Her life was marked by a forbidden love and an unhappy marriage: Princess Margaret would have turned 90 on August 21.
She called herself Mrs. Brown whenever she was incognito again. Today you would say on the slopes. Then as few as possible should find out who was doing the cleaning in the London clubs and turning night into day. Because the good Mrs. Brown was in truth a royal highness: Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret of York (1930-2002), the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II (94) of England.
She would have turned 90 on August 21st. Unfortunately Margaret too often gave the life-hungry Mrs. Brown. It was just too many whiskeys, too many cigarettes, too much heartache. So she was not granted a dignified aging like her big sister Elizabeth, who turned 94 in the spring of 94: Margaret died in 2002 at the age of only 71.
Nevertheless, millions of Britons fondly remember the popular and spirited princess, especially on her birthday on August 21, who – unlike other Windsors – lived out her feelings in public and is therefore still adored by her audience today.
"In America she became queen"
That memory was refreshed a few months ago on the highly acclaimed Netflix series "The Crown". The individual episodes show an authentic Margaret who smokes and drinks while the young Elizabeth only occasionally sips from the water glass.
The series shows, among other things, the triumphant success of the princess, who visited the USA in 1965 with her husband, the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones (1930-2017) and visited the White House with US President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) captured by storm. In December 1965 the "Spiegel" reported: "At home Margaret is only a princess. In America she became queen."
According to "Spiegel", new and old film nobility in Hollywood paid homage to the blue-blooded couple from the old part of the world. "Joker Danny Kaye, show man Fred Astaire and choreographer Gene Kelly asked for a dance and were heard. Margaret pulled the skirt into cha-cha-cha."
Then President Johnson called into the White House. "The 190 centimeter tall Texan gently put his hands around the little Briton to dance. (…) Johnson celebrated his 31st wedding anniversary. He explained to Margaret's husband how to make his wife happy: 'First, she should believe that she enforced her will, and secondly she should have it too. '"
When the couple had packed their 70 suitcases and flew back to London, the weekly newspaper "New Statesman" enthused: "After the Beatles and Scotch Whiskey, the royal family is Britain's most delightful export to the USA."
The better queen?
This success must have strengthened 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 is more intelligent, more charming, more sensitive and more engaging.
Prince Consort Philip (99) is said to have informed his wife, the Queen, about the mental differences between the two sisters. Since Queen Victoria (1837-1901) in the Windsor dynasty there have been the boring and the diamonds, the reliable and the birds of paradise. It was the same with her, Elizabeth, and with Margaret. The brilliant Margaret, who carries everyone and everything with her, stands opposite the cautious, but also a bit boring-looking Elizabeth, dutiful as it should be a true queen.
This woman, who has all the good qualities of an entertainer, sees herself in the shadow of her older 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 60 Chesterfield cigarettes a day is obviously an unhappy love. Margaret wanted to marry Peter Townsend (1914-1995), 16 years her senior, former Colonel and stable master, back in the 1950s. This marriage had to be forbidden by Queen Elizabeth II, because according to the laws of the time it was forbidden to members of the British royal family to marry a divorced partner. In 1955, a sad Margaret tearfully announced the official end of the relationship with Townsend.
In 1957 she met the famous 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 (71). Three years later, she married the man whom the Queen raised to the nobility of Earl of Snowdon.
The couple have a tumultuous on-off relationship. Margaret's husband is a notorious killer. The journalist Anne de Courcy writes: "The girls continued to come to his studio, including his long-term friend Jacqui Chan. He also had an affair with the beautiful actress Gina Ward."
Margaret and their affairs
Margaret leaves nothing to be desired either. She is said to have had affairs with the pianist Robin Douglas-Home (1932-1968) and with the cinema stars David Niven (1910-1983) and Peter Sellers (1925-1980). On her property on the Caribbean island of Mustique, a wedding present from Margaret's childhood friend Colin Tennant, she is said to have had an affair with Mick Jagger (77). Her last relationship, the landscape architect Baron Roddy Llewellyn (72), has also established itself permanently on Mustique.
In Margaret's biography "Ma'am Darling," writer Craig Brown writes that Margaret had a "royal Tourette" syndrome: the ability to say the most inappropriate and hurtful in any situation. Then she had her "first support vodka" ("world") behind her at 12:30 p.m. sharp.
In 1978 the marriage with Antony Armstrong-Jones was divorced. Gradually, your alcohol and cigarette consumption begins to have an impact on your health. She developed lung cancer, the left lung was removed, and then she continued to smoke in a wheelchair. After several strokes, Margaret died on February 9, 2002 in a London hospital.
Grandmother of four
She leaves behind two children (with Armstrong-Jones): Her son David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon (58) is a well-known furniture designer (under the name David Linley) and chairman of the Christie's action house in London. The daughter Lady Sarah (56) married the actor and artist Daniel Chatto St. George Sproule (63) in 1994. Both children in turn have children, Princess Margaret would now be a grandmother of four.
The Times believes "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 "Welt" he writes: "Princess Margaret had drawn the ace in comparison to her sister. (…) She enjoyed all the privileges as royal minus the obligations of her sister and let herself be carried around the world in a litter. She could Enjoying her life in the lee of the queen. A dream position, which she also savored, whereby the queen always held her protective hand over her 'Lead a roll and glamor life. "