Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (1930-2002)

[LASSE15]

please do not claim other people's work as your own - and you wonder why some of us don't even bother anymore !!!


* how very droll *

this collection is my property!!!!!

 

[iowabelle]

My PBS channel is running a show tonight called Princess Margaret - A Love Story, at 7:00 p.m. Central if you're in the United States.

It looks to be fictionalized, the ads show an actress rather than the Princess, and probably focuses on the Townsend problem.

 

[Menarue]

this collection is my property!!!!!

And a marvellous collection it is too. What beautiful young women these sisters were.
Thanks again for showing it to us.

 

[iowabelle]

Bella, I think you're romanticizing the young princesses... although I don't think HM was ever a party girl, Margaret got into a lot of trouble in the 1950s. It's just been so long we've forgotten.

 

[Menarue]

I remember well the trouble that Princess Margaret got into but it is much different to what would be calleded trouble these days. Her friendship with a young American girl was criticized especially when they were seen dancing the "can can" on a table at a night club.....really how scandalous does that seem nowadays? I forgot she smoked.......dreadful!
Then she fell in love with a divorced man.........the innocent party to boot.
Beautiful Princess Margaret. A King´s daughter, a Queen´s sister, talented, everyone spoke of how well she played the piano, sang and could mimic anyone she met. She could wear the family jewels so beautifully and and was so photogenic, her colouring was perfect and when she had to represent the family it was in an impeccable way.
She was so talented but in a position that she couldn´t use those talents to her advantage.
Later on she was described as difficult. No wonder.

 

[Russophile]

I always liked her. Difficult, yes, but oh! What a woman!

 

[iowabelle]

The American girl led her into rather more interesting things than merely dancing the can-can. Just think Lindsey Lohan in the 1950s.

So I watched the TV show last night and it was very interesting (with very few dramatic re-enactments). The things I didn't know: Margaret blamed Tommy Lascelles for wrecking her romance (it turned out he was encouraging Margaret but running back to the Queen and PM saying the relationship was doomed); the government decided prior to Margaret's renunciation to back down and let her marry Townsend (she only had to give up her place in the line of succession-- they were willing to let her keep the HRH and even willing to dramatically increase her amount in the Civil List); Margaret might have gotten tired of Townsend and been willing to end the affair on her own after their 2-year separation; Margaret said that she had had no understanding of the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 (and didn't understand she didn't need HM's consent after age 25); and the thing that seemed to end the matter entirely was a weekend with the Queen and the DoE...

 

[Menarue]

Yes, I was being delicate about what the American girl taught her.....
Is it true that the Princess Margaret would not have had to give up her HRH and income?
I always thought that that was the main reason she decided to give Townsend up, and also it was said at the time she would have had to leave the country, becoming another exile like her Uncle David.

 

[Princess Margaret]

Yes, I was being delicate about what the American girl taught her.....

American girl was Sharman Douglas, the daughter of Lewis W. Douglas, the US Ambassador to Britain from 25th March 1947 to 16th November 1950. I'm told that she was glamorous and gracious, and a great hit with London society. She and Margaret are said to have danced a can-can at her father's ambassadorial residence. Other said that they had a brief affair. She died of bone cancer at NY hospital in 1996.

 

[Princess Margaret]

http://www.life.com/image/3426462

 

[Menarue]

I am sorry to hear about that, poor woman.
At the time when Princess Margaret was partying with her I thought it was a shame that they were so criticized for what seemed such a minor offence such as doing the cancan.
I heard the other rumours much later and I find it hard to believe, in those days best friends were always together and it was all perfectly innocent.

 

[Roslyn]

Is it true that the Princess Margaret would not have had to give up her HRH and income?
I always thought that that was the main reason she decided to give Townsend up, and also it was said at the time she would have had to leave the country, becoming another exile like her Uncle David.

As I understand the position from the documentary I saw, the government had a plan to enable her to marry Townsend and she would only have had to give up her place in the succession, but this was worked out late in the piece and I don't think she was ever told about it. I think everyone concerned (which I have assumed included the Queen) decided to keep it to themselves when they saw that Margaret was likely to decide against marrying Townsend. But if she had known she could keep her position and the income, what decision would Margaret have made? And if she did find out later, did she feel betrayed? If she did feel betrayed, what effect did that have on her decisions? I'd like to know the answers, but never will of course.

