Princess Margate, the divine sister of Queen Elizabeth

Princess Margate, the beautiful who lost her life between favoritism and recklessness. She did not know how to live love like divinities, nor did she know how to behave with the stoicism of princesses. She did not taste the sweetness of both. And custom and habit.

 Men brought the late British Princess Margaret a mixture of happiness, pain and scandal in a life torn between a search for love and a commitment to duty.

Among them were pilot Peter Townsend, whom she could not marry because he was divorced, photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones, whom she married and whose marriage ended in divorce, and gardener Rudy Wallen, who was the age of her son.

No one knew Margaret's feelings for Townsend, the elegant Captain of the Air Force, until her sister Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953. Millions saw the young princess removing a stain from Townsend's coat in a tender manner that fully revealed her special interest in him. But Townsend, who was working for the royal court, was a divorcee and therefore unsuitable for marrying the queen's sister. The palace moved him to Brussels. In 1955 Margaret was compelled to address this sad proclamation to the nation: "I wish to announce that I have decided not to marry Captain Peter Townsend, conscious of the fact that Christian marriage is not permissible and, aware of my duties to the Commonwealth, I have made a firm decision to put these considerations above all others."

Despite her deep sadness, Margaret was aware that the completion of this marriage would cost her dearly in terms of her position in the royal family as well as her income. "I suspected that Townsend did not love Princess Margaret as much as she loved him," said a prominent courtier at the time, Sir Edward Ford, who was private secretary to Margaret's father, King George VI, in an interview. Townsend died in 1995 at the age of 80.

Then came the photographer Armstrong-Jones, who was pulled out of his darkroom and given the title of Earl of Snowdon when he married Margaret in 1960. He once said, belittling his former profession as a photographer, "You only become a photographer when you are a bad painter." Margaret had two children with him, but Armstrong-Jones found it difficult to transition from his former bohemian life to the constraints of public life. Eighteen years after their dazzling wedding ceremony at Westminster Abbey, the divorce took place amid great media interest.

This exhausted princess had nothing to do with the image of the glamorous princess of the fifties and sixties, the princess described by the Daily Mail as "full of excitement and craving for joy and happiness."
Her life has been full of ups and downs since she was born on August 21, 1930, in Glamis Castle, Scotland. Margaret was six when her parents King George VI and Queen Elizabeth moved to Buckingham Palace. Soon, she was separated from her future sister Elizabeth, who is four years older than her and who was invited one day to ascend the throne.

When Margaret met Lowellin in 1973, she was effectively separated from her husband. The following year, she invited Lualen, who was 18 years her junior, to her home on a Caribbean island. Wallen, who once lived in hippie communities in southern England, left the princess in 1981. This came after his decision to marry another woman, but he maintained his friendship with Margaret. Wallaline remained loyal to Margaret and always refused to speak publicly about their relationship.

Queen Elizabeth will soon abdicate her royal responsibilities to her heir

Princess Margaret died of a stroke, the fourth such symptom since 1998. She has suffered from serious health problems for the past three years.
Princess Margaret's condition deteriorated after the last two strokes in January and March 2001, losing most of her sight and rarely leaving Kensington Palace.
On August 4, she insisted that she be present alongside her mother, the Queen Mother, to celebrate her XNUMXst birthday. Although the Queen Mother appeared standing on this occasion, her health condition raises many concerns, especially since she has not appeared in public for two months.
Margaret made her first appearance in January on the XNUMXth birthday of the Duchess of Gloucester. The appearance of her in a wheelchair, her legs covered with a blanket, her eyes hidden behind black glasses and her hair curled, had a great effect on British hearts.

In 1960, Princess Margate married Anthony Armstrong-Jones, Count of Snowdown, with whom she had two sons, David (1961) and Sarah (1964).
The newspapers followed closely the news of the Count's trips abroad while his wife, Margaret, was frolicking and frolicking in the Caribbean islands with members of the Velvet Society. In 1976, a newspaper published a picture of Margaret with a man, which sparked a new scandal. The couple divorced after two years.

Margaret was a heavy smoker and tended, like her mother, the Queen Mother, to drink alcohol. In 1985, she underwent an operation to remove a section of one of her lungs, then in 1998 she suffered a first stroke. A year later, in her bathroom, she sustained serious burns to her legs.

In January, Princess Margaret was transferred to King Edward VII Hospital after suffering a new seizure, which recurred later in March. Since that date, her movements have been very limited.
Margaret was absent, leaving, in the words of one of those close to the royal family, a picture of a princess "full of liveliness and boisterousness", but she has "somehow found a safe shore" over the past ten years.