At the age of 18, Princess Louise was introduced to Alexander Duff, the 6th Earl Fife, at the wedding of Queen Victoria’s youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice. Four years later, in 1889, she asked her grandmother for permission to marry him, insisting that if she could not have Duff, she was sure she would die alone. Louise was the third child and eldest daughter of the future King Edward VII and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark. She was educated at home alongside her sisters, and her choice of husband pushed the boundaries of royal convention at the time.
Duff was an Eton-educated earl and the grandson of one of King William IV’s illegitimate daughters. Although he was not royalty, he was Louise’s third cousin, and the match was made more acceptable by the fact that her aunt, also named Princess Louise, had already set the precedent of marrying a British subject. Victoria was easily convinced, and the wedding went ahead. The couple’s first child was stillborn, but their first surviving daughter, Princess Alexandra, was born in 1891, followed two years later by their second and final daughter, Princess Maud.
In 1905, Louise was made Princess Royal by her father, the now King Edward VII, succeeding her aunt Vicky, the former German Empress, who had died of cancer in 1901. Her husband died after contracting pleurisy in the aftermath of a shipwreck off the coast of Morocco. After his death, Louise led an even more private life.
The 63-year-old princess died on January 4, 1931.