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Leopold was born on April 7, 1853 at Buckingham Palace, London. His mother was Queen Victoria, the reigning British monarch. His father was Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. As a son of the British sovereign, he was styled His Royal Highness The Prince Leopold at birth. His parents named him Leopold after his great uncle, King Leopold I of the Belgians.
Leopold inherited the disease of haemophilia from his mother, Queen Victoria, and spent most of childhood as a semi-invalid.
In 1872, Prince Leopold, entered Christ Church, Oxford where he studied a variety of subjects. He left the university with an honorary doctorate in civil law (DCL) in 1876. Prince Leopold travelled in Europe and 1880, he toured CanadaCanada historically the Dominion of Canada is the second-largest, and northernmost, country in the world. It is a decentralized federation of 10 provinces and 3 territories, governed as a constitutional monarchy, and formed in 1867 through an act of Confe and the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in with his sister, Princess LouiseHer Royal Highness The Princess Louise (Louise Caroline Alberta), ( 18 March 1848 3 December 1939) was a member of the British Royal Family, the sixth child and third daughter of Queen Victoria. She later held the title of Duchess of Argyll. Early Life Pr, whose husband John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne was the Governor General of CanadaThe Governor General and Commander-in-Chief in and over Canada normally simply known as the Governor General of Canada in French, Gouverneur(e) general(e is the Canadian representative of the monarch (presently Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II). Unlike in s. Incapable of pursuing a military career because of his illness, Prince Leopold instead became a patron of the arts and literature. In 1878, he became president of Royal Society of LiteratureThe Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". and in the following year became vice president of the Royal Society of Arts. From 1876 until his death, he served as Queen's private secretary.
On 27 April 1882 Leopold married Princess Helene Frederica, daughter of George Victor, Reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle,
They had two children: