Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
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The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, CI, GCVO, (Margaret Rose Armstrong-Jones, née Windsor) 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and sister of the current British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. She also later held the title Countess of Snowdon by marriage.
Princess Margaret was always a controversial member of the British Royal Family. Her private life was plagued by romantic disappointments, including falling in love with a divorced older man in her youth, a subsequent often unhappy marriage to a commoner, an acrimonious divorce beset with accusations of adultery, and, in her later years, a public affair with a much younger man.
Early life
Born Princess Margaret Rose of York on 21 August 1930 at Glamis Castle in Scotland, her mother's ancestral home. Her father was The Prince Albert, Duke of York, the second eldest son of King George V and Queen Mary. Her mother was Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, a daughter of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore. As a grandchild of the sovereign in the male line, she was styled Her Royal Highness at birth. She was baptised in the Private Chapel of Buckingham Palace on October 30, 1930 by Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury and her godparents were the Prince of Wales, Princess Ingrid of Sweden, Princess Victoria, Lady Rose Leveson-Gower and the Hon. David Bowes-Lyon.
Princess Margaret was educated alongside her sister, Princess Elizabeth, by their governess, Marion Crawford. In 1936, her uncle King Edward VIII abdicated the throne, and her father became King George VI. Margaret was then styled HRH The Princess Margaret. She attended her parents' coronation in 1937.
During World War II, Margaret stayed at Windsor Castle, just outside London. In 1952, her father died, and her sister became Queen Elizabeth II.
Peter Townsend
Two years after her sister's coronation, Margaret became embroiled in a public scandal over her wish to marry Group Captain Peter Woolridge Townsend, a Royal Air Force pilot and Battle of Britain hero (not to be confused with Pete Townshend of The Who). Townsend was several years Margaret's senior and divorced, which made him an unsuitable husband for a Royal Princess. Margaret soon came under heavy pressure not to marry Townsend, with suggestions she would lose her title, Civil List allowance, and place in the line of succession. Taking advice from the Archbishop of Canterbury and senior politicians, she decided not to marry him and made a public announcement in which she stated that her decision was made out of loyalty to the Crown and out of consciousness of her position and responsibilities as well as the Church's teaching on the indissolubility of Christian marriage.
However, papers released in 2004 indicate that, had she married Townsend, she would have been allowed to keep her title as well as her Civil List allowance.
Marriage
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After some more romantic interests, including future Canadian Prime Minister John Turner, on May 6, 1960, Margaret married photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, son of Ronald Armstrong-Jones and his first wife, Anne Messel, later Countess of Rosse, at Westminster Abbey. The ceremony could be considered the first "modern" royal wedding thanks to the wider availability of television in the UK. In honour of his Welsh descent, her husband was created Earl of Snowdon. Margaret was then formally styled HRH The Princess Margaret, The Countess of Snowdon.
Together they had two children: David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones (later Chatto),
There are currently four grandchildren of Princess Margaret:
1. The Hon. Charles Armstrong-Jones (heir presumptive to the Earldom of Snowdon), son of Viscount and Viscountess Linley.
2. The Hon. Margarita Armstrong-Jones, daughter of Viscount and Viscountess Linley.
3. Samuel Chatto, older son of Lady Sarah and Daniel Chatto.
4. Arthur Chatto, younger son of Lady Sarah and Daniel Chatto.
Royal duties
Princess Margaret began her royal duties at a very early age. She attended the silver jubilee of her grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary, aged 5 in 1935. She later attended her parents' coronation in 1937. Her first major royal tour occurred when she joined her parents and sister for a tour of South Africa in 1947. Her first solo tour was to the British colonies in the Caribbean in 1955.
The Princess's main interests were welfare charities, music and ballet. She was President of the National Society and of the Royal Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Formerly Commandant-in-Chief of the Ambulance and Nursing Cadets of the St. John Ambulance Brigade, she later became Grand President of the St John Ambulance Brigade and Colonel-in-Chief of Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps.
Private life
Princess Margaret's private life was for many years the subject of intense speculation by media and royal-watchers. She owned a house on the Caribbean island of Mustique, a hedonist private resort that was her favourite holiday destination. (It was designed by her husband's uncle, the stage designer Oliver Messel.) Revelations of wild parties and drug taking were made in a documentary broadcast after the Princess’ death.
In the 1970s, revelations of an affair with Roddy Llewellyn, a much younger gardener, led to her divorce from the Earl of Snowdon, although the marriage was generally regarded as over long before the affair was made public. This was the first divorce of a senior royal since Princess Victoria of Edinburgh in 1901.
She had affairs with Anthony Barton, her daughter's godfather, and with Robin Douglas-Home, the nephew of a former British Prime Minister. Douglas-Home's suicide 18 months after the split with Margaret scandalized Britain. She was also rumored to have been romantically involved with musician Mick Jagger and actor Peter Sellers, although the true extent of her relationships with these two men has never been clear. According to "Margaret: The Secret Princess," an ITV program broadcast in Britain in February 2003, Princess Margaret also reportedly had a two-year affair with Sharman Douglas, the daughter of an American ambassador to the Court of St. James.
Later life
The Princess's later life was marred by illness and disability. She experienced a mild stroke in 1998 at her holiday home in Mustique. Later in the same year, the Princess severely scalded her feet in a bathroom accident, which affected her mobility to the extent she required support when walking and was sometimes restricted to a wheelchair. In 2000 and 2001, further strokes were diagnosed. Margaret’s last public appearance was at the 100th birthday celebrations of her aunt, HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester in December 2001.
Margaret died in hospital on February 9, 2002 at the age of 71, after suffering a massive stroke. Her funeral was on the 50th anniversary of her father’s funeral and occurred during the jubilee year of the Queen. Her funeral was a private family event, though a full state memorial service was held for her several weeks later. This was the last time the Queen Mother was seen in public before her death.
Titles and honours
Titles
- Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret of York (from birth to 1936)
- Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret (1936 to 1947)
- Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret, CI (1947 to 1953)
- Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret, CI, GCVO (1953 to 1960)
- Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret, The Countess of Snowdon (1960 to 1978)
- Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, CI, GCVO (1978 until her death)
Honours
- Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order 1953
- Royal Victorian Chain 1990
- Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem
- Imperial Order of the Crown of India 1947
Honorary military appointments
Colonel in Chief
- 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars
- The Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret's Own Glasgow and Ayrshire Regiment)
- Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps
- The Highland Fusiliers of Canada
- The Princess Louise Fusiliers (of Canada)
- The Royal Newfoundland Regiment
- The Bermuda Regiment
Deputy Colonel-in-Chief
Royal Air Force
- Honorary Air Commodore
- Royal Air Force Coningsby