100 Facts About Princess Margaret

Princess Margaret's life changed dramatically at the age of six when King Edward VIII, her paternal uncle, abdicated to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson.

Princess Margaret's father became king and her sister became heir presumptive, with Princess Margaret second in line to the throne.

Princess Margaret abandoned her plans with Townsend and married Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960; the Queen created him Earl of Snowdon.

Princess Margaret was a controversial member of the British royal family.

Princess Margaret's divorce received much negative publicity, and her private life was for many years the subject of speculation by media and royal watchers.

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Princess Margaret's health deteriorated in the last 20 years of her life.

Princess Margaret was a heavy smoker for most of her adult life, and had a lung operation in 1985, a bout of pneumonia in 1993, and at least three strokes between 1998 and 2001.

Princess Margaret died in London on February 9,2002, after a fourth and final stroke at the age of 71.

Princess Margaret was born at 9:22 pm on 21 August 1930 at Glamis Castle in Scotland, her mother's ancestral home, and was affectionately known as Margot within the royal family.

Princess Margaret was the first member of the royal family in direct line of succession to be born in Scotland since the 1600s.

Princess Margaret was delivered by Sir Henry Simson, the royal obstetrician.

Princess Margaret was baptised in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace on 30 October 1930 by Cosmo Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

At the time of her birth, Princess Margaret was fourth in the line of succession to the British throne.

Princess Margaret's father was the Duke of York, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary.

Princess Margaret's mother was the Duchess of York, the youngest daughter of the 14th Earl and the Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.

The Yorks were perceived by the public as an ideal family: father, mother and children, but unfounded rumours that Princess Margaret was deaf and mute were not completely dispelled until her first main public appearance at her uncle Prince George's wedding in 1934.

Princess Margaret was educated alongside her sister, Elizabeth, by their Scottish governess, Marion Crawford.

Princess Margaret's education was mainly supervised by her mother, who in the words of Randolph Churchill "never aimed at bringing her daughters up to be more than nicely behaved young ladies".

Princess Margaret was resentful about her limited education, especially in later years, and aimed criticism at her mother.

Edward's abdication made a reluctant Duke of York the new king and Margaret became second in line to the throne with the title The Princess Margaret to indicate her status as a child of the sovereign.

Princess Margaret was a Brownie in the 1st Buckingham Palace Brownie Pack, formed in 1937.

Princess Margaret was a Girl Guide and later a Sea Ranger.

Princess Margaret served as President of Girlguiding UK from 1965 until her death on February 9,2002.

In 1940, Princess Margaret sat next to Elizabeth during their radio broadcast for the BBC's Children's Hour, addressing other children who had been evacuated from cities.

Princess Margaret spoke at the end by wishing all the children goodnight.

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Unlike other members of the royal family, Princess Margaret was not expected to undertake any public or official duties during the war.

Princess Margaret developed her skills at singing and playing the piano, often show tunes from stage musicals.

Princess Margaret's contemporaries thought she was spoiled by her parents, especially her father, who allowed her to take liberties not usually permissible, such as being allowed to stay up to dinner at the age of 13.

Princess Margaret does draw all the attention and Princess Elizabeth lets her do that.

Princess Margaret's chaperone was Peter Townsend, the King's equerry and very firm toward Princess Margaret, who he apparently considered an indulged child.

Later that year, Princess Margaret was a bridesmaid at Elizabeth's wedding.

In July 1949, at a fancy dress ball at the American Ambassador's residence, Princess Margaret performed the can-can on stage, accompanied by Douglas and ten other costumed girls.

In 1952, although the Princess Margaret attended parties and debutante balls with friends such as Douglas and Mark Bonham Carter, the set were seen infrequently together.

In May 1953, Princess Margaret met singer Eddie Fisher when he performed at the Red, White and Blue Ball.

Princess Margaret asked him to her table and he was "invited to all sorts of parties".

Princess Margaret fell out with him in 1957, but years later, Fisher still claimed the night he was introduced to her was the greatest thrill of his lifetime.

The following month her father underwent surgery for lung cancer, and Princess Margaret was appointed one of the Counsellors of State who undertook the King's official duties while he was incapacitated.

