Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon - Legacy

Legacy

Observers often characterised her as a spoiled snob capable of cutting remarks or hauteur. She even apparently looked down on her own grandmother, Mary of Teck, because Mary was born a princess with only the "Serene Highness" style, whereas Margaret was a royal princess with the "Royal Highness" style at birth. Their letters, however, provide no indication of friction between them. However, she could also be charming and informal. People who came into contact with her could be perplexed by her capricious swings between frivolity and formality. Marion Crawford explained, "Impulsive and bright remarks she made became headlines and, taken out of their context, began to produce in the public eye an oddly distorted personality that bore little resemblance to the Margaret we knew." Margaret's acquaintance Gore Vidal wrote, "She was far too intelligent for her station in life." He recalled a conversation with Margaret, in which she discussed her public notoriety, saying, "It was inevitable: when there are two sisters and one is the Queen, who must be the source of honour and all that is good, while the other must be the focus of the most creative malice, the evil sister."

In June 2006, much of her estate was auctioned by Christie's to meet inheritance tax, though some of the items were sold in aid of charities such as the Stroke Association. A world record price of £1.24 million was set by a Fabergé clock, and the Poltimore tiara, worn for her wedding in 1960, sold for £926,400. The sale of her effects totalled £13,658,000 ($22,556,187USD). In April 2007, an exhibition titled Princess Line – The Fashion Legacy of Princess Margaret opened at Kensington Palace, showcasing contemporary fashion from British designers such as Vivienne Westwood inspired by Princess Margaret's legacy of style. Christopher Bailey's Spring 2006 collection for Burberry was inspired by Margaret's look from the 1960s.

Princess Margaret's private life was for many years the subject of intense speculation by media and royal-watchers. Her house on Mustique, designed by her husband's uncle the stage designer Oliver Messel, was her favourite holiday destination. Allegations of wild parties and drug taking were made in a documentary broadcast after the Princess's death. Her supposed Mustique indiscretions form an important part of the background of the quasi-historical 2008 film The Bank Job. Princess Margaret was portrayed by Lucy Cohu in the Channel 4 TV drama The Queen's Sister (2005), by Trulie MacLeod in the TV drama The Women of Windsor (1992), and by Hannah Wiltshire in the TV drama Bertie and Elizabeth; she is portrayed silently in the second series première of Ashes to Ashes (2009, set in 1982) and subsequently complains off-camera about one of the principal characters.

Her affair with Peter Townsend and the Queen's dealing with this was the subject of the first episode of the Channel 4 Docudrama The Queen in which she was portrayed by Katie McGrath

It is argued that Margaret's most enduring legacy is an accidental one. Perhaps unwittingly, Margaret paved the way for public acceptance of royal divorce. Her life, if not her actions, made the decisions and choices of her sister's children, three of whom divorced, easier than they otherwise would have been.