Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter

August 3, 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.

September 15, 2015
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.

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October 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

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