An elder sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (husband of Queen Elizabeth II), she was, for a time, linked to the Nazi regime.

The eldest daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, Margarita spent a happy childhood between Athens and Corfu.

During their exile, Margarita and her family depended on the generosity of their foreign relatives, in particular Princess George of Greece and Denmark (who offered them accommodation in Saint-Cloud) and Lady Louis Mountbatten (who supported them financially).

The couple then moved to Weikersheim Castle, where they raised four sons (Princes Kraft, Georg Andreas, Rupprecht and Albrecht) and a daughter (Princess Beatrix).

Though preserved from Soviets, who caused the death of several of their cousins, the couple were ostracized by the British royal family at the time of the marriage of Prince Philip, Margarita's only brother, to Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom in 1947.

The eldest daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, Margarita was born at the Royal Palace in Athens on 18 April 1905.

[1][2] Contrary to the custom of the time, her father attended her birth because her grandmother, Queen Olga, believed that "it is only justice that men see the suffering they cause to their wives, and from which they completely escape".

[1] Baptized on 11 May in the presence of her maternal grandparents,[1] Margarita grew up surrounded by her father's animals,[3] and within a united household,[4] which rapidly expanded with the arrival of her sisters Theodora (1906–1969),[5][6] Cecilie (1911–1937),[7][8] and Sophie (1914–2001).

[12][13] Tired of attacks from the press and the opposition,[13] Andrew and Alice found refuge in travel and made many stays outside the borders of their home country.

[40][41] Shortly after, in December, the routed Serbian army found refuge in Corfu,[42] leading Alice and her daughters to abandon Mon Repos for the capital.

[44][45][46] In addition, on 1 December, the French navy bombarded the royal palace in Athens, forcing Margarita and her sisters to take refuge in the cellars with their mother.

[61] At the beginning of 1919, Margarita nevertheless had the joy of reuniting with her paternal grandmother, the Dowager Queen Olga, spared by the Bolsheviks thanks to the diplomatic intervention of the Danes.

[65] For Margarita, who now formed a duo with her younger sister Theodora,[66] exile was not only synonymous with nostalgia;[N 1][67] it was also an opportunity for long family reunions and walks in the mountains.

[74] The joy that surrounded this birth, however, was obscured by the absence of Prince Andrew, who joined the Greek forces in Asia Minor during the Occupation of Smyrna.

[75] Despite worries about the war, Margarita and her siblings enjoyed life at Mon Repos, where they received a visit from their maternal grandmother and their aunt Louise in the spring of 1922.

[99] Deprived of their Greek nationality after the proclamation of the Second Hellenic Republic in March 1924, Margarita and her family received Danish passports from their cousin King Christian X.

[100][101] Now of marrying age, the princess and her sister Theodora regularly left France for Great Britain, where they lived with their maternal grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven.

[102][103] With their aunt Louise, who increasingly replaced their mother as a chaperone and confidante,[104] the two young girls attended most of the events by British aristocracy during the 1920s, including balls and dances, birthdays and garden parties at Buckingham Palace, horse races, etc.

Struck by a mental health crisis, the prince said that the princess convinced herself she possessed healing powers and that she was receiving divine messages about potential husbands for her daughters.

[115] Prince Andrew finally made the decision to place his wife in a sanatorium, with the agreement of his mother-in-law, the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven.

[98][125] Coming from the House of Hohenlohe, whose states were publicized at the beginning of the 19th century, the prince was heir to a fortune made up of castles, farmland and forests.

[149][150] In spite of the testimonies of the Prince and the Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, who assured the good morality of their friend in front of the press[146] and in court,[151] Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt lost the lawsuit.

[152] Gottfried and Margarita left the United States in early November to attend the wedding of Marina, cousin of the princess, and the Duke of Kent in London.

[164] While her husband and brothers-in-law Prince Christoph of Hesse and Berthold, Margrave of Baden, joined the German ranks, her brother Philip fought in the British Royal Navy.

[166] As for Princess Alice, she refused to leave Greece at the time of invasion[167] and spent most of the conflict in Athens helping refugees and hiding Jews,[168] though she managed to pay a few visits to her daughters in 1940,[164] 1942,[169] and 1944.

According to the Spanish biographer Ricardo Mateos Sainz de Medrano, the Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg was wounded during the Battle of Amiens and he spent the remainder of the conflict with his family in Langenburg.

They felt snubbed when they realized that their cousins, the Queen Mother of the Romanians and the Duchess of Aosta, had been invited despite their countries being allies of the Nazi regime during the conflict.

[201] In March 1948, Margarita and her three elder children were invited to Athens by Princess Alice, who offered them the trip thanks to the pension that the Countess Mountbatten of Burma continued to pay her.

[207][208][209][210] Satisfied not to have been sidelined once again, the Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg nonetheless noted with sadness the anguish of her brother Philip, who considered with apprehension his new status as prince consort.

[98][202][215] At the end of the 1950s, however, Gottfried's state of health deteriorated and he died on 11 May 1960,[213][216] making Prince Kraft, his eldest son, the new head of the house of Hohenlohe.