LORD SNOWDON
the Royal Family for 400 years , but he was by no means a parvenu . He came from the Welsh gentry , the son of a barrister and a society hostess , the Countess of Rosse . Despite having been educated at Eton and Cambridge , he was making his living as a portrait photographer of the rich and famous . Their wedding took place in Westminster Abbey on May 6 . It was the first great royal event since the coronation of Elizabeth II . Now , seven years later , the country was bursting into the 1960s , and what The Queen ' s biographer Lady Longford called “ a period of brittle animation ”. Two days before the wedding The Queen gave a party for 2000 at Buckingham Palace in honour of the new couple . The Joe Loss Band played numbers from the cockney pop show “ Fings Aint Wot They Used To Be ,” and Tony ' s bohemian friends mingled with the Establishment .
Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret enjoy the countryside
Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon on honeymoon aboard the royal yacht Britannia in 1960
“ Tony and Margaret were revitalising the monarchy , updating it to an age of fast cars and short skirts ”
Tony and Margaret were revitalising the monarchy , updating it to an age of fast cars and short skirts . The Queen and Prince Philip did their best to keep pace , but Philip ' s new green 100mph Alvis seemed staid compared with Tony ' s motorbike on which he raced round London with his wife on the back , both of them dressed in black leathers . Huge crowds thronged The Mall hoping to catch a glimpse of the newly-weds as they processed from the Abbey to Buckingham Palace . Had the public – or the Royal Family – known how the marriage would develop and eventually disintegrate in a welter of vitriol and promiscuity on both sides , those crowds would have been considerably reduced and less starry eyed . At that time , R
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