Louise Mountbatten

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Crown Princess Louise of Sweden, 1925

Lady Louise Alexandra Marie Irene Mountbatten , née Princess Louise von Battenberg (born July 13, 1889 at Heiligenberg Castle near Darmstadt , † March 7, 1965 in Stockholm ) was a British-German princess from the House of Battenberg , a branch of the House of Hesse , by birth , and by marriage Queen of Sweden (1950–1965).

Life

Childhood and youth

Louise (in her mother's arms) with her parents and sister Alice , 1889

Louise was born as Princess Louise von Battenberg. She was the daughter of Prince Ludwig Louis von Battenberg (1854-1921) and his wife Princess Viktoria of Hesse-Darmstadt and near Rhine (1863-1950), eldest daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig IV and Princess Alice of Great Britain and Ireland . Her paternal grandparents were Prince Alexander von Hessen-Darmstadt and Countess Julia Hauke ; later Princess von Battenberg.

The parents attached great importance to a good upbringing; thus Louise received a very extensive education in languages, natural sciences, mathematics, geography and history. At an early age, she showed the character traits that would mark her life: she was extremely dutiful, gracious to everyone she got to know better and very loyal to her family and friends. Through her parents she had family ties to many royal courts in Europe, which she often visited with her mother and siblings. She grew up with her siblings in Kensington Palace . The family moved between different British territories through the work of their father, who served as an admiral in the British Navy . For example, they spent some time in Malta . Nevertheless, they often returned to Heiligenberg Castle outside Darmstadt. She spent much of her youth in the company of her only sister, Alice, who was also raised. With her mother, Louise often visited her great-grandmother Queen Victoria at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight . Family life was described as harmonious. Her parents lived in a happy relationship, not an arranged marriage. She had a particularly close relationship with her younger brother Louis , with whom she corresponded regularly until her death.

Philip Alexius de László : Louise von Battenberg, later Queen of Sweden (1907)

In 1914, Louise and her mother visited her sister Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna in Russia . They went on an extensive boat trip on the Volga with Louise's uncle Tsar Nicholas II . and her cousins Olga , Tatjana , Maria and Anastasia . During her visit, Louise was worried about her aunt, who was under the great influence of Rasputin . The trip came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of the First World War . Her father immediately telegraphed to Russia telling them to go back to London as soon as possible. Victoria gave her jewelry to her sister for safe keeping. They left Russia via Haapsalu and traveled to neutral Sweden . Before they left for the United Kingdom for good, they stayed at Drottningholm Palace for one night at the request of the Crown Prince (her future husband) and his wife at the time .

During the war, Louise worked for the SSAFA Forces Help . She later worked as a nurse for the Red Cross in various hospitals . In Nevers she worked in a French military hospital and from March 1915 to July 1917 in a military hospital in Palaves near Montpellier . For her hard work, she was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal , a medal from the Red Cross, as well as the Médaille de la Reconnaissance française. After the war she was active in social work for the children in the Battersea slums in London.

In 1917, due to anti-German tendencies prevalent in Great Britain during World War I , the name of the British royal family was changed to Windsor . King George V renounced all German titles, as did the members of the royal family and subjects. Louise's father gave up his German titles on July 17, 1917 and took the surname Mountbatten . He was then awarded the title of Marquess of Milford Haven, Earl of Medina and Viscount Alderney in the form of a Peerage of the United Kingdom . As the daughter of a marquess, Louise received the courtesy title of Lady and henceforth called herself Lady Louise Mountbatten.

Possible marriage candidates

Lady Louise Mountbatten, around 1920

At one of the many family get-togethers, Louise met the Crown Prince and later King Manuel II. De Bragança (1889–1932), from the Portuguese branch of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family . Louise and Emanuel were almost in love with each other, but their budding romance ended in nowhere. In 1909, at the age of twenty, Louise secretly got engaged to Prince Christoph of Greece (1888–1940), son of the Greek King George I. But since Christoph was largely destitute and Louise's parents did not want to bear the financial responsibility, the engagement took place again dissolved.

When Louise was working as a nurse in Nevers during the First War, she met the Scottish artist Alexander Stuart-Hill and soon became engaged to him. Expecting that her parents would be disappointed with her choice, she initially kept the engagement a secret. Finally she confided in them and invited Stuart-Hill to visit England. Ludwig and Viktoria perceived him as eccentric and strange because of his appearance. Lacking enough money, the couple postponed the wedding until the end of the war. In 1918, Louise's parents realized that Stuart-Hill was gay and that this made marriage to him impossible.

