The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Monday 12 April 2004

Princess Margaret - Neither Love nor Money

In the early days of this year, the legendary story of the young and beautiful Princess Margaret sacrificing her one-and-only true love in favor of loyalty to the Crown got a decided twist when classified files concerning the incident were released to the public. Prior to the release of these files, the account we were all accustomed to went something like this…  

In 1955, barely 20 years since her uncle, King Edward VIII, decided that Wallis Simpson meant more to him than being king, Margaret was faced with an eerily similar choice: either marry the divorced war hero Group Captain Peter Townsend – 15 years her senior and a father of two – and lose her title, civil list payment and all rights as a member of the royal family, or don’t marry him and keep her rights and stay in the good graces of the Church and Crown. Of course, we all know that she made the honorable, if not unromantic, decision to put duty before love.  

Tragically, her life didn’t seem better off for her decision. Her marriage five years later to Anthony Armstrong-Jones was stormy and unhappy, and ultimately ended in divorce in 1978, making her the first royal to divorce since King Henry VIII. Apart from that, despite the jet set and glamorous lifestyle, the decadent holidays on Mustique, and the celebrity friends, she led what seemed like a largely empty and unhappy life.  

As if all this wasn’t bad enough, the file now available to the public in the National Archives tells us it didn’t have to be that way. Unlike the Queen who, as head of the Church of England, was somewhat obliged to refuse permission for her sister’s marriage to a divorcee, it seems the government had no opposition to Margaret’s marriage to Townsend.  

On the contrary, Prime Minister Anthony Eden led the development of a secret plan that would have allowed Margaret to marry her Prince Charming with almost no alteration to her existence. Under the terms of the plan, Margaret could have married Peter Townsend, kept her HRH title, her annual �15,000 civil list allowance (as well as the additional �9,000-a-year due she was entitled to upon marriage), and remained in England to carry out her public duties simply by renouncing her rights, and those of her descendants, to the succession. It was even implied in the file that Townsend might eventually receive an official allowance of his own. The plan went so far as to have speeches and letters announcing Margaret’s decision to marry already prepared.  

The file even indicates that the government was willing to change the law to make her marriage possible. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Kilmuir, was among those who believed that the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, which prohibited any descendant of George II to marry under the age of 25 without the monarch's permission, was outdated and an embarrassment that should be repealed. Reportedly, this sentiment was widespread enough that the Queen was asked if she would agree to its repeal. Despite being heavily censored, the file reveals that the Queen was at least prepared to reform the act to apply only to her children, grandchildren and those of the heir presumptive, which would leave Margaret free to marry without seeking the Queen’s consent. 

Not that repealing or changing the Royal Marriages Act would have made any technical difference to Margaret’s cause. According to the file, the plan stated that Margaret needed only to wait until after her 25^th birthday when she no longer needed the Queen’s permission to marry. She could then go directly to the Privy Council and seek permission for her marriage, which, barring any unforeseen objections from parliament and the Commonwealth, would be readily granted. In fact, it was only after her 25^th birthday that Margaret announced she had decided not to marry Townsend. 

So what of her reasons then? If the path was clear for her marriage to the man she loved, why didn’t she seize her chance? Technically speaking, the only downside to the plan created by the government was that Margaret would have had to renounce her rights, and the rights of any children she might have, to the succession. But she must have known even then, as third in line to the throne after Prince Charles and Princess Anne, it was unlikely that either she or her future children would ever ascend to the throne, making it reasonable to assume her reasons were not dynastic.  

Prior to the release of the file, I think it’s safe to say that I was not alone in suspecting that perhaps Margaret had chosen the privileges of being a princess over love. In my mind, she had chosen material gain over happiness and had paid the price with an unhappy life. Now that we know that there was never any threat of losing her title, allowance and privileges, I am the first to recognize that this view was completely unfounded and, quite probably, entirely unfair.  

Margaret’s official reason for not marrying Townsend was that “mindful of the church’s teachings that Christian marriage is indissoluble” she could not marry the divorced Townsend. But at the risk of speaking ill of the deceased and without being judgmental, Margaret did not ever strike me as a “strict Christian,” nor did many of her subsequent actions in life seem mindful of the doctrines of the church. That said, I recognize that her official reason was probably just that – official, but not the real reason. 

At the end of the day, I think neither love nor money played a major role in her decision not to marry Peter Townsend. Ironically, I think it was a combination of loyalty and family pressure that caused her to choose as she did. Not loyalty to the crown, but loyalty to her sister (the fact that her sister was Queen was just incidental), who would have been put in a terrible position had Margaret chosen to marry Townsend. The family pressure, in my opinion, would have come from the Queen Mother, who still carried so much resentment for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor that the idea of seeing her daughter make the same choice would have been too much to handle. 

So, in the end, not much has really changed. Princess Margaret still gave up the man she loved in favor of her family – who just happened to represent the Crown – and, officially at least, the Church. What has changed is my opinion of a woman who I once believed gave up what was most important to her simply to keep her tiara. In reality, I now believe that Margaret gave up her ticket to happiness for the greater happiness of her family and, quite possibly, the stability of the monarchy.

Until next week,

- Tori Van Orden

It is perhaps not uncalled for at this point to briefly highlight two of the many ironies surrounding this incident.  

Historically speaking, one of Margaret’s primary champions, Anthony Eden, was, as Foreign Secretary in 1936, among those in the government who believed King Edward VIII should choose between abdicating the throne and marrying Wallis Simpson.  

On the other side of history, we know that the queen did not repeal or even amend the Royal Marriages Act when she was asked to consider it in 1955, a decision that has greatly affected the course of her own son’s life since the day he met his true love, Camilla Parker Bowles.  

And the saga continues… 

Read the text of The Royal Marriages Act at http://www.adw03.dial.pipex.com/c-eight/constitu/roymartx.htm.