Betsy Patterson Bonaparte was the richest woman in America…

.. when her husband Jerome deserted her under the orders of Napoleon, a pregnant Betsy sailed to France.  Napoleon forbid her landing on French soil.

The divorce was finally complete in 1815; in the meantime, Betsy lived in Baltimore, Maryland, USA with her father, where she managed his estates and businesses with resounding success and made them millionaires.

(portrait: Betsy in 1803 in American version of high society Regency style. Note the American’s use of golds, tans, browns due to sourcing from inside America at the time and the use of American textiles and dyes)