Photo: Tim Graham Photo Library
Princess Margaretled quite an interesting life.
The Countess of Snowdon “was someone whounderstood the Queenin a way no one else could,” royal biographer Andrew Morton, author ofElizabeth & Margaret: the Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters, told PEOPLE. “They knew each other intimately from the day they were born. There is a unique intimacy between two siblings brought up together, brought up royal together, that is absolutely fascinating.”
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She has been compared to her great-nephewPrince Harry, who stepped down as a working royal in 2020 after marryingMeghan Markle. Princess Margaret ultimatelychose duty over marriagewith the divorced Peter Townsend in 1955, as seen inNetflix’sThe Crown.
“Margaret put duty before herself,” Morton added.
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In her later years, Princess Margaret experienced health problems and suffered several strokes beforeher deathon Feb. 9, 2002. She was 71 years old.
Here’s everything to know about Princess Margaret and her relationship with her sister,Queen Elizabeth.
She often dressed identically to Queen Elizabeth as a child
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Princess Margaret often dressed in identical outfits withQueen Elizabethwhen they were younger. On Mother’s Day in the U.K. in March 2022, The Royal Family Instagram account shared a beautifulthrowback pictureof the sisters and their mother. In it, Princess Margaret andQueen ElizabethII wore matching jackets over collared shirts, with their short brown hair in identical curly bobs.
Supposedly, the Queen Mother dressed the sisters in matching outfits often to avoid sibling rivalry.
“You have to remember, there [were] four years between those two girls. If you told a 12-year-old that they had to dress like their 8-year-old sister, I think, there’d be a little bit of rebellion going on,” royal author Bethan Holt told9honey. “Elizabeth was very good and her and Margaret were always dressed in matching outfits.”
Holt explained this was a way to show that their parents loved them equally. “I think that that really helped to show that, you know, in their parents' eyes, they were considered equals,” she continued. “While Elizabeth had this, you know, incredibly important destiny ahead of her, she really needed to remember, as well, that her and her sister were sisters, they needed to be there for each other [and] dressing the same created this lovely sense of family.”
She was “terribly loyal” to the Queen, despite some jealousy
The late Queen Elizabeth and her younger sister Princess Margaret.Tim Graham Photo Library
Princess Margaret was close with her sister, even though they had some sibling rivalry. “She wasterribly loyal to the Queen— and being five years younger, I think it would have been much more difficult if she had been just [a little] younger than the Queen,” Anne Glenconner, Margaret’s lady-in-waiting who wrote the memoirLady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown,told PEOPLE. “There would have been more rivalry. She never said anything.”
All siblings get jealous of each other every now and then, and that was true for Princess Margaret as well, who did not get the same education as her older sister.
“She always minded about not being educated as well as the Queen,” Glenconner told PEOPLE.“The Queen had people from Eton and Cambridge, naturally. But Princess Margaret was never part of that.”
Despite the differences, Margaret still had an excellent education. “[Margaret] had a governess and was taught to play the piano and speak French,” Glenconner added. “She was very well read and would have really enjoyed being educated in a more stringent fashion.”
Queen Elizabeth’s education was Margaret’s first clue that her sister was different.
“She said to me, ‘That was the first time I sort of thought or realized that my sister was going to be Queen and I wouldn’t really be part of what she was going to do,’ " Glenconner said in a 2018 documentary calledMargaret: The Rebel Princess. “It hit her quite hard that their lives were going to be completely different.”
After the release ofPrince Harry’s memoir,Spare, Glennconner spoke again about the Countess of Snowdon andcompared her to Harry.
“I knew Princess Margaret very, very well. And of course, she was a spare for quite a long time. But I mean, she was always completely loyal to the Queen,” she told PEOPLE in an interview published Feb. 21, 2023.
She continued, “The only thing I ever heard her complain about was that she wish she’d been better educated,” adding, “But otherwise, I mean, there was no whinging, no complaining.”
She joined her sister for their first public speech and first official overseas visit
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The sistersgave a radio addresson BBC’sChildren’s Hour, to boost morale. “Thousands of you in this country have had to leave your homes and be separated from your fathers and mothers. My sister Margaret Rose and I feel so much for you as we know from experience what it means to be away from those we love most of all,” said the then-Princess Elizabeth.
Margaret said, “Goodnight, children.”
“Goodnight, and good luck to you all,” the future Queen added.
Margaret also went with her sister and their parents for the sisters’first official overseas visitin 1947. The then-Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret toured Southern Africa.
