Please meet the elite population of a small but illustrious gang of feisty femmes who have ridden the roller coaster from regular to royal (or nearly royal) –– with a heaping helping of hot-n-spicy rebel stirred in! Let’s begin with the junior league, featuring Daisy Winters, the Florida-based lil sis of Prince Alex’s future princess Ellie:

In a Daze

It has not gone unnoticed that prince-predator Daisy Winters has fallen in with the Royal Wreckers in a fast and furious fashion. First, she was caught cloak-and-dagger-style slipping out of the royal prince’s ‘nightclub of iniquity,’ no doubt ratcheting the royal mum’s blood pressure to an off-with-her-head level. Then the American Girl was snapped in a slightly illicit sich with the Wrecker-in-Chief. (For the “wreck-ord,” we admit, it was probably THE MOST romantic equine moment of the millennia –– and the pics prove it!) Will Daisy’s hunting land her in hot water –– or Holyrood?

Truth –– and Consequences

The most famous story of an American girl who rocked a monarchy Big Time (and would have been queen of England if things had gone differently) is that of twice-divorced Wallis Simpson. She enchanted royal son Edward back in the day when he was simply the Prince of Wales.  But then Ed ascended the throne in 1936 to become King Edward VIII of England and things took a turn. But just months into his reign, he made it known to his family that he wanted to marry the bewitching Wallis. Well, the very thought of Edward marrying a divorcée went against all the norms of the day in Britain and, behind closed castle doors, he was told the answer would be a firm “no.” But Edward could only follow his heart, so he made the extraordinary decision to give up the throne to marry Wallis. In a famous radio address, he announced the inconceivable: “I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.” And with that, he was King no more. After marrying Edward (who was reduced from the title of King to Duke), Wallis was given the title Duchess of Windsor (begrudgingly), and the dazzling duo ended up traveling the world in glamorous style (although, over the years, it was rumored that their relationship became quite fraught). One thing that is true: Hers was a life –– and a love –– that altered the very course of history!

The Dueling Princess

Feisty and witty Princess Pauline von Metternich, daughter of one Austria’s foremost statesmen, alternately charmed and alarmed 19th-century Viennese society with her antics—she stood on her head at balls, danced jigs, smoked cigarettes in public. But her most celebrated stunt came in August 1892, when publications across Europe carried a report that Princess P. had been in a duel. You see the sassy sovereign and her arch rival, the Countess Kilmannsegg, had “a fearful quarrel.” So fearful “that it could only be settled by blood”. The Princess and the Countess faced off with rapiers and would fight to the first draw of blood. Princess Pauline was named the victor in the third round, when she was injured slightly on the nose but also drew blood from the countess’s arm. Gives a whole new meaning to the term rapier wit!

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