July 27, 2020 | Josh Mendelssohn

Bold Facts About Princess Louise, The Rebel Daughter Of Queen Victoria


Born on the eve of Europe’s first wave of Revolutions, Queen Victoria knew that her daughter Princess Louise was bound to be special. And special she was. Princess Louise was a precocious child who matured into a controversial, mysterious revolutionary. Grab a cup of tea and prepare to learn about the scandalous woman that the British royals have tried to hide.


Princess Louise Facts

1. Her Mother Knew She Would Be Different

Princess Louise entered the world on March 18, 1848 and even from her first breaths, it was clear that she would be a troublemaker. You see, 1848 kicked off Europe's tumultuous "Age of Revolutions"—and it seemed that the year's rebelliousness would come through in little Princess Louise. When Queen Victoria gave birth to her daughter, she immediately knew that Louise would be “something peculiar”. She was right.

Advertisement

Queen Victoria FactsWikipedia

Advertisement

2. Her Birth Was Scandalous

The revolutionary times weren’t the only strange aspect of Princess Louise's birth. After five painful labors, Queen Victoria understandably wanted some pain relief. She defied her royal advisers and tried a controversial new treatment: chloroform. As the queen said, it made labor "delightful". In plainer language, when Louise was born, prim Queen Victoria was more than a little high.

Advertisement

Queen Victoria FactsWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

3. She Was a Curious Cat

The royal family subscribed to the philosophy that children should be seen and not heard. But not Louise—she was a born rebel. From an early age, she was a firecracker who was almost too inquisitive for the royal family's tastes. Louise asked so many questions that the family nicknamed her “Little Miss Why”. As we'll see, the Princess's need to rebel only grew stronger as she matured.

Advertisement

Edward VII factsWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

4. She Couldn’t Handle the Grief

When Louise was just 13 years old, tragedy struck: Her beloved father Prince Albert passed in 1861. Even though Louise and Victoria didn't have the smoothest relationship, Louise was her father's favorite child. Losing her dad was incredibly difficult for Princess Louise—and sadly, her mother wasn't around to help her through her grief.

Prince Albert FactsWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

5. She Was Alone

Queen Victoria was so distraught by Albert's loss that she could barely hold herself together, never mind nurture her children through their father's passing.

Advertisement

And so, with her father gone and her mother numb, Louise became withdrawn and dour—but even with the odds stacked against her, she was a fighter. Four years after Prince Albert's passing, Louise was finally ready to re-join public life. Unfortunately, her mother had other ideas.

Advertisement

Stevie Nicks FactsShutterstock

Advertisement

6. Having a Ball

In the Victorian Era, elite young women entered society with an elaborate party called a coming-out ball. As a 17-year-old, Louise was understandably excited about the party—only for Queen Victoria to cancel the whole occasion. In the queen's opinion, grieving (even three years after Albert had passed)!

Advertisement

was more important than letting her children move on. Furious, Louise stomped around the palace instead of dancing. But she'd make her own fun soon enough.

Empress Alexandra factsWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

7. She Worked for her Mom

Although Louise had a special talent for getting under her mother's skin, Queen Victoria would follow tradition if it was the last thing she did.

Advertisement

In this case, that meant promoting her troublemaker daughter Louise to serve as her personal Secretary. Louise was good at the work, but found it boring—or she did until a certain gentleman entered her life.

Dumb Moments In History FactsWikipedia

Advertisement

8. She Had a Forbidden Affair

While Louise worked as her mother's secretary, scandalous rumors spread throughout England.

Advertisement

Apparently, Princess Louise had fallen in love with a highly inappropriate young man: her younger brother's tutor, the commoner Robinson Duckworth. And Duckworth's class status wasn't the only thing that counted against him. He was also a Reverend...and he was 14 years older than young Princess Louise.

