41 Facts About Louise Mountbatten

Louise Mountbatten was an older sister to Lord Louis Mountbatten.

Louise Mountbatten married the widowed Gustaf Adolf in 1923 and assumed the role of Sweden's first lady but did not become queen until his accession in 1950.

Queen Louise Mountbatten was noted for her eccentricity and progressive views.

Louise Mountbatten was born a Princess of Battenberg at Schloss Heiligenberg, Seeheim-Jugenheim, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse.

Louise Mountbatten's father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, who was an admiral in the British Royal Navy, renounced his German title during the First World War and anglicised his family name to "Mountbatten" at the behest of George V He was then created the first Marquess of Milford Haven in the peerage of the United Kingdom.

Louise Mountbatten's mother was Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

Louise Mountbatten was a niece of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia.

Louise Mountbatten often visited her great-grandmother Queen Victoria on the Isle of Wight with her mother during her childhood.

The family is described as harmonious; the parents of Louise Mountbatten lived in a happy loving relationship, not in an arranged marriage, and Louise Mountbatten was particularly close to her brother, with whom she corresponded until her death.

The trip was interrupted by the sudden outbreak of the First World War, and Louise Mountbatten's father telegraphed for them to return immediately.

Louise Mountbatten's mother gave her jewellery to the empress for safe keeping, and they left Russia by boat from Hapsal in Estonia and travelled to neutral Sweden, paying for the trip with gold, as their money was suddenly not acceptable currency in Russia.

Louise Mountbatten was active at a French military hospital in Nevers, and then at a war hospital at Palaves outside Montpellier, from March 1915 until July 1917.

Louise Mountbatten was commended for her hard work, and was awarded The British War and Victory Medals, a medal from the British Red Cross, as well as the Medaille de la Reconnaissance francaise.

In 1909, Louise Mountbatten received a proposal from Manuel II of Portugal.

At the age of twenty, Louise Mountbatten became secretly engaged to Prince Christopher of Greece, but they were forced to give up their relationship for financial reasons.

Shortly before World War I broke out, Louise Mountbatten fell in love with a man of whom her parents approved but he was killed in the early days of the war.

In 1918 Louise Mountbatten's father explained to her that Stuart-Hill was most likely homosexual, and that a marriage with him was impossible.

On 3 November 1923, at age 34, Louise Mountbatten married Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace in the presence of George V and members of both royal families.

Louise Mountbatten was liked by her mother-in-law because of her friendly nature, although they seldom saw each other, as Queen Victoria spent most of her time in Italy.

The fact that the queen spent most of her time abroad meant that Louise Mountbatten took on many royal duties from the beginning, which was initially hard for her as she was at this point described as quite shy.

Louise Mountbatten was made the protector of the Swedish Red Cross, Children's Hospital of Crown Princess Louise, Eugenia Home, Drottningens centralkommitte, Arbetsflitens Beframjande, Sophiahemmet and Svenska Hemslojdsforeningarns Riksforbund.

Louise Mountbatten's only child, a daughter, was stillborn on 30 May 1925.

In 1936, Louise Mountbatten attended the funeral of George V of the United Kingdom.

Louise Mountbatten collected candles and other non-electric light sources for the needy during the campaign "Vinterljus".

Louise Mountbatten provided supplies to many private citizens in this way, such as "two old ladies in Munich", the former German language teacher of her husband's late wife, and the exiled Princess Tatiana of Russia in Palestine.

In 1950, Louise Mountbatten became queen after her husband's accession to the throne.

Louise Mountbatten is described as a true democrat at heart, and was therefore somewhat disturbed at being celebrated merely in her capacity of queen.

Louise Mountbatten disliked the strict pre-World War I protocol at court, retained during her mother-in-law's era, and reformed it when she became queen, instituting new guidelines in 1954 which democraticised many old customs.

Louise Mountbatten renovated and redecorated the interior of the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

Louise Mountbatten was described as eccentric for royalty and temperamental; she could get very angry, but was said to possess a good heart, a great sense of humour, a sense of self-irony and was able to distinguish between herself and her royal role.

Louise Mountbatten could show her sympathies openly, and this was taken as a sign of her honesty.

Louise Mountbatten is described as a great lover and patriot of her new home country, and was often shocked by Swedish non-patriotic customs.

Louise Mountbatten was a supporter of the political system and democracy in the form it had developed in Sweden and stated her opinion to her relatives that no other political system than the Swedish one had created such a happy development for any nation.

Queen Louise Mountbatten admired Swedish nature and in particular Swedish women, because of what she considered their natural dignity regardless of class, and remarked that she had never seen a country with less vulgarity than Sweden.

Queen Louise Mountbatten had several Pomeranian dogs which she would hide about her person when visiting abroad which caused problems when travelling through customs.

In 1963, Louise Mountbatten accompanied her spouse on a state visit to France, where she made a great impression on President Charles de Gaulle.

Louise Mountbatten responded good-naturedly by signing all her letters to them that way.

Queen Louise Mountbatten died on 7 March 1965 at Saint Goran Hospital, in Stockholm, Sweden, following emergency surgery after a period of severe illness.

Louise Mountbatten had made her last public appearance at the Nobel Prize Ceremony in December 1964.

Queen Louise Mountbatten is buried beside her husband and his first wife, Crown Princess Margaret, in the Royal Cemetery in Solna north of Stockholm.

Queen Louise Mountbatten was the second of the four children of Prince Louis of Battenberg, by his wife Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine and a great-granddaughter of Britain's Queen Victoria.