History Main / NobilityMarriesMoney

* ''Literature/PenricsDemon'' starts with an example on the lower end of the spectrum. Not only is the Barony of kin Jurald a petty mountain vale where the local sports include poaching, archery, and tax evasion; but what the last head of the family did not blow on gambling and drink, the current one is bleeding away with his susceptibility to "any pious beggar, be they in rags or temple robes." Therefore Penric kin Jurald, younger brother to the incumbent, was on his way down the road to make his betrothal to the daughter of a prosperous cheese merchant in town official when the plot started.

** Just to start with, it forms the backstory of the show. Lord Grantham went to New York to find his bride; he found Cora Levinson, daughter of a dry-goods magnate from [[UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}} Cincinnati]]. A significant fraction of the first season's drama comes from the fact that, at the old Earl's insistence, Cora's money was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entail entailed]] to the estate - i.e. it can't be separated from the land and title. 30 years later, they only have daughters (outside a few ancient, mostly Scottish oddities, British noble titles are very strictly part of the HeirClubForMen), and thus the family is very anxious about what will happen to the daughters.[[note]]Irony of ironies, entail [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Property_Act_1925 would be abolished thirteen years later]].[[/note]]

* ''Manga/BoysOverFlowers'': Domyoji's mom, [[EvilMatriarch Kaede]], is a super wealthy businesswoman who puts money and status above everything. After succeeding in marrying off her daughter, Tsubaki, to her chosen wealthy businessman, she tries to marry off her son to her chosen woman from a fellow wealthy family. Upon learning her son is in love with a commoner, Tsukushi, she tries everything to keep them apart, including forcing Tsukushi's parents and even friends' parents business go downhill or fired from their jobs. [[spoiler:Eventually she's failed as Domyoji never stops loving Tsukushi that she reluctantly let her son [[MarryForLove marries Tsukushi out of love]]]].

* ''Manga/BoysOverFlowers'': Domyoji's mom, [[EvilMatriarch Kaede]] is a super wealthy businesswoman who puts money and status above everything. After succeeding in marrying off her daughter, Tsubaki, to her chosen wealthy businessman, she tries to marry off her son to her chosen woman from a fellow wealthy family. Upon learning her son is in love with a commoner, Tsukushi, she tries everything to keep them apart, including forcing Tsukushi's parents and even friends' parents business go downhill or fired from their jobs. [[spoiler:Eventually she's failed as Domyoji never stops loving Tsukushi that she reluctantly let her son [[MarryForLove marries Tsukushi out of love]]]].

* ''Manga/BoysOverFlowers'': Domyoji's mom, [[EvilMatriarch Kaede]] seems to have this principal. After succeeding in marrying off her daughter, Tsubaki, to her chosen wealthy businessman, she tries to marry off her son to her chosen woman from fellow wealthy family. [[spoiler:Eventually she failed as Domyoji never stops loving Tsukushi that she reluctantly let her son [[MarryForLove marries Tsukushi out of love]]]].

* ''Manga/BoysOverFlowers'': Domyoji's mom, [[EvilMatriarch Kaede]] seems to have this principal. After succeeding in marrying her daughter, Tsubaki, to her chosen wealthy businessman, she tries to marry off her son to her chosen woman from fellow wealthy family. [[spoiler:Eventually she failed as Domyoji never stops loving Tsukushi that she reluctantly let her son marries Tsukushi]].

* In ''Film/TheLeopard'' Don Fabrizio, a Sicilian Prince, arranges a marriage for his nephew, an [[ImpoverishedPatrician impoverished princeling]] with the daughter of a NouveauRiche (whose father was one of his peasants). Fortunately the betrothed are besotted with each other, and the practical advantages of the marriage are a great element of their infatuation.

