English aristocrat and socialite Princess Margaret Rose of York, latterly the Countess of Snowdon, was BOTD in 1930. Born at Glamis Castle in Scotland, she was the second daughter of the Duke of York and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. In 1936, her uncle King Edward VIII abdicated the British throne and her father became King George VI, making her elder sister Elizabeth the heir apparent. Margaret and Elizabeth grew up at Buckingham Palace, staying with their parents in London during the bombing of London in World War Two. Educated largely by governesses, she showed an early talent for music. In the 1950s, she became one of the world’s most celebrated socialites, whose beauty, flamboyance and brittle temperament frequently clashed with her Royal duties. In her late teens, she fell in love with her father’s former equerry Captain Peter Townsend, whose status as a divorced man made their relationship a national scandal. After years of indecision, Elizabeth, by this time Queen and head of the Anglican Church, refused to consent to Margaret marrying Townsend, leading to their separation. Newly and unhappily single, Margaret married bisexual photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, with whom she had two children. The marriage was turbulent and punctuated by mutual infidelities. She was rumoured to have affairs with Robin Douglas-Home, Mick Jagger, Peter Sellers and Warren Beatty. In 1976, photos of Margaret holidaying with her lover Roddy Llewellyn became a tabloid scandal, leading to her divorce from Armstrong-Jones in 1978. She remained with Llewellyn until his marriage in 1981, apparently remaining on friendly terms with him and his wife. Her popularity fell sharply in the 1980s, as Diana, Princess of Wales became the Royal Family’s volatile new star. In 1985, she lost her constitutional role as Counsellor of State, as she became outranked by her 21 year-old nephew Prince Edward. She largely retired from Royal duties, spending extended periods at her home on the Caribbean island of Mustique in the Grenadines, and prompting significant criticism in the press for her indolence and snobbery. Like many volatile, acid-tongued princesses with an alcohol problem, she cultivated an adoring flock of gay supplicants, including Cecil Beaton, Noël Coward, Oliver Messel, Gore Vidal, Liberace, Jeremy Thorpe and Derek “Dazzle” Jennings. Less well-known was her support of the London Lighthouse, a hospice for HIV/AIDS patients which she visited regularly during the peak years of the epidemic. Her final years were troubled by poor health, largely caused by her heavy smoking and drinking. She died in 2002 aged 71, after suffering a series of strokes. Her reputation received a posthumous boost in the 2016 and 2017 seasons of Netflix drama series The Crown, in which she was played as a young woman, spectacularly, by Vanessa Kirby, focusing on her tragic affair with Townsend. She was portrayed in later series of The Crown by Beau Gadson, Helena Bonham-Carter and Lesley Manville. She was also the subject of a sympathetic memoir by her friend and former lady-in-waiting Lady Anne Glenconner, published in 2019.