Princess Margaret's father died five months later, on 6 February 1952, and her sister became Queen.

Princess Margaret was grief-stricken by her father's death and was prescribed sedatives to help her sleep.

The first reports that Townsend and Princess Margaret wished to marry began in August 1952, but these remained uncommon.

Princess Margaret was 15 years her senior and had two children from his previous marriage.

Princess Margaret accepted and informed her sister, the Queen, whose consent was required by the Royal Marriages Act 1772.

Princess Margaret told her sister, "Under the circumstances, it isn't unreasonable for me to ask you to wait a year", and to keep the relationship secret until after the coronation.

Princess Margaret's Cabinet refused to approve the marriage, and Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, did not approve of Margaret marrying a divorced man; opponents said that the marriage would threaten the monarchy as Edward VIII's had.

Princess Margaret did not possess her sister's large fortune and would need the £6,000 annual civil list allowance and £15,000 additional allowance Parliament had provided for her upon a suitable marriage.

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Princess Margaret did not object to being removed from the line of succession to the throne as the Queen and all her children dying was unlikely, but receiving parliamentary approval for the marriage would be difficult and uncertain.

Queen told the couple to wait until 1955, when Princess Margaret would be 25, avoiding the Queen having to publicly disapprove of her sister's marriage.

Princess Margaret joined a Belgian show jumping club and rode in races around Europe.

Princess Margaret was told by the Church that she would be unable to receive communion if she married a divorced man.

Princess Margaret worked with friends on charity productions of Lord and Lady Algy and The Frog, and publicly dated men such as Tennant and Wallace.

Princess Margaret reportedly believed that his exile from Margaret would soon end, their love was strong, and that the British people would support marrying.

The royal family devised a system in which it did not host Townsend, but he and Princess Margaret formally courted each other at dinner parties hosted by friends such as Mark Bonham Carter.

Princess Margaret would have been able to marry Townsend by removing her and any children from the marriage from the line of succession, and thus the Queen's permission would no longer be necessary.

Princess Margaret would be allowed to keep her royal title and her allowance, stay in the country, and even continue with her public duties.

Princess Margaret advised Eden that the 1772 Act was flawed and might not apply to Margaret anyway.

Princess Margaret refused when Oliver Dawnay, the Queen Mother's private secretary, asked to remove the word "devotion".

The written statement, signed "Princess Margaret", was the first official confirmation of the relationship.

Barrymaine agreed that Margaret intended the statement to mean that she would never marry, but wrote that Townsend likely did not accept any such vow to him by the princess, and his subsequent departure from Britain for two years was to not interfere with her life.

Townsend said during a 1970 book tour that he and Princess Margaret did not correspond and they had not seen each other since a "friendly" 1958 meeting, "just like I think a lot of people never see their old girl friends".

Princess Margaret claimed he complied with her wishes, but kept this letter and an envelope of burned shards of the vow she had sent, eventually destroying these.

Princess Margaret was apparently unaware Margaret had already broken the pact by her engagement to Billy Wallace as it wasn't revealed until many years later.

In October 1993, a friend of Princess Margaret revealed she had met Townsend for what turned out to be the last time before his death in 1995.

Princess Margaret hadn't wanted to attend the reunion they'd both been invited to, in 1992, for fear it might be picked up by the press, so she asked to see him privately instead.

Princess Margaret said that he looked "exactly the same, except he had grey hair".

Princess Margaret accepted one of Wallace's many proposals to marry in 1956, but the engagement ended before an official announcement when he admitted to a romance in the Bahamas; "I had my chance and blew it with my big mouth", Wallace said.

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Princess Margaret did not reveal this publicly until an interview and subsequent biography with Nigel Dempster in 1977.

Princess Margaret met the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones at a supper party in 1958.

Princess Margaret reportedly accepted his proposal a day after learning from Townsend that he intended to marry a young Belgian woman, Marie-Luce Jamagne, who was half his age and greatly resembled Margaret.

Princess Margaret married Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey on 6 May 1960.

Princess Margaret had eight young bridesmaids, led by her niece, Princess Anne.

