queen victoria's mysterious daughter a biography of princess louise

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Queen Victoria's mysterious daughter : a biography of Princess Louise

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Book details

Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter

A Biography of Princess Louise

Author: Lucinda Hawksley

Introduction: How it all began The name of Sir William Blake Richmond is little remembered today, but in the late nineteenth century he was connected to almost everyone in the fashionable art world. As a painter who numbered amongst his friends William Morris, Robert Louis Stevenson and William Holman Hunt, Richmond moved with ease in the varied worlds that made up London Society. One day, as he was busy painting in his studio, he was annoyed to be disturbed by a servant announcing an unexpected visitor. Richmond yelled angrily, ‘Tell her to bugger off,’ unaware his visitor was close enough to hear. ‘Not till I’ve seen you’ was the mild and amused response from Princess Louise.1 * * * I first discovered Princess Louise when researching my biographies of the Pre-Raphaelite model Lizzie Siddal and the artist Kate Perugini. This mysterious princess kept appearing in unlikely circumstances: visiting Dante Rossetti when he was ill (and deemed ‘mad’); remaining friends with the difficult James Abbott McNeill Whistler, despite his financial and social embarrassments; arriving to see John Everett Millais on his deathbed, or taking tea with Arthur Sullivan, who called her ‘ my Princess Louise’ in a letter to his mother. I wondered who this art-loving, aesthetically minded princess was. The more vague appearances she made in my research notes, the more I wanted to find out about her. When I discovered she was not only a friend to artists, but a sculptor in an age when few women broke into such a masculine field, I determined to discover more about her life. * * * Princess Louise was born in 1848 and lived until 1939; her life encompassed almost a century of extraordinary – and often terrifying – achievements, conflicts and societal change. At the time of Louise’s birth, British women and girls were, legally, the property of either their father or their husband. (Queen Victoria might have been the most powerful woman in the world – but she was fervently against the majority other women who fought to be given the most basic human rights.) By the time of Louise’s death, British women had gained the vote and were striving to achieve a world in which men and women could truly be equal. Louise had played an important part in the educating of these powerful new women. She was, as the daughter of a monarch, famous and celebrated in her lifetime, but, like so many women of her era, she has been all but forgotten since. When I started my research, I mentioned it to a couple of fellow authors – who advised me against it. Both of them had attempted to look into Princess Louise’s life themselves. One warned me, ‘you will come up against a brick wall at every turn’. That intrigued me. They were quite right, of course. After discovering the bare bones of Louise’s life and beginning to read existing books about her, I applied to the Royal Archives. Many months later I received a response telling me I was welcome to visit the archives and detailing what times they were open and what I would need to bring with me. It all seemed very positive, until I reached the bottom of the letter. Almost as an afterthought was the comment ‘We regret that Princess Louise’s files are closed.’ I could visit the archive buildings, but would not be allowed to view the files I needed to see. I tried her husband’s family’s collection in Inveraray, Scotland, where my several applications (phone and email) were kindly but firmly rebuffed. On my initial approach I discovered that their archives were in the process of being rehoused and it would be over a year before they could be accessed again. More than a year later, I was told they were still inaccessible; and the same some months afterwards. My last two enquiries simply went unanswered. When I visited Inveraray as a tourist, in the summer of 2012, I was told by a curator inside the castle that the archives had not been rehoused. The curator also mentioned that it was ‘almost impossible’ for researchers to get into the archives; even people working at the castle itself were denied access. I discovered that it was not only information about Princess Louise that had been hidden away, but information about a vast number of people who had played a role in her life, including royal servants and her art tutors. A great many items about these people that one would expect to be in other collections have been absorbed into the Royal Collection. Archivists at the National Gallery, Royal Academy and the V&A, as well as overseas collections in Malta, Bermuda and Canada, were bemused to discover that primary sources I requested had been ‘removed’ to Windsor. Over the decades, there has been some very careful sanitising of Princess Louise’s reputation and a whitewashing of her life, her achievements and her personality. Initially, this book was intended to be a complete artistic biography, but as it became apparent that this was not possible, I began to realise that one of the most intriguing aspects had become the journey to try and find her. My working title became ‘The Mystery of Princess Louise’. There were so many rumours – some seemingly outlandish – that initially I had dismissed many of them as mere gossip, but the extraordinary secrecy that surrounds her life, and the many obstacles placed in the way of researching her, made me wonder if they were true. I have not been able to substantiate, nor could I disprove, the rumours that have been passed on to me from various people’s oral family history as well as