Princess Margaret

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Princess Margaret Rose (HRH The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon) (born 21 August
1930 in Angus, United Kingdom; died 9 February 2002 in London, United Kingdom). Princess
Margaret was the sister of the late Queen Elizabeth II and aunt of King Charles III. She served
as colonel-in-chief of three Canadian military regiments and opened Princess Margaret
Hospital in Toronto (now Princess Margaret Cancer Centre).

Early Life and Education

Margaret was born at Glamis Castle during the reign of her grandfather King George V,
the younger of the two daughters of the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
(née Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon). Her mother was a member of the Scottish
aristocracy and Margaret was the first princess to be born in Scotland since Queen
Victoria’s granddaughter Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, the future Queen of Spain, in
1887. In 1936, Margaret’s father became king following the death of his father and the
abdication of his elder brother, King Edward VIII, and the family moved into
Buckingham Palace.

Margaret and her elder sister, the future Queen Elizabeth II, were educated at home by a
Scottish governess, Marion Crawford. Margaret received piano lessons and became an
enthusiastic piano player, singer, and actress in amateur theatricals. She was known for
her sense of humour and vivacious personality. Elizabeth and Margaret spent the
Second World War at Windsor Castle, where they delivered a radio broadcast to the
children of the British Empire and Commonwealth in 1940. Margaret accompanied her
parents and sister on an official tour of South Africa in 1947.

The Accession of Queen Elizabeth II

On 6 February 1952, King George VI died in his sleep and Margaret’s elder sister
succeeded to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II. Margaret and her mother, now Queen
Elizabeth the Queen Mother, moved out of Buckingham Palace to Clarence House in
London. Margaret was devastated by the death of her father and turned to her father’s
equerry, Group Captain Peter Townsend, for comfort.

Peter Townsend

At Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation on 2 June 1953, a journalist observed Margaret

removing a piece a fluff from Townsend’s jacket, prompting speculation about their
relationship. Townsend was divorced and therefore not considered a suitable spouse for
the Queen’s sister. Margaret was encouraged to delay her decision until she turned 25,
and Townsend was stationed abroad. In 1955, Margaret decided not to marry Townsend
and made an official statement, declaring that “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."

Cultural Interests, Philanthropy, and the Princess Margaret Cancer

Centre
Margaret was patron or president of more than 80 organizations in the United Kingdom
and Commonwealth. Her philanthropic work focused on health care, children’s welfare
and the arts. In 1957, she became the first president of the Royal Ballet in the United
Kingdom. That same year, she received an honorary doctorate in music from the
University of London. Margaret’s Canadian patronages included Princess Margaret
Hospital (now the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre) in Toronto and the nearby Princess
Margaret Lodge, where cancer patients from outside the city could stay during their
treatment.

Royal Tours of Canada

Princess Margaret represented the Queen on royal tours throughout the Commonwealth
and visited Canada on 10 occasions (in addition to a brief refuelling stop in Dorval on
her way to Jamaica on her first solo Commonwealth tour in 1955). (See also 10
Memorable Royal Tours of Canada.)

During her 31-day tour of Canada in 1958, she celebrated British Columbia’s
centennial, attended a performance of A Winter’s Tale at the Stratford Festival, visited
Niagara Falls and attended a military review at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, which
included a simulated “atomic battle.” In 1967, she attended a fundraising ball for
Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto with her husband Antony Armstrong-Jones, then
visited Expo 67 in Montreal. She visited Winnipeg twice in the 1970s with her husband,
first to open the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 1971 and then to celebrate the city’s
centennial in 1974.

In 1980, she visited Saskatchewan and Alberta to mark the 75th anniversary of each
province’s entry into Confederation. She toured Ontario in 1981 and visited British
Columbia for Expo 86 in 1986. In 1988, she marked the 75th anniversary of the
Women’s Institutes of Nova Scotia in Canning. In the 1990s, she undertook two private
working visits to Toronto, in support of Princess Margaret Hospital in 1993, and of the
reopening of Princess Margaret Junior School in Etobicoke in 1996.

Margaret was colonel-in-chief of three Canadian military regiments: The Royal

Highland Fusiliers of Canada (see also 31 Canadian Brigade Group), The Princess
Louise Fusiliers (see also 36 Canadian Brigade Group) and The Royal Newfoundland
Regiment.

John Turner

During her 1958 tour of Canada, Margaret met future prime minister John Turner at a
ball on the naval base at Vancouver’s Deadman’s Island. The Toronto Telegram
reported at the time, “Princess Margaret sat in the moonlight last night in an intimate
tête-à-tête with a young bachelor lawyer … at a secluded table on the lawn of the
HMCS Discovery naval base… Hardly anyone noticed the young couple as they
chatted, laughed, sipped drinks and smoked cigarettes.” They danced together at a
subsequent ball at Rideau Hall later in the tour. In a 1966 letter to a friend, Margaret
stated, “I nearly married him.” Turner, however, was a Roman Catholic and members of
the royal family could not marry Roman Catholics and retain their place in the line of
succession at the time.
Margaret was mentioned at key moments in Turner’s later political career. During the
1984 federal election campaign, future prime minister Brian Mulroney quipped,“When I
was driving a truck, John Turner was dancing with Princess Margaret.” In 1988, a
spokesman for Turner as Leader of the Opposition denied that he had missed a key
House of Commons vote on free trade because he was at a private dinner with “his old
dancing partner.”

