Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters by Andrew Morton

Author:Andrew Morton [Morton, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781538700464
Google: CcSjzQEACAAJ
Amazon: 1538700468
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2021-03-30T04:00:00+00:00

The public were kept in the dark for another week as Buckingham Palace and Downing Street worked on the exact wording of Margaret’s statement. In the interim, the princess drove to Lambeth Palace to see the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Geoffrey Fisher. Upon entering his study, she asked him to put away the books he was reaching for and told him: “I am not going to marry Peter Townsend. I wanted you to know first.” The archbishop’s riposte was made with a beaming smile: “What a wonderful person the Holy Spirit is.”34 Then she returned to Clarence House and changed into a strapless pink satin gown and a diamond tiara to accompany her sister at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden to watch a dazzling production of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, a comedy about the triumph of true love over scheming parents and a marriage broker.

With the final statement now agreed, on October 31, the pair drank a toast and exchanged their final farewells at Clarence House. “There remained only the glow, once shared, of tenderness, constancy and singleness of heart,” Peter Townsend wistfully recalled.35 He returned to Lowndes Square, packed his bags, and went to see his two boys at their boarding school.

As Townsend drove out of London, Princess Margaret’s official statement was broadcast on the radio: “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.”

Her statement continued: “But mindful of the Church’s teaching 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.”

What began as a constitutional and legal wrangle devolved and dissolved into a simple matter of conscience. She was a devout Christian, a practicing congregant of the Church of England. Once she turned twenty-five, this became an issue of church, not state. Indeed, the state bent over backward to facilitate Margaret’s marriage. In the end she made a decision of faith, a choice she could have made when Peter and Rosemary Townsend first decided to divorce.

On the night that Margaret’s statement was released, which was several days after her last meeting with Townsend, she spent the evening alone at Clarence House. Her mother, with whom she was barely on speaking terms, failed to say good night, but her sister dutifully called Margo for a brief conversation. Then Margaret put the phone back on its cradle and continued to watch boxing on television.36 Her personal bout had gone the full fifteen rounds, but she knew that she had always had her sister in her corner.

What is striking about this dramatic romantic episode is how it parallels the theatrical contours of the abdication in 1936. There was,

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