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| Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife, 1901 (From the Royal Collection) |
The eldest daughter of Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and his Danish born wife, Alexandra, Princess Louise was born on February 20, 1867 in Marlborough House, the London home of her parents. She spent much of her childhood in Sandringham House, her parents' country retreat in Norfolk, and lived a rather sheltered life with her sisters. The Princess of Wales was a possessive mother who would rather let her daughters remained unmarried than marry them off to German princes, and as a result, Louise and her sisters Victoria and Maud, collectively known to their relatives as the "Wales girls" grew up to be intensely shy and reserved.
