by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

Louise Alexandra Marie Irene was born on July 13, 1889, at Heiligenberg Castle in Seeheim-Jugenheim in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine, now in the German state of Hesse. She was the second of the four children of Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. Through her mother, Louise was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria. One of her father’s younger brothers, Prince Henry of Battenberg, married Princess Beatrice, the youngest child of Queen Victoria. Until 1917, Louise’s style and title were Her Serene Highness Princess Louise of Battenberg. In that year, King George V requested that his British relatives relinquish their German titles and styles, and adopt British-sounding surnames. George compensated his male relatives by creating them British peers. Louise’s mother was the king’s first cousin and lived in the United Kingdom with her husband who was an Admiral in the Royal Navy and had been First Sea Lord. Louise’s father adopted the surname Mountbatten and was created 1st Marquess of Milford Haven. Louise was then styled Lady Louise Mountbatten.

Louise had an elder sister and two younger brothers:

• Princess Alice of Battenberg (1885 – 1969) married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, had issue including Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
• George, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven (1892 – 1938) married Countess Nadejda Mikhailovna de Torby, had issue
• Louis, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1900 – 1979) married Edwina Ashley, had issue, was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army

While Louise was growing up, her family moved quite a bit depending on her father’s assignment in the British Royal Navy. They also spent time at their summer home in Heiligenberg near Darmstadt in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine. Louise and her family frequently visited her great-grandmother Queen Victoria at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and her maternal aunt Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, (born Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine), wife of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia in Russia. Louise and her sister Alice were taught by a governess, and also attended Texters Girls’ School in Darmstadt.

At the outbreak of World War I, Louise’s father was the First Sea Lord, the professional head of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy. Although Louise’s family considered themselves British, her father was forced to resign his position shortly after the war began due to anti-German sentiment During World War I, Louise did volunteer work with the Soldiers and Sailors Families Association, Smokes for Soldiers and Sailors, and the British Red Cross. From March 1915 to July 1917, she served as a nurse at military hospitals in Nevers, France and Palaves, France, and received the British War Medal, the Victory Medal, and the Medal of French Gratitude. Louise’s family lost much of its wealth during the war, as it had been invested in Russian securities and assets, and this caused the family to move to a small house in Fishponds in Southampton, England. After the war, Louise was active in a charity to help children in slum districts in Battersea, London.

In 1909, Louise received a marriage proposal from King Manuel II of Portugal. Her great-uncle King Edward VII of the United Kingdom was in favor of the marriage, but Louise declined because she did not want an arranged marriage. At the same time, Louise received the Portuguese marriage proposal, she was secretly engaged to Prince Christopher of Greece, but since the couple had no money and their parents did not want to take financial responsibility for them, the engagement was broken.

In 1923, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden visited London and met Louise at a party. Gustaf Adolf had been a widower for three years following the death of his wife Margaret of Connaught, who was Louise’s first cousin once removed. The couple’s engagement was announced on July 1, 1923, but some legal problems needed to be addressed. The 1810 Swedish succession law stated a Swedish prince would forfeit his succession rights if he married “with or without the King’s knowledge and consent, married a private Swedish or foreign man’s daughter”. After some discussion, it was decided that the couple could marry. Louise and Gustaf Adolf were married on November 3, 1923, in the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace in London by Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury. The couple’s marriage was a happy one, but unfortunately, they had a stillborn daughter in 1925 and no more children after that.

• Unofficial Royalty: Wedding of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and Lady Louise Mountbatten

In 1926 – 1927, the Crown Prince and Princess made an extensive international trip that was very successful, particularly in the United States. After her mother-in-law died in 1930, Crown Princess Louise performed all the duties of a Queen of Sweden, twenty years before she became Queen. Louise and Gustaf Adolf traveled to Greece, the Middle East, and Africa in 1934 – 1935. During World War II, Sweden was neutral but Louise was active in the Red Cross and had her own charity, the Crown Princess Gift Association For the Neutral Defense Forces, which provided the soldiers who guarded the borders of neutral Sweden with socks, scarves, and caps knitted by people from all over Sweden. As her husband’s first wife did during World War I, Louise acted as a messenger between people who needed to communicate with relatives and friends across the borders of countries who were at war with each other.

In 1950, Louise’s husband became King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden upon the death of his father, and she became Queen of Sweden. She disliked the attention she received just because she was a queen and said, “People look at me as if I were something fancy. I do not look different today than I did yesterday!” Despite this, Louise diligently carried out her duties, even when she was ill. She reformed the court protocol and invited professional women to “democratic ladies’ lunches.” Louise loved to travel but wanted to do so privately, so she traveled incognito under the name Countess of Gripsholm or Mrs. Olsson. She often visited her relatives in England and stayed at the Hyde Park Hotel on the busiest street in Knightsbridge, London. Because she often crossed the street to shop, Louise kept a note in her handbag that said “I am the Queen of Sweden” in case she was hit by a car or bus.

During the 1950s, Louise’s health began to suffer and she developed cardiac issues. Soon after she attended the Nobel Prize banquet in December 1964, her last public appearance, her health deteriorated. On March 4, 1965, Louise was taken to St. Göran Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden where she had six-hour surgery to correct a severe circulatory disorder in the right leg as a result of changes in her aorta. Although the surgery went well, complications developed and the 75-year-old Louise died on March 7, 1965, with her husband King Gustaf VI Adolf, her stepson Prince Bertil, her stepson Count Sigvard Bernadotte, her stepdaughter Queen Ingrid of Denmark, her stepdaughter-in-law Princess Sibylla, and her sister Princess Alice of Greece at her side. Louise’s funeral was held at the Storkyrkan in Stockholm and she was buried near her husband’s first wife at the Royal Cemetery at Haga Park in Solna, Sweden. King Gustaf VI Adolf survived his wife for eight years. He died on September 15, 1973, at the age of 90, and was buried with his wives.

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