Marriage and Children

On 6 May 1960, Margaret married society photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones at

Westminster Abbey in London. Her brother-in-law, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,
walked her down the aisle, and her niece, Princess Anne, was one of her eight
bridesmaids. Margaret’s wedding was the first royal wedding to be broadcast live on
television, viewed by an estimated 300 million people around the world.

Canadian prime minister John Diefenbaker and his wife, Olive, attended the wedding.
Canada’s wedding gift to the royal couple was a set of furniture, paintings and draperies
for a room of their apartment in Kensington Palace.

In 1961, Queen Elizabeth II conferred the title of Earl of Snowdon on her brother-in-
law. Margaret and Antony had two children, David (born 3 November 1961), who
became a furniture designer and succeeded his father as Earl of Snowdon in 2017, and
Sarah (born 1 May 1964), who became an artist and married Daniel Chatto in 1994.

Divorce and Reputation

The eventual breakdown of Margaret’s marriage was scrutinized by the British tabloid
press, foreshadowing the coverage of the later marital problems of Charles and Diana,
Prince and Princess of Wales. In February 1976, paparazzi photos of Margaret
vacationing on the Caribbean island of Mustique with Roddy Llewellyn, a landscape
gardener 17 years her junior, were published in a tabloid newspaper. Margaret and
Antony separated the next month and divorced in 1978. The scandal prompted
parliamentary debates regarding whether Margaret should retain her civil list allowance
and continue to represent the Queen. Margaret ultimately retained her income and royal
duties.

Later Life and Death

Margaret never remarried and suffered from poor health later in life. She died in her
sleep at the age of 71, following a series of strokes, at King Edward VII hospital in
London, with her children at her side.

1. She signed her cheques as Margarita. No title. No last name. Just Margarita.

2. Then, at 12:30, it was time for vodka.

3. When bored at dinner parties, she and her husband, Anthony Armstrong-Jones,
Earl of Snowdon, would play the bread game. Whenever someone said a cliché,
Margaret or Anthony would tear off a piece of bread and place it in the middle of the
table. At the end of the night, whoever had the most bread would win.
4. When Armstrong-Jones wanted a divorce from his wife . I think that's the best
news you've ever given me.

5. Royal protocol dictated that dinner could not begin until Princess Margaret
arrived.

6. Princess Margaret had an affair with Mick Jagger? That is still under debate. But the
fact that rumours even exist is quite impressive. As are the reports that Picasso
desperately wanted to marry her.

7. She lived an extravagant lifestyle. Her six-week honeymoon on the royal yacht
Britannia,

8. On her wedding day, Princess Margaret wore the Poltimore Tiara, a tiara that
came not from the Crown's collection, but from her own. In a rather independent move
at the time, she bought it herself at auction for $5,500.

9. She loved smoking and drinking, so much so that, according to "M'am Darling",
she "tried to combine smoking and drinking by sticking matchboxes in glasses so that
she could light matches while drinking".

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Informal biography by Vogue Magazin

Para muchas personas, la princesa Margarita era la oveja

personalidad complicada. Ella fumaba, bebía, tuvo una aventura con un hombre 17 años
menor que ella.

Aunque se casó en 1960 con Antony Armstrong-Jones, Margarita siempre estuvo

enamorada de Peter Townsend

En honor a la realeza salvaje, hemos compilado 11 historias escandalosas sobre la

princesa Margarita, cuya racha rebelde sigue siendo legendaria hasta nuestros días.

1. Ella firmó sus cheques como Margarita. Sin título. Sin apellido. Solo Margarita.
2. Luego, a las 12:30, llegaba el momento del vodka.
3. Cuando se aburrían en las cenas, ella y su esposo, Anthony Armstrong-Jones,
conde de Snowdon, jugaban el juego del pan. Cada vez que alguien decía un
cliché, Margaret o Anthony le arrancaban un trozo de pan y lo ponían en el
 centro de la mesa. Al final de la noche, ganaría quien tuviera la mayor cantidad
de pan.
4. Cuando Armstrong-Jones quería el divorcio de su esposa . Creo que esa es la
mejor noticia que me has dado".
5. El protocolo real dictaba que la cena no podía comenzar hasta que llegara la
princesa Margarita.
6. ¿La princesa Margarita tuvo una aventura con Mick Jagger? Eso todavía está
en debate. Pero el hecho de que incluso existan rumores es bastante
impresionante. Como son los informes de que Picasso deseaba
desesperadamente casarse con ella.
7. Vivió un estilo de vida extravagante. Su luna de miel de seis semanas en el yate
real Britannia,
8. El día de su boda, la princesa Margarita llevaba la Tiara de Poltimore, una
diadema que no provenía de la colección de la Corona, sino de la suya. En un
movimiento bastante independiente en ese momento, lo compró ella misma en
una subasta por $ 5,500.
9. Le encantaba fumar y beber, tanto que, según “M’am Darling”, "trató de
combinar fumar y beber pegando cajas de fósforos en los vasos para poder
encender cerillas mientras bebía".