Princess Louise of Belgium

Louise of Belgium
Princess Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Princess Louise, ca. 1894
Born	(1858-02-18)18 February 1858 Royal Palace, Brussels, Belgium
Died	1 March 1924(1924-03-01) (aged 66) Hotel Nassauer Hof, Wiesbaden, Germany
Burial	South Cemetery Wiesbaden
Spouse	Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ​ ​ (m. 1875; div. 1906)​
Issue	Prince Leopold Clement Dorothea, Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein
Names Louise Marie Amélie
House	Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Father	Leopold II of Belgium
Mother	Marie Henriette of Austria

Princess Louise Marie Amélie of Belgium (18 February 1858 – 1 March 1924) was the eldest child and daughter of King Leopold II and Queen Marie Henriette of Belgium. She was a member of the House of Wettin in the branch of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. By her marriage with her first cousin once removed Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, she retained her birth titles of Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duchess in Saxony.

Louise was born during the reign of her grandfather Leopold I of Belgium, and she was named after her grandmother Queen Louise. She married in Brussels on 4 February 1875 with her first cousin once removed Prince Philipp. Louise and Philipp settled in Vienna, where they had two children: Leopold Clement, born in 1878, and Dorothea, born in 1881.

Louise's marriage quickly fell apart. Endowed with a strong and whole personality, she refused to submit to a husband who did not suit her, who had been imposed for reasons of state. She reacted by leading a lavish and worldly life as a beauty in the court of Vienna. Louise was quickly preceded by a reputation for scandal to which she gave credit by engaging in several successive affairs before falling in love with Geza Mattachich, an aristocratic Croatian officer. Europe was scandalized when her husband had Louise declared insane and convinced the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria to intern her in a psychiatric hospital, while Mattachich was accused of forgery and imprisoned. Released four years later, Mattachich succeeded in helping the princess escape. Both then traveled across Europe. After succeeding in proving her mental balance, Louise divorced amicably in 1906.

Louise began the life of a stateless person. Together with her sister Stéphanie, she filed several lawsuits, which were ultimately unsuccessful, against the Belgian State to recover the inheritance of their father, who had died in 1909. However, in 1914 she managed to receive a part of King Leopold II's fortune. World War I and the German defeat further impoverished Louise, who decided to publish her memoirs under the title Autour des trônes que j'ai vu tomber (Around the thrones that I saw fall) which also constitute a testimony of the life of the European courts. Prince Philippe, her ex-husband, died in 1921. In 1924, at the age of 66, Louise died in poverty, a year after her lover Mattachich. Her only surviving offspring was her daughter Dorothea, whom she no longer saw. The major memory she leaves in Belgium is the Avenue Louise in Brussels, named after her.