This has been TruthInTelevision for centuries, but it became especially notorious during the [[UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain Victorian Era]]/TheGildedAge when many British noble families were running out of money and married their sons to brides from families of American industrialists and businessmen (the most prominent example being Consuelo Vanderbilt and the Duke of Marlborough; in the same family, the match between Lord Randolph Churchill and American finance heiress Jennie Jerome produced UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill). These women were known derogatorily as "dollar princesses". The trope is also sometimes subverted in Continental European works when provincial NouveauRiche males seek lovers/mistresses/[[HighClassCallGirl courtesans]] from ImpoverishedPatrician families, either those who were [[BlueBlood born so]] or even women who have been married at some point in their past to a BlueBlood and so lay claim to a real or fictitious title.

* ''VisualNovel/TheUnexpectedHeiress'': A marriage is arranged between Francis Somerset, the son of a viscount whose estate is [[ImpoverishedPatrician running low on funds]], and Amelia Hayes, the daughter of a NouveauRiche American magnate. After Amelia's death, the families are determined to make the marriage go through and send in the protagonist after her.

* In the backstory to ''Literature/HarryPotter'', [[ImpoverishedPatrician impoverished pureblood witch]] Merope Gaunt left her degenerate family to marry a wealthy {{Muggle|s}}, Tom Riddle Senior, whom she'd drugged with a LovePotion. This...didn't work out. Her husband abandoned her once she stopped doping him, so she quickly ended up destitute and alone, and her remaining relatives never saw any of the Riddle family's wealth either. Ultimately, instead of rejuvenating the Gaunt family's wealth, marrying outside BlueBlood rejuvenated their ''bloodline'', allowing their son to become one of the most powerful wizards of all time instead of being pathetically inbred. Unfortunately, this son turned out to be Tom Riddle Junior, also known as [[BigBad Lord Voldemort]]. He was at least as depraved as his ancestors -- not because of the Gaunt family's hereditary mental illness, but because the artificial love potion under which he was conceived hindered his ability to feel genuine love, and because he grew up in a loveless orphanage after Merope [[DeathByChildbirth died giving birth to him]]. Voldemort also developed ideas on [[FantasticCasteSystem pureblood supremacism]] akin to his maternal family's attitudes, apparently unaware of how his Muggle parentage [[HybridPower benefited him]].

'''Ella's father:''' She has money, Ella. And she's very fond of my title. It was either get married or sell the house.

* In ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'': the blue-blood girl Rose gets engaged to the millionaire Caledon. Rose's father got her family into debt, and their family name is their only real asset now. [[spoiler: After the whole Titanic "adventure" takes place and Rose loses her TrueLove, the poor artist Jack, she hides from Cal and disappears from his life, ultimately becoming a famous actress.]]

** Emperor Gregor's marriage to Laisa Toscane of Komarr has undertones of this as, despite the Emperor being by no means an ImpoverishedPatrician, the merchant fleets of the Toscanes deal in ''just that much wealth'' to add some of that flavor to their relationship. Taxes from Komarr are an incredibly significant income stream for the Barrayaran Imperium.

* In [[Literature/MastersOfRome The First Man In Rome]], the marriage between Gaius Marius and Julia Caesaris Major is this. The Julii Caesar are an ImpoverishedPatrician family who need money to ensure their sons can become senators and their daughters can have sizable dowries to make decent marriages. Marius, on the other hand, is very wealthy but his plebian status means he can only go so far in the patrician-dominated senate. In exchange for bankrolling his brothers-in-law's political careers and sister-in-law's dowry, Marius would gain a a patrician wife and through her, acceptance in the highest levels of politics. [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage Julia and Marius fell in love immediately, though, so it all worked out]].

* In ''Series/MediciMastersOfFlorence'', Giovanni de' Medici, who came up from the bottom, marries off his elder son Cosimo to Contessina de' Bardi, a noblewoman, who is the daughter of an ImpoverishedPatrician. Her father made some bad investments and is now forced to give his daughter away for a fraction of what he would otherwise get. Meanwhile, Giovanni sees this as an opportunity to legitimize his House as a noble family. While Contessina's father hopes his daughter will serve as his eyes and ears in the Medici camp, Cosimo makes it clear that he expects his wife to be loyal to him and to the Medici, no one else.