tittle-tattle of the era, but perhaps there really is no smoke without fire. I have drawn my own conclusions and shall leave you to decide for yourselves. For some of the original research, I am greatly indebted to Michael Gledhill QC. As a law student in the 1970s, he became intrigued by Princess Louise and began working on a biography. In order to research her life, he placed adverts in national and local newspapers and magazines. Because Princess Louise had lived until 1939, he received fascinating responses from people who had known her and, in some cases, worked for her. He very kindly allowed me to see the letters. I am also indebted to the Locock family, who have been extremely helpful and generous with their time as well as sharing with me their family memorabilia. It is important for readers to be aware that although Queen Victoria wrote letters and diary entries almost every day, those that are now in the archives and available online are not her original work. The queen’s journals and letters were heavily edited, following her death, by her youngest child, Princess Beatrice. The princess went through them and removed anything that she considered controversial, then copied out the journal entries and many of the letters and destroyed the originals. At times when the queen’s journals record extremely unpleasant comments about her family, it is astonishing to realise that Beatrice considered these acceptable. It makes one wonder just how much more controversial must have been the passages that Beatrice removed. Queen Victoria is often described as a mother to her people. British schoolchildren learn that she was a great monarch, stateswoman and Empress and we see all around the country a preponderance of statues and monuments to her. Most date from her golden and diamond jubilees, so were created at around the same time, in 1887 or 1897, and as such they give a slightly skewed version of history, making one imagine not only that she was adored by everyone but also that she was adored all through her reign. This was not the case. When she became queen, soon after her eighteenth birthday, the public welcomed and idealised the young Victoria. When Albert, her prince consort, died in 1861, the young queen, bereaved so suddenly, was pitied and prayed for by her loyal subjects. People empathised with her pain and, in an age of high premature mortality, they could identify with her predicament. As the years started to pass, however, and the queen remained in her ‘widow’s weeds’ and continued to shun public engagements, she began to be resented by her subjects. By the time Princess Louise reached adulthood, her mother no longer had the love and respect of many of the people she ruled. Yes, she had lost her spouse to an untimely death, but so had many of her subjects, and, after all, the queen had nine healthy children. Even Prince Leopold, against the haemophiliac odds, was thriving. Those who, under her reign, still lived in terrible deprivation had become accustomed to watching their friends and family, especially young children, die. What was perceived as the self-indulgent behaviour of the ‘Widow of Windsor’ began to be seen as an insult to those others who suffered every day. The queen’s constant refusal to re-engage with her subjects and her ignoring of responsibilities jarred with her family too. Princess Louise, whose adolescence was blighted by the death of her father and by her mother’s lack of interest in her children, as well as her constant criticism, found herself taking on many of the monarch’s roles. In addition, Louise, in common with her sisters, had no choice but to work as her mother’s companion, despite a heartfelt longing to leave the royal home and live as a professional sculptor. Unfortunately for the queen, Louise was the least compliant of her daughters and as the princess grew into adulthood she became increasingly antagonistic to the maternal bullying that Queen Victoria had mastered so ably. It became apparent that Princess Louise had an intriguing personality. She could be adorable, generous and charming, or she could be stingingly unkind. She went out of her way to help people she liked, but froze out those she did not. She found it hard to forgive mistakes and could be hypercritical – although the person she was often most harshly critical of was herself. Louise had a desperate need to be loved. When she loved, she was fiercely loyal and, like her mother, continued that love long after the object of it had died. Because she was often ignored or belittled by her mother and other family members this need to be noticed, and needed, became thoroughly ingrained in her. I became fascinated by how history has tried to tame and trivialise this astonishing woman; how often she has been dismissed with comments that she was ‘unhinged’ or ‘paranoid’: there has been a concerted effort to try and make people believe that nothing Princess Louise said or did could possibly have any credence. The opposite is true. Louise was a powerful voice for women of her generation. She was a princess who sought not to be ‘royal’, a Victorian woman who strove to break into a masculine world, and a fiery, intriguing, often confusing personality. She challenges many preconceptions that we, in the twenty-first century, have of women who lived under the long reign of Princess Louise’s formidable and – it has to be admitted – often extremely unpleasant mother. As my research gained momentum, I found that much of the mystery surrounding Princess Louise was still to be uncovered. Why has she been locked away in the archives? What was it about her that is deemed too scandalous, or dangerous, to be revealed? Why should the life of a woman born in the first half of the nineteenth century be considered unsafe to be explored in the twenty-first century? Copyright © 2013 by Lucinda Hawksley

