Re: Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll

LouisFerdinand · October 25, 2015, 11:43:33 PM

It was informative to learn that Princess Louise had designed her own bridal veil.
Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark (the future King Frederick VIII) and Prince Albrecht of Prussia were considered as possible husbands for Princess Louise.

LouisFerdinand · August 05, 2016, 12:47:27 AM

Louise and John, Duchess and Duke of Argyll
The Duke and Duchess of Argyll, late 19th or early 20th century.... News Photo | Getty Images

LouisFerdinand · October 30, 2016, 11:02:30 PM

Princess Louise inspected Scottish regiment.
Princess Louise At Glasgow (1910-1920) - YouTube

LouisFerdinand · November 10, 2016, 11:37:53 PM

Princess Louise entertained schoolgirls.
Princess Louise Entertains Children (1914-1918) - YouTube

LouisFerdinand · October 23, 2017, 12:20:45 AM

When rumors reached Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany that his brother-in-law Lord Lorne was thinking of resigning as Governor-General of Canada, Leopold wrote to the Colonial Secretary to implore him to appoint Leopold as the successor of Lord Lorne.

Curryong · October 23, 2017, 12:15:34 PM

This was shortly before Leopold's death. He had been frustrated all his adult life by his mother's over-protectiveness, having to fight to go to University, to travel on his own and to marry. The Government had already chosen a successor to Lorne (whose Governor Generalship of Canada had not been a great success.)

Reynolds News must have heard gossip about Leopold's ambitions, as it described him cruelly and inaccurately as a feeble minded invalid who would not be able to find Canada on the map. In fact, although being very Tory Leopold was the only one of Victoria and Albert's sons who could have been called an intellectual.

LouisFerdinand · October 23, 2017, 11:06:14 PM

Would Princess Louise, then known as the Marchioness of Lorne, have promoted her brother Leopold for the position of Governor-General?

Curryong · October 24, 2017, 12:59:05 AM

The Marquis of Lorne would have been informed several months prior to the event who his successor was to be, so there would have been no point. In 1879 she and Leopold had made a long private visit to Canada and the US. so Leopold already knew the country. However his health would have made any official role very very difficult. On that trip a US newspaper had made fun of the way he walked (his posture and legs had been affected by the haemophilia) and he was subject to epileptic fits.

Nevertheless, he did accept that he wasn't experienced enough for the Governor Generalship of Canada and set his heart on being GG in Australia. However, in spite of Lorne and the Prince of Wales support and the Cabinet being agreeable to it, the Queen became angry when she heard that Leopold had been manoevring for a position so far away from her behind her back, and was opposed.

Louise had a sleigh accident in February 1880, in which she was seriously injured. She convalesced in Bermuda and England for a very long, long time. Before that she had enjoyed Canada and spoke of its potential but she was away for such a prolonged period that rumours started about her unsatisfactory marriage. (She had already had a long holiday away in the early part of Lorne's GGship.)

LouisFerdinand · October 25, 2017, 12:14:07 AM

Would Louise have fared better if she had wed Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark (the future King Frederick VIII)?

LouisFerdinand · January 01, 2018, 08:39:42 PM

Princess Louise opened the Costers Fair at Kensington Palace Gardens.
Princess And Pearlies (1934) - YouTube

:xmas9: :xmas9: :xmas9:

LouisFerdinand · February 28, 2018, 08:22:49 PM

Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne became the Viceregal Consort of Canada when her husband was the Governor General of Canada.

LouisFerdinand · June 08, 2018, 12:19:47 AM

Did Princess Louise blame her mother for forcing her into the match and marriage to John Campbell, Marquis of Lorne?

Curryong · June 08, 2018, 12:28:28 AM

The Marquis of Lorne was Louise's choice. She always said she didn't want to be stuck in some German provincial court away from London and she fell for the Marquis, so Victoria let her have her way in spite of some apprehensions, as the Duke of Argyll, Lorne's father, was an active politician. Victoria was always a sucker for a true love story.

amabel · June 08, 2018, 05:06:28 AM

Quote from: LouisFerdinand on June 08, 2018, 12:19:47 AM
Did Princess Louise blame her mother for forcing her into the match and marriage to John Campbell, Marquis of Lorne?

