Princess Margaret

PRINCESS MARGARET (COUNTESS OF SNOWDON) d2002. The youngest daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II. From the 1950s onwards, she became one of the world's most celebrated socialites, famed for her glamorous lifestyle and reputed romances. Most famously, she fell in love in the early 1950s with Peter Townsend, a married RAF officer in the royal household. In 1952, her father died, her sister became queen and Townsend divorced his wife. He proposed to Margaret early in the following year. Many in the government believed that he would be an unsuitable husband for the Queen's 22-year-old sister and the Archbishop of Canterbury refused to countenance her marriage to a divorced man. Margaret abandoned her plans with Townsend. In 1960, she married Antony Armstrong-Jones whom Elizabeth created Earl of Snowdon. The couple had two children (David and Sarah). Her marriage to Lord Snowdon became strained with both of them engaging in extramarital affairs. They separated in 1976 and divorced in 1978. Margaret did not remarry. She was a controversial member of the British royal family. Her divorce received much negative publicity and her private life was for many years the subject of speculation by media and royal watchers. Her health deteriorated in the last twenty years of her life. She was a heavy smoker for most of her adult life and had a lung operation in 1985 and a bout of pneumonia in 1993, as well as three strokes between 1998 and 2001. She died on February 9th 2002 aged 71