The Children of Prince Arthur of Connaught

Arthur and Princesses Margaret and Patricia of Great Britain

Oct 1, 2009

Prince Arthur of Connaught, Queen Victoria's son, and his wife Princess Louise had three children, and Swedish royals are descended from their daughter Margaret.

Prince Arthur of Great Britain, the Duke of Connaught and Queen Victoria’s favorite son, and his wife Princess Louise had three children. The Connaughts were loving but somewhat neglectful parents, and their children, particularly their daughters, grew up shy and slightly insecure. But they all married happily, two to members of the nobility and one to a future king.

Their two daughters were beautiful and very popular in Great Britain, and their uncle, the future King Edward VII, hoped that they would marry well, preferably to a crown prince or king, to forge international ties with foreign countries. Prince Arthur and Princess Louise even took their daughters on a tour of Spain and Portugal with the intent of possibly marrying them to the king of one of these countries. But the Connaught princesses hated these countries and passed on the opportunity to become Iberian queens. Instead they, like their brother, married for love and had happy, content lives.

Princess Margaret of Connaught (1882–1920)

While the Connaught family was traveling through Egypt, they happened to meet Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, and for Princess Margaret of Connaught it was love at first sight. The couple was engaged five days later, and married in St. George’s Chapel in Windsor. As crown princess, Margaret’s cheerfulness and grace made her very popular with the Swedish people. Sadly, she died suddenly and very young of a bacterial infection while expecting her sixth child.

Her descendants are now prominent in the Swedish, Danish, and Greek royal families. Her son died before his father, King Gustaf VI Adolf, but Margaret’s grandson is the present King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. Princess Margaret’s daughter Ingrid married the crown prince of Denmark, becoming Queen Ingrid of Denmark. Queen Ingrid’s daughters are the present Queen Margarethe II of Denmark and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece.

Prince Arthur of Connaught, Duke of Connaught (1883–1938)

Prince Arthur of Connaught had a distinguished career, being the ADC to four sovereigns and serving as governor-general of South Africa from 1920 to 1923. He married King Edward VII’s granddaughter Princess Alexandra, who by special decree was allowed to inherit her father’s dukedom of Fife. Therefore, Arthur and Alexandra’s son Alastair was heir to both the dukedoms of Connaught and Fife, but himself died without an heir.

Princess Patricia of Connaught (1886–1974)

Princess Patricia of Connaught, known as “Patsy,” was shy and lacked confidence, but she was at least bold enough to refuse the proposal of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, who went on to marry her cousin Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg. Patricia then accompanied her parents to Canada where her father was governor-general. While there, she served as hostess for her father in place of her ill mother. She was also honored to be named Colonel-in-Chief of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.

While in Canada she fell in love with her father’s ADC, the Hon. Alexander Ramsay. He was a naval officer and a younger son of the Earl of Dalhousie, and therefore noble but never to have a title of his own. Her father was against his daughter marrying a commoner, but Princess Louise was for it and after World War I ended Prince Arthur finally consented to the marriage.

Princess Patricia of Connaught married Sir Alexander Ramsay in Westminster Abbey, and the marriage of the beautiful princess to the commoner was very popular in Britain. Princess Patricia gave up her royal titles and became Lady Patricia, but still remained an active member of the royal family. She was also very skilled in art, particularly watercolors, and exhibits of her paintings were very popular.

Source:

Eilers, Marlene A. Queen Victoria’s Descendants. Falkoping, Sweden: Rosvall Royal Books, 1997.

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