In pictures: Princess Margaret's life

Princess Margaret was a glamorous figure, renowned for her sparkle and charm

She and husband Earl Snowdon had two children, Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones

Margaret had a great love of ballet and was friends with the flamboyant Rudolph Nureyev (centre)

The tiny Caribbean island of Mustique became a second home and hideaway

It was on Mustique that she holidayed with Roddy Llewellyn - the affair ended her troubled marriage

A life-long smoker, the princess had part of a lung removed in 1985.

She was patron of many charities, from the NSPCC to the Royal Ballet

By the late 1990s her health was declining but she continued to carry out official engagements

She suffered a stroke in 1998 and badly scalded her feet the next year, leaving her needing a wheelchair

She was well enough to attend a thanksgiving service for the Queen in 2000

But she was visibly fragile by the Queen Mother's 101st birthday last August

She was last seen in public in December 2001 at birthday celebrations for her aunt, Princess Alice