Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (Louisa Caroline Alberta; 18 March 1848 – 3 December 1939), was the sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
In her public life, she was a strong proponent of the arts and higher education and of the feminist cause. She was an influential supporter of the Edinburgh College of Domestic Science, the forerunner to Queen Margaret University, becoming the institution's first Patron in 1891 until 1939. Her early life was spent moving among the various royal residences in the company of her family. When her father died in December 1861, the court went into a long period of mourning, to which with time Louise became unsympathetic. She was an able sculptor and artist, and several of her sculptures remain today. She was also a supporter of the feminist movement, corresponding with Josephine Butler, and visiting Elizabeth Garrett.
Before her marriage, Louise served as an unofficial secretary to the Queen from 1866 to 1871. The question of Louise's marriage was discussed in the late 1860s. Suitors from the royal houses of Prussia and Denmark were suggested, but Victoria did not want her to marry a foreign prince, and therefore suggested a high-ranking member of the British aristocracy. Despite opposition from members of the royal family, Louise fell in love with John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, the heir of the Duke of Argyll. Victoria consented to the marriage, which took place on 21 March 1871. After a happy beginning, the couple drifted apart, possibly because of their childlessness and the Queen's constraints on their activities.
In 1878, Lorne was appointed Governor General of Canada, a post he held from 1878 to 1884. Louise was viceregal consort, starting a lasting interest in Canada. Her names were used to name many features in Canada, including the Louise Bridge in Winnipeg, Lake Louise and the province of Alberta. Following her mother's death in 1901, she entered the social circle established by her elder brother, the new king, Edward VII. Louise's marriage with Lorne survived thanks to long periods of separation; they reconciled in 1911, and Louise was devastated by Lorne's death in 1914. After the First World War, she began to retire from public life, undertaking few public duties outside Kensington Palace, where she died at the age of 91.
Early life Louise was born at 8:00 am on 18 March 1848 at Buckingham Palace, London. She was the fourth daughter and sixth child of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria, and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Her birth coincided with a revolutionary wave that swept across Europe, prompting the queen to remark that Louise would turn out to be "something peculiar".
Albert and Victoria chose the names Louisa Caroline Alberta. She was baptised on 13 May in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace by John Bird Sumner, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Though she was christened Louisa at the service, she was invariably known as Louise throughout her life. Her godparents were Duke Gustav Wilhelm of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (her paternal great-great-uncle, for whom Prince Albert stood proxy); the Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen (for whom her great-aunt Queen Adelaide stood proxy); and the Hereditary Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (her first cousin once-removed, for whom the Duchess of Cambridge stood proxy). During the ceremony, the Duchess of Gloucester, one of the few children of King George III who were still alive, forgot where she was, and suddenly got up in the middle of the service and knelt at the queen's feet, much to the queen's horror.
Like her siblings, Louise was brought up with the strict programme of education devised by her father, Prince Albert, and his friend and confidant, Baron Stockmar. The young children were taught practical tasks, such as cooking, farming, household chores and carpentry.
From her early years, Louise was a talented and intelligent child, and her artistic skills were quickly recognised. On his visit to Osborne House in 1863, Hallam Tennyson, the son of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, remarked that Louise could "draw beautifully". Because of her royal rank, an artistic career was not considered. However, the queen first allowed her to attend art school under the tutelage of the sculptor Mary Thornycroft, and later (1863) allowed her to study at the National Art Training School, now The Royal College of Art. Louise also became an able dancer, and Victoria wrote, after a dance, that Louise "danced the sword dance with more verve and accuracy than any of her sisters". Her wit and intelligence made her a favourite with her father, with her inquisitive nature earning her the nickname "Little Miss Why" from other members of the royal family.
Secretary
Louise's father, Prince Albert, died at Windsor on 14 December 1861. The queen was devastated, and ordered her household to move from Windsor to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. The atmosphere of the royal court became gloomy and morbid in the wake of the prince's death, and entertainments became dry and dull. Louise quickly became dissatisfied with her mother's prolonged mourning. For her seventeenth birthday in 1865, Louise requested the ballroom to be opened for a debutante dance, the like of which had not been performed since Prince Albert's death. Her request was refused, and her boredom with the mundane routine of travelling between the different royal residences at set times irritated her mother, who considered Louise to be indiscreet and argumentative.
The queen comforted herself by rigidly continuing with Prince Albert's plans for their children. Princess Alice was married to Prince Louis, the future Grand Duke of Hesse, at Osborne House on 1 July 1862. In 1863, Edward, the Prince of Wales, married Princess Alexandra of Denmark. The queen made it a tradition that the eldest unmarried daughter become her unofficial secretary, a position which Louise filled in 1866 following the marriage of her elder sister Helena, despite the queen's concern that she was indiscreet.
