Princess Margaret, 71, dies after stroke

LONDON -- Caught between the old social order and the sudden freedoms of a more democratic age, Princess Margaret led a life shadowed by the great disappointment of her thwarted romance with a divorced commoner.

Margaret, who died Saturday at 71, added cosmopolitan glamour -- and controversial romance -- to the royal family's reserved image. But she won respect as an attentive patron of charities and happiness as the mother of two loving, well-adjusted children and grandmother of three.

Queen Elizabeth II announced the death of her "beloved sister," who had been taken to King Edward VII Hospital at 2:30 a.m. from her apartments in Kensington Palace and died four hours later. The princess had suffered a stroke Friday afternoon and developed cardiac problems during the night, Buckingham Palace said.

"This is a terribly sad day for all my family," Prince Charles said in a televised address. "She lived life and loved it to the full. We shall all miss her dreadfully."

Buckingham Palace said the princess' coffin would rest at Kensington Palace for several days to permit family and close friends to pay their respects. A private funeral will be held Feb. 15 in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

The princess, a heavy smoker for many years, had had two strokes since 1998. At her last public appearance, many were shocked to see her in a wheelchair, her face puffy with illness and her eyes hidden behind dark glasses.

Standards of the day

Margaret was only 22 when her ill-starred romance with Royal Air Force Group Capt. Peter Townsend, a dashing -- but divorced -- hero of the Battle of Britain, made headlines around the world. By the standards of the day, divorce was seen as shameful, and for the sister of the new queen, marriage to a divorced man was unthinkable.

The shock of King Edward VIII's abdication to marry a divorcee was still fresh in the public memory, and the Church of England forbade remarriage of a divorced person. The government firmly opposed such a marriage.

After more than two years of negotiation, press speculation and enforced separation from Townsend, Margaret announced in October 1955 that she would not marry him.

In 1978, Margaret became a divorcee herself -- the first in the queen's immediate family -- when her marriage to Snowdon was dissolved. She did not remarry.