Princess Louise of Orléans (1869–1952)

Princess Louise d'Orléans (Louise Victoire Marie Amélie Sophie; 19 July 1869 – 4 February 1952) was a French princess of the House of Orléans and a member of the royal family of Bavaria. Throughout her life Louise remained very close to her first cousin, the Austrian archduchess Marie Valerie of Habsburg-Lorraine.

Family

Princess Louise was born at Bushy House, Teddington, England in 1869. She was a daughter of the French prince Ferdinand Philippe Marie d'Orléans, "duc d'Alençon", and his wife Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria, herself a sister of Empress Elisabeth of Austria ("Sisi") and Queen Marie of the Two Sicilies, the heroine of Gaëte. Her paternal grandparents were Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary and Prince Louis Charles Philippe d'Orléans, "duc de Nemours", the second son of Louis-Philippe I, King of the French. Louise had a younger brother, Prince Emmanuel d'Orléans, "duc de Vendôme".

On 15 April 1891 she married her cousin the infante of Spain Alfons of Bavaria at Schloss Nymphenburg. He was the son of Prince Adalbert of Bavaria (1828–1875) and his wife the Spanish infanta Amelia de Bourbon (1834–1905).

They had two children:

• Joseph of Bavaria (1902-1990), prince of Bavaria, who never married;
• Elisabeth of Bavaria (1913-2005), princess of Bavaria, who first married Franz Josef Kageneck (1915–1941), then Ernst Küstner (1920)

In Paris on 4 May 1897, her mother the famed duchesse d'Alençon died in a fire at a charity bazaar (the Bazar de la Charité); she had refused rescue attempts, insisting that the girls working with her at the bazaar be saved first.

Princess Louise of Bavaria died in 1952 in Munich.

Honours

• Dame of the Order of the Starry Cross
• Dame of the Order of Theresa
• Dame of the Order of Saint Elizabeth

External links

• thePeerage