Marriage to Crown Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden

Wedding picture of Crown Prince Gustav Adolf and Lady Louise Mountbatten, 1923

In 1923 Crown Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden (1882–1973) visited London. Gustav Adolf, eldest son of King Gustav V and Queen Victoria , had been widowed since the death of his wife Margaret in 1920 and the father of five growing children. He met Louise at a party and, to her surprise, started courting her. Although she had said as a young woman that she would never marry a king or a widower, she accepted Gustavus Adolf's widowhood and his future position as king. Louise and Gustav Adolf got engaged on July 1, 1923. The planned marriage was connected with legal problems. The Swedish Succession Act of 1810 stated that a Swedish prince would lose his inheritance rights if he "married the daughter of a Swedish or foreign private individual with or without the knowledge and consent of the king" - by "private individual" is meant a man who is not a royal family listened to. While King Gustav V readily blessed the couple, there was discussion in the media about whether the future bride was constitutionally entitled to become Sweden's future queen, since her father had given up his German prince title in 1917. The conservative Prime Minister Ernst Trygger also had doubts as to whether marriage would be constitutional. However, the British government stated that Louise was to be regarded as a member of the British royal family, which made her befitting the Swedish crown prince.

On November 3, 1923, Louise and Gustav Adolf were married in the chapel of St James's Palace in London . They were married by Randall Thomas Davidson , Archbishop of Canterbury . In addition to the families of the newlyweds, many members of the British royal family also attended the wedding. Among other things, King George V counted . and his wife Mary among the guests.

The marriage was considered very happy. Louise is said to have fallen in love with her stepchildren and their children. Tragically, she gave birth to a dead girl herself on May 30, 1925. The Crown Prince couple were denied further children.

Next life

In addition to numerous representational tasks, Louise, as Crown Princess and later as Queen of Sweden, was heavily involved in social areas and supported a number of non-profit associations. Together with the Red Cross, she organized a children's aid organization during the Finnish winter war to bring children from the war zone to Sweden. She also made her summer residence at Schloss Ulriksdal available as a children's home.

Queen Louise died after an emergency operation on March 7, 1965 in St. Göran's Hospital in Stockholm and was buried in the Haga Royal Cemetery .

gallery

  • Louise (far left) with her parents and siblings, 1902

  • Crown Princess Louise, around 1940

  • Louise and Gustav Adolf, 1945

  • Crown Princess Louise with the later King Carl XVI. Gustaf and Princess Sybilla at the funeral of King Gustav V. In the background are the princesses Christina and Birgitta.

  • Queen Louise and King Gustav VI. Adolf in the 1950s

  • Queen Louise and King Gustav VI. Adolf on a walk in the 1950s

  • Horse-drawn carriage with Queen Louise's coffin, 1965

Titles and awards (selection)

Queen Louise of Sweden, 1963

literature

  • Margit Fjellman: Drottning Louise - En biografi (Queen Louise - A Biography), Bonniers, (1965)
  • Kjell Fridh: Gamle kungen Gustaf VI Adolf. En biografi , Wahlström & Widstrand (W&W), Stockholm (1995)
  • Kid Severin: Vår Drottning , Åhlén & Åkerlunds Förlags AB Stockholm (1963)
  • LG Pine: The New Extinct Peerage 1884–1971: Containing Extinct , Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms, London (1972)
  • C. Arnold McNaughton: The Book of Kings: A Royal Genealogy , London (1973)
  • George Edward Cokayne and Vicary Gibbs: The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom , Extant, Extinct or Dormant (1910–1959), Gloucester (2000)
  • Alison Weir: Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy , London (1999)
  • Louise , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 15/1965 of April 5, 1965, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Web links

Commons : Louise Mountbatten  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Cheryl Ciucevich: Princess Palace: Today's Princess: Louise of Battenberg. In: Princess Palace. March 12, 2015, accessed September 6, 2018 .
  2. ^ A b Crowns, Tiaras, & Coronets: Princess Louise of Battenberg, Queen of Sweden. In: Crowns, Tiaras, & Coronets. July 1, 2016, accessed September 6, 2018 .
  3. ^ Kurt Kluxen : History of England. From the beginning to the present (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 374). 3. Edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-520-37403-X .
  4. ^ A b Queen Louise of Sweden (Lady Louise Mountbatten) . In: Unofficial Royalty . January 20, 2015 ( unofficialroyalty.com [accessed July 8, 2017]).
  5. ^ Louise, Drottning . In: Svenskt biografiskt lexikon , Riksarkivet, accessed on December 16, 2018.
  6. ^ Herman Lindqvist: Bernadotte - För Sverige hela tiden. Albert Bonniers Förlag, 2018, pp. 317-318.
  7. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
predecessor Office Successor
Viktoria of Baden Queen of Sweden
1950–1965 		Silvia Sommerlath
personal data
SURNAME Mountbatten, Louise
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Battenberg, Louise Alexandra Marie Irene Princess of; Louise of Sweden; Battenberg, Louise of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-German princess, Queen of Sweden by marriage
DATE OF BIRTH July 13, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Heiligenberg Castle near Darmstadt
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1965
Place of death Stockholm