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Intrigue, scandal, and secrets abound in this lush royal biography penned by the great-great-great granddaughter of Charles Dickens.

Book Details

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. 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.

Imprint Publisher

Thomas Dunne Books

9781466863903

About the Creators

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

Lucinda hawksley. st. martin’s/dunne, $27.99 (384p) isbn 978-1-250-05932-1.

Reviewed on: 08/03/2015

Genre: Nonfiction

Other - 978-1-4668-6390-3

Paperback - 400 pages - 978-1-250-13036-5

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Queen victoria's mysterious daughter: a biography of princess louise by lucinda hawksley.

• Author: Lucinda Hawksley
• Published: 2015

It's been quite a while since I read a book that plunged me into the depths of desperate obsession; of hours of internet research and buying obscure documentaries on the subject; of having no wish in the world except to know every tiny detail of the subject. This was one of those books. Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter is gripping, spell-binding, magnificent. Princess Louise is fascinating; to use Victorian slang she would have understood in her day, she was a bricky basket of oranges, quite a proper bit of frock, and the absolute jammiest bit of jam.

Little has been known in the past about Louise, Queen Victoria's sixth child and fourth daughter, or her remarkable long life in the years between 1848 and 1939. Intriguingly, and in contrast to all her other siblings, Louise's files in the Royal Archives are locked, and many other sources about her are closed to scholars. In Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter , Lucinda Hawksley acts as a historical detective, as well as a skilled biographer, to discover what Louise's life was really like and what scandals she may have been involved with that would warrant a lock-down of her historical files to this day. And what she finds will not disappoint.

Right away I have to say, the beginning of this book is almost more about Queen Victoria than it is about Louise. I have been trying recently to find out why I have feelings of loathing and disdain for Victoria, and to see her in a more positive light...but this book did NOT help me in that regard. Hawksley may even dislike Victoria as much as I do! Victoria's policies and thoughts are documented thoroughly with her own diaries and letters, and show how she detested and fought against the Women's Rights movement, how she resented her children because they kept her from being alone with her husband Albert, and how she wanted to Germanise England as a tribute to Albert after he died. In case that isn't bad enough, she kept her children from having friends because seeing them happy and laughing infuriated her after Albert's death, she never gave special care to her hemophiliac son Leopold, nearly causing his death on many occasions with her thoughtlessness, and she considered her babies to be "physically repulsive" and "froglike". Wow. And I thought I was no fan of babies! Despite my own low level of maternal instinct, I found myself desperately wanting to go back in time and just hold Victoria's children, giving them some much-needed love. Sad as this part of the book is, it really sets up Louise's character and early life by showing the environment she grew up in.

Despite this atrocious upbringing, Princess Louise was strong, beautiful, and very out of place in Victorian England. She had a passion for equalizing education, so that girls could reach the same standards as boys. She was passionate about Women's Rights, and tried to improve the situation of prostitutes in London, much to the horror of her prudish, stuffy mother. She loved the art of sculpture, so she insisted on studying it and became an accomplished sculptor in the days when it was very much a solely masculine occupation. She steadfastly refused to marry a foreigner because she didn't want to leave England, so she married a Scottish lord who was at times her warden and at times her best friend, and all of the time a homosexual. Louise got a motorcar in her 70's and loved racing at top speeds, terrifying all her friends who rode with her. Basically she was a fascinating, badass woman who was powerful and kind, and who was adored by the British public more than anyone else in her family.

