Monday, January 4, 2016

Death of the Princess Royal (1931)











HRH The Princess Royal died today at her home at Portman Square, London.  The Princess was 63 years old.

Princess Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar was born at Marlborough House, London, on February 20, 1867, the third child and first daughter of the Prince and Princess of Wales.

She married Alexander Duff, Earl of Fife, on July 27, 1889, at the Private Chapel at Buckingham  Palace.   The late Duke of Fife was a great-grandson of King William IV and Dorothy Jordan through their daughter Lady Elizabeth Fitzclarence.


 Several days after the wedding, Queen Victoria created her new grandson-in-law as Duke of Fife and Marquess of Macduff.  The couple's first child, a son, was stillborn, on June 16, 1890.   Two daughters, Lady Alexandra, and Lady Maud, were born in 1891 and 1893, respectively.


By 1900, it became apparent that the Duchess of Fife would not give birth to a son.  Queen Victoria issued a new Letters Patent, created a new dukedom of Fife and Earl of Macduff on April 24, 1900.  This new title allowed for the succession of the dukedom to be inherited by the Duke's daughters and their male descendants.

It was on November 5, 1905, that Louise's father, King Edward VII, named her as Princess Royal.  He also issued a Letters Patent that created her two daughters as Princesses with the style of Highness.  Lady Alexandra and Lady Maud became Their Highnesses Princess Alexandra and Princess Maud.

The Duke of Fife died at Aswan, Egypt on January 29, 1912, several weeks after he and his family, sailing on the SS Delphi, were shipwrecked off the Moroccan coast.  The Duke fell ill with pleurisy, and was unable to recover his strength,

Princess Alexandra succeeded her father as HH The Duchess of Fife.  A year and a half later, in October 1913, she married her mother's first cousin, Prince Arthur of Connaught, only son of the Duke of Connaught.  Although she was a peeress in her own right,  Alexandra's style after marriage was HRH Princess Arthur of Connaught.

Princess Maud married in 1923 to Lord Carnegie, heir apparent to the Earl of Southesk.  Following her marriage, Maud dropped the use of HH Princess and chose to be styled as Lady Carnegie.

The Princess Royal is survived by her two daughters and two grandsons, Alastair, the Earl of Macduff, and Hon. James Carnegie.    Lord Macduff is heir to his mother's dukedom, and, second in line to the Connaught and Strathearn dukedoms.   She is also survived by her brother, King George V, and her two younger sisters,  Princess Victoria and Queen Maud of Norway.


If you liked this

http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2009/09/duchess-of-fife-ill.html
http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2009/07/louise-and-fife-are-married.html

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