 

[iowabelle]

Yes, the show said that before Margaret was told that the government would agree to let her keep the HRH and increase her Civil List amount, she decided to give up Townsend (and I think Lady Anne Glenconner, one of her closest friends, said she was still in love with Townsend and that she even still had feelings for him in the 1990s so it was unlikely she had fallen out of love with him at the time she renounced him).

I think it's likely that the Queen and DoE talked her into breaking it off, but she didn't ever seem to resent the Queen -- and I think Margaret was too expressive to have hidden her resentment.

I wonder if the Townsend match could have been successful if it had been allowed.

 

[Henry Lee]

Hello

I made the following post in the Princess Anne forum but Iowabelle kindly informed me it was more likely to be Princess Margaret, can anyone help?

Hello

This is a long shot but I wondered if anyone could trace a quote I believe was made by Princess Anne.

She spoke about only taking her children to an art gallery to see one painting at a time so she could educate them beforehand and so they would fully appreciate the piece without getting bored.

Ok, so that's a very long shot but you never know.

Thanks for your time!

 

[Mark O]

Princess Margaret's scolding letter to the Duchess of York

Hi everyone, would anyone have the script of the letter sent by Princess Margaret to the Duchess of York regarding her behaviour in the early 90's please?.........It has not been published in full on the internet but it was published in Newspapers of the time

many thanks

 

[Australian]

This is what I found , it's not the full version unfortunately:


All in all, there was a fair measure of hypocrisy in the infamous letter of rebuke that Margaret wrote to the Duchess of York in response to the flowers Fergie once sent her as a peace offering.
Fergie had been exposed three years earlier for her toe-sucking episode with American John Bryan, and Margaret had never forgiven her. 'Not once have you hung your head in embarrassment, even for a minute, after those disgraceful photographs,' Margaret stormed in her letter.
'Clearly, you have never considered the damage you are causing us all. How dare you discredit us like this, and how dare you send me those flowers

The queen of hedonism | Mail Online

I am sure the full version is out there somewhere

What a hypocrite of a princess!

 

[Warren]

some quotes from the above article:

For no one in the Royal Family's 20th century history has lived life quite so completely, or so dangerously, as Princess Margaret. She got away with it because she was the Queen's sister. This made her immovable, whatever she got up to. Had she been a mere peripheral, or, even worse, someone who had married into the Royal Family, like the Princess of Wales or the Duchess of York, the full might of Palace displeasure would have been mobilised to crush her.

The way her fingers ran lightly over a piano keyboard as she sang popular songs gave her a touch of the showgirl that men found titillatingly attractive, especially in a princess.

Over the years, the 'Margaret Set' of old, which had largely been a collection of aristocrats, began to change until it was a circle of showbusiness figures. These included Swedish actress Britt Ekland, Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, all four of the Beatles (George Harrison once asked Margaret if she could help when he was 'busted' for possessing cannabis - 'I don't really think so, it could become a little sticky,' she told him. 'Sorry, George.').

These people were often summoned to her home for parties at which the Princess was never slow to demonstrate her skill as a pianist. She so loved the company of people in showbusiness that some friends believe she missed her vocation by not moving into it herself - though if she had, it would have been as a ballet dancer.
.

 

[Wisteria]

She was beautiful, royal, rich and lived her life to the full but who could envy her?

 

[Odette]

In a recent "Vanity Fair" issue I read an excerpt from a book about the Princess and the entire article was not too complimentary.
It mentioned the much discussed attitute and snobishness of hers and how difficult a guest she always was. One item that really was news to me was about her attitude towards her mother. According to the article, she was insulting the QM in front of the footmen and was very disrespectful of her.

 

[Mermaid1962]

That is surprising. One would think that Princess Margaret,who could be unbelievably royal, would show more respect to the woman who was a Queen Consort as well as her mother.

One item that really was news to me was about her attitude towards her mother. According to the article, she was insulting the QM in front of the footmen and was very disrespectful of her.

 

[Roslyn]

That is surprising. One would think that Princess Margaret,who could be unbelievably royal, would show more respect to the woman who was a Queen Consort as well as her mother.

I recall reading something about Margaret being disrespectful to her mother, but I can't recall where so don't know if it was a reliable source or not. What springs to memory is that Margaret thought it very significant that she had royal blood, whereas her mother had only married into royalty.