Advertisement

Ada Lovelace factsShutterstock

Advertisement

9. Her Mother Intervened

Queen Victoria was no fool. She could see what was going on between her daughter and the Reverend. It didn't take long for her to "dismiss" the renowned tutor from the royal palace. With that, Victoria probably thought she'd wrested control of the situation. But Louise's love life would throw many more curveballs at the queen.

Queen Victoria FactsWikimedia Commons

Advertisement
Factinate

Sign up to our newsletter.

History’s most fascinating stories and darkest secrets, delivered to your inbox daily. Making distraction rewarding since 2017.

Thank you!
Error, please try again.

10. Her Mother Took Caution 

During Louise's tumultuous teenage years, Queen Victoria began to grow weary of her daughter and soon enough, their relationship soured.

Advertisement

  The Queen often criticized Louise's disobedience, called her "indiscreet," and said that she was an imprudent child who got pleasure from arguing. It seemed like no topic was safe in the royal residencies because Louise simply refused to hold her tongue. Thankfully, a change of scenery would give the royal family some relief.

Advertisement

Queen Victoria FactsWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

11. She Broke the Mould 

In 1863, Princess Louise became the royal family's first princess to enroll at a public institution. After enduring her father's rigid tutoring system, Louise was finally able to seek out the education she wanted for herself and blossom into the person she was meant to be. Instead of staying trapped at royal palaces, she ventured into the world.

Advertisement

..and made a scandalous impression.

Princess Louise FactsWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

12. She Became a Famous Artist

Louise enrolled at the National Art Training School where she stunned England by becoming a sculptor. It was already scandalous for a woman to become an artist, so it's hard to imagine how controversial it would have been for a royal princess to enter the male-dominated world of sculpting, instead of more traditionally feminine arts like painting or singing.

Advertisement

But even Louise's unconventional career choices didn't hold a candle to her dramatic personal life.

Quentin Tarantino factsPixabay

Advertisement

13. She Was a Busy Woman

Louise connected with many men during her lifetime and the gossip never seemed to cease. According to sources, she also carried out affairs with one of the Queen’s later personal secretaries, along with the famed architect, Edward Lutyens. Louise was a wildly liberal woman, though she preferred to keep her affairs a secret.

Advertisement

However, the royal family concerned themselves with concealing even greater things than affairs.

Wu Zetian FactsShutterstock

Advertisement

14. She Was Beautiful

It's easy to see why men fell all over themselves for Louise. The princess was absolutely gorgeous. With her pale skin, dark hair, and slender figure, Louise was the Victorian Era's idea of a jaw-dropping beauty.

Advertisement

To this day, she is often called Queen Victoria's most stunning daughter.

Princess Louise FactsWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

15. She Had a Big Secret

Louise was quite a handful for Queen Victoria, and she put in a lot of work to cover up her daughter's red-hot personal life in order to “protect” the royal family. But according to some sources, trysts were the least of the queen's worries.

Advertisement

According to Louise's biographer, the royal princess didn't just have an affair with Leopold's tutor Duckworth, but with another of her brother's teachers as well. This time, the man was Walter Stirling, and his relationship with Louise would send the royal family into a tailspin.

Agrippina The Younger FactsShutterstock

Advertisement

16. She Had a Love Child

In the 1860s, Queen Victoria's doctor adopted a little boy named Henry Locock.

Advertisement

It sounds like a dull fact—but nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout his life, Henry claimed that he was no regular adoptee, but the illegitimate son of Princess Louise and her lover Walter Stirling. To this day, no one knows if Locock was telling the truth because the royal family has barred two of the family's attempts to get DNA tested.

Advertisement

Science factsPxfuel

Advertisement

17. She Served the People 

In between all her romps, Princess Louise still found time to dedicate herself to philanthropy. Even as a young woman, she felt strongly that she shouldn't just serve the royal family, but work for the British people. And so, while she worked as her mother's secretary, Louise also helped open a hospital for children and became the face of royal philanthropy.

Advertisement

But throughout her good deeds, time was ticking. Louise was approaching her twenties and it was high time for the princess to get hitched...

