Princess Margaret died 20 years ago. The Queen’s sister led a wild life marked by forbidden love.
She called herself Mrs. Brown when she was out incognito. Then as few as possible should find out who was there in the London clubs and turned night into day. Because the good Mrs. Brown was actually a Royal Highness: Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret of York (1930-2002), the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II (95) of England.
Today the rebellious princess would be 91 years old. Her life was shaped by probably too many whiskeys, too many cigarettes, too much heartache. She was not allowed to age gracefully like her big sister Elizabeth: Margaret died in 2002 at the age of 71. February 9 marks the 20th anniversary of her death.
Millions of Britons fondly remember the popular and vivacious princess who – unlike other Windsors – lived out her feelings publicly and is therefore still adored by her fans today.
“In America she became queen”
That memory was refreshed by the acclaimed Netflix series The Crown. Each episode shows an authentic Margaret smoking and drinking while young Elizabeth only occasionally sips from a glass of water.
Among other things, the series also shows the triumphant success of the princess, who visited the USA with her husband, the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones (1930-2017), in 1965 and visited the White House together with US President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973). taken by storm. In December 1965, the “Spiegel” reported: “At home Margaret is just a princess. In America she became queen.”
According to “mirror” paid homage to the blue-blooded couple from the old continent in Hollywood, both new and old. “Joker Danny Kaye, showman Fred Astaire and choreographer Gene Kelly asked for a dance and were listened to. Margaret gathered up the skirt for a cha-cha-cha.”
Then President Johnson asked into the White House. “The 190 centimeter tall state Texan gently put his hands around the little Brit to dance. […] Johnson celebrated his 31st wedding anniversary. He taught Margaret’s husband how to make his wife happy: ‘First, let her believe that she has her own way, and second, let her have it.'”
As the couple packed their 70 suitcases and flew back to London, the weekly New Statesman gushed: “After the Beatles and Scotch whiskey, the royal family is Britain’s most delightful export to the United States.”
The better queen?
That success must have reinforced Margaret’s belief that she would have been a better choice as queen. Sure, she loves Lilibeth, as Elizabeth is called within the royal family, but she considers herself the more gifted monarch because she happens to be more intelligent, more charming, more sensitive and more engaging.
Prince Consort Philip (1921-2021) is said to have informed his wife, the Queen, about the mental differences between the two sisters. Ever since Queen Victoria (1819-1901) in the Windsor dynasty, there have been the boring and the brilliant, the reliable and the birds of paradise. It was the same with her, Elizabeth, and with Margaret. The brilliant Margaret, who sweeps everyone and everything away, faces the cautious but also a bit boring Elizabeth, dutiful as a true queen should be.
This woman, who has all the good qualities of an entertainer, finds herself overshadowed by her big sister. Her friend, the author John Julius Norwich (1929-2018), says according to “Adelswelt”: “I have never seen a more unhappy woman.”
She drowns her lovesickness in alcohol
The reason for her excessive whiskey and wine consumption and her 60 Chesterfield cigarettes a day could have been an unhappy love affair. Back in the 1950s, Margaret wanted to marry Peter Townsend (1914-1995), who was 16 years her senior and former colonel and equerry. Queen Elizabeth II had to ban her from this marriage because, according to the laws of the time, members of the British royal family were forbidden from marrying a divorced partner. In 1955, a mournful Margaret tearfully announced the official end of her relationship with Townsend.
In 1957 she met the well-known photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones at a party. “I enjoyed his company but didn’t take much notice of him because I thought he was gay,” the princess later told her biographer Christopher Warwick. Three years later she marries the man whom the Queen knights as Earl of Snowdon.
The couple has had a turbulent on-off relationship. Margaret’s husband is a notorious philanderer. Journalist Anne de Courcy writes: “The girls kept coming to his studio, including his longtime girlfriend Jacqui Chan. He also had an affair with the beautiful actress Gina Ward.”
Margaret and her affairs
Margaret doesn’t let anything burn either. She is said to have had affairs with the pianist Robin Douglas-Home (1932-1968) and with the movie stars David Niven (1910-1983) and Peter Sellers (1925-1980). On her property on the Caribbean island of Mustique, a wedding gift from Margaret’s childhood friend Colin Tennant, she is said to have had an affair with Mick Jagger (78). Her last relationship, the landscape architect Baron Roddy Llewellyn (74), also settled permanently on Mustique.
In Margaret’s biography “Ma’am Darling,” author Craig Brown writes that Margaret cultivated a “royal Tourette” syndrome: the ability to say the most inappropriate and hurtful words in any situation. Then she had hers “first support vodka” (“world”) 12.30 p.m. already behind him.
In 1978 he divorced Antony Armstrong-Jones. Gradually, her alcohol and cigarette consumption began to affect her health. She falls ill with lung cancer, the left lung is removed, after which she continues to smoke in a wheelchair. After suffering multiple strokes, Margaret died in a London hospital on February 9, 2002.
Grandmother of four
She leaves behind two children (with Armstrong-Jones): Her son David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon (60) is a well-known furniture designer (under the name David Linley) and chairman of the Christie’s fundraising house in London. Daughter Lady Sarah (57) married actor and artist Daniel Chatto St. George Sproule (64) in 1994. Both children have their own children, Princess Margaret would now be a grandmother of four.
The Times believes that “time and life have not treated Princess Margaret well”. Had she been allowed “to marry the love of her life, she would have been a happier and perhaps a healthier woman.”
The German Royal Watcher Alexander Graf von Schönburg-Glauchau has a different opinion. In the “world” he writes: “Princess Margaret drew the ace compared to her sister. […] She enjoyed all the privileges of being royal minus her sister’s obligations and was carried around the world in a sedan chair. She was able to enjoy her life in the Queen’s slipstream. A dream position she has savored, with the queen always keeping her protective hand over her. Wherever she went, she was courted, allowed to do pretty much anything and live her rock ‘n’ roll and glamor life.”