Of course the scandals that have kept Louise's life whitewashed cannot be proven until her files are released to the public. However, Hawksley presents good evidence to support her theories, and they are groundbreaking. I don't want to give too much away, but between a secret illegitimate child that could pose a threat to the British monarchy and an illicit affair in which her lover died literally during the act of love, I guarantee that any reader will be captivated and spellbound throughout the length of the book.

Princess Louise died at 91 years of age, and what a remarkable life she led, what a remarkable person! She was way ahead of her time, and she was loved and adored for it by everyone except her own family. While reading this book I got a sense that Louise provided a bridge between the archaic, distant 1800's and our own modern era, with one foot in each realm, belonging to both and neither of those realms at the same time. At first Louise seemed more historical than real, a shadowy figure in the dusty court of Queen Victoria. But Hawksley's work is so animated and lively that I felt I could reach out and touch Louise, that I could magically understand her. Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter is fantastic, addictive, and it made me obsessed with getting to know Louise, looking at every available photo online. Every word and image in Hawksley's book evoked delight and fascination in me, and I envy all those who have yet to read it for the first time.

In the days when no one contradicted Queen Victoria and her reign of melancholy grief, Louise remarked that her mother was "not too unwell to open Parliament, simply too unwilling". With those words I fell in love with the amazing, complicated person Louise was, and those feelings only grew throughout this thrilling and artful biography of one of the most interesting Princesses who ever lived.

About The Author

Lucinda hawksley.

Lucinda Hawksley is a British biographer, art historian and public speaker. She specializes in literature and art from the 19th and early 20th centuries and in the history of London. Hawksley is the great great great granddaughter of famous Victorian author Charles Dickens, and she is passionate about her family history. She is a patron of the Charles Dickens Museum in London and of the Norwegian... Read more...

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Princess Louise: A Biography

By lucinda hawksley, the locock family secret – princess louise.

It was while looking into the rumors concerning Princess Louise’s illegitimate baby that I came into contact with the Locock family. I  read newspaper accounts of  two court cases, in which a man named Nicholas Locock had attempted to gain permission for a MDNA (Mitachondria DNA) test to prove he was descended from Princess Louise . After twice going through the high courts, the Locock family’s plea was refused.

The story of the Locock family and Princess Louise begins at the end of 1867,  when a baby boy was adopted by the son of Queen Victoria’s   accoucher (in today’s language he would be called a gynecologist). The accoucher , Sir Charles Locock, had five sons; the one who adopte  d the baby was Frederick Locock. In the spring of 1867 Frederick moved into an apartment near St James’s Palace . Nick Locock believes it may have been a ‘grace and favor’ apartment. Two months later, the family suffered a bereavement, when Sir Charles’s wife, Amelia, died, yet in August 1867, just six weeks after the death of his mother, Frederick married his fiance Mary Blackshaw. They married in a register office, not a church, in unseemly haste after such a bereavement (the mourning period for the death of a parent was expected to be one year). Four months later, the couple adopted their son; he would be their only child. The baby, who was named Henry Frederick Leicester Locock, appears to have had no birth certificate – none has ever been found. The names of his biological parents are not included on any document (or, at least no documents that are in the public domain). In late December, Charles Locock wrote a letter to a friend in which he remarked that, unusually, he would not be able to have any of his sons with him for the end of the year and that he planned on taking a long holiday overseas. The letter suggests that he was shielding a secret and that he was unhappy about it.