???? Nobody forced her into the marriage

LouisFerdinand · August 04, 2018, 01:10:09 AM

Princess Louise was allowed to have art lessons from the acclaimed sculptress, Mary Thorneycroft. In 1868 she was enrolled at art school in Kensington.

amabel · August 07, 2018, 06:33:16 AM

Quote from: Curryong on June 08, 2018, 12:28:28 AM
The Marquis of Lorne was Louise's choice. She always said she didn't want to be stuck in some German provincial court away from London and she fell for the Marquis, so Victoria let her have her way in spite of some apprehensions, as the Duke of Argyll, Lorne's father, was an active politician. Victoria was always a sucker for a true love story.

more likely she knew that increasingly the marrying "beggarly" German princes was being looked on with disfavour among the English public.

LouisFerdinand · September 07, 2018, 01:06:17 AM

The wedding dress of Princess Louise
https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishmonarchy/28165035448

Curryong · September 07, 2018, 09:52:22 AM

I'm just re-reading the bio of Vicky, Louise's sister, the Empress Friedrich. Her second daughter Victoria (Moretta) was rather plain and had the unfortunate habit of falling in love with handsome but unobtainable or very difficult men. She was in love with Sandro Battenberg for years (later briefly King of Bulgaria.)

However, after he left the scene Vicky was casting around for this prince or that Grand Duke, and everything fell through. Moretta fell into a deep depression and said things like she was ugly and nobody wanted her. Queen Victoria advised Vicky to stop hawking her around for a while as it appeared desperate and the word would get around.

She said she had had the same sort of trouble with Louise, though I don't quite see it as being the same thing at all, as Louise was the most attractive of her daughters. Anyway, Vicky managed to marry Moretta off in the end though there were no children of the marriage. However Louise may have been too spirited, too independent and too arty for many men, so maybe that was what Victoria meant.

amabel · September 07, 2018, 04:50:02 PM

Louise may have been attractive.. but she was a difficult personality. Im sure that drove away even "German beggar" suitors...

LouisFerdinand · September 08, 2018, 12:47:47 AM

Princess Louise did get to leave the European continent. She and her husband John went to Canada.

amabel · September 08, 2018, 05:38:08 AM

Well of course she got to leave the continent. Royals were some of the few people who could afford to travel. And IIRC she didn't stay that long in Canada. Was that when she had tat accident that left her very unwell for a time and she went back to the UK

Curryong · September 08, 2018, 06:03:09 AM

There was a toboggan accident that injured Louise and left a deep cut on her nose I think. More speculatively there was talk apparently that she and her husband were drifting apart and that she grew bored with what passed for Canadian Society at the time. They had to be invited to social functions at the GG residence in Ottowa and I think in the end Louise decided that London was much livelier. She had friends in arty circles in England and so left for her old haunts. Not very supportive of her husband though, who remained to serve out his term as GG.

amabel · September 08, 2018, 07:20:16 AM

Quote from: Curryong on September 08, 2018, 06:03:09 AM
There was a toboggan accident that injured Louise and left a deep cut on her nose I think. More speculatively there was talk apparently that she and her husband were drifting apart and that she grew bored with what passed for Canadian Society at the time. They had to be invited to social functions at the GG residence in Ottowa and I think in the end Louise decided that London was much livelier. She had friends in arty circles in England and so left for her old haunts. Not very supportive of her husband though, who remained to serve out his term as GG.

I thougth that it was a pretty bad accident.. but yes as I recall Louise may have made it an excuse to leg it back to England because she was bored iwht Canada and with her husband.

Curryong · September 08, 2018, 07:32:12 AM

Yes, it was a bad accident. However she seems to have been more annoyed about her face being damaged rather than anything else. (She sometimes appears to be quite a Sissi of Austria type, obsessed about her beauty routine and keeping her figure.)
It was her ear that received the cut not her nose now I come to think of it. There were rumours that her lobe had been cut off which was ridiculous. Of course the climate didn't help the period in Canada. She apparently scampered off to Bermuda on several occasions, and soaked up some sun. Louise really put Bermuda on the map as a place for North Americans to visit.

amabel · September 08, 2018, 08:07:00 AM

I read that her ear had been almost torn off. I suppose it could have...but I'm not a fan of Louise.....Lorne was pretty likely Gay, but I feel that she married him to have a husband and then found him boring... and loped off on holidays etc...