Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter

by Lucinda Hawksley

  Lorne was, almost certainly, a homosexual, and not always one who remained in the closet. As a schoolboy at Eton, as the British scholar Timothy D’Arch Smith has revealed … he had been involved with a relationship with another sprig of the aristocracy, Frederick Wood, the future Lord Halifax … In later years, Lorne was well-known as an habitué of certain illicit London clubs and to attend what were discreetly described as ‘masculine parties’.

  Louise was tired of living a charade with Lorne and was not looking forward to a second Canadian winter. She was homesick, she wanted to see her family, she wanted to see Boehm and her friends, and she wanted to be apart from her husband. Most of all, she couldn’t bear the idea of the long months of ice and snow, in a home that was even harder to keep warm than Balmoral. On 18 October 1879, she boarded the Sarmatian in Halifax and travelled back to England. Lorne remained in Canada. The story given to the press was that Louise had been advised by her doctors to spend the winter in a less harsh climate, and that she would return to Canada and her husband as soon as her health permitted. She reached Liverpool on 30 October to a triumphant welcome, and took a special train to London. The newspapers made a great deal of the fact that the Duke of Argyll was not amongst those waiting to greet his daughter-in-law at the station; as there was no special reason why the duke should have been there, the newspapers can only have been using his absence as an oblique way of hinting at a rift between the princess and her husband.

  Although she spent Christmas with her mother and siblings at Osborne House, Louise spent very little time on the Isle of Wight. She divided her months in England between London (where she was based at Buckingham Palace, her apartments in Kensington being unavailable) and Windsor. She and Prince Leopold took every opportunity to be together, attending parties and visiting galleries, and going to see an exhibition of work by William Morris, at Westminster Hospital. (Louise and Lorne were admirers of Morris’s work and politics, often attending his famous lectures.) When Leopold was unable to accompany her, Lord Ronnie Gower became Louise’s escort. Louise also carried out official duties, such as opening ‘a new middle-class girls’ school’ in Blackheath. She attended parties at Whistler’s studio and spent as much time as possible with Boehm and her friends. Boehm and Louise seem to have been realistic and pragmatic about their relationship: whenever they were in the same country they would spend time together; but both were aware of the importance of their own marriages, reputations and social position. In nineteenth-century Britain, for those with land, property, money or titles to think about, marriage was almost always a business proposition between families rather than a romantic love match (despite what the novelists of the time wanted their readers to believe).

  Louise was able to comfort her mother and the deposed Empress of France who had suffered the tragic news, while Louise was away, of the death of the Empress’s son, the Prince Imperial, who had been killed in the Zulu Wars.4 Not only had the Empress lost her son, but it was widely believed that Princess Beatrice had hoped to marry the illfated prince. Beatrice’s future was looking increasingly bland.

  Following the death of the Prince Imperial, a new face had been seen at the royal court, a young man who had served with the prince and had been chosen to go to the palace and give the queen his report on the prince’s death. His name was Arthur Bigge and he would later become an important member of the queen’s household. He was a good-looking young man, to whom Louise was introduced by their mutual friend, Lady Sophia MacNamara (who was nicknamed ‘Smack’). Some years later, Louise and Bigge’s names would be linked in a scandal, but for the moment, he was simply a young man whom the queen liked the look of and had decided to help in his career.

  Return to Canada was inevitable, and Lorne was there to greet Louise as the Sarmatian docked in Halifax on 3 February 1880. Louise was given a warm greeting by the waiting crowds. Once again they travelled by special train to Ottawa via Montreal, where the train was delayed for some time by heavy snowstorms. In the Canadian national archives is a painting on a piece of bark, which was presented to Louise on her return. I assume this is the item that was referred to in a newspaper article: ‘We understand that the chief of the Aberacke tribe of Indians, situated at St. Francois-du-lac, county Herville, has lately presented to the Princess Louise, in the name of his tribe, an address congratulating her Royal Highness on her safe return to Canada. The composition is that of the chief himself, and embodies strong proofs of loyalty.’