Royal sources have been quick to refute the suggestion that Princess Louise was Henry Locock’s mother, because she could not have given birth on the date written in the Locock family’s Birthday Book, 30 December 1867. It seems likely that this was the date of the adoption rather than the baby’s birth. At the end of December 1867,  Queen Victoria’s legal advisers were summoned to visit her. The newspapers reported that at this time 150 Scots Fusiliers were guarding the royal family, allegedly against the threat of Fenian attack. The Locock family believe that baby Henry was born at the end of 1866, or perhaps very early in 1867. It is probable that he was looked after by servants, with ‘access to his mother’. Henry Locock would later tell his own children that he was Princess Louise’s son and that his biological mother had ‘access’  to  him in his boyhood years. Despite a seemingly happy marriage, Mary and Frederick had no other children; Mary’s health was poor and perhaps she already knew she would have trouble conceiving. The couple made no secret of the fact that the baby was not their biological child and Frederick wrote in several legal documents about his ‘adopted son’.

Mary and Frederick adopted their son at the end of December 1867. On 20  1867 the Isle of  Wight Observer noted that Lady Stirling (the mother of Walter Stirling) had arrived on the island. She had come to stay with Sir Charles Locock. July On 1 December 1867 Alix  sent a sympathetic letter to Louise from Sandringham , in which she wrote: ‘My poor little pet I am afraid you have not been enjoying yourself so very well lately.’ If, as Henry would later attest, he remained with his mother Princess Louise at the start of his life, Alix’s letter would have been sent as Louise was preparing to give him up. A year later, Alix would write to her again, worrying that Louise had been looking ‘quite worn and sad’ when they had seen each other. At Christmas in 1869, approaching the second anniversary of Henry Locock’s adoption, Alix wrote another supportive and suggestive letter to her sister-in-law: ‘I hope my poor pet has not been worried and bothered lately about that tiresome old affair of yours! and that your sisters have given you a little rest now.’

Henry Locock’s grandson, Nick Locock, was a six-year-old boy by the date of King George V’s jubilee celebrations . Princess Louise was regularly in the news at this time, partly because she was a loved relation of the new king, but also because she was still so newsworthy, thanks to her great age and the story of her life as an artist. Nick recalls his father telling him during the coronation that they were descended from Princess Louise. The family’s history, as it was told to Nick, was that his grandfather was the princess’s son and that, although the baby had then been adopted by the Locock family, he had been given ‘access’ to Princess Louise all through his childhood. Nick’s grandfather, Henry (who was always known in the Locock family by his middle name of Leicester), had died when his own children were still young, but Nick’s father recalled his stories of childhood parties with all the royal children. One story that always made his children laugh was Henry’s reminiscence of playing croquet on the lawn at Osborne House, when one of his royal cousins cheated. This infuriated the little boy so much that he hit his cousin with a croquet mallet: the cheater in question was the future Kaiser Wilhelm.

As he was growing up, Nick discovered that he was not the only Locock child to have been told what he describes as the ‘family legend’. ‘Subsequently,’ he told me when we met, ‘I realized  that not only my brother and sister, but each of my eleven cousins had been told the same story by their parents. It was apparent that [Henry] had told each of his six children before his death in 1907, that his mother was Princess Louise.’

LUCINDA HAWKSLEY is the author of Queen Victoria’s Mysterious Daughter and is a writer and lecturer on art history and nineteenth-century history. She has written biographies of the pre-Raphaelite muse Lizzie Siddal, Charles Dickens, and Katey, one of Dickens’ children. She is the great, great, great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens and is a patron of the Charles Dickens Museum in London. Visit her Web site at www.lucindahawksley.com .

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Product Key Features

• Book Title Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter : a Biography of Princess Louise
• Number of Pages 400 Pages
• Language English
• Publication Year 2017
• Topic Royalty, Cultural Heritage, Europe / Great Britain / Victorian Era (1837-1901), Historical
• Genre Biography & Autobiography, History
• Author Lucinda Hawksley
• Format Trade Paperback
• Item Height 0.9 in
• Item Weight 17.8 Oz
• Item Length 8.2 in
• Item Width 5.6 in

Additional Product Features

• Intended Audience Trade
• Reviews "[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
• Dewey Edition 23
• Dewey Decimal 941.081092 B
• Synopsis Intrigue, scandal, and secrets abound in this lush royal biography penned by the great-great-great granddaughter of Charles Dickens., 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.

