis' grandsons was none other than Prince Philip, longtime consort of UsefulNotes/ElizabethII.[[/labelnote]]

** On that note, many Brits and Americans of British descent, including all the U.S. presidents (even Barack Obama), can trace their ancestral lines to William the Conqueror. Of course, not all of them are official members of the Royal Family, and, with the passage of nearly ten centuries, few of them are rich, let alone filthy rich.

* Creator/AudreyHepburn, whose mother was a Dutch baroness. During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, her Dutch/Belgian family's property, bank accounts, and even heirlooms were confiscated by the Germans. Audrey and her family suffered greatly from the Dutch famine of the winter of 1944-45, and the effects of malnutrition remained with her all her life (in fact, part of the reason she became an actress - rather than her original goal of a ballerina - was because her health was to frail to sustain the rigors of dancing).

*** In a reversal of the above trend, Louis of Battenberg--a junior German prince and son-in-law of UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria--decided to [[ImmigrantPatriotism become fully British]] and join the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy]]. He disclaimed all his German titles (and what little German property he had) during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. His nephew George V insisted that Prince Louis be made a British peer in compensation (and in recognition of his skill as a naval officer), and initially wanted to make him a duke; Louis had to beg the king to give him some other peerage, as his only income--his naval salary--was not enough to support the style of a duke. George obliged--but made him a marquess (only one step below duke) to show his gratitude.[[labelnote:Postscript]]One of Louis' grandsons was none other than Prince Philip, longtime consort of [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen Elizabeth II]].[[/labelnote]]

* The [[https://www.cherrychapman.com/2018/07/17/monflanquin-a-true-twisted-machiavellian-plot-that-swindled-a-familys-chateau/ Védrines family]], aristocrats ennobled on 1828, became this as a result of being brainwashed by cult guru Thierry Tilly, who met them in 1999 and who pushed a persecution complex on them, while fleecing them. As a result, they lost around €5 million, including their family castle in Montflanquin, which they owned for ''four centuries''.

* Unsurprisingly, impoverished nobles formed the bulk of [[UsefulNotes/PoliticalIdeologies Anarcho-Communism, Communist, and Socialist]] groups' leadership in [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Imperial Russia]]. This is because the middle class was equally prominent among [[UsefulNotes/PoliticalIdeologies Anarcho-Capitalist, Classic Liberal, and Social Liberal]] groups and the two kind of hated one another. The countryside-dwelling peasants who made up the vast bulk of the Russian population tended to be suspicious of the Impoverished Patrician-led groups because Anarcho-Communism was basically advocating a way of life (village communes) that they already had but with some unwanted changes (i.e. the collective ownership of all property), Socialism and Communism focused almost exclusively on urban issues, and Communism also was against private property. The Anarchist Bakunin and Communist UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin were of noble birth, albeit lesser nobility, as was Felix Dzerzhinsky (the founder of [[StateSec VCh]][[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre Ka]]).
** Author Alexey Tolstoy, for example. A member of the famous Tolstoy clan, but quite poor when growing up. After fleeing Russia after the Revolution, he decided that being a poor artist, his aristocratic heritage didn't matter too much, and came back. He became a staunch supporter of Stalin and was considered a major figure in Socialist Realism, although his reputation fell by a lot after the fall of the Soviet Union. However, his work of science fiction and children's literature are still regarded fairly highly.
** Similarly to the Hungarian example below, there existed a whole social class of "Odnodvortsi", or "One-yard nobles" — that is, basically common farmers with a noble title, usually received as a military award or descended from the minor nobility tasked with the military service, which in 1866 was largely folded into Cossacks. One chief distinction that separated them from common peasants was that they had the right to own land (and sometimes even serfs), even though few held more land than an average serf.
** After the revolution, some Russian nobles exiled in France ended up as taximen; in Shanghai, they ended up as bodyguards or even ''caring for running dogs''.
** Felix Yusupov, Rasputin's assassin and sole heir to a colossal fortune larger than that of the Romanovs, found himself forced to sell off piece after piece of family heirlooms and priceless paintings in order to escape poverty. His wife, princess Irina, niece of the tsar, would go to parties wearing a string of black pearls given to her husband's family by UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat herself, after which she would come home, eat the food stolen for them by a gypsy friend and wash the family's underwear in the bathtub of their apartment. Their gardener was a Russian count who would work wearing a suit and a top hat, to the bewilderment of their visitors.
* Some section of the Hungarian nobility, the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_nobility#Groups_within_the_nobility nobles with one parcel]]'' were merely farmers and craftsmen with noble titles and lived in separate villages.
** In the 1840s, due to their poverty, Nicholas I reduced 64,000 of lesser szlachta to ''Odnodvortsi''.