Princess Louise FactsWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

18. She Refused Royalty

As Prince Louise said goodbye to her teenage years, the Queen set about finding her daughter a husband. Her sisters had all married royalty, and the Queen considered many princes from across Europe for Louise.

Advertisement

However, Louise refused to marry a man who was a member of any royal family, finding the prospect of having to be in a marriage with another stuffy royal utterly unappealing.

Rejected Proposals factsShutterstock

Advertisement

19. She Wanted a John Doe

Louise knew what she wanted, and she wouldn’t back down. While her family was busy soliciting her across Europe, Louise set her sights on a regular man named John Campbell.

Advertisement

Well, he wasn’t that regular, Campbell was actually a nobleman. But to the royal family, you were a prince or you were nothing. Despite Campbell's pedigree, Louise's family strongly rejected the scandalous marriage.

Princess Louise FactsWikipedia

Advertisement

20. Her Husband Bent the Knee

Eventually, Queen Victoria saw the light and relented. She stood up for her rebellious daughter in the family dispute over Louise's marriage, and thanks to her actions, in 1871, Louise and Campbell walked down the aisle.

Advertisement

However, at the ceremony, the Queen still forced Campbell to kiss her hand rather than permitting him a kiss on the royal cheek.

Queen Victoria FactsWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

21. Her Wedding Caused a Stir

The ground-breaking marriage between Princess Louise and John Campbell was a major event. After all, a British princess had not married a non-royal for literally centuries.

Advertisement

The affair caused quite the splash, and so many people showed up to the ceremony that the authorities  implemented–for the first time in Britain–chain link barriers to protect the couple from the massive crowds.

Wedding Red Flags factsShutterstock

Advertisement

22. Step Aside, Coco Chanel

Louise had style. She was a talented artist, after all. For her wedding, she wouldn’t have anyone else say what she would wear. She put herself to work and designed a lace wedding veil for herself to adorn during her wedding.

Advertisement

Sadly, the marriage wouldn't be a happily-ever-after situation. Far from it...

Princess Louise FactsFlickr

Advertisement

23. She Stepped Up

After her marriage, Louise decided to ramp up her charitable efforts. She helped create the influential Ladies Work Supply in 1871, a foundation that designed, created, and sold embroidery to help those in poverty. The organization selected Louise as their President, and she even worked as one of their designers.

Advertisement

Princess Louise Facts Wikipedia

Advertisement

24. She Had a Tough Crowd

Louise didn’t want to spend her entire life in stuffy England, so it was a relief when the Queen chose Campbell to be the Governor-General of Canada. The couple moved to Ottawa in 1878, but it wasn't exactly a smooth transition. Canadians didn't love the idea of the crown butting into their territory.

Advertisement

But Louise was special, and before long she knew she would win them over with a daring gesture.

Canada FactsPexels

Advertisement

25. She Broke Barriers

Louise understood that Canadians were wary of her presence, so she did her best to convey that she was a friend, not a foe. During her early years in Ottawa, she became notorious for her controversial parties.

Advertisement

At these soirees, Louise refused to follow the tradition of separating people by class. Instead, she just let everyone mingle, no matter their station. Though some high-class members of society despised it, it was a breath of fresh air for everyone else.

Queen Victoria FactsWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

26. She Travelled Far and Wide

Louise was a hit in Canada, as not only was she the first British royal to set foot in British Columbia, she was also a staunch advocate of the arts.

Advertisement

She helped promote the founding of the National Gallery of Canada And the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. She was so beloved, that Canada named the province of Alberta and beautiful Lake Louise after her. But make no mistake: the princess' time in Canada was far from drama-free.

Advertisement

Princess Louise Facts Wikimedia Commons

Advertisement

27. She Was Lucky to Survive

Canada wasn’t all fun and games for Princess Louise. In 1880, she suffered a traumatic experience when she got into a serious sleigh accident. The carriage overturned and Louise was dragged through the snow for 400 meters. In the end, she had a concussion and her ear lobe was torn in two.