Queen Victoria’s Mysterious Daughter

Well written. Lots of details about Victoria’s family, etc. Just what I wanted!!

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Lady Louise Windsor set to make history as first female royal to join military since late Queen - report

The young royal shared a close relationship with her late grandmother queen elizabeth ii.

Lady Louise Windsor is set to make history as the first female royal to serve in the military since the late Queen Elizabeth II . 

The daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh is keen on serving her King and country and has "fallen in love" with the Army Cadets, which she does alongside her studies at St Andrews University, per The Sun.  

The young royal, 20, is a member of St Andrews' University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), which provides paid military training for students. 

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As part of her training, she will be undertaking Reserve Officer training modules designed to fit around her degree, learning skills that will set her up for a career in the military after she graduates. 

According to the UOTC, cadets learn everything from how to wear a uniform correctly to the ability to lead others in stressful situations. 

Louise, who is 16th in line to the throne, says on her LinkedIn page: "I am interested in pursuing a career in the military, diplomacy, or law." 

While other female royals, like Princess Anne and the Princess of Wales , hold military titles, these are honorary - neither have served in the military.

Lady Louise to follow in the footsteps of late grandmother

The daughter of Prince Edward and Duchess Sophie shared a close relationship with her grandmother, the Queen, so no doubt feels inspired by her unwavering loyalty to the Armed Forces. 

As Princess Elizabeth, Her Late Majesty joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in 1945, becoming the first female member of the Royal Family to join the Armed Services as a full-time active member.

Ever since Lady Louise started at St Andrews in 2022 she has taken a step back from the royal spotlight to concentrate on her studies. 

St. Andrew's has always taken the privacy of its students incredibly seriously. Prince William's Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Brian Lang, exclusively told HELLO! how he managed the future King under his care when he attended the university. 

DISCOVER:  Lady Louise's challenge she faces at St Andrew's that cousin Prince William didn't

He told HELLO!: "One thing that I did as soon as we knew William was going to be a student was to warn the student body that we expected them to respect the privacy of information.

"So, I made it quite clear to the students by doing an interview with the student newspaper, in which I emphasised that we would take a very, very dim view of any inappropriate information being passed on—not just about William, but about any other student."

The last time Lady Louise was seen in public was during Trooping the Colour. The young royal looked radiant wearing the 'Kumiko Iris Silk Dress' from Suzannah London, sweeping her honey blonde locks into a neat ballerina bun. 

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Prince edward’s daughter lady louise aims to be first female royal in military since queen elizabeth: report.

Prince Edward and Duchess Sophie’s daughter, Lady Louise, is planning to follow in her late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II’s footsteps by serving her country, according to a report.

The 20-year-old has her sights set on joining the military, the Sun reports. The outlet added that Lady Louise — who is King Charles’ niece — is currently a member of St Andrews University Officers’ Training Corps.

The organization, which provides students with military training, teaches aspiring military personnel everything from wearing uniform correctly to dealing with high-stress situations.

Louise’s rumors decision to pursue a career in the military makes her the first female royal to do so since Her Late Majesty, who died in Sept. 2022 at age 96.

As the 16th in line to the throne, Louise is Prince Edward’s only daughter. Edward, who was the late queen’s youngest son, also shares 16-year-old son James, Earl of Wessex, with wife Sophie.

Elizabeth, for her part, joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1945.

There, she made history as the first female member of the royal family to join the Armed Services as a full-time active member.

Louise now reportedly wants to follow suit, after having enrolled at St. Andrews University back in 2022.

The young royal has made a conscious effort to take a step back from the spotlight and instead focus on her education.

Still, she joined the rest of her family at the King’s Trooping the Colour ceremony in June.

A month prior, Louise attended the International Carriage Driving Grand Prix where she joined her parents and younger brother.

The Post has reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment.

While not much is known about Louise, royal expert Richard Eden previously said that both she and her brother James could play “a vital role in the future” in the royal family’s future.

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