The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Wednesday 18 August 2004

An Aunt Who Is The Queen

Princess Margaret was, by all accounts, a complex woman.  She was the Diana of her time, although unlike Diana, she was born a princess and the daughter of a much-loved King.  She was glamorous, intelligent and fun, as well as sometimes being acidic, grand and dismissive.  Where her sister, The Queen, is steadfast and dedicated to all that she must represent, Margaret loved a drink, a cigarette, fun company and attractive men.    

In some ways, she was a sad soul and a victim of the position tradition had put her in – second of the two female children of a monarch.  She had an exotic beauty, was intelligent, quick minded, arty and, I suspect, very frustrated by the lack of outlet to channel intellectual capabilities.  Schooled at home, she never attended university, although she was very bright, because the King and Queen wanted their younger daughter to have fun.  Fun, she did have.  But, like anyone with too much fun time on his or her hands, it was also easier to get into mischief.  And, like anyone who gets into mischief too often, the label sticks. 

Lots of people had a bit of fun at the Princess's expense.  At parties, if the royal family were brought up, at least here in Australia, Princess Margaret would usually cop the 'drunk' or 'man-hungry' title.  Unfairly or not, the stigma of her wild and unpredictable ways overshadowed the part of her life that we really learned little of, that of her children.  Princess Margaret and mother are nouns many would find alien in a sentence and yet, she was a mother and, it seems a good one. 

Her sister, the Queen, and her four children are well known all over the world and not just in Commonwealth countries or the United States.  Through their fame for being who they are, and the infamy of what they have got up to in their lives, the four are more well known than the children of any other Head of State on the planet. 

The same cannot be said of Viscount (David) Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto n�e Armstrong-Jones.  Unlike their royal first cousins, the two siblings have lead relatively quiet lives, for the most part away from the public eye.  Both have managed to juggle careers, their association with the Royal Family and their personal relationships in relatively anonymity and yet, for much of their lives, they were very close to the throne indeed.   

Their parent’s marriage may have been tumultuous and the ensuing divorce a very public one but, whatever Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon may or may not have got up to in their private lives, they must have done something very right when it came to their children. 

Most marriages today might end in divorce and consequently solve a problem for parents who no longer want to live together, but it less often makes their children happy.  Indeed, it could be said that some people would think twice about divorcing if they realised how much of an effect it could have on their children’s lives.   There’s also a school of thought bandied about that children of a divorce have a hard time working a relationship themselves.    

It would seem, however, that the chain smoking, Scotch drinking Princess, brunt of a thousand sniggers and her gregarious, photographer ex-husband, must have done something remarkable along the way.  Something thousands of commoners, aristocrats and movie stars have been unable to achieve.  Well adjusted, children. 

This is quite an accomplishment for two individuals who, more often than not, were viewed as self-indulgent and spoiled, by the media and public alike.  What none of us saw, in retrospect, was what went on behind palace walls.  It has been said that Princess Margaret was not fond of children, but this obviously wasn’t totally correct.  One might dislike children generally but it must be hard for a curious mind, such as the Princess’s, to not develop some sort of interest in one’s own. 

Princess Margaret loved the arts, she married a photographer and it seems that she was at her happiest, mixing with people in that area.  Not surprisingly, her children were probably influenced by this interest.  Viscount Linley has said that his mother would often take them to art galleries, but usually to look at just one specific piece of art at a time, studying carefully what made the pierce outstanding.  This is hardly the behaviour of a mother disinterested in her children. 

Her love of the arts undoubtedly contributed to the Snowdon’s decision to send their children to Bedales, a very well equipped but unpretentious co-educational school in Hampshire with an emphasis on creativity.  Perhaps also, in this environment, rather than another of the elite public schools their cousins attended, David and Sarah were free to learn more about themselves in a more relaxed atmosphere. 

Viscount Linley is now a world-renowned craftsman and designer of fine furniture.  His work really is spectacular and, in a world where detail in crafts like building and furniture making looks like dying out, it is reassuring to see pieces that reflect a magic that someone, good with their hands, can produce.  Certainly, he was luckier than a lot of people starting their own business.  How many business owners have the Queen open their shop or the Queen Mother introduce their first book?  But, like anyone, he could just as easily have tried and failed. 

His marriage to the glamorous, Irish born Hon. Serena Stanhope was, not surprisingly, very stylish and the couple has lead a more public life than David’s sister but, they appear to be happy and have two children, Charles and Margarita.  For a time, in between houses and partly because of his mother’s health, they lived with Princess Margaret at Kensington Palace.  I can’t imagine what it would be like to have the late Princess as a mother-in-law but Serena allegedly became somewhat bored of having to curtsey when she bumped into her mother-in-law…  

Lady Sarah Chatto became an artist herself and has exhibited her work.  She leads a very quiet life and married actor/artist Daniel Chatto who, coincidentally, played Prince Andrew in Charles & Diana: A Royal Love Story.  To illustrate just how low key the couple is, their wedding registry listed such items as paperback books for gifts.  They have two children, Samuel and Arthur who sadly, won’t have many memories of their vibrant maternal grandmother.   

While Lady Sarah admitted to the fortification of stiff drink before she told her mother she was pregnant, one can only assume, looking at the rather sad picture of an empty wheel-chair with birthday balloons on, that Princess Margaret was, in actual fact, delighted to be a grandmother. 

Princess Margaret supposedly once said something along the lines of, “My children are not royal, they simply have the Queen as their Aunt”.  They may not be royal, but they certainly are a credit to her.  She had her wayward moments, her periods of depression and a fondness of the good life.  People frequently implied she was lazy and sometimes nasty.  Rarely was her motherhood discussed but given her sometimes-wild ways, people may have assumed there wouldn’t be much to discuss.  But, at the end of her life, one that was infrequently happy, two model citizens were at her side as she passed away.  Princess Margaret’s life was covered in controversy and yet, she succeeded, very quietly, in what is said to be one of the most difficult jobs in the world – motherhood.

- Gioffredo

See also: http://www.davidlinley.com/