(1848-1939)
Since an early age, Louise's personality began to go the opposite way from her sister Helena's, who was a shineless and muted girl. On the other hand Louise was rebel and sarcastic and had a considerable talent. She was the most pretty and radiant of Queen Victoria's daughters. She had less opportunities than her elder sisters Vicky and Alice to enjoy of her father's free time, since during Louise's childhood and early adolsecence, Prince Albert was much busy by his duties in his wife's kingdom. Unfortunately Albert died when Louise was just thirteen years old. She did not had much contact with her father during the last days of his life because Queen Victoria considered she was too young and didn't want to risk her to contract the Prince's disease. Albert died at 10:45 on the night of December 14, 1861. The next morning Louise was awakened with the terrible news. She cried: "Oh why did not God take me ? I am so stupid and useless": During the first months after Prince Albert's death, Louise was the one who backed up her sister Alice in the difficult task of being the Queen's support in her grief.
Louise was the most independent minded of Queen Victoria's five daughters, so the Queen knew she would never be a companion for her old age. Anyway, when Princess Helena got married, it was Louise's turn to be in her mother's attendance while the youngest daughter Beatrice reached an appropiate age to fulfill this task.
During this period the Queen missed Helena's docility and soft manners since Louise was impertinent and indiscreet. Louise, for her part, desperately longed to escape from the mourning atmosphere that sorrounded her mother and to take part in the wonderful social life she imagined her married brothers and sisters were part of. Her eldest brother, the Prince of Wales, invited her several times to attend the balls he and his wife, Princess Alexandra, offered at Marlborough House, but the Queen always forbade her to go, onlyl relenting until Louise was 17 years old.
Louise possesed a considerable artistic talent. Although Albert, Victoria and their children were all talented in drawing, Louise's talent reached the rank of mastery ans she would take it far further than her siblings. Eduard Carbould, the royal chilren's drawing teacher, became one of Louise's closest friends. She would later describe him as "one of my few true friends that I have locked up to all my life and from whom I have learnt much besides art" Carbould taught Louise to draw what she saw around, using her imagination instead of an imitation technique. It was common to see her with her drawing instruments in her hand. This was the only interest that the Queen shared with her fourth daughter.The Princess had also a great talent fdor sculpture. She sculpted a bust of her mother and as she was working on it she begged her mother to let her to carry on her wish of taking her abilities at higher lebels. The Queen considered that the duty for a 19th century princess was to marry and had children but as she herself admired her daughter's talent, her relctance began to fade, and finally in 1868, when she was 20, Louise was allowed to attend Kensington National Art Trainnig School.
It was not easy for Victoria to consent since sculpture was considered not proper art for women. Princess Louise was the first daughter of an English monarch to be publicly educated.
In the National Art Training School, Louise came in contact with the man who would be the greatest influence in her artistic career, the Hungharina sculpture Joseph Edgar Boehm, who sculted an enourmous equestrian statue of Queen Victoria, which is now one of Windsor Great Park most popular ornament. The Princess used to frequent Boehm's studio and she fall underr the artist magnetism. During her training in the National, she sculpted a marble bust of her brother Arthur, which was selected for an exhibition at the Royal Academy. Although he royal rank probably had something to do with the selection, it was a great prestige for her thta the venue had accepted her sculpture. The art historian Hilary Hunt-Lewis said that Louise's bust of her brother "infused life, flesh and blood to her marble".
The Queen was still insisting that Louise's main duty was to marry. Louise herself was not reluctance to marriage. The Princess of Wales proposed her own brother, Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark as a possible candidate, but the Queen firmly opposed to another Danish marriage that could annoy Prussia. Louise's eldest sister, Vicky, Crown Princess of Prussia, proposed her own candidate, the tall and rich Prince Albretch of Prussia, her husband's cousin. Vicky tought he could be a good candidate since he would probably accept to live in England. Louise visited Berlin in order to met Albretch. but she was not attracted by him and Albretch for his part, let it be known he would not live in England to Victoria's dissapointment. At her return to England, Louise let it be clear to her mother thta she would not marry anyone she did not really like. At the lack of any appropiate rtoyal candidate, a strange and controversial idea arose in the Queen's mind: the posssiblity of a British non-royal husband for Louise. Her other daughters had already made good royal marriages and to marry a British nobleman would allow Louise to live in England by her mother's side, so the Queen decided thta tjis would be an adequate solution for her unusual daughter.