* UsefulNotes/SimonBolivar is an unusual example of a patrician who [[ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules impoverished himself voluntarily as a matter of moral principle]]. Born to a family of aristocratic ''criollos'' (i.e. of European origin but born in the New World) that had come to Venezuela 200 years earlier, Bolívar was heir to a massive fortune... that consisted largely of agricultural estates and mines that depended on slave labor for their profits. In his youth, he was too focused on partying to much care, but as he grew into the radical and revolutionary he would become, he began to accept that [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slavery was indeed bad]], though like many rich liberals of his day he offhandedly dismissed the idea of actually ''abolishing'' slavery as impractical. However, after taking refuge in UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}} after the disastrous collapse of the Second Venezuelan Republic in 1815, Bolívar seems to have been persuaded of the moral urgency of abolishing slavery (and damn the consequences) during his extensive discussions with Haitian leader Alexandre Pétion. At the very least, Pétion had conditioned his promise to give Bolívar ships, guns, and men on a promise from Bolívar to end slavery in any territory he managed to control, and whatever Bolívar's convictions, he absolutely insisted on [[IGaveMyWord scrupulously keeping his promises]]. Whatever his reason, Bolívar absolutely followed through, pushing abolition in all the lands he liberated, and freeing all his own slaves as soon as he got back to his estates. The lack of slave labor and the continuing wars of independence meant that Bolívar could not sustain most of his properties profitably, and over time he lost them and thus most of his fortune. Thus, despite his historically massive family wealth and ancient (by Venezuelan standards) pedigree, Bolívar found himself a pauper whenever he was not in office (and admittedly, he was usually in office)--but he wouldn't have had it any other way.

* Creator/AudreyHepburn, whose mother was a Dutch baroness. During the war, her Dutch/Belgian family's property, bank accounts, and even heirlooms were confiscated by the Germans. Audrey and her family suffered greatly from the Dutch famine of the winter of 1944-45, and the effects of malnutrition remained with her all her life.

** By the time UsefulNotes/JamesTheFirst came to the throne of England in 1603, a century of war and inflation had practically bankrupted the Crown. He quickly began selling knighthoods (and inventing the concept of a baronetcy so he could sell ''those'' for ''more'' cash) and demanding money from the nobility. The nobility, in turn, were also running out of money, and increasingly leaning on the rising class of merchants... You can see [[UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar where this is going]], right?

*** Perhaps the most famous example was of this phenomenon was Jenny Jerome marrying the Duke of Marlborough's uncle, Lord Randolph Churchill [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Definitely a marriage that had its effect on history]], given that Lord Randolph and Jenny's son was none other than Sir UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill. Despite his reputation as the QuintessentialBritishGentleman, Winston was very proud of his American heritage, once upbraiding British military brass for insulting the US military in his presence. The fondness for America helped his special relationship with [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]], and no doubt his American ancestry contributed to the Congress' decision to grant him honorary citizenship of the United States (the first person so honored).[[note]]Churchill would not at that time have been eligible for actual American citizenship through his mother. In the late 19th century, American women who married foreign men generally lost their American citizenship upon marrying, and even if they retained their citizenship, they could not pass it on to their children born abroad. It wasn't until 1934 that children born outside the US to an American woman married to a non-American man could inherit U.S. citizenship from their mothers, and until 1978 they had to live in the US for a certain amount of time to claim it. In the event, Churchill never qualified. That said, for joke purposes, please feel free to note that under current U.S. law, Churchill would have been considered a "natural-born" citizen of the U.S. and have been able to become President.[[/note]]

* The von Trapp family -- yes, ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'' guys. It wasn't in the movie, but it's described in Maria von Trapp's book. Financial difficulties after the "Anschluss" (annexation of Austria) caused a lot of bank failures -- including theirs -- and all of Captain von Trapp's savings were wiped out overnight.

