Would the marriage have actually been possible?

I always wondered, in general about the Cinderella story, how her stepmother was able to just turn her into a servant in her own home. I remember in the 2015 Cinderella, there was a deleted scene that pointed out how she simply became a "dependent" because she was technically an orphan after her father died, with no blood relatives. So I guess at that time, she was basically at her stepmother's mercy. To the cruel stepmother, the "merciful" thing to do was allow her to stay but force her to be a servant.

Danielle's father was landed gentry, probably a wealthy merchant who owned property and a manor house ( near the palace to boot) and would have been a courtier if he had not spent so much time away from home. Danielle's mother may not have had a title but judging by her wedding attire, she may have also come from a good family. Danielle would most likely have been presented at court when she came of age.

Her father's death and Rodmilla's hatred of her because of her father's dying words, prevented the natural course of things and since Danielle was so young and had no other family, Rodmilla raised her with low self-esteem, teaching her to be grateful for even having a roof over her head and turning her into a servant to replace all of those she had sold to pay her debts. Danielle put up with it because she loved her home and Maurice, Louise, and Paulette and where else could she go that she would not have been someone else's servant (or worse)?

Rodmilla had a title, a haughty demeanor, and probably little else, and two daughters to raise. We saw how she used her wiles on the page and she probably used the same tactics on Auguste, a lonely widower with a motherless child. He probably thought that "Baroness" Rodmilla was "a catch" and vice versa. They could not have known each other long and he was only home for two weeks after he came home with the instant family so he basically married a conniving stranger and Danielle suffered for it.





Audiences don't know somebody sits down and writes a picture, they think the actors make it up as they go along.

-Sunset Blvd.

Countess? Yes. If memory serves, that is the wife of an Earl. Not sure how Auguste reeled in two noble ladies, let alone one.

-----------
Appeasement is hoping the bear eats you last.

Well that would have been a big "if"! Can you imagine the meeting of the royal advisers, crying because the idiot prince wants to pick a future queen on the basis of a fucking shoe!

But the short answer is: If Cinderella's not-ugly stepsister was accepted at court in spite of her comparative poverty considered a potential royal bride, then Danielle would be considered just as eligible by birth.

Edit: Possibly more eligible, depending on what titles their respective fathers held or how much money or influence they'd had. As Danielle was the only surviving child of her father, she should have been his sole heiress under normal circumstances, although as her stepmother pissed away the family money that didn't matter much. And if he was a baron she'd have been entitled to call herself "baroness", so the royal family could have put a brave face on the marriage and said the prince had married a French noblewoman... and hushed up the years she spent doing servant's work.