Princess Louise of Belgium was born on February 18, 1858, as the first child of King Leopold II, a monarch later notorious for atrocities in the Congo, and Queen Marie Henriette of Austria. Her father, desperate for a male heir, was unimpressed by her arrival, reportedly remarking that he hoped she would be pretty one day because she certainly had a big nose. A year later, her brother Leopold was born, followed by sisters Stephanie in 1864 and Clementine in 1872. The children were raised under a strict English regime in stark, unadorned chambers.
Tragedy struck in January 1869 when young Leopold died of pneumonia at age nine after falling into a pond. His death devastated their mother and left King Leopold II without an heir, since Belgian law barred women from the throne. Louise later wrote that she still wept for her brother more than 50 years after losing him. Louise’s relationship with her father remained distant, and she recalled no tenderness from him toward her mother.
She found warmth with her mother and earned the nickname “Madame Pourquoi” for her constant curiosity. At age 15, she was betrothed to her 31-year-old second cousin, Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. They married in Brussels in February 1875. Louise later described her wedding night as devastating, saying she fell from a heaven of love to a bed of rock and a mattress of thorns, and that she felt more dead than alive.
Her mother told her it was her marital duty to submit to her husband. Philip controlled nearly every aspect of her life, including her diet, and pushed her to drink more alcohol, claiming it would calm her nerves. Feeling trapped, Louise began drinking and openly flirting with other men at gatherings, earning a reputation as a party girl who drank too much and wore scandalous clothing. She wrote that a palace can become a hell and that titles count for nothing when a household is bad.
She gave birth to a son, Leopold, in July 1879, and a daughter, Dorothea, in April 1881, concealing her labor pains from Philip until the last moment. At the Austrian court, Louise befriended Crown Prince Rudolf and convinced him to marry her sister Stephanie in May 1881, despite his reluctance. Louise’s own reputation continued to decline. In 1883, she began an affair with Philip’s military aide, and accusations from an emperor’s brother further eroded her standing.
She demanded Philip fight a duel to defend her honor, but he refused, and she saw him as weak. The couple drifted into separate lives. Philip’s affairs were tolerated, while Louise’s provoked scandal. She had a brief affair with Baron Nicholas Dori de Jobahaza before falling deeply for Count Géza Mattach-Keglevich.
When Philip informed Emperor Franz Joseph of the affair, the count was banned from court. Louise fled to France with her daughter to be with the count, spending her husband’s money extravagantly as a form of revenge for what she called an oppressive avarice. On Louise’s birthday in February 1898, Philip challenged the count to a duel. The count shot in the air, Philip missed, and the count won when the duel moved to swords.
Philip then accused the count of forging signatures on promissory notes to fund his lifestyle with Louise. Austrian spies found them in Croatia and arrested the count, who was stripped of his title and sentenced to six years in military prison. Louise was then forcibly taken from her bed and given an ultimatum by her husband: return to him or be confined to an asylum. She chose the asylum.
Philip had prepared a lawyer, a doctor, and a nurse with a pre-written diagnosis of insanity. She was put on a train and checked into the Döbling Asylum outside Vienna. Her father and the rest of her Belgian family cut all ties with her. Louise spent four years in asylums, later writing about nights of agony and horrible nightmares.
She was eventually transferred to Lindenhof, where she was granted a semblance of liberty but called it a gilded cage and a tomb. Her mother died in 1902 without reconciliation, and Louise felt her mother had been convinced she was truly insane. Her daughter and son-in-law offered help only if she signed over her inheritance, which she refused. In 1904, Count Mattach was pardoned for his alleged crimes.
It took him three more years to plan Louise’s escape. While she was permitted a visit to Bad Ischl to take the waters, he sent her secret messages through a hotel waiter. One night she received the message, “It will be tomorrow. ” Disguised as a peasant, the count met her with her dog Kiki by her side, and they escaped by carriage to Berlin, then boarded the Orient Express for France via Belgium.
Crossing into Belgium, a superintendent recognized Louise and assured the count that nobody would betray her. In Paris, French physicians examined her and declared her sane. With that declaration, she began divorce proceedings against Philip. Her father struck her from his will when the divorce was finalized in 1906.
After King Leopold II’s death in 1909, his money was so well hidden that Louise and her sister received almost nothing. The Belgian government eventually allotted her a stipend, but funds did not arrive until after World War I, and her debts far exceeded what she received. During the war, Louise was in Vienna, branded an enemy subject and expelled. Stranded in Munich, she became dependent on her son-in-law, who tried to pressure her into giving up claims to another inheritance.
The count was arrested and deported to Croatia on suspicion of conspiracy, leaving Louise penniless and alone. She was briefly taken prisoner and mocked by soldiers who noted that a king’s daughter was poorer than they were. After her release, Louise and the count moved to Paris. She turned to writing, and her memoirs were published in 1921.
She dedicated the final pages to Count Mattach, thanking him for the nobility and sacrifice he had shown. The count died in 1923, and Louise could not afford to pay for his funeral. She died of pneumonia on March 1, 1924, at age 66, holding the count’s picture against her chest.
She was laid to rest in Wiesbaden.