Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll her privacy, and enjoyed not being recognised. Louise and her sisters had another disagreement after the death of the queen's close friend, Jane Spencer, Baroness Churchill. Determined not to put her mother through more misery, Louise wanted the news to be broken to the queen gradually. When this was not done, Louise voiced her sharp criticism of Helena and Beatrice. One month later, on 22 January 1901, Queen Victoria died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. In her will, the queen bequeathed Kent House, on the Osborne Estate, to Louise as a country residence, and gave Osborne Cottage
Princess Helena of the United Kingdom the Queen, and both she and Beatrice performed duties for her. Beatrice, whom Victoria had groomed for the main role at her side, carried out the more important duties, and Helena took on the more minor matters that Beatrice did not have time to do. In later years, Helena was assisted by her unmarried daughter, Helena Victoria, to whom the Queen dictated her journal in the last months of her life. Helena's health was not robust, and she was addicted to the drugs opium and laudanum. However, the Queen did not believe that Helena was really ill, accusing her of