She was the granddaughter of a history making queen and much preferred the quiet life to the glitter of royalty. But this princess got little choice in maintaining the low profile she sought and her life was one of drama and intrigue. For this royal called Louise was born the eldest daughter of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra and ended up as Princess Royal.
Born Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar on 20 February 1867, she spent much of her childhood at Sandringham and was privately tutored alongside her sisters, Maud (later Queen Maud of Norway) and Victoria. She married Alexander Duff, 6th Earl Fife, on 27 July 1889 and had three children.
Upon their wedding, Louise’s grandmother, Queen Victoria, created Alexander Duke of Fife and Marquess of Macduff. In 1905, Louise was created Princess Royal by her father, by then King Edward VII and her daughters were granted the style ‘Princess’ making them Princess Maud and Princess Alexandra.
In an unusual twist for a member of the Royal Family, in 1911, Louise and her family were shipwrecked on their way to Egypt off the coast of Morocco. They were rescued, though her husband fell ill with pleurisy afterwards—likely an aftereffect of the shipwreck—and he died in 1912. Their oldest daughter, Princess Alexandra, became Duchess of Fife in her own right.
Louise became reclusive after Alexander’s death and only occasionally carried out royal duties with her mother, Queen Alexandra, or her sister Princess Victoria. She lived with heart disease in her final years and passed away on 4 January 1931 and was interred at the Private Chapel at Mar Lodge in Aberdeenshire.