History, Feminism
The Princess in the Asylum
Was Louise of Belgium a victim, as she claimed, or her own worst enemy?
Born in 1858, Princess Louise of Belgium was the eldest daughter of King Leopold II and Queen Marie Henriette. As parents, these two were not stellar examples, albeit for different reasons.
Leopold, far more concerned with his cash than his kids, was uninvolved at best. Marie Henriette loved her children dearly, but love didn’t mean telling her teenage daughter about the birds and the bees.
Two weeks shy of her seventeenth birthday, Louise was married to her 31-year-old second cousin, Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
The morning after, Louise slipped away to cry in one of her father’s greenhouses. A sentry found her sobbing in her nightgown and slippers. Later, she wrote that her wedding night left her “bruised and mangled in her soul”; after they hauled her back to the palace, she was “more dead than alive.” ¹
Bad Romance
According to Louise, Philip tried to transform her from a scared teenager into a pleasure-loving sybarite. He plied her with alcohol and gave her a belated sex education through erotic art and books.
