BRITAIN: Margaret + Roddy = Royal Furor

The princess's reputation was ailing

It was not a good week for Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret, 47, Deputy Colonel in Chief of the Royal Anglian Regiment, Colonel in Chief of the Royal Highland Fusiliers and, among other things, president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Suffering from flu, the princess lay ill abed at Windsor Castle, where the royal family had assembled for an extended Easter holiday. There, according to well-placed reports, Queen Elizabeth II had a serious talk with her younger sister about Margaret's swinging lifestyle. Reason: the princess's reputation, as well as her health, was ailing. Not only was her name being splashed luridly and critically across the headlines of British tabloids, but her government allowance was also under attack, as a result of a flamboyant four-year relationship with Roderick (Roddy) Llewellyn, 30, a sometime disco owner, occasional landscape gardener, and would-be pop singer.

Along with other members of the royal family, Margaret was due for a raise by means of the "civil list," which was taken under consideration by Parliament last week. In all, the Labor government announced a 9.2% increase in the allotment for the royal family, raising the total to $5,290,000, with most of the money going to the Queen. How much of the increase was Margaret's only the Prime Minister and the Royal Exchequer knew, but her raise was estimated at about $10,000, which would bring her annual salary to around $110,000. Parliamentary anti-royalists were unhappy about that. Said Laborite M.P. Willie Hamilton, Commons' most vigorous monarchy baiter: "If any of the increase goes to Margaret, there will be nationwide outrage." Hamilton demanded that each of the royals on the civil list be haled before a parliamentary select committee to justify the stipends.

The public controversy over Margaret's behavior was a field day for London's popular press. The Sunday News of the World bluntly asked its readers: "Do you think Princess Margaret gives us value for our money?" (Three out of four readers answered no.) Even some traditional supporters of the royal family were critical of Margaret and her relationship with Roddy. "I consider Princess Margaret to have completely let the side down," complained one saddened letter writer to the pro-Tory Evening Standard. Declared the Bishop of Truro, Graham Leonard: "If you accept the public life, you must accept a severe restriction on your personal conduct." After some of his fellow clergymen complained that he had been a bit too explicit, Leonard said that he was merely praying that Margaret "should be given the strength to make the right judgment."