Part Two: An Insider's View of the Royal Family

After grieving for Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother, the Queen seemed like a new person at age seventy-five and took joy from the union of William and Kate

Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and Queen Elizabeth II in 1993

In Case You Missed Part One of this Three-Part Series:

An Insider’s View of the Royal Family

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Lady Elizabeth Anson, who died five years ago at age seventy-nine, was for sixty years Britain’s premiere party planner, counting as clients nearly everyone in the royal family starting with Queen Elizabeth II. From 1998 until her death in November 2020, I was lucky to count her as a friend—early on, she asked that I call her Liza—and we had many conversations over the years that informed my books about the royal family: Diana In Search of Herself, Elizabeth the Queen, Prince Charles, and George VI and Elizabeth. While keeping her most sensitive observations confidential, I am sharing additional details with my Royals Extra subscribers that help illuminate the lives of the royal family members Liza knew well. She was a great-niece of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, a goddaughter of King George VI, and a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret. Liza was the Queen's confidante from the time of the monarch’s Golden Jubilee in 2002.

“Margaret in her way was always a problem,” Liza Anson told me in June 2008 as I was embarking on my book about Queen Elizabeth II. “I am a great champion of Princess Margaret. I recognize what it must have been like to be the only sister and also the same gender as the monarch. Her whole life was second fiddle. Whether it was just in her rebellious nature that she did rebellious things, I don’t know.”

“Margaret could make headlines easily”

From an early age, “Margaret could get away with more outrageous behavior, whether smoking with a ten-inch cigarette holder or wearing more outre clothes and hairstyles. In a funny way Margaret turned herself into a sort of film star. Tony [her husband, Anthony Armstrong Jones, later the Earl of Snowdon] had a very wide circle of friends. She met a different circle to the Queen—show business, theater, opera—which are things the Queen is not terribly interested in. Margaret could make headlines easily.”

The Queen was tolerant with her sister. Prince Philip, however, “found it more difficult with Margaret. He got irritated by her, and he knew she worried the Queen.” Liza found her to be “incredibly intelligent, quick-witted, and incredibly funny. The Queen can be funny but her wit is gentler than Margaret’s was.”

“Who would put his head in the lion’s den?”

Still, Margaret kept everyone on tenterhooks. Liza recalled a time when one of their cousins had died, and Margaret refused to come to the funeral. “She stayed in bed that day in the country,” Liza recalled. At lunch with the royal family, “I said, ‘Did anyone talk to Princess Margaret about coming to London?’ Prince Philip said, ‘Don’t be so stupid. Who would put his head in the lion’s den?’ The Queen said to me, ‘Liza, would you try?’ So, I called her and said, ‘Get into a warm car, have the staff help you, come to London, and when you arrive someone will help you get into a warm bed.’ They didn’t want to confront her and thought maybe a different person would be more effective.” Margaret acquiesced.