Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll - Death of Prince Albert

Death of Prince Albert

Louise's father, Prince Albert, died at Windsor on 14 December 1861. The Queen was devastated, and ordered her household to move from Windsor to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. The atmosphere of the royal court became gloomy and morbid in the wake of the Prince's death, and entertainments became dry and dull. Louise quickly became dissatisfied with her mother's prolonged mourning. For her seventeenth birthday, Louise requested the ballroom to be opened for a debutante dance, the like of which had not been performed since Prince Albert's death. Her request was refused, and her boredom with the mundane routine of travelling between the different royal residences at set times irritated her mother, who considered Louise to be indiscreet and argumentative.

The Queen comforted herself by rigidly continuing with Prince Albert's plans for their children. Princess Alice was married to Prince Louis, the future Grand Duke of Hesse, at Osborne on 1 June 1862. In 1863, Edward, the Prince of Wales, married Princess Alexandra of Denmark. The Queen made it a tradition that the eldest unmarried daughter would become her unofficial secretary, a position which Louise filled in 1866, despite the Queen's concern that she was indiscreet. Louise, however, proved to be good at the job: Victoria wrote shortly afterwards: "She is (and who would some years ago have thought it?) a clever dear girl with a fine strong character, unselfish and affectionate." However, when Louise fell in love with her brother Leopold's tutor, the Reverend Robinson Duckworth, between 1866 and 1870, the Queen reacted by dismissing Duckworth in 1870. He later became Canon of Westminster Abbey.

Louise was bored by the court. By fulfilling her duties, which were little more than minor secretarial tasks, such as writing letters on the Queen's behalf; dealing with political correspondence; and providing the Queen with company, she had more responsibility than she had before.