Louise, however, proved to be good at the job: Victoria wrote shortly afterwards: "She is (and who would some years ago have thought it?) a clever dear girl with a fine strong character, unselfish and affectionate."Quoted by . However, when Louise fell in love with her brother Leopold's tutor, the Reverend Robinson Duckworth (14 years her senior), between 1866 and 1870, the queen reacted by dismissing Duckworth in 1870. He later became Canon of Westminster Abbey.
Louise was bored at court, and by fulfilling her duties, which were little more than minor secretarial tasks, such as writing letters on the queen's behalf; dealing with political correspondence; and providing the queen with company, she had more responsibilities. She also undertook her share of public and philanthropic duties, for example inaugurating the new North Eastern Hospital for Children in 1867 and launching the ship HMS Druid in 1869.
Marriage Suitors As a daughter of the queen, Louise was a desirable bride; more so as she is regarded as the queen's most beautiful daughter by both contemporary and modern biographers. However, she was accused by the press, without substantiation, of romantic affairs. This, coupled with her liberalism and feminism, prompted the queen to find her a husband. The choice had to suit Victoria as well as Louise, and the queen insisted that her daughter's husband should live near her, a promise which had also been extracted from the husband of Helena, Louise's sister. Various suitors were proposed by the leading royal houses of Europe: Princess Alexandra proposed her brother, the Crown Prince of Denmark, but the queen was strongly opposed to another Danish marriage that could antagonise Prussia at a time of diplomatic tension over the Schleswig-Holstein question. Victoria, Louise's eldest sister, proposed the tall and rich Prince Albert of Prussia, but Queen Victoria disapproved of another Prussian marriage that would have been unpopular in England. Prince Albert was also reluctant to settle in England as required. William, Prince of Orange, was also considered a suitor, but because of his extravagant lifestyle in Paris, where he lived openly with a lover, the queen quickly vetoed the idea.
Louise viewed marriage to any prince as undesirable, and announced that she wished to marry John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, heir to the Dukedom of Argyll. No marriage between a daughter of a monarch and a British subject had been given official recognition since 1515, when Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, married King Henry VIII's sister Mary. Louise's eldest brother, the Prince of Wales, was strongly opposed to a marriage with a non-mediatized noble. Furthermore, Lorne's father, George Campbell, was an ardent supporter of William Ewart Gladstone, and the Prince of Wales was worried that he would drag the royal family into political disputes. Nevertheless, the opposition was crushed by the queen, who wrote to the Prince of Wales in 1869:
The queen averred that Louise's marriage to a subject would bring "new blood" into the family, while all European princes were related to each other. She was convinced that this would strengthen the royal family morally and physically.Paraphrased from
Engagement and wedding
Louise became engaged to the Marquess of Lorne on 3 October 1870 while they were visiting Balmoral. Lorne was invited to Balmoral Castle in Scotland, and accompanied Louise, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Hatherley and Queen Victoria's lady-in-waiting Lady Ely on a drive. Later that day, Louise returned and announced to the queen that Lorne had "spoken of his devotion" to Louise, and she accepted his proposal in the knowledge of the queen's approval. The Queen later gave Lady Ely a bracelet to mark the occasion.
The Queen found it difficult to let go of her daughter, confiding in her journal that she "felt painfully the thought of losing her". The new breach in royal tradition caused surprise, especially in Germany, and Queen Victoria wrote to the Queen of Prussia that princes of small impoverished German houses were "very unpopular" in Britain and that Lord Lorne, a "person of distinction at home" with "an independent fortune" was "really no lower in rank than minor German Royalty".Quoted in
Victoria settled an annuity on Louise shortly before her marriage. The ceremony was conducted at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on 21 March 1871, and the crowd outside was so large that, for the first time, policemen had to form chain barriers to keep control. Louise wore a wedding veil of Honiton lace that she designed herself, and was escorted into the chapel by her mother, and her two eldest brothers, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh. On this occasion, the usually severe black of the queen's mourning dress was relieved by the crimson rubies and blues of the Garter star. Following the ceremony, the queen kissed Louise, and Lorne – now a member of the royal family, but still a subject – kissed the queen's hand.
The couple then journeyed to Claremont in Surrey for the honeymoon, but the presence of attendants on the journey, and at meal times, made it impossible for them to talk privately. The short four-day visit did not pass without an interruption from the queen, who was curious about her daughter's thoughts on married life. Among their wedding gifts was a maplewood desk from Queen Victoria, now at Inveraray Castle.
Following her marriage, Louise continued her charitable and artistic interests. In 1871, the Ladies Work Society was founded in South Audley Street, promoting the making and sale of needlework and embroidery for poverty relief: Louise became its president, and designed some of their products.
The couple's official place of residence was Rosneath House in Dunbartonshire.Scotland's Lost Houses by Ian Gow
Viceregal consort of Canada