Princess Margaret has medical tests

Princess Margaret, seen here in a file photo, was confined to bed during the holiday period

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Princess Margaret is awaiting the results of medical tests after she was confined to her bed over the Christmas and New Year period.

Buckingham Palace have confirmed that the Princess had undergone tests and was seen by a doctor twice over the weekend.

Margaret, 70, Queen Elizabeth II's younger sister, was absent from the Royal Family's Christmas Eve and Christmas Day church services at Sandringham and the Palace said she was "feeling tired."

The nature of the medical tests is confidential, but doctors hope they will pinpoint the Princess's illness.

She has not been admitted to hospital and is expected to remain at Sandringham, the Queen's Norfolk estate, for the foreseeable future.

Last night's statement by the Palace that she is unwell follows reports in the People tabloid newspaper claiming that the Princess was missing from the royal festivities because she was suffering from severe clinical depression.

The paper said that the depression was so bad that she refused to leave Sandringham on Christmas Day to join the rest of her family at church.

It was claimed that Margaret was spending up to two weeks at a time in bed in the "depths of despair."

The People also claimed she was so depressed she had "lost the will to live." She had lost her appetite and has experienced violent mood swings, the paper said.

The Princess was last seen in public in November at a London Ballet gala evening.

Margaret, who normally lives at Kensington Palace, suffered serious burns to her legs and feet in an accident while on holiday in the Caribbean during March 1999.

The previous year, also on the island of Mustique, she suffered a stroke.

Margaret is said to have given up smoking after a part of her lung was removed in 1985.

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The British Monarchy

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