![]() Not wanting to contest the authenticity of certain parchments on which the ink of the royal signatures had barely had time to dry, at least people allowed themselves to smile. It was also a fine trump card for achieving an "American marriage," and the English dukes of the gay nineties made the young American heiresses pay very dearly for their titles. ![]() It proved that a mention in the Almanach de Gotha was the best consecration for the career of a man of the world. At the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century there was in the third part of the genealogical handbook a display of astonishing titles, some of them rescued from long oblivion, others freshly emerged from the chancelleries of the Vatican or of the king of Spain. In addition to many families tricked out with imaginary titles, and thus excluded, there were some authentic families, the Princes Bagration, who did not appear for the simple reason that they had refused or omitted to send in an entry. The Almanach de Gotha therefore did not aspire to group all the ducal and princely families of Europe. ![]()
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