Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar was born at 6:30 in the morning on February 20, 1867, at Marlborough House in London, the official residence of her parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales. She was the third child and eldest daughter of the man who would become King Edward VII and his wife Alexandra, the eldest daughter of Christian IX of Denmark and Queen Louise. As a granddaughter of Queen Victoria through the male line, Louise held from birth the title Her Royal Highness Princess Louise of Wales. She was baptized at Marlborough House on May 10 by Charles Longley, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Her birth came under anxious circumstances. Her mother had been seriously ill with rheumatic fever in the later stages of pregnancy, creating genuine fear for both Alexandra and the infant. Both survived, though Alexandra was left with a permanent limp that she carried for the rest of her life, and Louise herself was considered a delicate child who was frequently unwell during her early years. The shadow of fragility followed her through childhood even as the family's life retained a warmth and informality that set it somewhat apart from the more rigidly formal atmosphere of other royal households.
The Wales children were raised primarily at Marlborough House and Sandringham, where the family enjoyed a relatively relaxed domestic environment. Louise and her sisters Victoria and Maud received their education at home under private tutors and studied guitar under Catharina Pratten. They were known for a playful, spirited character that showed itself in pillow fights and other activities that drew gentle disapproval from the more decorous members of the royal circle. Their mother's powerful influence over her daughters was pervasive; Alexandra was reluctant to allow her children, especially her daughters, to move far from her side.
Louise was a serious musician who sometimes played the organ during services at St Mary Magdalene Church at Sandringham, and she was known within the family by the affectionate nicknames Lulu and Toots. As daughter of the future king, she was regarded as one of the most desirable marriage prospects in Europe. The expectation would have been a union with a European prince, following the pattern of most royal daughters of her generation. Her aunt, the Duchess of Argyll, had already broken with tradition by marrying outside of royal ranks, and Louise had quietly taken note.
When she was introduced to Alexander Duff, the 6th Earl of Fife, at the 1885 wedding of her paternal aunt Princess Beatrice to Prince Henry of Battenberg, something shifted in her sense of what her future might hold. Duff was eighteen years her senior and a regular companion of her father, a wealthy Scottish landowner who held approximately 249,000 acres of land in Aberdeenshire and elsewhere. Four years after their first meeting, in 1889, Louise made her intentions unmistakably clear. She appealed to her grandmother Queen Victoria for permission to marry the Earl, reportedly saying that if she was not permitted to do so she would surely die an old maid.
Queen Victoria recorded in her journal that she was much pleased and gave her consent readily, kissing Louise and wishing her every happiness. The engagement was announced in June 1889 and provoked considerable comment at court. The marriage of a princess to a commoner, even an extremely wealthy one, was regarded in many quarters as inappropriate. Princess Victoria Mary of Teck wrote to her aunt Augusta, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, that for a future Princess Royal to marry a subject seemed rather strange. Alexandra, for her part, had spent years trying to keep her daughters unmarried and close to home, and the engagement represented a departure she had not welcomed.
Despite the reservations swirling around the match, Louise married Alexander Duff on July 27, 1889. Louise was granted the title of Princess Royal in 1905, the highest honor available to the eldest daughter of a British sovereign, formally recognizing her position within the royal family. She had two daughters with Duff, Alexandra and Maud, and her marriage proved to be a stable and affectionate partnership that lasted until her husband's death. Known throughout her life for a reserved and quiet nature, she remained a low-profile member of the royal family and drew little of the public drama that surrounded some of her contemporaries. Louise, Princess Royal, died on January 4, 1931, remembered as a woman who made her own quiet choices in an institution not always hospitable to them.