%% * Two of the marriages in ''Literature/BelisariusSeries''. Both turned out as PerfectlyArrangedMarriage, Eric Flint having a fondness for this.

* In ''Manga/VictorianRomanceEmma'', this is the main reason Viscount Campbell approves his daughter Eleanor's engagement to William Jones despite his disdain for anyone who is not an aristocrat (the Joneses are wealthy merchants, and relative newcomers to high society). There is a great deal of gossip about the Jones family fortune and the Campbell family's financial straits at the party celebrating their engagement.

* In ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker 2'', the PlayerCharacter and the Daughter can be considered as local nobility since the Father is the Hero who saved the Realm years ago; if the Daughter defeats a Young Dragon from the Western Desert, he will fall in LoveAtFirstPunch with her, so he and [[CoolOldGuy his grandfather]] will later offer the Father 10,000G as engagement gift. If the player engages the daughter to the Young Dragon, the player can kiss their money problems goodbye from then on. [[spoiler: If the Daughter has no other prospect love interest, they get married and it's all but stated that, despite the groom's wimpiness, [[WeaknessTurnsHerOn they're more]] [[MarriageBeforeRomance or less]] [[HappilyMarried happy in the end]]. However, if the Daughter has the [[UptownGirl Prince of the Realm]] as a suitor, she'll marry him instead [[RagstoRoyalty and become Queen]], [[TheFirstCutIsTheDeepest leaving the Dragon heartbroken]].]]

* In ''Literature/TheLeopard'' Don Fabrizio, a Sicilian Prince, arranges a marriage for his nephew, an [[ImpoverishedPatrician impoverished princeling]] with the daughter of a NouveauRiche (whose father was one of his peasants). Fortunately the betrothed are besotted with each other, and the practical advantages of the marriage are a great element of their infatuation.

This has been TruthInTelevision for centuries, but it became especially notorious during the [[UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain Victorian Era]]/TheGildedAge, when many British noble families were running out of money and married their sons to brides from families of American industrialists and businessmen (the most prominent example being Consuelo Vanderbilt and the Duke of Marlborough; in the same family, the match between Lord Randolph Churchill and American finance heiress Jennie Jerome produced UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill). These women were known derogatorily as "dollar princesses". The trope is also sometimes subverted in Continental European works when provincial NouveauRiche males seek lovers/mistresses/[[HighClassCallGirl courtesans]] from ImpoverishedPatrician families, either those who were [[BlueBlood born so]] or even women who have been married at some point in their past to a BlueBlood and so lay claim to a real or fictitious title.

* Found in ''Manga/SteppingOnRoses'': Nozomu, the heir to a banking fortune, has a arranged marriage to ImpoverishedPatrician Miu. When she asks about divorcing Nozumu, her father says that they need his money.

* PlayedForDrama in ''Manga/TheRoseOfVersailles'': Alain de Soissons and his family are impoverished nobles, with his sister Diane being engaged to another impoverished noble... Who suddenly marries the daughter of a rich family without even bothering to call off the engament to Diane until the last moment, [[DrivenToSuicide causing her to kill herself]] and [[HeroicBSOD Alain to sit near her body in tears for days]].

* In the Disney movie ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', Prince Naveen comes to New Orleans to find a young woman from a suitably wealthy family to marry, because his parents have cut him off. [[spoiler: After many adventures and quite the BelligerentSexualTension with the the low-born Tiana, however, they marry and they work together in the restaurant she builds.]]

*** Lyonel Corbray is a prominent example. We hear that the only one of the Arryn branchs aside from the main line that isn't impoverished are the Gulltown Arryns, due to their marrying merchants.