By late 1869 the Queen and her daughter had agreed that such a candidate would be acceptable since Louise had expressed that she wanted very much to live in England and remian parte of the British artisitic life. The Prince of Wales severely objected such an idea, which he considered a matter that involved many difficulties; no English Princess had maried a subject of a sovereign since Henry VII's younger daughter, Mary Tudor, had married the Duke of Suffolk, and besides British aristocracy considered itself in an equal rank or even exceeding that of the Royal family, and if one of its members married a princess, he would be required to yield precedence to his wife, which would not be pleasant for him and his family. Nevertheless, whatever the difficulties were, the Queen began an intense search through the country for a suitable husband for Louise.
The chosen candidate was John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, who in 1869 was 25 yearls old. His parents were George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll and Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Leveson-Gower. The Campbells were one of the greatest clans of the Scotish Highlands and Lorne, as the young man was called, was the heir of his father's vast estates, including Inveraray Castle, the family residence. Lorne was a liberal member of the Parliament; he was of medium height, with a handsome face, a great mane of yellow hair and a high pitched voice. His granmdother, Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland, was Mistress of the Wardrobe and Queen Victoria's intimate friend. She was a direct descendant of King Edward I Longshanks through the Dukes of Norfolk line. The Campbells were direct descendants of King James V of Scotland, through his illegitimate son, James Stuart, Earl of Moray. Lorne hadn't been talented during his Parliamentary career, being considered in the House of Commons as a plodder.
Lorne's father, the Duke of Argyll, met the Queen to discuss the possibility of an engagement between their children, but, to the Queen's annoyance, Louise, who had only briefly met Lorne, showed little interest in the match. In spite of her daughter attitude, Victoria had to tell Argyll that her daughter was not yet prepared for marriage, and that they should wait until she was a little older.
The Queen continued with her search of a husband for Louise, who couldn't make up her mind. Meanwhile Lorne had been put in a difficult position: he could not search for another wife until Louise decided hersef, which made Victoria to feel guilty towards him, so she decided that he must be released from any obligation to the Princess.
One day Louise attended to a breakfast offered by Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, where she met Lorne, for the first time away from the Queen's orbit, and she felt atracted by his "sophistictaed appeal". Thsi meeting encourage Lorne to ask the Pirncess to marry him. She accepted and their parents agreed.
Louise's eldest brother Bertie, the Prince of Wales, still oposed to such a marriage; his objection was founded in the fact that Lorne was onlyt not royal but he sat in the House of Commons as a supporter of Gladstone, and Bertie considered that with his sister's pretended marriage, the Crown was being degraded to the level of party politics. In his opinion the problem would be sorted out if Louise gave up her royal status.
The Queen advised Bertie that Louise would remain what she was. He wrote to his sister: "Do not think me unkind, dearest Louise, for adhering to my position. I can only trust that these numerous difficulties of position, etc. which have come before me, may never give you cause to regret the step you have taken" (Packard). At last, Louise and Lorne got married on March 21, 1871 in St. George Chapel. Altough his objections Bertie agreed to stand besides his sister during the wedding ceremony.
The newly-weds spent the first stage of their honeymoon at Claremont House, where two days later, they received the visit of Queen Victoria. They had planned to continue their honeymoon with a tour through the continent but the Queen tiried to persuade them since the chaotic situationin Europe after the Franco-Prussian War (the deposed French Emperor Napoleon III had just arrived to England in exile the day before Louise's wedding). Lorne rejected his mother-in-law's advised since he wanted to get to know his new wife better, outside her mother's orbit, so they went on with their trip. The European honeymoon was one of the hapiestbtimes in Louise's life. At their return to London they set their home at Argyll Lodge, the Campbell's London residence.
During the first years of Louise's marriage, Queen Victoria offered seeral times to give Lorne a dukedom but he always refused because he did't want to leave the House of Commons, besides he believed that his own future title of Duke of Argyll was enough, no matter how long he would wait for it.
