The Tiara Mystery Found in the Princess Royal's Unsealed Will

Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife was the daughter and sister of British monarchs, and her will includes fascinating instructions related to a trio of royal tiaras

My journey through the bejeweled contents of several newly-unsealed royal wills continues today with a deep dive into the jewels left behind by Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife, when she passed away in 1931. The granddaughter, daughter, and sister of monarchs, Louise was a fascinating but private member of the royal family, and her will documents the dazzling royal diamonds and sapphires she left to her two daughters.

Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife (Grand Ladies Site)

In the early hours of January 4, 1931, Princess Arthur of Connaught and Lady Maud Carnegie were gathered together with a pair of royal physicians at 15 Portman Square in London. There, concern was growing about the health of Alexandra and Maud’s mother, the Princess Royal. The 63-year-old princess had been dealing with numerous health problems for years, but in the end, it was her heart that was the problem. Louise slept peacefully in her bed throughout the day, passing with her daughters by her side at 2:30 in the afternoon.

Through the heavy fog that settled over London during the first days of 1931, Alexandra and Maud joined with their husbands, Prince Arthur of Connaught and Lord Carnegie, to coordinate their mother’s final arrangements. Behind the drawn blinds at No. 15, Louise’s brother and sister-in-law, King George V and Queen Mary, were telephoned at Sandringham, and word was also dispatched to Louise’s sister, Queen Maud of Norway, in Oslo. Both the British and Norwegian courts settled on a period of six weeks of official mourning for the late princess.

Increasingly reclusive since the death of her husband, the Duke of Fife, after a perilous shipwreck almost two decades earlier, Louise left behind instructions for a simple royal funeral. The small service took place in the choir of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor on Saturday, January 10. The King and Queen, followed by Alexandra and Maud with Alexandra’s sixteen-year-old son, the Earl of Macduff, led the party of royal mourners. Also present for the service were Louise’s sons-in-law, Prince Arthur of Connaught and Lord Carnegie, and her sister, Princess Victoria. (The third sister of the trio, Queen Maud, was unable to make the quick trip from Norway. She was represented by her private secretary, George Ponsonby.) Also following the late princess’s coffin, which was wrapped with the Fife tartan, were the King’s children and their spouses: the Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of York, the Duke of Gloucester, Prince George, and Princess Mary and the Earl of Harewood.

At the end of the funeral, Alexandra stepped forward and sprinkled earth on her mother’s coffin before it was lowered into the royal vault below the chapel. “Slowly the coffin passed from sight, the last to be seen being the white lilies massed upon the cover and the red flaming in the tartan,” recalled Walter George Bell in his article for the Telegraph. The Triumphal March from Verdi’s Aida was played by the chapel organist as the service concluded, a special request from Louise.

In the days following Louise’s death, King George took a moment to write to their sister, Queen Maud, in Norway. “Louise suffered so terribly these last few months that one can but thank God. She is at peace with her dear ones,” he wrote. “But it’s sad for us, and the loss of a sister comes very near one’s heart.”