Remembering Princess Louise of Battenberg: Prince Philip's maverick aunt who worked as a nurse, fell in love with a penniless painter and became the Queen of Sweden

Princess Louise of Battenberg came from one of Europe's most noble families: her great-grandmother was Queen Victoria ; her brother, Louis, was created Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and would one day become ‘honorary grandfather’ to King Charles; her sister, Alice, was mother to Prince Philip. But what was the life story of this little-known royal, who went on to become the Queen of Sweden?

Princess Louise grew up at the sprawling Schloss Heiligenberg in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, and was known as Lady Louise Mountbatten when her father, Prince Louis , was created the first Marquess of Milford Haven by George V in 1917. The family moved around between different territories in the British Empire, and Louise often visited her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, at Osborne, her beloved ho