* Unsurprisingly, impoverished nobles formed the bulk of [[UsefulNotes/PoliticalIdeologies Anarcho-Communism, Communist, and Socialist]] groups' leadership in Imperial Russia. This is because the middle class was equally prominent among [[UsefulNotes/PoliticalIdeologies Anarcho-Capitalist, Classic Liberal, and Social Liberal]] groups and the two kind of hated one another. The countryside-dwelling peasants who made up the vast bulk of the Russian population tended to be suspicious of the Impoverished Patrician-led groups because Anarcho-Communism was basically advocating a way of life (village communes) that they already had but with some unwanted changes (i.e. the collective ownership of all property), Socialism and Communism focused almost exclusively on urban issues, and Communism also was against private property. The Anarchist Bakunin and Communist UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin were of noble birth, albeit lesser nobility, as was Felix Dzerzhinsky (the founder of [[StateSec VCh]][[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre Ka]]).

* UsefulNotes/SimonBolivar is an unusual example of a patrician who [[ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules impoverished himself voluntarily as a matter of moral principle]]. Born to a family of aristocratic ''criollos'' (i.e. of European origin but born in the New World) that had come to Venezuela 200 years earlier, Bolívar was heir to a massive fortune...that consisted largely of agricultural estates and mines that depended on slave labor for their profits. In his youth, he was too focused on partying to much care, but as he grew into the radical and revolutionary he would become, he began to accept that [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slavery was indeed bad]], though like many rich liberals of his day he offhandedly dismissed the idea of actually ''abolishing'' slavery as impractical. However, after taking refuge in UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}} after the disastrous collapse of the Second Venezuelan Republic in 1815, Bolívar seems to have been persuaded of the moral urgency of abolishing slavery (and damn the consequences) during his extensive discussions with Haitian leader Alexandre Pétion. At the very least, Pétion had conditioned his promise to give Bolívar ships, guns, and men on a promise from Bolívar to end slavery in any territory he managed to control, and whatever Bolívar's convictions, he absolutely insisted on [[IGaveMyWord scrupulously keeping his promises]]. Whatever his reason, Bolívar absolutely followed through, pushing abolition in all the lands he liberated, and freeing all his own slaves as soon as he got back to his estates. The lack of slave labor and the continuing wars of independence meant that Bolívar could not sustain most of his properties profitably, and over time he lost them and thus most of his fortune. Thus, despite his historically massive family wealth and ancient (by Venezuelan standards) pedigree, Bolívar found himself a pauper whenever he was not in office (and admittedly, he was usually in office)--but he wouldn't have had it any other way.

* ''Film/GreyGardens'': 78-year-old "Big Edie" Beale and her 56-year-old daughter "Little Edie" Beale. Members of the very rich Bouvier family, they were, respectively, the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Unfortunately, husband/father Perce Beale left them, Big Edie's father John Bouvier disinherited her, and Little Edie never married. By the time the film finds them, they are [[CrazyCatLady Crazy Cat Ladies]] living in a filthy, dilapidated mansion that is all they have left.
* Creator/HPLovecraft came from a wealthy New England family that fell into poverty while he was a child. His grandfather was very rich but after his death, his fortune was badly mismanaged by relatives. By the end of his life, he was living on an $70-per-year annuity from a mortgaged gravel pit and whatever money he could scrounge up ghostwriting pulp stories.
** To wit, his middle name Phillips represents his lineage to one of the "Boston Brahmin" families, a nobility whose roots date to the landing at Plymouth Rock. Many of his traits—his Anglophilia, his distrust of the "dark" other—were linked to that, as did his inability to find work (since he found menial labor to be beneath him).

* The [[https://www.cherrychapman.com/2018/07/17/monflanquin-a-true-twisted-machiavellian-plot-that-swindled-a-familys-chateau/ Védrines family]], aristocrats ennobled on 1828, became this as a result of being brainwashed by cult guru Thierry Tilly, who met them in 1999 and who pushed a persecution complex on them, while fleecing them. As a result, they lost around €5 million, including their family castle in Montflanquin, which they owned for ''four centuries''.
* Most Southern families of any means whatsoever incurred this trope after the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar. To this day, the American South has a highly unusual lack of correlation between social class and [[NouveauRiche wealth]].

