de bene esse: America's Million Dollar Princesses

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Marriages between monied American women and noble Englishmen in the 19th and early 20th century produced many famous offspring, including Princess Diana and Winston Churchill.

While some heiresses found love as well as peerage in crossing the Atlantic, others were marriages of convenience -

English Lords needed 'new money' to rescue crumbling fortunes.

New series, Million Dollar Princesses, on Britain's ITV3 reveals, some of these unions would change the course of history - including putting Queen Elizabeth on the throne. continue

Frances 'Fanny' Work was an American heiress

Frances 'Fanny' Work, an American heiress, was Princess Diana's ancestor

Jennie Jerome, a society beauty born in Brooklyn married Lord Randolph Churchill and is best known as the mother of British prime minister Winston Churchill

Lord Randolph Churchill was the second son of the Duke of Marlborough and died of the effects of tertiary syphilis. Winston Churchill and Princess Diana were related through the Spencer's, descendants of John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough. Winston Churchill was a Spencer, his surname was Spencer-Churchill.

Princes William and Harry are also descended from Windsor, Protestant German aristocrats or Hanoverian of the House of Welf, that dates back to Charlemagne, one of the oldest princely houses in Europe.

A clear genetic link to the world's most populous nation, India, was made through Eliza Kewark, Prince William's great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, long described as Armenian, Kewark was of, at the least, half-Indian blood. Genetic ancestry testing company, BritainsDNA, announced its findings two years ago.