Princess Luise Margarete of
Prussia (1860-1917)
Born 25 June 1860 Potsdam
Died 14 March 1917 London
Married 13 March 1879 Windsor
Prince Arthur of Great Britain and Ireland,
1st Duke of
Connaught and Strathearn, son of Victoria, Queen of Great
Britain and Ireland 1837-1901 and Prince Albert of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Saxony, Prince Consort
Born 1 May 1850 London, Buckingham Palace
Died 16 January 1942 Bagshot Park
She must have been glad to leave her Prussian home which had never been
congenial. Timid but self-possessed, she was fortunate to have married
the most honorable of Queen Victoria's sons. However, Queen Victoria at
first could not understand him falling so quickly for this child of a broken
home; she was not even attractive. "I had to give way of course," Queen
Victoria wrote in her Journal, "but it was a great shock." But soon the
Queen praised 'Louischen' for her
profile and Arthur for rescuing a girl who was desperately unhappy
at home. Disraeli, who met Luise Margarete at the Berlin Congress, wrote
almost lyrically about her lovely eyes and complexion, fine brow and 'singularly
beautiful hands'.
They became the parents of one son and two daughters. In 1911,when
her husband was appointed Governor-General of Canada, she accompanied him
to Ottawa. Their younger daughter, Princess Patricia, who also had accompanied
them, fell in love with one of her husband's aide-de-camps, the Hon. Alexander
Ramsay. However, it was only after her mother's death that Princess Patricia
obtained permission to marry.
Source: Leo van de Pas
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