** [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Emperor Charles I of the Austro-Hungarian Empire]], was eventually exiled to Madeira after a failed bid to reclaim the Hungarian throne, dying of pneumonia in 1922. His family, meanwhile, continued living in relative poverty for a time, though the Habsburgs would eventually regain their old prestige and wealth by the time Otto became involved in politics, albeit more modestly.

* In the United Kingdom, it was very common for a family with a lot of land to squander it on women, horses, gambling, and alcohol.
** Many, many aristocratic families have ended up paupers. A particular example came in the first half of the 19th century: cheap grain from the United States and Canada (and to a lesser extent South America) started to crater the price of food in Britain. While this was good for most British people, it was a disaster for the aristocracy, who were mostly large farmers and earned most of their income from selling grain. They managed to pass the Corn Laws restricting the importation of foreign grain for a time but eventually these were repealed, and the bottom fell out of the grain market, leaving the fortunes of the British aristocracy to fall with it. Rising wages, inheritance tax, and the reduced influence of the House of Lords in the late 19th and early 20th centuries did the rest.
** This was sometimes resolved by [[NobilityMarriesMoney marrying into new money families]], like an American young lady named [[GenderBlenderName Consuelo]] Vanderbilt marrying the Duke of Marlborough.
** Or Jenny Jerome marrying the Duke of Marlborough's uncle, Lord Randolph Churchill [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Definitely a marriage that had its effect on history]], given that Lord Randolph and Jenny's son was none other than Sir UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill. Despite his reputation as the QuintessentialBritishGentleman, Winston was very proud of his American heritage, once upbraiding British military brass for insulting the US military in his presence. The fondness for America definitely helped his special relationship with [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]], and no doubt his American ancestry contributed to the Congress' decision to grant him honorary citizenship of the United States (the first person so honored).[[note]]Churchill would not at that time have been eligible for actual American citizenship through his mother. In the late 19th century, American women who married foreign men generally lost their American citizenship upon marrying, and even if they retained their citizenship they could not pass it on to their children born abroad. It wasn't until 1934 that children born outside the US to an American woman married to a non-American man could inherit U.S. citizenship from their mothers, and until 1978 they had to live in the US for a certain amount of time to claim it. In the event, Churchill never qualified. That said, for joke purposes, please feel free to note that under current U.S. law, Churchill would have been considered a "natural-born" citizen of the U.S. and have been able to become President.[[/note]]
** A couple of notable recent examples of British aristocrats who ended up impoverished were Edward [=FitzGerald=], 7th Duke of Leinster, who was part of one of Ireland's oldest noble families but died by suicide in a bedsit in London in 1976 and Angus Montagu, 12th Duke of Manchester, who on his death in 2002 had lived in a flat in Bedford for many years. Ironically, Lord Manchester's great-grandfather had earlier married one of those American heiresses, and that lady was also called [[GenderBlenderName Consuelo]].
** A lot of rich Americans made their way to Britain in the 19th century, creating a lot of Anglo-Americans in the British gentry (the most famous being the aforementioned Winston Churchill). Another famous one is the Astor family, a family of German immigrants to the US who made their fortunes in the US (you may have heard of their hotel in New York, the Waldorf-Astoria...) who managed to not only marry British nobles but have the male line ennobled itself (as the Viscounts Astor). Nancy Astor, the first female MP in Britain and inveterate House of Commons opponent of Churchill [[note]]"Mr Churchill, if you were my husband, I'd put poison in your tea." "Lady Astor, if I were your husband I'd drink it."[[/note]], was herself an American who married into this family (confusing ain't it).
** In 1478, George Neville, 1st Duke of Bedford, was stripped from his peerage for lack of money to maintain the style of a duke.
** Coming at this from the opposite direction, Louis of Battenberg--a junior German prince and son-in-law of UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria who decided to [[ImmigrantPatriotism become fully British]] and join the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy]]--disclaimed all his German titles (and what little German property he had) during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. His nephew George V insisted that Prince Louis be made a British peer in compensation (and in recognition of his skill as a naval officer), and initially wanted to make him a duke; Louis had to beg the king to give him some other peerage, as his only income--his naval salary--was not enough to support the style of a duke. George obliged--but made him a marquess (only one step below duke) to show his gratitude.[[labelnote:Postscript]]One of Louis' grandsons is none other than Prince Philip, longtime consort of [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen Elizabeth II]].[[/labelnote]]
* By the time UsefulNotes/JamesTheFirst came to the throne of England in 1603, a century of war and inflation had practically bankrupted the Crown. He quickly began selling knighthoods (and inventing the concept of a baronetcy so he could sell ''those'' for ''more'' cash) and demanding money from the nobility. The nobility, in turn, were running out of money, increasingly leaning on the rising merchants... You can see [[UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar where this is going]], right?
* Many common last names from Eastern Ireland (such as Fitzgerald, Morell, D'Arcy, Grace, Burke, and Russell) can be traced back to old powerful Anglo-French and Norman noble dynasties who lost all of their wealth, land, and power during the UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar and ended up as poor serfs and farmers under the rule of the Tudors and the plantation system.
* Many of the early ''Conquistatores'' came from landless ''hidalgo'' families. When you have all the military training and constrained career choices that other nobles have, but no land, the New World sure seems like the place to be.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_de_Valdivia Pedro de Valdivia]] and ''many'' other Spanish ''hidalgos'' fell into poverty in the Renaissance times and later, so they came to America in search of riches, lands, servants, and especially honor and a name for themselves. The results were... well, varied: some ''did'' become famous and powerful, others died in either poverty or the war, etc.
* Baron Sir Benjamin Slade, the (childless) last scion of a British noble family that had fallen on hard times, famously announced in 2006 that he was holding "open auditions" for an heir who would be able to afford to maintain the house's ancestral holdings after he died. The following year, he named distant cousin Isaac Slade, lead singer of Music/TheFray, as his successor.
* Many, ''many'' royal families were overthrown and lost their stuff after the two World Wars:

