Glimpses of HRH Princess Margaret
‘I wouldn’t let that family get near me with a sharp stick – let alone a sword’. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, commenting on the 2003 ceremony to knight Sir Mick Jagger. He was anointed by the future King Charles. The ceremony involved Jagger being tapped on the shoulder with a sword.
Keith Richards is not the only anti-establishment British musician to mock royalty. In 1977 the Sex Pistols did a splendid job with their anthem, God Save the Queen.
God save the Queen
She ain’t no human being
There is no future
In England’s dreaming.
In Craig Brown’s book Ma’am Darling- 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret, he mentions that British singer Dusty Springfield made a light hearted joke about queens during a live show in 1977 at Royal Albert Hall attended by HRH Princess Margaret. Springfield also pointedly paused dramatically after singing, ‘Quiet please, there’s a lady onstage’ drawing the audience’s attention to Margaret rudely chatting away in the Royal Box.
The next day, Springfield received a typed pre-written apology from Kensington Palace with the outrageous request she sign and return it. She did. Most folk try to keep themselves nice around royalty. The royal family are not universally known for their senses of humour. And it doesn’t pay to offend their sensibilities.
Craig Brown’s hardback quasi-biography is about the size of a brick – but it’s an wonderful read. For Brown is not just a biographer he’s also a satirist, humourist and critic.
Parodies are Brown’s speciality and HRH Princess Margaret – younger sister of the late Queen Elizabeth – is ripe for parody. I’ve been reading Brown’s book a few pages at a time over breakfast. It’s an easy digestible read. I enjoyed it immensely.
We live in a Trumpian world and I find the daily newspaper a depressing read first thing in the morning. I need to be caffeinated in order to cope with chaos, wars of vengeance, environmental and financial disasters, bizarre murders and gut wrenching violence. Very few news items are cheering and the heinous, inhumane actions of Dictator Donald are best avoided until later in the day. Or better still – left unread, scrunched up and used to ignite my firewood.
Brown’s book examines Princess Margaret, the Countess of Snowdon, through the eyes of her groupies, lovers, detractors, sycophants and servants. HRH comes off as a rather unpleasant member of the royal family. Namely because in her early twenties – around the time she began kickstarting her day with orange juice stiffened with vodka – Margaret gleefully began exploiting royal protocol to the max. She had a mischievous, sharp tongue and could be entertaining when it suited her.
HRH became known as a beastly houseguest at numerous country house parties and was immensely rude at society dinners and posh social functions. Guests were not allowed to sit down to dinner, leave or even go to bed until HRH deigned to do so.
Margaret seemed to take pleasure in baiting and upsetting those around her. She criticized, insulted and denigrated her host’s cuisine and took pleasure in being mean to those who were attempting to feed and entertain her.
HRH relished making her entourage uneasy and took pleasure in humiliating people. Her insistence on other guests/friends lighting her many cigarettes was seen as a deliberate move to ensure they were aware of their lowly position. They were there solely to serve her.
Margaret was a chain smoker who kept a cigarette burning on an ashtray, even during high society dinners. HRH expected & demanded those present to light her cigarettes with a proper lighter and detested the use of matches which she considered ‘common’ and below her.
Being a disgruntled, vengeful heir to the British throne became a precedent in 1936 when Edward VIII abdicated to marry notorious American divorcee Wallis Simpson. He was ably followed by Margaret and several years later by Prince Harry.
The Royal Family are not known for their devotion to the fine arts. But Margaret had a thing for bohemia and loved hobnobbing with the arts push. These weren’t bohemian artists who tend to be talented but impoverished, they were society darlings such as Gore Vidal, Noel Coward, Cecil Beaton and famous Hollywood stars.
HRH’s behaviour became increasingly bizarre as she aged. Her health declined in her later years. Strokes, cancer threats and other illnesses plagued her. Her health was also compromised by a ghastly accident on the private Caribbean island of Mustique.
After her death in 2002, many who’d shamelessly fawned over her viciously turned against her. As Brown notes in his book – several people who fraternized with Margaret were absurd, self seeking and chronically deceitful in their interactions with her.
The other point Brown makes is that specific events – when seen through different eyes – can reveal the truth which frequently gets lost in the retelling. Margaret’s doomed relationship with Group Captain Townsend is a case in point.
Was she insanely obsessed with him or was she actually exploited by him? Brown implies a case could be made that he took advantage of her youth and romanticism. Perhaps he’d hoped to marry Margaret to further his own career as opposed to being madly and helplessly in love with her.
If she had married Townsend, Margret would have had to forgo her royal rights and income. And as Brown points out, Townsend drafted the written announcement himself, then Margaret dutifully copied and signed it. She stated clearly to the British people that nobody else had influenced her decision not to marry Townsend.
Townsend in his biography damns himself by admitting his role in wording her written response. He also repeatedly refers to himself as ‘a boy’ and waffles on about how ‘boys’ relate to ‘girls’. This is decidedly odd given he was already middle aged.
Townsend met Margaret when she was about fifteen. He was twice her age, had two sons, was a married man and later a divorcée. His actions before and after they ended their relationship are highly questionable. According to Brown, Margaret was under the impression they weren’t finished as a couple.
Having being promoted to the position of air attaché at the British Embassy in Brussels – and only a few weeks after splitting from Margaret – Townsend met his second wife at a horse show. She was fourteen years old at the time.
In his biography Townsend claimed she fell from her horse ‘at his feet’ and he immediately came to Marie-Luce Jamagne’s aid. She was a Belgian tobacco heiress and after ingratiating himself with Marie-Luce’s family, he married her five years later. She was nineteen and he was about forty-five. About a year later Margaret married photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones.
When detailing the backstory of Margaret’s first relationship, Brown theorizes that the truth of what happened in the past is fluid. It depends entirely on who is telling the story.
And as many of Brown’s vignettes demonstrate, it’s impossible to know what really drove Margaret. Why did she behave so imperiously? And why did an attractive woman blessed with financial freedom, a strong personality and immense privilege actively choose to live the sort of life which would probably end in tragedy?
image: detail from 1977 Sex Pistols poster for their single record, God Save the Queen.