Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife (Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar; 20 February 1867 - 4 January 1931) was the third child and the eldest daughter of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and Queen Alexandra, née Princess of Denmark. She was the sixth daughter of a British monarch to be styled Princess Royal.
Princess Louise was born at Marlborough House, the London residence of her parents, then The Prince and Princess of Wales. She spent much of her childhood at Sandringham House, her parents' country estate in Norfolk. Like her sisters, Princesses Maud and Victoria, she received limited formal education.
On Saturday 27 July 1889, Princess Louise married the 6th Earl Fife, at the Private Chapel in Buckingham Palace. Two days after the wedding, Queen Victoria created him Duke of Fife and Marquess of Macduff in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The letters patent creating this dukedom contained the standard remainder to "male heirs of the body lawfully begotten." However, it became apparent that the Duke and Duchess would not have a son. Therefore, on 24 April 1900, Queen Victoria signed letters patent creating a second Dukedom of Fife, along with the Earldom of Macduff in the Peerage of the United Kingdom with a special remainder: in default of a male heir, these peerages would pass to the daughters of the 1st Duke and then to their male descendants.
The Duke and Duchess of Fife had three children:
- Alastair Duff, Marquess of Macduff, stillborn 16 June 1890
- Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife (Alexandra Victoria Alberta Edwina Louise; 17 May 1891 - 26 February 1959)
- Maud, Countess of Southesk (Maud Alexandra Victoria Georgina Bertha; 3 April 1893 - 14 December 1945)
On 9 November 1905, King Edward VII created Princess Louise the Princess Royal, the highest honour bestowed on a female member of the royal family.
In December 1911, while sailing to Egypt, the Princess Royal and her family were shipwrecked off the coast of Morocco. Although they escaped unharmed, the Duke of Fife fell ill with pleurisy, probably contracted as a result of the shipwreck. He died at Assuan, Egypt in January 1912, and Princess Alexandra succeeded to his dukedom, becoming Duchess of Fife in her own right. Princess Alexandra later married Prince Arthur of Connaught, a first cousin of Princess Louise.
In the autumn of 1929 at Mar Lodge she was taken ill with gastric hemorrhage and was brought back to London. The Princess Royal died fifteen months later in January 1931, at her home in Portman Square, London and was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. Her remains were later removed to the Private Chapel, Mar Lodge, Braemar, Aberdeenshire.
9 сен 2024
