Princess Margaret, fun-loving sibling of queen, dies at 71

February 10, 2002|By Joseph R. Gregory, New York Times News Service.

Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II, whose troubled private life aroused both worldwide sympathy and widespread reprobation, died Saturday morning in London. She was 71.

She suffered a stroke Friday afternoon--the latest in a series that had left her partly paralyzed in recent months--and developed heart problems overnight, Buckingham Palace said.

The queen announced the death "with great sadness," according to a palace statement. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is touring West Africa, said he was "deeply saddened."

Across Britain there were quiet signs of mourning Saturday. Raucous soccer crowds paused for a moment of silence, mourners laid flowers at the gates of Kensington Palace, and royal officials accepted condolences from around the world.

The mood was somber outside Buckingham Palace, the home of Margaret's older sister, Queen Elizabeth II, as tourists and well-wishers filed past the ornate gates, many only learning of Margaret's death from a notice posted by officials.

Many mourners expressed empathy for the princess' travails, including her health problems, her troubled love life and her struggle to find her place in the shadow of her sister.

"She was a very lively and fascinating lady," said Jill Sturrock of Dorset, southern England. "She had a very rotten time, but she was very selfless and a very loyal sister."

Unlucky in love

Attractive and fun-loving, Princess Margaret earned a reputation in her youth as a free spirit. But her 20s were clouded by an unlucky romance with Group Capt. Peter Townsend of the Royal Air Force, a hero of the Battle of Britain with whom she fell in love when he served as an equerry to her father, King George VI.

But the fact that Townsend was divorced raised strong objections from the establishment that the royal family represented. As queen, Margaret's sister, Elizabeth, was the supreme governor of the Church of England, which forbade divorce. Moreover, the political storm surrounding Edward VIII's abdication in December 1936 to marry a twice-divorced American, Wallis Warfield Simpson, was a not-so-distant memory.

News media scrutiny was relentless and the pressure was intense on Princess Margaret, then third in line to the throne, to break off the relationship. Bowing to the demands of a moral code that a decade later would seem quaint, she chose not to marry him.

In May 1960 she married Anthony Armstrong-Jones, a photographer. Their tempestuous marriage produced two children but ended in divorce in 1978.

The princess did not remarry, but her friendships with men, from prominent people, such as the actor Peter Sellers, to less exalted ones, such as Roddy Llewellyn, an upper-class drifter 17 years her junior, hurt her reputation.

So did the fact that she was often less than gracious when faced with the drudgery of public appearances. Easily bored and often petulant, the princess was known for indulging her moods, which could swing, as Charles Hussey, a British journalist wrote, from "a gaiety that was sometimes febrile" to "Hanoverian gloom."

Her extravagant style also prompted outrage. Her wedding cost the British government 25,000 pounds--then the equivalent of $65,000--and her six-week honeymoon on the royal yacht Britannia cost 40,000 pounds, or about $115,000. In later years she was criticized for demanding motorcycle escorts and government helicopters to travel around Britain.

Yet admirers spoke warmly of her generosity, her loyalty to the queen and to her friends and her irreverent sense of fun. Louis Armstrong, whose music she loved, once referred to her as "one hip chick," and John Lennon playfully nicknamed her "Priceless Margarine."

To many people, Princess Margaret was the black sheep of her generation of royals. But that reputation did not necessarily trouble her. According to a biographer, Theo Aronson, she once told the French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, "Disobedience is my joy."

Growing up royal

Princess Margaret Rose was born Aug. 21, 1930, at Glamis, Scotland, the second daughter of the duke and duchess of York, six years before her father became King George VI with the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII.

She was educated at home with her sister, the future Queen Elizabeth II.

During World War II, when the king and queen tried to present an image of stoicism and good cheer to a battered nation, they rejected the suggestion that their two daughters be sent to Canada to be safe from the danger of the blitz. Instead, the two girls remained with their parents, very much in the public eye.

But as Elizabeth was clearly being groomed to be the next queen, Princess Margaret was often relegated to the background. According to some courtiers, the king and queen tried to make up for it by indulging her.

"When my sister and I were growing up, she was made out to be the goody-goody one," Princess Margaret told Andrew Duncan, author of "The Reality of Monarchy." "That was boring, so the press tried to make out that I was wicked as hell."

But in threadbare postwar Britain, the press often portrayed her as a glamorous, high-spirited young woman who delighted in trips to Paris and dancing through the night in fashionable London clubs.

After Elizabeth married Prince Philip of Greece in November 1947, Princess Margaret became one of the most eligible single women in the world, and her name was coupled with various fashionable young men.