Louise was unable to conceive a child. In the summer of 1873, she went to Germany to take some medicinal baths in order to improve her posibilities of conception but it was unuseful. Lorne never blamed her for not giving him a child; he always treated her on this matter with understanding sympathy. According to Jerrold M.Packard a probable cause of Louise's infertility was a bout of meneingitis she suffered during her teenage.
With her new married life, Louise began to widden her socila circle. She founded the Ladies' Work Society where imppoverish women of middle class could learn activities such as needlework, embroidery or reparing fine arts items that enable them to eran livable salaries. She also undertook teh sponsorship of the FGirls' Public School Day Comapny where middle class parents were given fnancial assitance so their daughter could be educated.
Lorne, for his part, was attracted to poetry and literary arts. In 1875 he published hsi first book of poetry, "Guido and Lita, a tale of the Riviera". More than 3000 were sold altough the reviews had said the book was oldfashioned. His next work was "the Book of Psalms, literally rendered into verse".
In the autumn of 1877, while Louise and Lorne were visiting the Argyll's residence, Inveraray Castle set on fire and was aboiut to be completely lost. Lorne's mother, who had recently suffered a strole was taken out by Louise and Lorne in the middle of the flames. On May 1878, the Duchess of Argylle suffered a brain haemorrhage and died some hours later.
That same year the Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli offered Lorne the Governor Generalship of Canada. In Disraeli's opinion, Lorne and Louise, as the Queen's son-in-law and daughter, "would carry enstimable value as Her Majesty's representative in Canada". The Queen was not very much enthusiastic with the idea of sending her daughter to the other side of the word but she realized that it would be fine for Lorne's prestige within the family and within the nation. It also would be a solution for his troublesome social satus towards Louise; as Governor General he would at last have some prescedence over his wife. Lorne himself was anxious for accepting the post but he feared about his wife's possible reaction. Louise indeed had some doubts about going to Canada; she would terribly miss her family and her artistc socila circle in London; besisdes her brother Arthur was about to marry Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia in a few months and she didn't want to miss the event., and there was also her brother Leopold's weak health, which worried her too much. Neverttheless she knew of her husband's desire of accepting the post and this fact overcame her doubts. Finally Lorne accepted the charge on the last days of July. The Queen granted him with the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George and on November 14.1878, Lorne and Louise departed from Liverpool Harbour on the staemer Sarmatian. Louise's sister, Princess Alice, sent them a letter giving them her best wishes. A month later, Alice would die of diphteria.
In that time, the Governor General of Canada was deeply involved in politics; he was the highest ranking person in the country and head of state. He was constitunionally responsible for ministerial succesion as was the monarch in England. Lorne and Louise would be at the peak of Canadian society; he had the great task to fill his predecession's large shoes. The Earl of Dufferin had occupied the post since 1872 with great success and he and his wife were inmensely popular. Lorne and Louise had the great adventage of being royals.
At thewir arrival to the dock, some anxiewty was caused by the absence of the Canadian Prime Minister, Sir John Alexander MacDonald, who had come from Ottawa by train to met the new Governor General and had gotten to drunk during the ride, so in consequence he was unable to receive Lorne and Louise.
The Prime Minister of Canada was second in rank to the Governor General but more politically powerful. As Prime Minister, Sir John A.MacDonald was the only one who could make Lorne's succesfulness. He was a gre4at poitician burt also a great drinker. He had occupied the charge since 1867, being the first Canadian Prime Miniaster, when Upper Canada and Lower Canad merged into a Confederation. He was out from office for five years (1873-1878) because some charges imput against his government in the building of the transcontinental railroad, but since October 1878 his Conservatives had won the parliamentary elections with a stunning majority. MacDonald finally met Lorne at Ottawa's train station. Louise, who was exhausted, did not attend the officila welcome speeches addressed to her husband in the Senate Chamber.
Louise's first weeks in Canada were overshadowed by Alice's death in Dramstadt. After recovering form this grief, her first job was to redecorate the Governor General's residence, Rideau Hall. She was soon fascinated by the Canadian winter season; she enjoyed skimming over the ice, in a horse drawn slaeigh, wrapped in a sealskin fur. Her joy for the Canadian winter would not last; soon it would be hazzard for her health.
