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Princess Margaret claimed her decision not to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend was an act of choosing duty over love. However, royal observers say there’s much more to the story.
According to author Tom Quinn, the rebellious princess ‘created an atmosphere of moral panic in the Royal Family’ when she struck up a relationship with Townsend, a divorcee who was her father’s equerry.
In his 2021 book Scandals of the Royal Palace, Quinn describes how Queen Elizabeth and her ‘conservative’ royal advisors disapproved of their relationship – but Townsend proposed to Margaret regardless.
In an effort to separate the couple, he was reassigned to a post in Brussels while Margaret was kept at Kensington Palace. Officials hoped that the physical distance would see the romance dwindle.
Their plan appeared to succeed: in 1955 Margaret released a public statement announcing the end of her relationship with Townsend.
She said she chose not to rescind her royal life to marry a divorced man, citing the ‘church’s teachings’ and her ‘duty to the Commonwealth’ as the reasons behind the split.
While the statement may have seemed like it was the princess’s decision to cut ties with Townsend, she reportedly spent her remaining years resentful of the ‘outdated’ royal rules and those who enforced them.
Margaret met Peter Townsend, a divorcee who was 16 years her senior, in 1947 when he started working alongside her father
According to author Tom Quinn, the rebellious princess ‘created an atmosphere of moral panic in the Royal Family’ when she struck up a relationship with her father’s equerry
Margaret met Townsend, who was 16 years her senior, in 1947 when he started working alongside her father and the pair became close on the Royal Family’s three-month tour of South Africa in 1947.
In 1952, Townsend divorced his wife and proposed to Margaret the following year, but due to the 1772 Royal Marriages Act, as she was under 25, she would have to get her sister’s approval for the marriage.
Royal author Tom Quinn claims that the Queen could have ‘easily’ given permission as rules were set hundreds of years before, but she was convinced by ‘deeply conservative’ advisers not to do so.
Townsend was not only a commoner, he was divorced, which was frowned upon in the 1950s and goes against the teachings of the Church of England of which Queen Elizabeth was the head.
Conjecture around their relationship arose over the years with royal observers picking up on subtle signs Margaret and Townsend might be more than friends.
A tender moment of Margaret picking lint of the Captain’s uniform outside Westminster Abbey at Elizabeth’s coronation in June 1953 sent the press into a frenzy triggering a barrage of speculative headlines.
Shortly after the coronation, the Queen, under the guidance of her ‘conservative’ advisors, sent Townsend away to work as an air attaché for the British Embassy in Brussels where he stayed for two years.
‘The result of Peter’s removal to Brussels was that Kensington Palace became a prison where Margaret had to endure her grief alone,’ Quinn said.
A tender moment of Margaret picking lint of the Captain’s uniform outside Westminster Abbey at Elizabeth’s coronation in June 1953 sent the press into a frenzy
Royal author Tom Quinn claims that the Queen could have ‘easily’ given permission for the marriage but was convinced by ‘deeply conservative’ advisers not to do so
When he returned, Margaret had celebrated her 25th birthday, meaning she was able to marry anyone of her choosing. However, the Queen and British parliament had made amendments to the Royal Marriages Act to further prevent the pair from ever tying the knot.
If she were to marry Townsend, she would have to give up her income and position in the line of succession to the throne, in which she stood third behind Elizabeth’s children, then-Prince Charles and Princess Anne.
Just over a month after her birthday on October 31, 1955, Margaret announced on BBC Radio that she will end her engagement to Townsend and preserve her place in Royal Family.
‘I would like it to be known that I have decided not to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend,’ she said.
‘I have been aware that, subject to my renouncing my rights of succession, it might have been possible for me to contract a civil marriage.
‘But, mindful of the Church’s teaching that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have decided to put these considerations before any others.’
In the years, even decades, following, Margaret harboured a grudge toward officials for their medalling in her love life.
Quinn wrote: ‘In a statement, Margaret insisted that in ultimately deciding not to marry Peter, she had chosen duty over personal happiness, but this was only part of the story.’
Shortly after the coronation, the Queen, under the guidance of her ‘conservative’ advisors, sent Townsend away to work as an air attaché for the British Embassy in Brussels where he stayed for two years
In 1955 Margaret released a public statement announcing the end of her relationship with Peter Townsend – but she reportedly spent her remaining years resentful of the ‘outdated’ royal rules and those who enforced them
‘In fact, for the rest of her life, she remained bitter and resentful at how her chance of happiness had been snatched away by what she saw as an outdated set of rules.’
While Margaret ultimately chose her royal life over love, she made her disdain towards those who played a part in making her potential marriage to Townsend so difficult.
She went on to marry Antony Jones Armstrong, later Lord Snowdon, but throughout her new relationship, her resentments remained.
One of the Queen’s advisors Alan ‘Tommy’ Lascelles copped the majority of the princess’s wrath.
‘Lascelles was was a dyed-in-the-wool reactionary who felt any relaxation of the old rules would lead to anarchy,’ Quinn penned.
Lascelles was given a ‘race-and-favour’ apartment at Kensington Palace after his retirement. Margaret would often see him as they were only a handful of people sharing the royal residence.
‘On numerous occasions, as she was driven out of Kensington Palace, Margaret would catch sight of Lascelles through her car window and curse him.
‘In his 2005 biography of the Queen Mother, Hugo Vickers recalls Margaret shouting to her chauffeur, ‘There goes Lascelles. Run the brute down’.’
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