She acted in Christmas pantomimes with Queen Elizabeth during World War II
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Princess Margaret shared a love of the arts withQueen Elizabeth. When they were teenagers, a 14-year-old Princess Margaret played the Honourable Lucinda Fairfax and an 18-year-old futureQueen Elizabethplayed Lady Christina Sherwood in theOld Mother Red Riding Bootsplay.The 1944 performancewas held at Windsor Castle for Armed Forces personnel and local children as a way to boost morale during World War II.
The sisters actually performed in a series of pantomimes (or slapstick-style shows, a British holiday tradition) from 1941 to 1944 to raise money for the Royal Household Wool Fund, which was used to make comforters for soldiers. This includedAladdinin 1943, in which then-Princess Elizabeth played the titular character and Princess Margaret played Princess Roxana. Six costumes from the Christmas playswere on displayat Windsor Castle for the first time from November 2021 to January 2022.
Herlove of the artscontinued into adulthood, too. Princess Margaret was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music of London University and became the first president of the Royal Ballet (where the Queen was a patron) in 1957. Additionally, she was president of theSadler’s Wells Foundation, a leading dance organization that helped launch the Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Opera.
In 1984, the royal guest starred on BBC Radio 4’s soap opera,The Archers, where she played herself at a fundraising fashion show. She recorded her lines in a makeshift recording studio in the library at Kensington Palace.
“Producer William Smethurst said the Princess quickly mastered the microphone techniques required for radio drama,” revealedthe BBC.
This was thefirst timea member of the royal family was part of a BBC drama.
She liked to start her day with cigarettes, alcohol and a long bath
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She was able to give up both drinking and smoking, though. “When she had to give up smoking and drinking more or less at the same time, I admired her and asked her, ‘Is it very hard?’ She said, ‘No, Anne, once I make up my mind to do something I do it,’ " her lady-in-waiting Glenconner told PEOPLE. “She was practical like that.”
She canceled her wedding to Captain Peter Townsend in 1955
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As famously depicted inThe Crown, Margaret had a relationship withCaptain Peter Townsend, who was the equerry to King George VI. This likely started when she was a teenager, and he was married with two kids.
InMa’am Darling, Brown shared that Margaret and Townsend may have already been seeing each other in October 1947, when she was 17 and he was 32. He accompanied Margaret to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where official papers documenting the visit revealed that Townsend had asked for adjoining rooms with Margaret during their stay at Hillsborough Castle. There is no proof that anything romantically happened between them, however.
Earlier the same year, Townsend accompanied the family to South Africa, where his official job was to look after Margaret. She reportedly said that this was the trip whereshe fell in love.
“We rode together every morning in that wonderful country, in marvelous weather,” she said. “That’s when I really fell in love with him.”
Townsend divorced his wife in 1952, and rumors of his relationship with Princess Margaret began at theQueen’s coronationin 1953. Margaret flicked a piece of fluff off Townsend’s jacket in an intimate gesture that a reporter noticed.
In 1953, Townsend proposed to Princess Margaret, who said yes. However, under the1772 Royal Marriages Act, the Queen would have to give her permission as well. She recommended Margaret wait until after she turned 25 and would no longer need the Queen’s permission; however, Parliament denied Margaret’s marriage request, eventually leading the Princess to choose royal duties over love.
“I have been aware that, subject to my renouncing my rights of succession, it might have been possible for me to contract a civil marriage,” Margaret saidin a statementon BBC Radio on Oct. 31, 1955. “But, mindful of the Church’s teaching that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have resolved to put these considerations before any others.”
Townsend married Marie-Luce Jamagne in 1959 and Margaret married society photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones in May 1960.
She wed Antony Armstong-Jones in 1960, although they divorced in 1978
The couple went on to have two kids together: David Armstrong-Jones in 1961 and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones in 1964. However, their marriage was riddled with infidelities on both sides.
In 1973, Princess Margaret had an affair with landscaper Roddy Llewellyn. The two werephotographed on a beachtogether in Mustique in February 1976, when Margaret was still married to Armstrong-Jones. Less than a month later, the palace announced their separation, and their divorce was finalized two years later.
In theElizabeth: Our Queendocumentary, Glenconner revealed thatshe introduced Margaret to Roddy.
“It was difficult for the Queen and I felt rather guilty always having introduced Roddy to Princess Margaret,” she said in the documentary. “But after Princess Margaret’s funeral, the Queen, she said, ‘I’d just like to say, Anne, it was rather difficult at moments, but I thank you so much introducing Princess Margaret to Roddy ‘cause he made her really happy.’ "
She was known for her sharp tongue and wild parties
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Princess Margaret was married to Armstrong-Jones in the swinging ’60s, where they were known fortheir fabulous partiesat Kensington Palace, which included appearances from actor Peter Sellers and The Beatles.
source: people.com