* During the 19th century in Spain, nobility lost their privileges, most notably tax exemption. This hit the lower nobility, whom often became landless laborers as a result, particularly hard.

* 78-year-old "Big Edie" Beale and her 56-year-old daughter "Little Edie" Beale, subjects of the famous documentary ''Film/GreyGardens''. Big Edie and Little Edie were members of the very rich Bouvier family. They were, respectively, the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Unfortunately, husband/father Perce Beale left them, and Big Edie's father John Bouvier disinherited her, and Little Edie never married. By the time the film finds them, they are [[CrazyCatLady Crazy Cat Ladies]] living in a filthy, dilapidated mansion that is all they have left.

* Japan:
** Happened with a lot of aristocratic families in Japan around the UsefulNotes/SengokuJidai, to the point where lords and even emperors were reduced to selling their calligraphy for money. Also, around this time merchants were the ones with all the wealth; unfortunately they were despised and rules had to be made so they wouldn't look wealthier than their betters.
** In the Tokugawa period, low-ranking samurai could easily be as poor or poorer than the peasants they were supposed to rule over (A key part of this was that the daimyos traditionally paid the samurai in rice, which the samurai would resell for whatever else they needed. When the rise of the merchant class caused the bottom to drop out of the rice market, the buying power of their salaries went down with it even though their pay was technically unchanged). Many went so far as to sell their swords or replace the metal blades with wood or bamboo.
** Happened yet again in the [[UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration Meiji era]], with the (at least outward) abolition of the feudal system. The daimyo (feudal lords) managed okay (for instance, the Tokugawas, who had been overthrown as Shoguns, are today shipping magnates). A lot of the samurai didn't.
** Happens to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Nashimoto_Morimasa Nashimoto Morimasa]] in 1947 following the redefinition of who is specifically part of the Imperial Family. Unlike most other former members, he didn't receive any compensation for his losses due to his military career. He ends up dying in poverty in 1951 as a result.
** Some Japanese ''Emperors'' were forced to work to pay for their own coronations. One's wife had to sell flowers to pay for her husband's coronation. Since the Japanese Emperor [[PuppetKing has been little more than a figurehead for centuries]], this is hardly surprising.

