|
The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (Margaret Rose Armstrong-Jones; née Windsor; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and sister of the current British monarch, Elizabeth II. She held the title Countess of Snowdon by marriage.  Princess Margaret was always a controversial member of the British Royal Family. As a young woman, she was a figure of glamour in post-war Britain and the Commonwealth. However, her private life was plagued by romantic disappointments, including her politically-thwarted love for 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.
She was born HRH Princess Margaret Rose of York on 21 August 1930 at Glamis Castle in Scotland, her mother's ancestral home. Her father was Prince Albert, The Duke of York, the second son of George V and Queen Mary. Her mother was The Duchess of York (formerly Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon), a daughter of the 14th Earl and Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne. As a grandchild of the Sovereign in the male line, Margaret Rose was styled Her Royal Highness from birth. She was baptised in the Private Chapel of Buckingham Palace on 30 October 1930 by Cosmo Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and her godparents were her uncle the Prince of Wales, her father's cousin Princess Ingrid of Sweden, her great-aunt Princess Victoria, her aunt Lady Rose Leveson-Gower, and her uncle The Hon. David Bowes-Lyon. Princess Margaret Rose of York was educated alongside her sister, Princess Elizabeth, by their governess, Marion Crawford. In 1936, her uncle Edward VIII abdicated the throne, and her father ascended as George VI. Margaret was then styled HRH The Princess Margaret. She attended her parents' coronation in 1937. During the Second World War, Margaret stayed at Windsor Castle, just outside London. In 1952, her father died, and her older sister became Elizabeth II. Two years after her sister's coronation, Margaret became embroiled in a public scandal over her wish to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend, a Royal Air Force pilot and Battle of Britain hero who had been a trusted member of the royal household as an equerry to her father and sister. Sixteen years the princess' senior, Townsend was also a divorcé, which, in the eyes of the government and the Church of England, made him an unsuitable husband for a royal princess, despite the fact that he had been the innocent party in his divorce from Rosemary Pawle, who had committed adultery. Although Margaret could have married Townsend without her sister's or parliamentary permission once she turned 25, she was informed that doing so would force her to give up her title, her Civil List allowance, and her place in the line of succession. It was also suggested, entirely incorrectly, that she would be forced to leave the country. Under great pressure, not least because her role as a royal princess was virtually the only identity she had, and taking advice from the Archbishop of Canterbury and senior politicians, she decided not to marry Townsend. She made a public announcement, reportedly partly crafted by Townsend himself, in which she stated that her decision had been made out of loyalty to the Crown and out of consciousness of the Church's teaching on the "indissolubility of Christian marriage." In reality, however, papers released in 2004 indicate that, had she married Townsend, she could not have been legally deprived of her title or her Civil List allowance. The only conditions should she decide to marry Townsend were that she would be removed from the line of succession and that any wedding would have to be civil rather than religious.[1] Margaret and her sister had been misled by courtiers and politicians who were either still deeply fearful of potential marital scandal 20 years after the abdication of Edward VIII or simply determined to maintain the status quo, regardless of the personal and emotional effects. After some more romantic interests, including future Canadian Prime Minister John Turner, on 6 May 1960, Margaret married the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, son of Ronald Armstrong-Jones and his first wife, Anne Messel, later Countess of Rosse, at Westminster Abbey. She reportedly accepted his proposal a day after learning from Peter Townsend that he intended to marry a young Belgian woman. The ceremony could be considered the first "modern" royal wedding thanks to the wider availability of television in the UK. In 1961, the princess's husband was created Earl of Snowdon, whereupon she became formally styled HRH The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. They had two children: The marriage widened Princess Margaret's social circle beyond the Court and aristocracy to include show business and bohemia, and was seen at the time as reflecting the breakdown of class barriers.
|
