Margaret: A controversial royal

The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret

Princess Margaret has frequently attracted more controversy than other members of the Royal Family. She has also had to endure much unhappiness in her personal relationships.

The fact that one marriage was prevented by divorce, and that another ended in divorce, has been a sign perhaps of changing attitudes in the country.

It was the abdication in 1936 of Edward VIII and the accession of her father that suddenly thrust Margaret and her sister Elizabeth closer to the throne. Their parents were now King and Queen.

Margaret in a social whirl

When the Second World War came the royal family refused to be evacuated and spent those years together at Windsor Castle.

The young princess mingled with the crowds outside Buckingham Palace on VE Day along with Elizabeth and other members of her family.

Margaret then began to assume her share of official royal duties. She was at the centre of a social whirl, taking a lively interest in the arts and fashion.

By 1953, when she was 23, Margaret had fallen in love with one of the Royal household, Group Captain Peter Townsend. It could have been a romantic match between a beautiful young princess and a heroic Battle of Britain pilot.

Townsend: Part of the royal household

But Peter Townsend was a divorced man, and despite the fact that it was his wife who had left him, any marriage to Margaret was judged unacceptable by the Church of England and the political establishment.

The Queen did not want to see her sister denied happiness and asked the Princess to wait. Townsend was sent away to be Air Attaché to the British Embassy in Belgium. For two years Princess Margaret waited.

Frantic speculation

When she turned 25, she became old enough to marry without the Sovereign's permission. When Townsend returned from Brussels, there was frantic speculation in the press that an engagement was about to be announced.

But marrying a divorcee would have meant renouncing her privileges and ceasing to be a princess. Eventually, Margaret told the Archbishop of Canterbury that he could put away his books as she had made up her mind not to marry Townsend. But the pair remained friends until his death in 1995.

Margaret's wedding to Anthony Armstrong-Jones

The princess quickly resumed her social life and, in 1958, she was introduced to a well-connected Cambridge graduate who was making a name for himself as a photographer.

Anthony Armstrong-Jones and Princess Margaret were married at Westminster Abbey in 1960.

Marriage strains

He became the Earl of Snowdon and they had two children, Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones.

But in March 1976 the couple officially separated. Divorce followed two years later. Many people were shocked since, at that time, domestic crises within the royal family were virtually unheard of publicly.

An unhappy period followed. Princess Margaret became ill with hepatitis, and later she had part of a lung removed.

Despite this, she continued to smoke and was heavily criticised for this and for spending more time on her holiday island of Mustique than attending to royal duties.

Roddy Llewellyn

Speculation and invention about her personal life focused on her association with Roddy Llewellyn, a young socialite 17 years her junior. The affair ended after a few years, though again, the couple remained friends.

In 1979, the year Lord Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA, Princess Margaret caused a stir when the Mayor of Chicago alleged that she had described the Irish as "pigs".

Patron of the arts

In recent years she has supported the arts, as president of the Royal Ballet. She is also keen on her work with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, of which she is president.

Margaret with friends in Mustique

In later years, she has been much less in the public eye than in the past and far less so than the younger royals. She has continued to perform her royal duties: at the same time she has felt it is not a crime to enjoy herself.

Latterly she has spent more time in the seclusion of her home in Mustique among trusted friends. It was here, in 1998, that fears for her health resurfaced when she suffered a minor stroke.