* The Roman Republic was full of them:
** UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar and Lucius Sergius Catilina. Both were pretty fair examples of people who thought that their family's position should have granted them a higher station in life than they actually had and led them to challenge the system. It worked out pretty well for Caesar ([[EtTuBrute until the end]]), but less so for Catiline, who would be on the receiving end of one of the greatest [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech condemnatory speeches]] in human history. There is no real consensus on Catilina. Depictions vary from just another corrupt politician using the poor for his own gain to someone along the line of the Gracchi brothers.
** Lucius Cornelius Sulla definitely started out as one of these.
* Creator/HPLovecraft came from a wealthy family that fell into poverty while he was a child. His grandfather was very rich but after his death, his fortune was badly mismanaged by relatives. By the end of his life, he was living on an $70-per-year annuity from a mortgaged gravel pit and whatever money he could scrounge up ghostwriting pulp stories.
** To wit, his middle name Phillips represents his lineage to one of the "Boston Brahmin" families, a nobility whose roots date to the landing at Plymouth Rock. Many of his traits—His Anglophilia, his distrust of the "dark" other—were linked to that, as did his inability to find work (since he found menial labor to be beneath him).
* The descendants of UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte (or rather, the descendants of his relatives) fit this trope. One of the (disputed) heirs to the throne has studied management. The other is an economist. Napoleon himself grew up as this.

* More than one Catholic saint of either gender had a background like this too. For example, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Hurtado Saint Alberto Hurtado]] came from a well-off family, but once his father died when he was a kid his family soon went into bankruptcy and had to sell their land, which was a '''big''' deal among Chilean elite back then. He went to become a ScholarshipStudent in both school and university, growing up into a lawyer and Jesuit priest and ''the'' advocate for social Christianity in Chile.
* Creator/AudreyHepburn, whose mother was a Dutch baroness. During the war, her Dutch/Belgian family's property, bank accounts, and even heirlooms were confiscated by the Germans. Audrey and her family suffered greatly from the Dutch famine of the winter of 1944-45, and the effects of malnutrition remained with her all her life.

* Angelo Roncalli's family were sharecroppers, but they descended from a very secondary branch of an Italian noble clan. Angelo himself would go the RagsToRiches (sorta) way and become [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Pope John XXIII]].
* Creator/AntoineDeSaintExupery was ''born'' to a well-to-do old-money family: his father was a count and an insurance executive (France, having long been a republic, got used to working nobles long before Britain began thinking about it). However, he died when Antoine was 3 years old, leaving the family with far less income. As a result, his mother had to severely cut back in order to send her children to good schools.
* Pu Yi, the [[UsefulNotes/NoMoreEmperors last ruler of a pan-Chinese Empire]], spent time in various prisons and sanitariums after being deposed. After being released from a Communist prison, he was allowed to live in an ordinary residence in Beijing. He spent the last three years of his life working as an editor for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference for 100 yuan per month (which was a pretty high pay for 1967 Beijing).

* In medieval Poland, nobles were allowed to add a -ski to the end of their family names (the equivalent of an English knight adding a Sir in front of his name). Many of the lower nobility were rather poor which became an issue during the Elective Monarchy period when all the nobles had the right to vote on major laws and who would become the next king. Foreign powers would bribe the lower nobility into voting against the country's best interest which eventually led to Poland being taken apart by its neighbours. Once the nobility lost their power, most people stopped caring about enforcing the naming conventions and many non-nobles added -ski to their names in order to improve their social standing. This was so prevalent that it is mostly impossible to tell on the basis of names alone who is descended from impoverished nobles and who from upstart peasants.
** In the 1840s, due to their poverty, Nicholas I reduced 64,000 of lesser szlachta to ''Odnodvortsi''.
* The country nobility of France under the Ancien Régime often fell under this. For instance, Louis-Nicolas Davout, future Marshal of the First Empire, could trace his lineage back to the 11th century but he was born in a rented farmhouse.

* 3rd century Chinese politician and military leader [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Bei Liu Bei]] spent a good portion of his youth making and selling mats and sandals with his mother despite being a distant relative of the currently ruling emperor, although he later managed to lift himself out of poverty due to his hard work, cunning, natural charisma, and a little bit of luck, and he died as a ruler of 1/3 of China.