Louise of Sweden - Early Life

Early Life

Louise was born in Stockholm and had a happy childhood. After the death of her brother, Prince Carl Oscar, in 1854, her father treated her like a boy and let her grow up as one, and she was therefore allowed to develop much less restrained than most girls of her time, becoming a confident, natural and happy person. This somewhat worried her mother, Queen Louise, herself very eager to behave according to the feminine ideal of the time. But her father once lovingly said about her : "She's an ugly devil, but she's funny!", and treated her with the same gruff affectionate manners as he would have with a son. She called herself "The Stockholm urchin", something her uncle, the future king Oscar II found shocking and tried to stop her from using, while the public referred to her as "Sessan" (in English: "(Princ)ess").

Together with her mother, she was a student of Nancy Edberg, the pioneer of swimming for women (1862). The art of swimming was initially not regarded as being entirely proper for women, but when the Queen and her daughter supported it by attending the lessons, swimming was quickly made fashionable and became accepted for women

There were several discussions about making Louise the heir-presumptive to the throne of Sweden and Norway, as her mother could not have any more children and she was the only surviving child. But although Sweden had previously had female monarchs, and approval of female succession was declared in 1604, provision had not been made for it in the new constitution of 1809. Louise's succession would have required a change in the law, as would also have been necessary regarding the throne of Norway, which did not have female succession. The matter became moot when Louise's uncle, her father's brother, had his first son in 1858.