Reportedly, Princess Margaret had her first extramarital affair in 1966, with her daughter's godfather Anthony Barton, a Bordeaux wine producer.

Princess Margaret claimed that her relationship with Douglas-Home was platonic, but her letters to him were intimate.

In 1975, the Princess Margaret was listed among women with whom actor Warren Beatty had had romantic relationships.

Once, when Llewellyn left on an impulsive trip to Turkey, Princess Margaret became emotionally distraught and took an overdose of sleeping tablets.

Subsequently, Princess Margaret went on multiple tours of various places; in her first major tour she joined her parents and sister for a tour of South Africa in 1947.

Princess Margaret told them that the royal family had been moved by the many letters of condolence from Ireland.

The rest of the tour drew demonstrations, and Princess Margaret's security was doubled in the face of physical threats.

Princess Margaret was president of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and of the Royal Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and Invalid Children's Aid Nationwide.

Princess Margaret was Grand President of the St John Ambulance Brigade and Colonel-in-Chief of Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps.

Princess Margaret was the president or patron of numerous organisations, such as the West Indies Olympic Association, the Girl Guides, Northern Ballet Theatre, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Tenovus Cancer Care, the Royal College of Nursing, and the London Lighthouse.

At some points Princess Margaret was criticized for not being as active as other members of the royal family.

Princess Margaret began smoking cigarettes in her early teens and had continued to smoke heavily for many years thereafter.

Princess Margaret experienced a mild stroke on 23 February 1998 at her holiday home in Mustique.

Early the following year, the Princess Margaret suffered severe scalds to her feet in a bathroom accident, which affected her mobility in that she required support when walking and sometimes used a wheelchair.

Princess Margaret was hospitalized on 10 January 2001, due to loss of appetite and swallowing problems after a further stroke.

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Princess Margaret died in the King Edward VII's Hospital, London, at 06:30 on 9 February 2002, at the age of 71, one day after having suffered another stroke that was followed by cardiac problems and three days after the 50th anniversary of her father's death.

Princess Margaret's ashes were placed in the Royal Vault in St George's Chapel before being transferred to the tomb of her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, in the King George VI Memorial Chapel two months later.

Critics claimed that she even looked down on her grandmother Queen Mary because Mary was born a princess with the lower "Serene Highness" style, whereas Margaret was a "Royal Highness" by birth.

Princess Margaret recalled a conversation with Margaret in which, discussing her public notoriety, she said: "It was inevitable, when there are two sisters and one is the Queen, who must be the source of honour and all that is good, while the other must be the focus of the most creative malice, the evil sister".

Princess Margaret became interested in ballet from a very young age and enjoyed participating in amateur plays.

Princess Margaret directed one such play, titled The Frogs, with her aristocratic friends as cast members.

Princess Margaret was described by her cousin Lady Elizabeth Shakerley as "somebody who had a wonderful capacity for giving a lot of people pleasure and she was making a very, very, very good and loyal friend".

Biographer Warwick suggests that Princess Margaret's most enduring legacy is an accidental one.

Princess Margaret developed a close relationship with atelier Christian Dior, wearing his designs throughout her life and becoming one of his most prominent customers.

British Vogue wrote that Princess Margaret's style 'hit her stride' in the mid-60s, where she was photographed alongside celebrities like The Beatles, Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren.

Princess Margaret was known for her "magnificent" hats and headdresses, including a canary feather hat worn on a 1962 Jamaica visit and a peacock feather pillbox hat to the 1973 Royal Ascot.

Princess Margaret inherited pieces of art and antiques from Queen Mary, and Dame Margaret Greville left her £20,000 in 1943.

In June 2006, much of Princess Margaret's estate was auctioned by Christie's to meet the tax and, in her son's words, "normal family requirements such as educating her grandchildren", though some of the items were sold in aid of charities such as the Stroke Association.

Actresses who have portrayed Princess Margaret include Lucy Cohu, Katie McGrath, Ramona Marquez, Bel Powley, and Vanessa Kirby and Helena Bonham Carter.

The character "Pantomime Princess Margaret" appeared in four separate sketches, in three different episodes, of the BBC's 1970s surreal comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus.