Princess Margaret was born into a life of privilege and protocol, yet she spent much of it pushing against the very walls that confined her. Few figures in modern royal history embody the tension between duty and desire quite like the Queen’s younger sister — and her story offers a fascinating lens through which to understand the monarchy’s evolution.

Full Name: Princess Margaret Rose ·
Born: 21 August 1930 ·
Died: 9 February 2002 ·
Spouse: Antony Armstrong-Jones, Earl of Snowdon ·
Children: 2 ·
Title: Countess of Snowdon

Quick snapshot

1Confirmed facts
2What’s unclear
3Timeline signal
4What’s next

Eight key facts about Princess Margaret paint a clear picture of her official biography:

Label Value
Full Name Princess Margaret Rose
Born 21 August 1930
Died 9 February 2002
Spouse Antony Armstrong-Jones (m. 1960; div. 1978)
Children David Armstrong-Jones, Lady Sarah Chatto
Title Countess of Snowdon
Parents King George VI, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
Sibling Queen Elizabeth II

Did Queen Elizabeth get along with Princess Margaret?

Childhood bonds and growing apart

  • The sisters were close during World War II, sharing a governess and living together at Windsor Castle (Biography.com royal biography).
  • After their father’s death in 1952, Elizabeth assumed the throne; Margaret’s role became secondary, creating distance (Royal.uk official history).

Differing royal roles and responsibilities

  • Elizabeth embraced duty; Margaret pushed boundaries, famously wanting to marry a divorced commoner (Biography.com royal analysis).
  • Margaret’s independent streak clashed with court protocol, but she remained fiercely loyal to the Queen (People magazine royal insider sources).

Later years and reconciliation

  • Private correspondence shows Elizabeth expressed affection for Margaret despite their different paths (Biography.com royal correspondence).
  • By the 1990s, they had settled into a cordial, if less intense, relationship (Town & Country royal history).
Bottom line: Elizabeth and Margaret started as close sisters but grew apart as duty pulled Elizabeth into the throne. The pattern: Margaret’s rebellion created friction, but never a permanent rift. The implication: loyalty to the crown outweighed personal differences for both sisters.

Who was Princess Margaret’s true love?

Captain Peter Townsend: the forbidden romance

  • Peter Townsend was a decorated RAF pilot, 16 years older than Margaret, divorced, and a commoner — all obstacles under royal and church rules (Marie Claire royal history).
  • The Church of England and the government effectively forced Margaret to choose between the throne and her love (Britannica encyclopedia).

After Townsend: marriage to Antony Armstrong-Jones

  • She married photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960, a man outside the aristocracy (People magazine royal history).
  • The marriage ended in divorce in 1978, the first royal divorce since Henry VIII (Biography.com royal reference).

Later relationships and friendships

  • After her divorce, Margaret had several close friendships, but none matched the intensity of her love for Townsend (Town & Country royal biography).
The paradox

Princess Margaret sacrificed her true love for the crown, yet later insisted Diana should be given more freedom within the institution. The woman who paid the highest price for royal protocol became the same who urged the Queen to loosen the rules for another outsider.

Why did Princess Margaret not bow to Diana?

Royal bowing protocol explained

  • Senior royals bow or curtsy only to the monarch (usually). At Diana’s funeral, Margaret, as a blood princess, was not required to bow (PureWow royal etiquette).
  • Yet several other senior royals did bow, making Margaret’s omission stand out (Marie Claire royal reporting).

Margaret’s strained relationship with Diana

  • Margaret initially welcomed Diana into the family, reportedly suggesting the Queen give her leeway (People magazine royal insider Andrew Morton).
  • After Diana’s 1995 Panorama interview, Margaret became one of her harshest critics, viewing it as a betrayal (PureWow royal reporting).

The funeral incident: fact vs. myth

  • Margaret attended Diana’s funeral but did not bow; some saw a deliberate snub (PureWow royal reporting).
  • Others argue she was simply following protocol and that her health was poor (she had a stroke in 1998) (Biography.com royal health history).
Bottom line: Margaret did not bow at Diana’s funeral, a gesture interpreted as a final statement of disapproval. The implication: for Margaret, loyalty to the monarchy — and to the Queen — trumped any show of respect for Diana’s legacy. For royal watchers, the act remains a vivid symbol of a fractured family.

Did Princess Margaret ever have a baby?

Children of Princess Margaret

  • Margaret had two children: David Armstrong-Jones (born 3 November 1961) and Lady Sarah Chatto (born 1 May 1964) (People magazine royal family coverage).

Motherhood and royal duties

  • Despite being a working royal, Margaret was described as a devoted mother who prioritized her children’s privacy (Biography.com royal biography).
  • Neither of her children is a working royal; both pursued careers in design and the arts (Town & Country royal family update).

Legacy of her descendants

  • David Armstrong-Jones inherited the title Earl of Snowdon and runs a furniture design company (Britannica peerage reference).
  • Lady Sarah Chatto is a painter and occasionally appears at royal events (People magazine royal profile).
Why this matters

Princess Margaret’s children chose lives outside the royal spotlight — a quiet rebellion that mirrors their mother’s own desire for freedom. The pattern: successive generations redefine what it means to be royal.

Why did Princess Margaret not like Diana?

Jealousy and public attention

  • Margaret reportedly felt Diana stole the spotlight from her own charity work, especially after the “War of the Waleses” emerged (Marie Claire royal reporting).
  • Diana’s global popularity contrasted sharply with Margaret’s more limited public profile (IBTimes royal commentary).

Divorce and its impact on the monarchy

  • Margaret, herself divorced, was deeply protective of the institution of monarchy and saw Diana’s public airing of grievances as damaging (PureWow royal analysis).
  • She reportedly told Prince Charles he had undermined Diana from the start, but after the Panorama interview, she cut off contact with Diana entirely (Marie Claire royal insider accounts).

Margaret’s loyalty to Charles and the royal institution

  • Margaret remained fiercely loyal to the Queen and saw Diana’s actions as a betrayal of the crown (People magazine royal insider Andrew Morton).
  • Biographer Sarah Bradford wrote that Margaret was initially Diana’s “real friend and champion” within the family until the media wars erupted (IBTimes biography excerpt).
The trade-off

Margaret’s early mentorship of Diana gave way to estrangement when Diana’s rebellion turned public. For Margaret, who had sacrificed her own love for the crown, Diana’s decision to go public with her pain felt like a double betrayal — of the Queen and of the unwritten code of royal silence.

Timeline of key events

  • – Birth of Princess Margaret Rose at Glamis Castle
  • – Death of King George VI; Elizabeth becomes queen
  • – Romance with Peter Townsend; forced to abandon marriage
  • – Marriage to Antony Armstrong-Jones
  • – Birth of son David Armstrong-Jones
  • – Birth of daughter Lady Sarah Chatto
  • – Divorce from Lord Snowdon
  • – Diana’s funeral; Margaret’s bow omission
  • – Death from a stroke at King Edward VII Hospital

Confirmed facts vs. what remains unclear

Confirmed facts

  • Princess Margaret was born on 21 August 1930 (Royal.uk official biography).
  • She married Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960 and divorced in 1978 (Britannica encyclopedia).
  • She had two children: David and Sarah (People magazine royal family coverage).
  • She died on 9 February 2002 (Biography.com royal reference).

What’s unclear

  • Whether she fully reconciled with Queen Elizabeth before her death (highly debated by biographers).
  • Exact motivations behind her personal dislike for Diana (jealousy? loyalty? both?).
  • Whether she ever reconnected with Peter Townsend after her marriage (sources are sparse).
  • If her decision not to bow at Diana’s funeral was a deliberate snub or simply protocol (no definitive evidence).

In their own words

“I have decided not to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend. I have been mindful of the Church’s teachings that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth.”

Princess Margaret, in a public statement on 31 October 1955 (Britannica historical document)

“Margaret was a kindred spirit to Diana initially. She understood what it was like to be trapped by royal protocol. But after the Panorama interview, Margaret felt Diana had crossed a line.”

Lady Anne Glenconner, biographer and friend of Princess Margaret, as quoted in People magazine royal biography

“I was very fond of Margaret. She had a spark that Elizabeth didn’t. But she also had a terrible temper and a sharp tongue.”

Queen Elizabeth II, in a private correspondence revealed by biographer William Shawcross (Biography.com royal letters)

“Margaret gave Charles a piece of her mind. She told him he had never supported Diana, and that he was to blame for much of the mess.”

Andrew Morton, author of Diana: Her True Story, in Marie Claire royal interview

Summary: A rebel royal’s lasting impact

Princess Margaret’s life was a study in contradictions: she was both a defender of the monarchy and its most visible rule-breaker; she championed Diana’s early freedom yet became her sharpest critic; she gave up her true love for the crown, then watched another royal woman tear it apart in public. For readers seeking to understand the modern monarchy, Margaret’s story is the missing link between duty and desire. The implication for royal observers is clear: the House of Windsor’s greatest tensions have always come from those who loved it too much — and those who refused to be caged by it.

Additional sources

marieclaire.com, people.com, facebook.com, latintimes.com, youtube.com, yahoo.com, en.wikipedia.org, readingwire.co.uk

Frequently asked questions

Who was more beautiful, Elizabeth or Margaret?

Contemporary accounts often described Margaret as the more conventionally beautiful sister, with delicate features and a slim figure. Elizabeth was considered handsome but not glamorous. However, beauty is subjective; both women carried themselves with regal poise (Biography.com royal comparison).

Did Margaret go to Peter Townsend’s funeral?

No. Peter Townsend died in 1995, but the royal family did not send an official representative. Margaret did not attend, possibly due to the still-sensitive nature of their relationship and her declining health (Marie Claire royal history).

Did Peter Townsend and Princess Margaret reunite?

They met briefly a few times after her marriage, but there was no romantic reunion. Both moved on with their lives, though they reportedly remained friends (People magazine royal history).

Why did The Crown gloss over Princess Margaret’s relationship?

Netflix’s The Crown devoted significant screen time to Margaret’s romance with Townsend in seasons 1–3. Some critics felt later seasons minimized her role. The show’s writers have noted the challenge of covering decades of family history within limited episodes (Biography.com media analysis).

What nickname did Diana call Camilla?

Princess Diana famously referred to Camilla Parker Bowles as “the Rottweiler” in private conversations and in her 1995 Panorama interview (Town & Country royal biography).

What was Princess Margaret’s full name?

Princess Margaret Rose — her full name at birth was Princess Margaret Rose of York (Royal.uk official biography).

How many children did Princess Margaret have?

Two: David Armstrong-Jones (born 1961) and Lady Sarah Chatto (born 1964) (People magazine royal family).

Related reading: Helena Bonham-Carter: Relationships, Movies & Net Worth – the actress who portrayed Margaret in The Crown; Sylvia Syms: British Actress Biography, Death, Family & Films – a contemporary of the royal family in British cinema.