page_title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
section_title: Romance with Peter Townsend
hierarchical_section_title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon / Romance with Peter Townsend
caption_attribution_description: English: (Crop on Peter Thownsend) Royal Air Force Fighter Command, 1939-1945. Flight Lieutenants P W Townsend (left) and C B Hull of No. 43 Squadron RAF at Wick, Caithness, at the time they had shot down three enemy aircraft each. Hull became the commanding officer of the Squadron in September 1940 and was killed in action on 7 September having shot down at least 10 enemy aircraft. Townsend was to end his flying service with at least 11 victories, having commanded Nos. 85 and 605 Squadrons RAF. He then commanded RAF stations at Drem and West Malling, and No. 23 Initial Training Wing, before becoming Equerry of Honour to the King in March 1944.
context_page_description: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, CI, GCVO, GCStJ, CD was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and the only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II.
  Margaret spent much of her childhood with her parents and sister. Her life changed dramatically at the age of six, when her paternal uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry divorcée Wallis Simpson. Margaret's father became king, and her sister became heir presumptive, with Margaret second in line to the throne. During the Second World War, the two sisters stayed at Windsor Castle despite suggestions to evacuate them to Canada. During the war years, Margaret was considered too young to perform any official duties and instead continued her education.
  After the war, Margaret fell in love with Group Captain Peter Townsend. In 1952, her father died, her sister became queen, and Townsend divorced his wife, Rosemary. He proposed to Margaret early the following year. Many in the government believed that he would be an unsuitable husband for the Queen's 22-year-old sister, and the Church of England refused to countenance marriage to a divorced man.
context_section_description: Margaret was grief-stricken by her father's death and was prescribed sedatives to help her sleep. Of her father she wrote, "He was such a wonderful person, the very heart and centre of our happy family." She was consoled by her deeply held Christian beliefs. With her widowed mother, Margaret moved out of Buckingham Palace and into Clarence House, while her sister and her family moved out of Clarence House and into Buckingham Palace.
  Peter Townsend was appointed Comptroller of her mother's restructured household. By 1953, he was divorced from his first wife and proposed marriage to Margaret. He was 15 years her senior and had two children from his previous marriage. Margaret accepted and informed her sister, the Queen, of her desire to marry Townsend. The Queen's consent was required by the Royal Marriages Act 1772. As in 1936, the Church of England refused to countenance the remarriage of the divorced. Queen Mary had recently died, and Elizabeth was about to be crowned. After her coronation, she planned to tour the Commonwealth for six months.  The Queen told Margaret, "Under the circumstances, it isn't unreasonable for me to ask you to wait a year." The Queen was counselled by her private secretary, Sir Alan Lascelles, to post Townsend abroad, but she refused and instead transferred him from the Queen Mother's household to her own. The British Cabinet refused to approve the marriage, and newspapers reported that the marriage was "unthinkable" and "would fly in the face of Royal and Christian tradition". Churchill informed the Queen that the Dominion prime ministers were unanimously against the marriage and that Parliament would not approve a marriage that would be unrecognised by the Church of England unless Margaret renounced her rights to the throne.
  Churchill arranged for Townsend to be posted to Brussels. Polls run by popular newspapers appeared to show that the public supported Margaret's personal choice, regardless of Church teaching or the government's opinion. For two years, press speculation continued. Margaret was told by clerics that she would be unable to receive communion if she married a divorced man.
  Papers released in 2004 to the National Archives show that in 1955 the Queen and the new Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden (who had been divorced and remarried himself) drew up a plan to amend
  the Royal Marriages Act, under which Princess Margaret would have been able to marry Townsend by removing Margaret and any children from the marriage out of the line of succession, and thus the Queen's permission would no longer be necessary. Margaret would be allowed to keep her royal title and her civil list allowance, stay in the country and even continue with her public duties. Eden summed up the Queen's attitude in a letter on the subject to the Commonwealth prime ministers "Her Majesty would not wish to stand in the way of her sister's happiness." Eden himself was very sympathetic; "Exclusion from the Succession would not entail any other change in Princess Margaret's position as a member of the Royal Family," he wrote. The final draft of this proposal was produced on 28 October 1955.
  On 31 October Margaret issued a statement:
  I would like it to be known that I have decided not to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend. 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 teachings that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have resolved to put these considerations before others. I have reached this decision entirely alone, and in doing so I have been strengthened by the unfailing support and devotion of Group Captain Townsend.
  Randolph Churchill was concerned about rumours involving Archbishop Fisher with Princess Margaret's plans with Townsend. In his view, rumours "that Fisher had intervened to prevent the Princess from marrying Townsend has done incalculable harm to the Church of England". There was subsequent criticism in the UK about the Church's inflexibil
caption: Flight Lieutenant Peter Townsend in 1940
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