Lorne and Louise didn't get along quite well with MacDonald and his wife. As he considered himsel (and he was) the supreme power in the country, the Minister resented any attempt of Lorne to dictate Canadian affairs. Soon after his arrival, Lorne tried to resolve an affair about a provincial governor's appointment without consulting MacDonald, fact which annoyed the Minister.. From then on Lorne decided he would act woth more tact
Louise and Lorne became poplar among the French Canadian comunity. Louise would become its benefactor since they were much more cultured in arts than the British Canadians. A year after her arrival, she decided to visit her family in Engalnd. She stayed away for four months after which she returned to Ottawa. The Canadians wondered why she had gone home after so little time in her new country and rumours began to spread about Lorne and Louise's marriage going bad. Indeed they were not doing so well and by 1880 their marriage had becoming only of companionship. It seems that they didn't enjoy physical relationship, which probably had ended before arriving in Canada. Some biographer explanied this by saying that Lorne was homosexual, fact which have never been substantiallty proved.
The year 1880 did not turned out to be a good one for Louise. On February she and Lorne suffered an accident while riding in a sleigh form Rideau Hall to the House of Parliament. Louise was severely injured, phisically and emotionally. She hit her head with resulting in posterior frequent headaches and the accident depressed her so much that she was abourt to retire form public life. The following spring, Prince Leopold payed a visit to her sister in canada. Bothe siblings traveled around Canada and the United States during a ten day period after which Louise was decided to go back to England with her brother excusing herself in the fact that Leopold had injured his leg while fishing and she wanted to nurse him herself during the trip back home. Lorne didn't object to his wife's dicition but the Canadians begna to think the Princess was running away form a failing marriage or that she disliked their country.
Louise would stay for a long time in England. She travaled to Europe where she spent her time sketching and painting.. She returned form the Continent in October when everybody in England and Ottawa expected that she would announce her return to Canada, but Louise didn't seem to have much hurry. Victoria relaized by Louise's attitude that something was wrong in the Lornes' marriage. She wrote to her son-in-law that louise was suffering too much of haedaches and fatigue. This was true but when headaches were away, Louise es in high spirits and had constant socila engagements. Because of this attitude, rumours began to spread in Canada that the Princess hated the country and its people and even that her marriage eas finished. Lorne, for his part, seemed not to care about his wife's absence . He accepted the Queen's comment on Louise's health altough he knew her absence was damaging his prestige among the Canadians. At last Louise realized she must return to her husband's side and wrote him she wnt to be back in the summer to help him in a tour to the province of Manitoba. But now it was Lorne who suggested her to stay in England until she had completely recovered. He made the trip to Manitoba alone. During this journey he officlayy named the capital of Saskatchewan "Regina" (the latin voice for Queen) for her mother-in-law. He also named another Candian province for his wife, but choosing instead of Louise, her second name, Alberta.
Lorne had a succesful journey inwhich he resolved some important issues like the completion of the transcontinental railroad and a limit dispute between the provinces of Manitoba and Ontario. He also presented to MacDonald's government a projecxt to solve the affairs of Canadian indians. At his rerturn to Ottawa he found a greeting message from the Queen, where she also informed him that she didn't want Louise to leave for Canada at the proximity of the winter. Lorne decided that he should better go to Engalnd.
Louise publicly received her husband at Liverpool, fact that helped to silence the rumoures of a discord between the couple. The Lornes engaged themselves into a series of family visits and they had little time to be alone with each other. Lorne convinced himself that Louise was in por helath for comming back to Canada with him and in January 1882 he returned to Ottawa accomapnied only by his sister and brother-in-law. Louise, for her part, was aware that to remain more time away form Canada was equivalent to a defintive marital separation, but nevertheless she was decided to stay in England until a complete recover and to attend her brother Leopold's wedding to Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont.
In May 1882, when Louise was still in England, the famous playwriter, Oscar Wilde, visited Canada. He let show hios dissapointment for Canada's lack of artistic culture and critisized Louise for being such an admirer of art and hadn't do anything to increased it in Canada.
