The night Princess Margaret was booed off stage

History might remember Princess Margaret as a charming entertainer who delighted friends with after-dinner singalongs. 

But the guests were not always so thrilled to be serenaded by the royal, a new biography on the painter Francis Bacon reveals.  

Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, authors of Francis Bacon: Revelations, recall one white tie ball in the spring of 1949 when Bacon, then 40, drunkenly booed Princess Margaret, then 18, when she took to the stage for an impromptu performance. 

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Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, authors of Francis Bacon: Revelations, recall one white tie ball in the spring of 1949 when Bacon, then 39, drunkenly booed Princess Margaret, then 18, when she took to the stage for an impromptu performance. Pictured, Bacon in 1987 (left)

The soiree was hosted in London and guests included the Queen Mother, playwright Noël Coward and the painter Lucian Freud. 

It was Freud, then married to British artist and muse Kitty Garman, who had invited Bacon.

At the end of the night Princess Margaret took the microphone from Coward and the dancefloor came to a halt, one party-goer recalled to the authors.   

‘The princess began to sing, wobbling off-key,’ write Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, according to an excerpt published by AirMail.

‘She could not deliver quite the right slink despite some wriggling. But the fawning guests nonetheless “shouted and they roared, and they asked for more.” 

‘The pleased princess was just settling into “Let’s Do It” when there welled up from the belly of the crowd a ghastly hiss, a jeer, “a prolonged and thunderous booing.” 

The soiree was hosted in London and guests included the Queen Mother, playwright Nou00EBl Coward

Lady Caroline Blackwood was also in attendance

The soiree was hosted in London and guests included the Queen Mother, playwright Noël Coward (left) and Lady Caroline Blackwood (right), Lucian Freud’s future wife 

‘The band sawed to a stop. The princess reddened and rushed from the room, with several flustered ladies-in-waiting following.’

It was Bacon who was responsible, and many in the crowd criticised the painter and questioned why he had been invited (it was his friend Freud who had brought him along). 

But a handful of revellers were ‘thrilled’ by the unexpected outburst, including 17-year-old Lady Caroline Blackwood, Freud’s future second wife. 

‘Blackwood already had a well-developed rebellious streak, and she detested the debutante season that had been thrust upon her, with all of its attendant balls,’ write the authors. ‘She was enthralled with Bacon’s thumbing of the nose.’

As a debutante, Lady Caroline was courted by eligible dukes and earls drawn to her beauty, personal wealth and impeccable family connections. 

A handful of revellers were 'thrilled' by the unexpected outburst, including 17-year-old Lady Caroline Blackwood, Freud's future second wife. Pictured, the couple in 1953

A handful of revellers were ‘thrilled’ by the unexpected outburst, including 17-year-old Lady Caroline Blackwood, Freud’s future second wife. Pictured, the couple in 1953

Her mother was Maureen Guinness, one of three sisters dubbed ‘the glorious Guinness girls’, and her father was Basil Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, the 4th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava.

But instead fell in love with the painter Freud, who was married and relatively impoverished.

Three years after the ball, Freud divorced his wife Kitty. The following year he and Lady Caroline wed but had their marriage annulled four years later. 

Lady Caroline would marry twice more, to Israel Citkowitz (1959-1972) and Robert Lowell (1972-1977). 

Francis Bacon: Revelations, by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, is out now