Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter: A Biography of Princess Louise

by Lucinda Hawksley Narrated by Jennifer M. Dixon

Overview

Spirited and lively, Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter is richly packed with arguments, intrigues, scandals, and secrets, and is a vivid portrait of a princess desperate to escape her inheritance.

The secrets of Queen Victoria's sixth child, Princess Louise, may be destined to remain hidden forever. What was so dangerous about this artistic, tempestuous royal that her life has been documented more by rumor and gossip than hard facts? When Lucinda Hawksley started to investigate, often thwarted by inexplicable secrecy, she discovered a fascinating woman, modern before her time, whose story has been shielded for years from public view.

Louise was a sculptor and painter, friend to the Pre-Raphaelites and a keen member of the Aesthetic movement. The most feisty of the Victorian princesses, she kicked against her mother's controlling nature and remained fiercely loyal to her brothers—especially the sickly Leopold and the much-maligned Bertie. She sought out other unconventional women, including Josephine Butler and George Eliot, and campaigned for education and health reform and for the rights of women. She battled with her indomitable mother for permission to practice the "masculine" art of sculpture and go to art college-and in doing so became the first British princess to attend a public school.

The rumors of Louise's colorful love life persist even today, with hints of love affairs dating as far back as her teenage years, and notable scandals included entanglements with her sculpting tutor Joseph Edgar Boehm and possibly even her sister Princess Beatrice's handsome husband, Liko. True to rebellious form, she refused all royal suitors and became the first member of the royal family, since the sixteenth century, to marry a commoner. She moved with him to Canada when he was appointed Governor-General.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

08/03/2015
Hawksley, a British historian and biographer (and Dickens descendant), addresses rumors head-on in this sympathetic portrait of Queen Victoria’s “unconventional” daughter, the accomplished sculptor Princess Louise (1848–1939). Rebellious rather than mysterious, Louise found palace life stultifying. Though the widowed queen kept her brood of nine on short leashes, she found Louise “very indiscreet.” Perhaps this explains the long-standing rumor that Louise was a teen mother whose child was adopted by a family on the royal payroll. Hawksley’s attempts to access the U.K.’s Royal Archives on the matter were thwarted, indicating “that there is something in them that the archivists... feel the need to conceal.” She found better evidence of Louise’s romance with her (married) art tutor, and the princess may have been involved in his tragic demise; his archives have vanished from the National Gallery. What is well documented is that in 1871, Louise married the Duke of Argyll, a reputed homosexual in a country where Victoria made “life as unpleasant as possible for homosexual men.” Yet, after a long childless marriage, Louise and the duke made their peace with each other. While her occasional first-person narrative distracts, Hawksley shows that Louise was “ahead of her time” in supporting women’s rights and was “one of the most intriguing of Victorian women.” Photos. (Dec.)

From the Publisher

[I]lluminating Hawksley conveys Louise's story fully and clearly, but just as importantly, she shows the devastating damage Queen Victoria inflicted on her extensive family” —Kirkus

“[A] sympathetic portrait of Queen Victoria’s 'unconventional' daughter… Hawksley shows that Louise was 'ahead of her time' in supporting women’s rights and was “one of the most intriguing of Victorian women” —Publishers Weekly

“Strong in its presentations of its subject’s personality and social circles” —Library Journal

"It's these whispers that make Lucinda Hawksley's new biography such an intriguing prospect.... Satisfyingly replete with eye-popping stories of life at the various palaces.... [I was] caught up with this improbable princess, a beautiful, charming woman."
--The Observer

"Lively, engaging and buoyantly enthusiastic, Hawksley's gallant but necessarily speculative book should encourage the royal archivists to stop being so protective."
--The Sunday Times

Library Journal

10/15/2015
Intending to write a biography on the artistic life of Queen Victoria's sixth child, Hawksley (The Mystery of Princess Louise) contacted the Royal Archives (UK), only to be informed that the files of Princess Louise (1848–1939) were closed to researchers. Intrigued, the author pressed further, and her project became an attempt to unravel the mysteries shrouding many aspects of the princess's life. Hawksley is on solid footing in her exploration of Louise as an unconventional princess out of step with both her family and her era. The author's pinpointing of the supposed reason for the official secrecy on her subject—the long-standing rumor that the princess bore and surrendered an illegitimate child—is less successful. While the suggestion has potentially plausible elements, the reliance on supposition and matching up dates rather than definite evidence means it never rises above the level of hypothesis. VERDICT This biography is strong in its presentations of its subject's personality and social circles but stumbles to fill in the gaps of Marie's life and hampered by Hawksley's decision not to include in-text citations. Interested readers might find Jehanne Wake's Princess Louise: Queen Victoria's Unconventional Daughter worth exploring.—Kathleen McCallister, Tulane Univ., New Orleans

Kirkus Reviews

2015-09-01
Hawksley (March, Women, March: Voices of the Women's Movement from the First Feminist to Votes for Women, 2013, etc.) does a yeoman's service providing an illuminating biography of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Louise (1848-1939). Denied access to the Royal Archives, those of the National Gallery, and other sources, the author also had to contend with records that had been scrubbed. Besides the Canadian records of the years Louise's husband, the Marquess of Lorne, served as Governor General, the diaries of Queen Victoria were brutally edited and partially destroyed by her youngest daughter, Beatrice. Still, Hawksley ably shows how difficult it was to be a child of Victoria; her children were constantly afraid of displeasing her, knowing she was quick to punish. The queen was self-obsessed, and she rarely acknowledged love for her children and forced them to adopt a skill in lying that became second nature. Louise acted out often as a child. Her parents thought her mentally deficient, but they recognized her artistic ability, found her tutors, and built her a studio. Part of the reason so many records are locked away is the widely held rumor of Princess Louise's illegitimate son, Henry Locock, fathered by Walter Stirling. Companion to Louise's brother, Stirling was dismissed but given a lifelong pension, as was the adopting family. Louise was closest to brothers Leopold and Bertie, the Prince of Wales, whose wife, Alix, brought out the best in Louise simply because she was kind to her. Her tutor, John Edgar Boehm, long believed to be her lover, encouraged her sculpting and painting. Her artistic accomplishments, her ease in public duties, her sense of style, and her beauty led the public to hold her in much higher regard than the queen or her siblings. Hawksley conveys Louise's story fully and clearly, but just as importantly, she shows the devastating damage Queen Victoria inflicted on her extensive family.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170575558
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	06/12/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,065,850

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