  Louise’s return was not entirely without rancour, however, for in her absence rumours had started to circulate and gain momentum. It had been noticed by several observers that all was not as it should be in the Governor-General’s marriage. Louise’s flirtatious nature had been commented on and it was said that she had gone back to England to give birth to a baby that was not her husband’s. Another story was that she hated Canada, and this story was one that rankled amongst the people who had made her so welcome. Yet another rumour, and one that would persist for years, was that she and Lady Macdonald, the wife of the Prime Minister, were embroiled in a bitchy feud. Whether there was any truth to this is difficult to fathom; according to the evidence available, the two women were on perfectly amicable terms and were both very upset by the rumours. One researcher in Canada suggested to me that papers ‘proving’ the feud might have been destroyed. There is, of course, the possibility that, like so many wives, Lady Macdonald disapproved of the effect Louise had on her husband – including the gossip that Louise had taken against Lord Macdonald after he got drunk at a party and had ‘taken a liberty’. This was repeated in the 1912 memoirs of one of Macdonald’s political opponents. The former finance minister, Sir Richard Cartwright, wrote gleefully that Princess Louise had ‘very just cause’ for taking offence against Lord Macdonald and that she had been ‘obliged’ to leave the room when he entered it. It seems Lorne and Lord Macdonald also had their political differences. Yet, when so much of the problem seemed to centre on Lord Macdonald, why is it that gossip perpetually saw the two women as the source of the problem? It seems there were problems between all four of the Macdonalds and the Lornes, but the newspapers, of course, found a feud between the wives far more noteworthy.

  Within days of Louise’s return, the discontent towards her that had been building in her absence had been replaced by shock and sympathy. On 14 February 1880, Louise and Lorne were travelling in a horse-drawn sleigh on the icy roads. Unfortunately, their driver was English, not Canadian, and not used to the driving conditions. As they approached a sharp corner, the driver lost control. One of the horses – which had been made to go much too fast to be able to slow down – took fright. The sleigh crashed, twisted and was dragged for several hundred metres along the road. Louise took most of the impact as her husband was flung out of his seat and on to her. Lorne was barely injured but unable to move because of the position of the sleigh; Louise thought she would suffocate as the weight of her husband’s body pressed on to her chest and lungs. After smacking her head on the bar that held the sleigh roof in place, Louise was knocked unconscious. Lorne was terrified she had been killed. In a letter home, Lorne reported: ‘[Louise] has been much hurt, and it is a wonder that her skull was not fractured. The muscles of the neck, shoulder, and back are much strained and the lobe of one ear was cut in two. As we pounded along, I expected the sides of the carriage to give way every moment, when we should probably have been all killed.’ For the rest of her life, Louise was assiduous at ensuring that her hair covered up her ears, as she had lost part of an ear (although rumours suggested her entire right ear had been ripped off).

  A few days after the accident, Arthur Sullivan arrived to stay. He was on a tour of America and Canada with The Pirates of Penzance and had been greatly looking forward to spending time with ‘his’ princess. Although relieved she had survived such a terrifying accident, he was saddened that Louise was so ill, meaning he was able to see very little of her during his stay. Lorne had written a poem that he intended to become the new Nati
onal Anthem of Canada; he had called it his ‘Dominion Hymn’ and asked Sullivan to compose the music. It was not his most popular work. A ‘society journal’ in New York reviewed the hymn – and Lorne – scathingly: ‘He has written one or two things which are chiefly conspicuous for their mediocrity. His latest attempt in poetry is his “Canadian National Anthem,” which Arthur Sullivan has set to music, and redeemed it from absolute failure. As a sample of poetic inspiration it is very moist.’

  Initially, the unfortunate decision was made to play down the severity of the accident – even Queen Victoria was not told the truth about how badly her daughter was injured. This was deeply damaging to Louise’s and Lorne’s reputations: until the extent of her injuries was known, Canadians began to talk about Louise in much the same way that Britons had discussed their queen, accusing her of malingering and shirking her official responsibilities. When the nature of her injuries became common knowledge, Louise was once again adored by the public, who felt guilty, not least because politicians had been making unflattering or derogatory comments in Parliament. The MP who wrote, ‘Except the cut in the lower part of the ear I think there was no injury done worth mentioning’ must have been mortified when he realised how close to death Louise had come.

