She was the youngest and favourite child of Emperor Wilhelm II. In 1912 while driving through Prussia to Copenhagen to attend the funeral of his uncle, King Frederik VIII, Prince Georg Wilhelm von Hannover was killed in a car crash. Emperor Wilhelm II dispatched two
of his sons to stand as guards of honour at the coffin and sent a telegram of sympathy to the dead prince's parents, the Duke and Duchess of Brunswick-Lueneburg. In return, ignoring the feud between the Hohenzollerns and Hannoverians, the Duke sent his surviving son, Ernst August, to thank the Emperor personally. While in Berlin, Prince Ernst August met Princess Viktoria Luise, and they fell in love.

The antagonism between the two families was due to Prussia's annexation of Hannover in 1866. Both families opposed the match, but Viktoria Luise was able to obtain her father's permission. They married in May 1913 and their marriage is considered the swan song of
European monarchy, as it was the last time that the three cousins, Wilhelm II, Nicholas II and George V were to meet.

After their marriage, her father-in-law, using his British title of Duke of Cumberland, abdicated his rights to the Brunswick duchy; and immediately Ernst August and Viktoria Luise became Duke and Duchess of Brunswick-Lueneburg, where they were sovereigns for a brief five years. Ernst August and Viktoria Luise became the parents of five children.

In 1953, when Ernst August died, his funeral procession passed through Hannover with all the honours due to a reigning Duke.Viktoria Luise was bequeathed an annual income of 40,000 German marks, and lived with her eldest son at the family home, Castle Marienburg, near Hannover. Her husband's will also included a clause to cover disputes over the will. A third party of noble blood could be called in to act as an intermediary. Prince Ernst August and his brothers and sister decided that their mother's annual payment was more than they could afford. The Markgraf of Baden was named as the intermediary, and he agreed with the decision to cut Viktoria Luise's income to 12,000 German marks per year.

Angered and disappointed by her children's perfidy, Viktoria Luise took her son to court. Early in 1956, her eldest son, Ernst August, also decided that he no longer could afford to maintain Castle Marienburg as a private home so her ordered his mother to move out. She refused; the prince then told her that hould have the power and water shut off. His 64-year-old mother finally acquiesced and moved from her three room apartment in Castle Marienburg to a ten room home in the country. Prince Ernst August also sold off a number of family heirlooms for about two and a half million marks. Viktoria Luise hoped that the funds raised from the sale would allow an increase in her allowance, but Prince Ernst August refused to give her more money, saying he had to pay income tax on the sale. The Duchess' spokesman, Joseph Nowack, told a reporter: "I think it is unfair that the Duchess had to sue her son for maintenance." In December 1962, a German court ordered Ernst August to pay his mother 3,000 German marks per month, plus a further 36,000 marks in back payment.

All four her sons attended her 70th birthday celebrations but her daughter, Queen Frederika, did not attend. Nor was the Duchess invited to the marriage of her granddaughter, Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, to the future King Juan Carlos of Spain, leaving the Greek press to report that Queen Frederika was estranged from her mother. Viktoria Luise, the last of Emperor Wilhelm II's children, died in 1980.

From "Queen Victoria's descendants", by Marlene Eilers.