Advertisement

Though she was tough, this marked the beginning of a period of fragile health for Louise.

Government Screw Ups FactsGetty Images

Advertisement

28. She Was a Fad Dieter

Princess Louise's delicate health wasn't helped by that fact that she had some strange eating habits. The princess was always enthusiastic about exercise and worked hard to maintain her slim build, but at one dinner party, Louise is recorded to have eaten just "four brussel sprouts". Reportedly, she didn't want to look like her mother, the stout Queen Victoria.

Advertisement

Ouch.

Ideas That Backfired factsShutterstock

Advertisement

29. She Had a Good Heart

Before Louise left Canada, she endured one of the country's bloodiest moments: the North-West Rebellion. Louise understood that no matter who won, these were humans putting their lives on the line. Thus, she created a medical fund and hired a doctor to provide medical attention to the men fighting on both sides, no matter their race, creed, or color.

Advertisement

Princess Louise FactsWikipedia

Advertisement

30. Her Sisters Were Jealous

Eventually, Louise returned to England. Her homecoming was anything but rosy, however, and she dealt with bitter conflicts throughout her family. Louise's sisters were terribly jealous of their beautiful, rebellious sibling, and their relationship suffered. Louise did, however, get along with her sister Beatrice's husband, Prince Henry of Battenberg—perhaps too well...

Tywin Lannister FactsShutterstock

Advertisement

31. She Had A Twisted Affair

Louise didn’t care what people thought about her, and she didn’t care much for appearances. She did not hide her friendship with Henry, and since their bond was out in the open, rumors abounded that they were lovers.

Advertisement

No one knows the truth about their potential love affair, but when Henry passed in 1896, Louise remarked that “he was almost the greatest friend I had—I, too, miss him more than I can say”.

Caution to the Wind factsShutterstock

Advertisement

32. She Lost her Favorite Sister

Louise's disintegrating relationships with her sisters had another sad dimension. When she was in Canada, she received news that her favorite sibling, the beautiful Princess Alice, and two of Alice's daughters, had all died of diptheria.

Advertisement

In an even more heartbreaking twist, Alice perished on the anniversary of Louise's father's death. For the rest of Louise's life, December 14 must have been a terribly dark day.

Johann Sebastian Bach FactsShutterstock

Advertisement

33. Her Marriage was in Trouble

What helped the rumors about Louise and Henry was that Louise was not getting along well with her husband upon their return to England.

Advertisement

They often lived separately for long periods, and Louise preferred the company of other men. What went wrong between Louise and the husband that she specifically chose? Strap in.

Maria Eleonora FactsShutterstock

Advertisement

34. Her Husband Had a Secret

One of the most circulated rumors about Louise was that her husband was in fact gay. Louise didn’t seem to mind her husband’s sexuality, many of these royal marriages are of convenience anyway. What she did mind, however, was his night prowling.

Advertisement

Apparently, Louise tried to stop Campbell from going cruising during the nights by closing off the windows to their apartment.

Juiciest Gossip factsPixabay

Advertisement

35. She Was a Secret Suffragette

Queen Victoria wasn't shy about the fact that she hated the suffragist movement. Although she supported Louise in her artistic endeavors, Victoria expressed repulsion over the idea of women practicing medicine.

Advertisement

Louise didn’t care about what her mother believed. She openly defied the Queen by becoming a vocal proponent for the suffragist movement and making friends with Elizabeth Garret, the first British woman to publicly practice medicine.

Princess Louise Facts Wikimedia Commons

Advertisement

36. She Fell in Love with a Scandalous Man

Louise spent a lot of time away from her husband, who was growing ever more eccentric and believed that he had second sight.

Advertisement

This gave her space to live her life on her own terms and engage in affairs that fulfilled her. While living in Canada, she had a love affair with an Indigenous man that was modelling for her art. To say this caused a great deal of gossip would be an understatement.

Advertisement

If you thought the Queen was harsh about women having professional jobs, just imagine what she’d think about this.

