Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein
| Princess Marie Louise | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Princess Aribert of Anhalt | |||||
 Portrait by James Lafayette, c. 1910-1915 | |||||
| Born | 12 August 1872 Cumberland Lodge, Old Windsor, Berkshire England | ||||
| Died | 8 December 1956 (aged 84) Berkeley Square, London, England | ||||
| Burial | 14 December 1956 | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| |||||
| Father | Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein | ||||
| Mother | Princess Helena of the United Kingdom | ||||
Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein GBE, RRC (Franziska Josepha Louise Augusta Marie Christina Helena; 12 August 1872 – 8 December 1956) was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
Early life
Princess Marie Louise was born at
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. She was baptized on 18 September 1872. Her godparents were Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria and Queen Marie of Hanover
.
Her parents resided in the United Kingdom, and the Princess was considered a member of the British royal family. Under Royal Warrant of 15 May 1867, the children of Prince and Princess Christian were to be styled "Highness". From her birth in 1872 therefore Princess Marie Louise was styled Her Highness Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein, albeit only in the United Kingdom. She was known to her family as "Louie".
She was a bridesmaid at the 1885 wedding of her maternal aunt Princess Beatrice, to Prince Henry of Battenberg.[1]
Marriage
On 6 July 1891, Princess Marie Louise married
St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle.[2] Prince Aribert was the third son of Frederick I, Duke of Anhalt, and his wife, Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Altenburg. The bride's first cousin, the German Emperor Wilhelm II
, had been instrumental in arranging the match.
Though contemporary sources did not directly suggest it was a cause of his marriage dissolution, a number of contemporaries and subsequent historical accounts suggest Aribert was
consummated.[5][7] The marriage was annulled on 13 December 1900 by his father. Princess Marie Louise, on an official visit to Canada at the time, immediately returned to Britain.[8]
According to her memoirs, she regarded her marriage vows as binding, so she never remarried.
Activities, charity and patronages
After the annulment, Princess Marie Louise devoted herself to charitable organisations and patronage of the arts. She inspired the creation of
coronation of George VI[9] and the carriage procession for princesses of the blood royal at the coronation of Elizabeth II.[10]
World War I
In July 1917, when
Princess Helena Victoria, became known simply as "Her Highness Princess Marie Louise" and "Her Highness Princess Helena Victoria", giving them the odd distinction of being princesses but not, apparently, members of any particular royal family. This approach differed from the one accepted by George V's other relatives, who relinquished all princely titles, not just their German designations, and in turn received British titles of nobility from the King. Their titles of Princess were derived from their father, and they were not officially princesses of the United Kingdom.[11]
However, their unmarried status and their right to be styled Highness dating from Queen Victoria's concession of 1867 rendered their situations awkward, so that it was easier to allow them to retain their status as princesses while avoiding the question of immediate family membership altogether.
Later life
Princess Marie Louise became a godmother of
Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. In 1956, she published her memoirs, My Memories of Six Reigns. She died at her London home, 10 Fitzmaurice Place, Berkeley Square, a few months later on 8 December 1956 and is buried at the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore at Windsor Great Park.[12] At the time of her death, she was one of six surviving grandchildren of Queen Victoria. Probate of the Princess's estate was granted on 12 March 1957 and was valued at £107,644 (£1.8 million at 2022 conversion rates).[13]
Titles, styles and honours
Titles and styles
- 1872–1891: Her Highness Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein
- 1891–1900: Her Highness Princess Aribert of Anhalt[14]
- 1900–1917: Her Highness Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein[15]
- 1917–1956: Her Highness Princess Marie Louise[16]
Honours
- VA: Lady of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, Second Class
- CI: Companion of the Order of the Crown of India (11 December 1893)[17]
- GCVO: Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (1953)[16]
- GBE: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (1919)
- RRC: Member of the Royal Red Cross
Ancestry
| Ancestors of Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Notes
- ^ NPG: Prince and Princess Henry of Battenberg with their bridesmaids and others on their wedding day http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw145863/Prince-and-Princess-Henry-of-Battenberg-with-their-bridesmaids-and-others-on-their-wedding-day?LinkID=mp89748&role=art&rNo=2
- ^ "Marriage". St George's Windsor. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ Robert Aldrich, The Seduction of the Mediterranean: Writing, Art and Homosexual Fantasy Routledge, 1993.
- ^ Gods, Mongrels And Demons by Angus Calder (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004)
- ^ a b Greg King, Twilight of Splendor: The Court of Queen Victoria During Her Diamond Jubilee Year, John Wiley & Sons, 2007.
- ^ Marlene A. Eilers suggests that Prince Aribert had been discovered in a compromising position with another man
- ^ Princess Marie Louise's uncle, Edward VII, summed up the situation, saying, "Ach, poor Louise, she has returned as she went-- a virgin."
- ISBN 978-0-470-04439-1.
- ^ "Page 7044 | Supplement 34453, 10 November 1937 | London Gazette | the Gazette".
- ^ "Page 6225 | Supplement 40020, 17 November 1953 | London Gazette | the Gazette".
- ^ In May 1867, Queen Victoria granted the style of Highness to any children born of the marriage of Prince and Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. In June 1917, a notice appeared in the Court Circular that a Royal Warrant was to be prepared permitting George V's cousins to stop using the "of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg" part of their titles. However, no warrant was prepared, and they were never formally granted the titles of Princesses of Great Britain and Ireland.
- ^ "Royal Burials in the Chapel since 1805". College of St George - Windsor Castle. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
- ^ Evans, Rob; Pegg, David (18 July 2022). "£187m of Windsor family wealth hidden in secret royal wills". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
- ^ "The London Gazette, Issue 26467, Page 7319". 15 December 1893.
- ^ "The London Gazette, Supplement 28401, Page 5475". 26 July 1910.
- ^ a b "No. 39863". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 1953. p. 2940.
- ^ "No. 26467". The London Gazette. 15 December 1893. p. 7319.
Sources
- Ronald Allison and Sarah Riddell, eds., The Royal Encyclopedia (London: Macmillan, 1992).
- Marlene A. Eilers, Queen Victoria's Descendants (New York: Atlantic International Publishing, 1987).
- Princess Marie Louise (née Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenberg), My Memories of Six Reigns (London: Evans Brothers, 1956).
- "Obituary: Princess Marie Louise, Patron of Social Services," The Times 10 December 1956, p. 14.
