Cheers, Daddio! History's 5 Wealthiest Women - Courtesy of Dad.....

history's wealthiest women, world's wealthiest women, wealthy women
 

ELIZABETH 1

First of the royal Liz’s,  this one had at her disposal the current equivalent of a cool 142.9 billion, the bulk of it inherited.

Queen for forty-five years, she never married but had plenty of male admirers. (Well, what’s not to like about all those rich, eligible medieval sovereigns?)

Still feted as queen of the ultimate Golden Age, Liz 1 shaped the course of British history. Good to know she did something with all that cash.



CLEOPATRA

Controller of a substantial 95.8 billion she was Queen of Egypt at just 18.  She  married her younger brother (well you can do what you like when you’re that rich) but  refused to share the throne.

Defying all tradition, she put her own face on Egyptian coins instead of his, then promptly got pregnant by Julius Caesar. When he was murdered in Rome, she married Mark Antony and bore three more kids.

Alas, all that money didn’t buy her happiness.  Her somewhat ambitious plan for world domination was scuppered when Rome attacked. Rather than be captured she famously took her own life with a cobra bite -  Rather apt since cobras are a traditional symbol of royalty.


HETTY GREEN

Wind forward a few thousand years and meet lucky old Hetty who inherited nearly $7 million and then became one of the first women to make considerably more millions on Wall Street.  A somewhat enviable $200 million, in fact.  Hetty cleverly managed all those investments herself.

The downside?  Well you might have guessed it. Hetty spent her life reading the financial press and had a reputation as a real skinflint.  A worried daddy tried to get her out partying in New York and Boston by buying her wardrobes full of posh new clothes.  Canny Hetty just sold them all and invested even more money in the stock market.
 
ELIZABETH II



Possessor of 26.2 billion, Her Maj also famously inherited truckloads of cash. Speaking of trucks, she drove one during the war apparently but abandoned trucking for  a return to a full-time life of luxury.

Liz II was apparently the first monarch to travel round the world and still seems to spend most of her time on holiday or endlessly inspecting new paint and red carpets. What a life!



LILIANNE BETTENCOURT

Rolling in squillions of euros, Lil is the main shareholder in L'Oréal and by far the wealthiest woman in all of France. And guess what? She inherited her money too. She does donate prizes to young scientific researchers but other than that? – well, she probably just spends lots of time counting her money.
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So there you have them - the top five richest women in history. And almost all the cash was dusted on their expensively coiffured heads by daddy.