Princess Margaret, The Countess of Snowdon factsShutterstock

Advertisement

37. People Doubted Her

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's rule, Louise was commissioned to sculpt a magnificent statue for the occasion. However, the Queen did not hire Louise outright.

Advertisement

Instead, Louise had to submit her work anonymously to a panel of judges. To Louise's sadness, cruel rumors claimed that the statue had actually been sculpted by her teacher/lover, Joseph Edgar Boehm.

Queen Victoria FactsWikimedia Commons, Karthiknanda

Advertisement

38. She Took Care of Other Women

Despite her dodgy personal life, Louise advocated for feminist movements however she could. She liked to randomly drop in on factories where women were working and make sure the owners and co-workers treated them properly.

Advertisement

She would also involve herself in people’s personal lives, such as helping widows pay for the proper burials of their husbands.

Princess Louise FactsWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

39. She Was a Dedicated Wife

Even though Louise did not have the greatest relationship with her husband, the two remained married for life. As the years flew by, their bond grew tighter, and their relationship really flourished in the last years of their marriage.

Advertisement

However, John Campbell deteriorated much quicker than his wife. In 1911, he became so senile that Louise had to nurse him.

Micaela Almonester FactsShutterstock

Advertisement

40. She Suffered from Loneliness

Louise lost many people around her and as she grew older, and she herself grew increasingly ill. After her husband passed in 1914, she was grief-stricken and felt profound loneliness, which led her to endure a brutal nervous breakdown.

Advertisement

She wrote to a friend, "My loneliness without the Duke is quite terrible. I wonder what he does now"!

Online Friends FactsShutterstock

Advertisement

41. She Patched Things Up

Although Louise and Princess Beatrice had their fair share of squabbles over the years, late in life they rekindled their relationship. This might be because they had no other choice.

Advertisement

After all, when Queen Victoria passed, she gave them neighboring houses. If this was a ploy by the Queen, it worked. By the time Louise and Beatrice's declining health forced them to live in Kensington Palace, they chose to stay in neighboring rooms.

Lucrezia Borgia Facts Pxfuel

Advertisement

42. She Took Out a Debt for Her Addiction

Some habits never quit, and there was one that Louise simply wouldn’t give up. At the time of her passing, she still owed a shop-keeper 15 shillings for cigarettes (that's about 300 dollars today)!

Advertisement

. As a sign that she knew her strict mother wouldn't approve of her bad habit, Louise hid her smoking from Queen Victoria, even when Louise was a fully grown adult.

Tippi Hedren factsPixabay

Advertisement

43. She Had a Strange Third Act

Louise holed herself up at Kensington Palace, and as the years went by, she found herself confined to its property.

Advertisement

Once the royal family's wild child, Louise was now the hermit of Kensington Palace. Queen Elizabeth II, then Princess Elizabeth, solidified Louise's new reputation as an old bat by dubbing her “Auntie Palace”.

Adelaide Hall factsFlickr, NSW State Archives

Advertisement

44. She Lived Until Her Nineties

Louise's obsession with exercise and health food seems to have made up for her love for cigarettes.

Advertisement

After proclaiming that she would "outlive" everyone who made fun of her fitness regime, Louise came pretty close to keeping her word. She passed at the very old age of 91 years old on December 3, 1939.

Princess Louise FactsWikipedia

Advertisement

45. The Mystery Continues

Princess Louise had left a lasting impact on Britain and the royal family.

Advertisement

How much so, however, we may never know. Over the years, the royal family has rescinded, locked away, or destroyed many of Louise’s papers and files. The estate has even kept prize-winning biographers in the dark and straight-up ignored their requests to research the life of Prince Louise.

Advertisement

Princess Louise FactsWikipedia

Advertisement

46. Sculpting Mom

You may have seen Louise's artistic work without even knowing it. The rebel princess sculpted one of Montreal’s most famous statues. Fittingly, the work is of Louise's mother Queen Victoria and it stands in front of McGill University.

