Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24304025-20140527003203/@comment-8345449-20140527065253

I don't think the Mills family were poor, just no longer royalty. Somehow King Xavier lost his kingdom which Regina was supposed to inherit (maybe Eva had something to do with it), and that is something that we have not found out the reason for yet.

As to why Cora didn't just use her powers to conquer her own kingdom, maybe she wants legitimacy instead of being viewed as an usurper.

I always thought that if all Cora wanted was power, she should have chosen Rumple. Between the two of them, they could probably conquer half of the Enchanted Forest or more.