  On 6 March 1880, Louise was able to leave her bed for the first time. Her first public appearance was on 11 April, when she and Lorne attended a church service. Although to outward appearances she was fully recovered by May, the sleigh accident would have repercussions for the rest of Louise’s life: the headaches she had long been prey to became more frequent and more painful and she began to suffer from neuralgia and occasional deafness. All of these symptoms were exacerbated at times of stress.

  Positive things were happening as well. Most notably, one of Louise and Lorne’s plans was coming to fruition. The couple were keen to improve the artistic life of Canada, as Canadian artists currently had very few opportunities to forward their careers. Thanks to the viceregal couple, in the spring of 1880 the school that would become known as the Ottawa School of Art hired its first instructor. It was also in this year that they helped to found the first Canadian Academy of the Arts.5 Louise and Lorne also picked the works that would feature in its first exhibition; these items later formed the nucleus of the National Gallery of Canada collection. When the gallery was complete, Lorne was proud to declare it open. At the time of the first exhibition, Louise was too ill to leave her room, but as Lorne revealed in a letter she ‘insisted that I should bring up to her room nearly every one of the pictures exhibited, in order that she might judge the position of Canadian art at the time’.

  While Louise was recuperating, Prince Leopold was also recovering from an injury and was longing to see his sister. As soon as he could, he travelled to Canada on the Sardinian, arriving on 23 May. Louise was overjoyed to see him – although she and Lorne were nearly involved in another serious accident on the way to meet Leopold in Quebec. As their special train was travelling through Quebec it narrowly missed a collision with the Montreal–Ottawa Express. Louise was badly jolted and scared by the experience.

  Once she had recovered, Leopold and Louise set off together, without Lorne. Just as Louise had once made such desperate bids for independence from her mother, now she was equally desperate to achieve independence from her husband. The visit of her favourite brother was the perfect excuse to escape.

  Louise and Leopold went first to Toronto, from where they travelled to the Niagara Falls, then into America, visiting Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit. They had planned to visit San Francisco, but that idea was dropped – in the Canadian archives there are a number of references to Fenian activities and threats to Princess Louise in Canada, which the Prime Minister took very seriously. It seems that San Francisco was considered too dangerous for the son and daughter of Queen Victoria. At the end of their travels, the siblings met up again with Lorne and his brother Archie in Quebec City, having stopped in Montreal on the way. They all went to the Citadel and then for a fishing trip on the Cascapedia River. Leopold hankered for an outdoor life, to do all the things that other men of his age were able to, but although Louise was eager to let him realise this dream, the holiday nearly ended in disaster. While they were staying with a Mr and Mrs Stephen, at the couple’s holiday cottage on the Matapedia River in Quebec, the haemophiliac prince fell and hurt his leg. His doctor insisted that he should return to England, not wanting the responsibility of caring for such a delicate member of the queen’s family. Louise was determined to go with him: still feeling unwell, she was dreading another icy winter. Major Collins, who was travelling with Leopold, noted that she was ‘unstrung and restless’.

  Before she left, however, Louise carried out several official duties, with Leopold accompanying her on visits to hospitals. Shortly before she set sail, Louise laid the coping stone of the new ‘Louise Embankment’ in Quebec, at which Lorne made a speech. In it, he defended his wife’s decision to leave Canada again so soon, explaining that she had been ‘ordered’ to return to Europe and urging the people of Canada to look on the princess’s injuries in the same way as they would those of a soldier; he pointed out that she had been injured ‘in the performance of a public duty’.

