Princess Margaret was the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II
and for a brief time was second in line to the British throne. Her uncle King Edward VIII
abdicated the throne when Margaret was six, and her father became King George VI
. (Elizabeth became Queen in 1952 and bore an heir of her own, Prince Charles
, in 1948.) Princess Margaret's doomed romance with Group Captain Peter Townsend, a World War II hero and equerry to the queen, was a source of tremendous gossip and rumor; he was divorced, which in those times made him unsuitable for royal marriage. (Edward VIII had himself stepped down to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson
.) The romance between Margaret and Townsend began in 1953 and lasted for two years. But after her sister, now Queen Elizabeth II, refused to give her blessing to the marriage, Princess Margaret announced publicly in 1955 that she would not marry Townsend. She married photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones (later Lord Snowdon) on May 6, 1960 and they had two children: David Albert Charles (known as Viscount Linley, b. 1961) and Sarah Armstong-Jones (b. 1964). Margaret was known for her interest in the arts, especially the ballet, and she and Lord Snowdon were popular members of the "jet set" society of the 1960s. The couple separated in 1976 and were officially divorced on May 24, 1978. In later years Margaret spent much of her time at her home on the Caribbean island of Mustique.