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| Sunday, 4 January 2004 |
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Britain had crisis plan for Margaret love marriage LONDON, (Reuters) The British government drew up crisis plans in case Queen Elizabeth's sister Princess Margaret decided to renounce her claim to the throne to pursue a love marriage with a divorced war hero, archived documents show. The documents -- unsealed on Friday at Britain's National Archive after nearly 50 years -- include several versions of a letter drafted by officials on behalf of a young Princess Margaret to her sister the queen. Princess Margaret died in 2002. In her letter nearly half a century ago, Margaret would have asked permission to marry the dashing Air Group Captain Peter Townsend, renouncing any claim to the throne. "I have come to the conclusion that in all the circumstances, the best course for me to follow is to marry P.T. and to give up all my rights to the Succession, both for myself and for my descendants," a draft of the letter read. Margaret, Elizabeth's younger sister, was the Princess Diana of her day, a glamorous figure whose love life fed the appetites of the newspapers and society gossips. Throughout the autumn of 1955, two years after Elizabeth became queen, Britain was mesmerised by the story of Margaret's romance with Townsend, a divorced war hero twice her age, with two children. For Margaret to marry him would have required parliament to pass special laws revoking her rights to the succession, seek the approval of other members of the Commonwealth, and probably repeal a law on royal family marriages dating back to 1772. Officials drew up a speech for Prime Minister Anthony Eden to deliver in parliament. Eden sent a top secret cable to the prime ministers of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) warning them that the princess was deciding whether to marry, and that they could be asked to agree. In the end, Margaret decided not to marry Townsend, and her letter to her sister remained unsent. Her decision to give up love for duty was widely admired in the press. Five years later, she married photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones. She later said she had agreed to marry Armstrong-Jones on the day she received a letter from Townsend announcing he was engaged to someone else. When she eventually left Armstrong-Jones for a younger man, she became the first royal to divorce since King Henry VIII. |
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