Louise finally returned to Canada before the spring ended. her absence had last almost 2 years. The Queen was worried about Louise's safety because there had been some rumours about a possible Fenian attack and an attemtp to kidnap the Princess (the Fenians were a revolutionary Irish group founded in New York at mid XIX century) She ordered her ministers to take all the security messures required. Canadian Prime Minister MacDonald also warned Lorne about the Fenian danger. After Louise's arrival, she and Lorne spent the summer at the Citadel, the Governor General's summer residence, which was a safier place against any Fenian attack. When the summer ended they made a tour across the United Staes. the main objective of this tour was to visit the Canadian far west which in that time could only be reached by rail, crossing the United States.. They traveled up to San Francisco were they boarded a warship which took them to British Columbia. Before boarding the ship a Fenian threat was received advising that as soon as the Governor General and his wife set a foot on deck, the ship would blow up. Nevertheless no bomb was found and the British Columbia tour was a success and the couple was acclaimed everywhere. Lorne and Louise spent three weeks in Birtish Columbia and then they retreced their journey to the United States. They visited Monterrey, Los Angeles and Sta. Barbara, Lorne returned to Ottawa in February 1883 to open the Parliament but Louise, instead, went for a holiday in the much warmer Bermuda where she remained for three months after which she returned at last to Ottawa.
Louise and Lorne would not remain for much time in Canada. He resigned his post before his normal term was over. Maybe he felt he would save his amrriage if he and Louise returned to England at that very moment. He had come to love Canada sincerely. He had encourage the establishment of the Royal Society of Canada, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and the National Gallery of Canada He was the author of many writtings that showed his deep apreciation of Candian beauties. In October 1883, Lorne and Louise left Canada never to return again. Altough her great wish to return to her homeland, Louise expressed her regret for leaving a country she had come to admire.
The marital life for Louise and Lorne did not improve in Engalnd. Lorne remianed unemployed; no other governor generalship in other colony was offered to him and he had no luck in getting back into the House of Commons. He spent his time writting; he published a biography of Lord Palmerston and another book titled "The Governor's Guide to Windsor Castle. After these two books he wrote some novels of little importance. In 1895, he finally succeded in entering the House of Commons representing South Manchester. Louise, for her part, devoted herself to sculp a statue of her mother, the Queen. It was begun in 1887 and finished in 1893, when it was placed in the public park in fornt Kensington Palace.
During the mid-nineties, a great friendship sprang out between Louise and her brother-in-law, Princess Beatrice's husband, Prince Henry of Battenberg. This frienship was misunderstood because of two comments Louise's made about Prince Henry. She said he was almost the greatest friend she had and after his death she told Beatrice that she, Louise, had been Henry's confidant. Such a comment annoyed Beatrice and it strained relations between the two sisters.
On April 24, 1900, Lorne's father, the 8th. Duke of Argyll, died at 76. He had married twice after the death of Lorne's mother, Duchess Elizabeth; first with Amelia Anson, who died in 1894, and then with Ina McNeill. At his father's death, Lorne became the 9th. Duke of Argyll. Nine monthes later, Louise's own mother, Queen Victoria, died on Jnauary 21, 1901, and Bertie, the Prince of Wales succeded to the throne as Edward VII.
During the Edwardian years, Lorne continued with his literery work without success and Louise, whose health hadn't recovered at all, devoted herself to keep her physiscal appearence in good looks. She followed strict diet regimes and did hard execricse routines. She was decided to to become a fat woman as her sisters Helena and Beatrice had turned into. She engaged with many receoptions and charity bazars. When headahce were away, her vitality was extraordinary although by 1913, she was approaching seventy.
Lorne, for his part, had turned into an overweight, excentric and usually irascible man. His memory began to be affected possibly by Alzheimer's disease. In April 1914 he contracted pneumonia and died at 10:45 in the evening of May 21, 1914. During First World War, the widow Louise used to inspect the Canadian units that came to England on their way to the front. When the War ended her nephew, King George V elevated her to Dame Grand Cross of the British Empire and a year later, the King also appointed his aunt as Colonel in chief of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
As the years passed, Louise was affected by the complaints of age, mainly sciatica.She spent most of her last years at Rosneath, one of the Argyll houses she redecorated, living a somehow hermit existence. She died of old age on December 3 1839 at Kensington Palace, when she was ninety one years old. At her own request her body was cremated at Golders Green in North London and her ashes were buried at Royal Cemetery at Frogmore.
Packard, Jerrold M.: Victoria's Daughters.
The Governor General of Canada: List of Former Governors Genearals:The Duke of Argyll
