LONDON, Feb 9: Britain’s Princess Margaret, who died on Saturday at the age of 71, was long considered to be the black sheep of the royal family.

Princess Margaret was a beautiful and vivacious royal pin-up of her day who could have rivalled her later in-law Diana for glamour. But her private life was a gilded cage and true love eluded her.

Forbidden love, a string of romances and finally divorce clouded her life, lived in the sedate shadow of her elder sister, Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1978, Margaret became the first senior royal to divorce since Henry VIII set aside Catherine of Aragon nearly 450 years earlier.

In many ways she was the opposite of Queen Elizabeth II, four years her elder, who as queen has scarcely a hint of scandal, vice or misfortune.

Margaret was born at Glamis Castle on Aug 21, 1930. The registration of her birth was held back several days to avoid being numbered 13 in the parish roll.

She was educated at home with her sister, and her first major state event was the coronation of her parents King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, now the Queen Mother.

Margaret was 14 when she met dashing Royal Air Force officer Group Captain Peter Townsend, a decorated World War II fighter pilot who was equerry to her father, King George VI. But Townsend was a divorced man as well as being a commoner.

Although it is thought her father may have approved of a match, he died in 1952, and when marriage was eventually discussed, then-prime minister Anthony Eden said many of the cabinet would resign if she wed Townsend.

Divorce at that time — especially among royals — was a social no-no. The then head of the Church of England also opposed the marriage.

To marry Townsend, she would have had to give up her royal income and have the status of an ordinary married woman.

In October 1955, she announced in a poignant statement that she had decided not to marry Townsend for the sake of royal duty.

“Mindful of the Church’s teaching that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth,” she added, “I have resolved to put these considerations before any others.”

There was compensation in the gaiety of London nightlife, around a coterie of bright young well-connected socialites.

Friends recall the princess sitting on cushions in a Kensington hotel being serenaded by Frank Sinatra after he had finished a show.

In 1958, at a private party, Margaret met Antony Armstrong-Jones, a photographer just then making his mark in society.

The media knew nothing of their romance, and they were engaged in December 1959 and married in Westminster Abbey on May 6, 1960.

Five months her senior, he was soon made Earl of Snowdon. A son, David, was born in November 1961 and a daughter, Sarah, in May 1964.

At first, the marriage was a success. But tensions mounted as he persisted with his life and she with hers.

Margaret was linked in the press with a string of suitors, although she may not have been romantically involved with them, and developed friendships with the likes of Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger and actor Peter Sellers.

By late 1973 the Snowdons were separated in all but name when the princess met Roddy Llewellyn, a landscape gardener 17 years her junior and regarded by just about everyone as highly unsuitable.

She took him on trips to Mustique, the Caribbean island where she owned a villa and loved to spend holidays away from the claustrophobic atmosphere of her London home.

The Snowdon marriage finally collapsed early in 1976 when the tabloid News of the World published an “intimate” picture of the princess and the gardener together.

Divorce followed after two years of an official separation. Meanwhile, her relationship with Llewellyn also collapsed.

HAUGHTY DEMEANOUR: Margaret was notorious for demanding utmost respect. Even those closest to her, who constantly cosseted her, called her Ma’am, or Ma’am darling.