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

Written by Lucinda Hawksley

Narrated by Jennifer M. Dixon

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jun 12, 2018
• ISBN: 9781977376763

Lucinda Hawksley

LUCINDA HAWKSLEY is a writer and lecturer on art history and nineteenth-century history. She has written biographies of the pre-Raphaelite muse Lizzie Siddal (Lizzie Siddal: The Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel), Charles Dickens (Charles Dickens), and Katey, one of Dickens' children (Charles Dickens' Favorite Daughter). She is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens and is a patron of the Charles Dickens Museum in London.

Reviews for Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter

[Dawn Turner · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Incredibly interesting. If you like the Royals or late 1800's, this is a great addition. So much detail. I listened in the car, but I wonder if the book has diagrams. Need to take notes. ? Beautifully read. Could definitely listen again!

[fernemysteryreader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I normally do not read non-fiction books but I found this biography of Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll absolutely fascinating and a page-turning read. Louisa Caroline Alberta (18-Mar-1848 – 3-Dec-1939) was the 6th child and 4th daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of the United Kingdom.Over the course of Princess Louise's 91 years of life, she was relied upon to be the acceptable and kind representative of 3 successive British monarchs. That alone is a significant lifetime achievement. To read of Princess Louise's various roles as a secretary to her Mother Queen Victoria, artist, nurse, wife, and all of her charitable supporting roles are individually more than some achieve in a lifetime. Her interests were varied and are evidenced by her travel, many public appearances, and the remembrances highlighted in the biography by all classes of society for which the princess did not differentiate her kindnesses and support. Many today in all walks of life could learn through her example. Her championing for education and health reform and for the rights of women was unprecedented by a member of the Royal Family.The author, Lucinda Hawksley, great-great-great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens has made a significant contribution with this volume and has accomplished a phenomenal job of compiling her extensive research into a very readable and chronological history of Princess Louise. I would not hesitate to read another biography by Lucinda Hawksley.

[mahallett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

very interesting story.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The sixth child of Victoria and the fourth girl was Princess Louise, who although constrained by Victoria's view of what was suitable for her. She was a sculptor and artist who sculpted her mother and other subjects and was quite well-regarded. However there was some controversy about her life, including the circumstances of the death of the sculptor Bohem, where she was apparently present at his death. The controversies gain some weight when the author reveals that she was denied access to documents in both the Royal and Argyll (her husband Lorne was the Duke) records, which leads to questions.Louise was smart and worked within the systems, despite dealing with some health issues (an accident that was understated left it's aftermath) she did her best with her life. It doesn't sound like she had it easy but she kept trying to be relevant until her death and I would have loved to sit down and have a good chat with her. She would be a great friend to Terry Pratchet's Lady Sybil.

[linda.marsheells · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought the author did a tremendous job of digging, researching and sorting out what little information exists on Queen Victoria's oft-forgotten daughter, Louise.Hawksley took a daughter that the queen basically shoved aside literally and figuratively, and made Princess Louise a woman of character. A caring, independent, feisty woman who lived life on her own terms.Victoria wanted mini-me robots for kids, and Louise had the guts and determination to break the mold.She was born a few generations too early....

[jaylia3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Of all of Queen Victoria’s nine children, Princess Louise was perhaps the most un-Victorian, making her a very interesting royal to read about. Louise painted and sculpted, hung around with pre-Raphaelites, and was a member of the Aesthetic movement. She also embraced exercise, admired unconventional women like novelist George Eliot, supported women’s rights when even her libertine brother Bertie believed females should be compliant and submissive, refused to marry a foreign prince, almost certainly had love affairs, and may have had a child out of wedlock--which is perhaps why more than 75 years after her death the files on Princess Louise at the Royal Archives remain closed and unavailable for researchers, as if there is something about her that is so shocking it still must be hidden. Even with that source restriction, Lucinda Hawksley has put together a fascinating and intriguing account of Princess Louise, and through her a picture of Britain and its extended royal family from the Victorian age, when her mother was queen, to the dawn of WWI, when her nephew Kaiser Wilhelm was causing trouble in Germany.

[briandrewz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Really an excellent look at a Princess who was years ahead of her time. Princess Louise kicked hard against her mother's strict and overbearing court, and became of the most loved members of the British royal family. This book attempts to give us a portrait of the lady by delving into territory that has been glossed over and shut away. The author herself admits that it was hard to research her subject as the Princess's file in the Royal Archives at Windsor was sealed, its secrets locked away, making the Princess a further subject of fascination.There were, however, several glaringly obvious factual errors, which is unfortunate. The author says that the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia was the great-grandmother of the current Duke of Edinburgh, when in fact she was the sister of his grandmother. The author also says that Prince Arthur was married to Marie, when his wife was Princess Louise of Prussia. And, further, when referring to the Cleveland Street Scandal the author talks of the Duke of Somerset and a few lines down refers to him as the Earl of Somerset.These errors aside, the book is incredibly appealing to anybody interested in the British royal family, especially during Victorian times.