Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia

• Louise Margaret of Prussia (Louise Margaret Alexandra Victoria Agnes,Prinzessin von Preußen)
• By marriage duchess of Connaught and Strathearn; 25 July 1860 – 14 March 1917.

Links:

• The Peerage
• Geneall
• Holbek
• Johann the Younger #1679 + #1995
• Wikipedia: English Deutsch

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Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia was a German princess, and later a member of the British Royal Family, the wife of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. She also served as the Viceregal Consort of Canada, when her husband served as the Governor General of Canada from 1911 to 1916. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Queens Margrethe II of Denmark and Anne-Marie of Greece are among her great-grandchildren.

Princess Luise Margarete was born at Marmorpalais (Marble Palace) near Potsdam, Kingdom of Prussia. Her father was Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia (1828–1885), the son of Karl of Prussia (1801–1883) and his wife Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1808–1877). Her mother was Princess Maria Anna of Anhalt (1837–1906), daughter of Leopold IV of Anhalt-Dessau. Her father, a nephew of the German Emperor Wilhelm I, distinguished himself as a field commander during the Battle of Metz and the campaigns west of Paris in the 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War. Her father was a double cousin of the German Emperor Friedrich III, the husband of her sister-in-law, Victoria, Princess Royal.

On 13 March 1879, Princess Luise Margarete married Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn at St. George's Chapel Windsor. Prince Arthur was the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The couple received a great number of expensive gifts; the Queen's gift consisted of a diamond tiara, a pearl and diamond pendant. Many members of England and Germany's royal families attended; these included the Prince and Princess of Wales. After her marriage, Princess Louise was styled Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Connaught and her name was Anglicised as Louise Margaret.

The Duchess of Connaught spent the first twenty years of her marriage accompanying her husband on his various deployments throughout the British empire. The Duke and Duchess of Connaught acquired Bagshot Park in Surrey as their country home and after 1900 used Clarence House as their London residence. She accompanied her husband to Canada in 1911, when he began his term as Governor-General. In 1916, she became colonel-in-chief of the 199th Canadian (Overseas) Infantry Battalion (The Duchess of Connaught's Own Irish-Canadian Rangers), CEF. In 1885, she became chief of the 64th (8th Brandenburg) Regiment of Infantry "Field Marshal General Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia", Prussian Army.

The Duchess of Connaught died of influenza and bronchitis at Clarence House. She became the first member of the British Royal Family to be cremated. This was done at Golders Green Crematorium. The procedure of burying ashes in an urn was still unfamiliar at the time, and her urn was transported in an ordinary coffin during the funeral ceremonies. Her ashes were eventually buried at the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore. The Duke of Connaught survived her by almost twenty-five years.