'The Crown' Season 3 Episode 2 'Margaretology' chronicles Princess Margaret's infamous 1965 US tour amid strife with Queen Elizabeth
Spoiler alert for 'The Crown' Season 3 Episode 2 — 'Margaretology'
Though Netflix's 'The Crown' portrays the lives of real individuals, much of the actual scenes are fictionalized, though rooted in a modicum of truth. For example, Princess Margaret's tour of the United States, which is the subject of the second episode of Season 3, "Margaretology", is shown to be a raucous affair.
Though the White House dinner with then-President Lyndon B Johnson is shown to be a spur-of-the-moment thing, in reality, it was planned fairly well in advance. Moreover, there are no known records stating that the President and the Princess had quite an unremarkable evening.
In fact, Princess Margaret's dinner at the White House was barely covered on a tour she managed to stir up enough controversy that she was temporarily banned from the United States.
During her 1965 tour, Margaret met and partied with the Hollywood elite of the 60s, but the latter were not as pleased with her company as the show made it out to be. Margaret managed to offend Judy Garland and Grace Kelly, as well as call Elizabeth Taylor's engagement ring "vulgar".
But it was the apparent behavior of her entourage that led to the Queen's sister's temporary ban from visiting the United States in 1973. The British ambassador to the US from 1971-1974 did not want the Princess to tour the country in 1973 for fear of generating more harmful publicity for the Royal Family. Instead, she toured Barbados and Germany.
It is not clear who in the entourage caused reports of the raucousness, but the Princess and her husband visited in 1965 on invitation from Sharman Douglas, a socialite, and daughter of a former US ambassador to Britain. According to Sir Patrick Dean's report, much of the time was spent with organized by Miss Douglas and he claimed that "it was a mistake".
Of course, fans expecting to see these incidents in the Netflix drama will be disappointed. When Princess Margaret is shown visiting the Douglases, she is shown to be tired, ill and confined to her bed.
It may not come as a big surprise since the episode serves as yet another opportunity to play up the supposed rivalry between Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret. The show depicts that Margaret wanted to be Queen, only to be told that she must accept her position as the Princess, and this is shown to be something she struggles with even through to her adulthood.
What is true of the sisters' relationship is that the Princess was highly supportive of her sister as the Queen and her biggest nightmare was supposedly "disappointing" her older sister. After all, what the press and the public dared not say about the Queen, they would of the Princess.
Though the sisters had a complicated relationship, Princess Margaret was considered the Queen's "intimate companion". As Royal Family friend, Reinaldo Herrera, wrote for the Vanity Fair, "But for a few minutes that day, as she stood by the steps of St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, watching her sister’s coffin being borne away, her eyes betrayed her."
All episodes of Season 3 of 'The Crown' are now streaming on Netflix.