 

[Warren]

In one of the recent TV documentaries it was said that after the death of George VI both Margaret and the Queen Mother had a hard time of it because neither had much support and were very much "alone". I found this an odd statement because although Elizabeth may have been weighed down and preoccupied with Queenly duties, Margaret and the Queen Mother had each other. It was said that the King doted on Margaret and she doted on him, but there was no examination of the mother-daughter relationship. Maybe this is a subject worth investigating, as well as the Queen Mother's role in the Peter Townsend debacle. The claim that Margaret had made less than flattering remarks about her mother, if correct, may have indicated some residual bitterness.

 

[iowabelle]

In response to Warren's comment above, I have never really gotten a good explanation as to what was going on with the Queen Mother following 1952. It seems she was deeply depressed and was simultaneously making it difficult for the younger Elizabeth to establish herself as queen (but nobody has ever said what she was doing) and threatening to vanish a la Queen Victoria, which explains her passion for the Castle of Mey. I think it was Winston Churchill who finally talked the Queen Mother out of her funk and got her back into royal service. (I do have some sympathy for the Queen Mother, she was still a relatively young woman, only 52, when her husband died, and she really hadn't been able to enjoy much of the reign due to the restrictions of the war.)

But Margaret seems to have been left to flounder around on her own, without a clearly defined role in the Royal Family, without a personal life purpose and without a mate until she found Armstrong-Jones (and his suitability was questionable, although I don't think the Queen had the heart to say no after the Townsend debacle).

If that show I watched is correct, and Margaret decided to give up Townsend after a weekend with the Queen and DoE, it's probable "Mummy" had a word with the Queen, since Mummy was the one who was so easily offended by divorced persons. Don't you agree?

 

[Wisteria]

I may be mistaken but didn´t the Queen mother buy the Castle of Mey at a much later date than when her daughter was a young Queen?
I think her passion for Mey was first that it was in Scotland and secondly it was a place she could really call her own and plant her own garden without anyone saying it belonged to the Crown and she couldn´t do this or that.
It is beautiful so no wonder she fell in love with it and bought it.

 

[AuroraB]

The Queen Mother purchased the Castle of Mey in 1952. Hope this link works. The Castle of Mey | History

 

[iowabelle]

I know the Queen Mother was looking for a project, and having this derelict castle to fix up gave her an excuse to absent herself. It does make sense, though, that if you're depressed you'd look for something to immerse yourself in.

 

[Wisteria]

The Queen Mother purchased the Castle of Mey in 1952. Hope this link works. The Castle of Mey | History

I don´t know where I got the idea that it was a later acquisition, thank you for correcting me.
It was a very interesting project for her whatever her motives,a very beautiful place.

 

[iowabelle]

Yes, I do agree, Wisteria. It's a lovely thing to have left to the nation, to be enjoyed by all. (I don't have a problem with her motives; I think it's a perfectly understandable reaction to unhappiness; if only I could afford to fix up a castle!)

 

[Odette]

That is surprising. One would think that Princess Margaret,who could be unbelievably royal, would show more respect to the woman who was a Queen Consort as well as her mother.

The article of Vanity Fair issue of February 2009 was an excerpt from a book written by Anne de Courcy on Snowdon. The whole artice is available on line from Vanity Fair. Unfortunately I do not know how to move it here.
Unfortunately Princess Margaret did not always behave very royally.

 

[Warren]

Here is the link to the Vanity Fair excerpt on Princess Margaret:
Excerpt: The Princess and the Photographer | vanityfair.com

Regarding the relationship between Margaret and her mother, there is this:

...Then came lunch, with the Queen Mother and members of the household. With them she was not always popular, in part because of her frequent rudeness to her mother. “Why do you dress in those ridiculous clothes?” she would ask, and she would become furious that drinks before lunch (notorious for their potency) would sometimes go on for an hour. The television set at Royal Lodge was another cause of trouble: Princess Margaret would simply switch it to another channel without a word if she did not like what the Queen Mother was watching. Yet the Queen Mother never lost her temper. Only by her hands could those who had served her for a long time tell that she was annoyed. “It was the way she moved a book, a piece of furniture, or a glass,” recalled her page William Tallon.
Margaret was equally inconsiderate to her mother’s staff...
It was a perversity that can perhaps be explained by the fact that—unlike the Queen Mother and the Queen, who had successively been the first lady in the land—Margaret, always number two, was determined to insist on her royal status.