Queen Victoria FactsPixabay

Advertisement

47. She Had Intense Sibling Rivalries

Because of the rumors that Louise was secretly romancing her own sister's husband, it's not hard to believe that Princess Beatrice would get angry and lash out.

Advertisement

According to Louise, her sister got revenge by spreading a dark rumor. Beatrice claimed that Louise was romantically involved with Queen Victoria's private secretary, Arthur Bigge. Louise struck back by spreading a rumor of her own. She said that Beatrice made the whole thing up because she was jealous.

Advertisement

And then Louise poured salt in the wound.

Mr. Rogers Factsshutterstock

Advertisement

48. She Had a Mean Side

After Princess Beatrice's handsome husband (and Princess Louise's rumored boy toy) Prince Henry passed, Louise claimed that she and Henry were much closer than Henry and Beatrice. She even went so far as to say that Beatrice "meant nothing" to her husband. Ouch.

Advertisement

Heartbreaking Things FactsPixabay

Advertisement

49. She Had a Teacher-Student Relationship

Louise was a great artist. Part of her ability came from sheer talent, though another part came from her esteemed tutor, Joseph Edgar Boehm, who was one of the 19th century’s greatest sculptors. However, Louise didn’t just learn how to sculpt from Boehm—she also learned how to love. According to many sources, the two had a long-standing love affair that ended only when Boehm passed.

Advertisement

And oh, how his passing fuelled the rumor mill...

Princess Louise Facts Wikipédia

Advertisement

50. She Suffered a Terrible Loss

Joseph Edgar Boehm passed in 1890. As though that wasn't bad enough, Louise took it particularly hard because she was with Boehm at the moment his heart stopped. And the two lovers weren’t just hanging out sculpting royal statues when Boehm passed. Nope.

Advertisement

If rumors are to be believed, they were in bed making love. Louise was not only devastated but also traumatized by losing her lover while she held him in her arms.

Princess Louise Facts Wikimedia Commons

Advertisement

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7


More from Factinate

Featured Article

My mom never told me how her best friend died. Years later, I was using her phone when I made an utterly chilling discovery.

Dark Family Secrets

Dark Family Secrets Exposed

Nothing stays hidden forever—and these dark family secrets are proof that when the truth comes out, it can range from devastating to utterly chilling.
April 8, 2020 Samantha Henman

Featured Article

Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark history—or the chilling secret shared by her and Louis.

Madame de Pompadour Facts

Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France's Most Powerful Mistress

Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark history—or the chilling secret shared by her and Louis.
December 7, 2018 Kyle Climans

More from Factinate

Featured Article

I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. I knew that she was going to take it badly, but I had no idea about the insane lengths she would go to just to get revenge and mess with my life.

These People Got Genius Revenges

When someone really pushes our buttons, we'd like to think that we'd hold our head high and turn the other cheek, but revenge is so, so sweet.
April 22, 2020 Scott Mazza

Featured Article

Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIII’s rejected queen—but few people know her even darker history.

Catherine of Aragon Facts

Tragic Facts About Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s First Wife

Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIII’s rejected queen—but very few people know her even darker history.
June 7, 2018 Christine Tran



Dear reader,


Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? We’re always looking for your input! Please reach out to us to let us know what you’re interested in reading. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from “Life” to “Compact Cars and Trucks” to “A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius.” We’ll get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics you’re interested in. Please submit feedback to contribute@factinate.com. Thanks for your time!


Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? At Factinate, we’re dedicated to getting things right. Our credibility is the turbo-charged engine of our success. We want our readers to trust us. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. However, despite our best efforts, we sometimes miss the mark. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better. Please let us know if a fact we’ve published is inaccurate (or even if you just suspect it’s inaccurate) by reaching out to us at contribute@factinate.com. Thanks for your help!


Warmest regards,



The Factinate team




Want to learn something new every day?

Join thousands of others and start your morning with our Fact Of The Day newsletter.

Thank you!

Error, please try again.