  The newspapers reported that Leopold looked better than expected but that his accident had had ‘a weakening effect upon him’. It was obvious that he needed to return to his doctors in London. The prince and princess set sail on 31 July 1880 on the steamer Polynesian. Louise had been in Canada for barely six months. She was, however, genuinely unwell, suffering from debilitating headaches and neuralgia, gastric troubles (probably caused by stress) and insomnia. The royal entourage on board the ship included two ladies-in-waiting and the ever present Colonel McNeill, who seems to have spent much of his time sailing back and forth between England and Canada: it was said by many in Canada that he was in love with Louise, and several gossips claimed they were having an affair. That seems a valid possibility. While Louise was separated from Boehm, she needed a lover. For a woman who had as strong a need for affection as Louise did, being trapped in a sexless marriage would have been unendurable. As Bertie’s earlier comments to their mother about Louise needing to be married made explicit, he was aware that his sister had a similar sex-drive to his own. Bertie was rarely without a lover as well as a wife; the children of the unmaternal monarch may have been able to value themselves only when they were being valued and desired by others. As the wife of the Governor-General and daughter of the monarch, Louise would have been wise to choose someone from the royal household, whose discretion was assured. Colonel McNeill was just one of the many names suggested as Louise’s lover in later newspaper articles. There was also gossip that she had a ‘favourite guide’ from the Micmac tribe. This tribe lived at the mouth of the Grand Cascapedia River, one of the princess’s favoured fishing spots, which she and Lorne visited regularly. Local gossip claimed that her guide was also her model, that he posed naked for her and that they became lovers. According to journalist Alex Shoumatoff,6 who writes about the region today, there is still a rumour that when Louise left Canada, she bought this alleged lover a ranch in Alberta.

  When their ship arrived in Liverpool, on Monday 9 August, the yacht Victoria and Albert was waiting to transport the siblings to their mother on the Isle of Wight. A special train was also laid on, just in case ‘the princess preferred to go by rail’, as a tactful journalist noted – Princess Louise’s tendency to seasickness was well known.

  Bertie and Alix came to Osborne to see Leopold and Louise, after which Louise chose to cut short her reunion with her mother. On 12 August, she left the Isle of Wight, accompanied by Colonel McNeill, and headed to London, in preparation for a holiday ‘for the benefit of her health’. She left for Cologne accompanied by Captain Collins and his daughter. She took the waters at Marienbad and convalesced at Salzburg. She also travelled to Darmstadt, to spend time with Alice’s bereaved husband and children, as well as Alfred, Marie and their children, who were in Germany at the
same time. By the end of August, the papers were predicting that Louise would set sail again in the late autumn – but it would be well over a year and a half before Louise would return to Canada and her husband. As she was on her way back to England from Germany, the press reported, ‘There are rather disquieting reports as to the health of the Princess Louise … in consequence of which her return to Canada is postponed to an indefinite period. The shock sustained on the occasion of an accident to the sleigh was much more severe than was realised at the time.’

  CHAPTER 16

  A marriage lived in different continents

  What was the true nature of the relationship between Lorne and his wife, the Princess Louise? Was it because Louise detested Canada or because she detested Lorne that she spent so little time at his side here?… In hindsight, the years of the Lornes at Rideau are a conundrum. In terms of tangible results, few governor-generalcies have been more productive:… two landmark instruments of Canadian culture, the National Gallery and the Royal Society were established in the space of two years. Yet [never] has a governor-generalcy been marred by so much acrimony in public and nasty whispering in private.

  Sandra Gwyn, The Private Capital, 1984

  On 13 October, Louise sailed into Dover and took an immediate train to London. The very first visit she paid was to the studio of Joseph Edgar Boehm. After several days of seeing her friends, Louise spent a morning with Bertie and Alix, before boarding a train to Scotland. The Duke of Argyll had been suffering from gout and was unwell and grumpy, but for several days at Inveraray Louise played the dutiful daughter-in-law. At the time of her arrival, the Campbell family was in crisis: Lorne’s younger brother, Colin, had fallen in love with a beautiful but middle-class woman named Gertrude Blood – he had become engaged to her within three days of their first meeting. His father was incensed. When Lorne heard the news, and that the wedding was inevitable, he too was angry, writing that Colin had no right to ally himself with ‘a pennyless and groatless grenadier of a girl’. It seemed that the family thought it acceptable for the son of a duke to aspire to marry the daughter of a queen (and rely on her financial aid to save the family fortunes), but when the situation was reversed and the son of a duke married a woman lower down the social scale, the Campbells did not like it at all.