** In the Westerlands, the Westerlings, an old and honorable but increasingly minor house, married into the Spicers, a relatively new house formed by a family of spice merchants. Because of this the other Westerlands Houses look down on them.
* ''Literature/{{Persuasion}}'' by Creator/JaneAusten:
** Mr. William Elliot of the Kellynch family and a future baronet (Sir Walter's heir presumptive) married a low born woman from a butcher's family who was vastly rich. He wanted to be independent and get wealthy quickly, and when he was young, he did not value the baronetcy and his Blue Blood connections a lot. His wife loved him very much, but he didn't love her at all. It's implied he treated her rather harshly, if not outright cruelly. Moreover, Mr Elliot doesn't mix with her family after her death, so they gained very little from this marriage while Mr Elliot was all take and no give.
** Anne Elliot fell for Captain Wentworth before the start of the plot. Her friends and aristocratic family tell her to reject him because he's poor. A few years on, he's risen up through the ranks of the navy and made quite a lot of money, while Sir Walter Elliot is deep in debts. However, the marriage of Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot relies on their love, and he doesn't care much for her coming from Blue Blood and she doesn't really care about his great wealth beyond being happy that they can afford to get married and have a comfortable income.
* In ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'', Willoughby marries Miss Gray. He's a gentleman (and a scoundrel) of the landed gentry with a mansion house called Combe Magna, and he will inherit another house from his childless kinswoman, Mrs. Smith. However, he lives extravagantly and is deep in debts. Miss Gray has a dowry of fifty thousand pounds, which makes her the wealthiest heiress in Creator/JaneAusten's 'verse. Her feelings for him are not entirely clear, but he was a fashionable, handsome man, and she wanted to get married so she could part with her guardians with whom she didn't get along. Willoughby claims he loves Marianne Dashwood, who is lovely, intelligent, and passionate, but poor as a church mouse; Miss Gray, being rather plain, is understandably jealous, but it's only Willoughby's words. They are not an ideal couple but the narrator says at the end of the book that they were not ''always'' unhappy together.

* The first ''Literature/{{Flashman}}'' book averts this, then fulfills it. Harry Flashman is first shown as a well-to-do member of the gentry who is forced to marry a Scottish merchant's daughter who he seduced for her beauty, not money. Later on his father reveals he has squandered what is left of the family fortune, leaving Harry totally dependent on his wife's money. In a later book he refers to her as a 'Scotch pension", a Victorian expression referring to this trope.

* ''Literature/JaneEyre'': The expected match between Miss Rosamond Oliver and St. John Rivers is supposed to be Nobility Marries Money as well as a marriage based on mutual love and affection. Miss Oliver is an heiress, the only child of Mr. Oliver who is the proprietor of a needle-factory and iron foundry. St. John Rivers is a clergyman and Impoverished Patrician. Jane the narrator notes that Mr Oliver considered his good birth, old name and his respectable profession as sufficient compensation for the want of fortune. However, St. John aspires to be a missionary and he sacrifices love and domestic happiness for his lofty dream.

** The old, widowed and impoverished Lord Aysgarth (whose title, although "merely" a barony, is apparently very old) tries to pull this on Martha Levinson; she declines, saying she "ha[s] no interest in being a 'great lady,'" but offers to invite him to Newport so he can meet some old rich American widows who do. His daughter, Madeleine, has more success with Harold Levinson, but he eventually proves as savvy as his mother. In the end they exchange YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speeches and part as friends.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'' mentions that this is common in The Empire, and less so in Bretonnia. In The Empire, noble titles can be bought and sold and becoming nobility through marrying is neither uncommon nor particularly scandalous. In Bretonnia, where [[FantasticCasteSystem in order to be a noble all your grandparents must also have been nobles]], only truly desperate nobles or lesser sons with little prospect of an inheritance marry merchants because none of their children will be nobles and thus able to carry on the family name.

* The marriage of [[Literature/MastersofRome Gaius Marius]] to Julia, aunt of Gaius Julius Caesar, is a classic example. The Caesars are impoverished nobility with just enough means to maintain a decent lifestyle and Marius is a very wealthy 'New Man' who desperately needs some political clout. In all justice to Julia's father he likes and admires Marius as a man and believes he will be a good husband. Also the proposed bride and groom fancy each other from the start making it a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage.