'The Crown' Season 5: Did Princess Margaret Reconnect With Peter Townsend?

The fifth season of Netflix's hit royal drama The Crown dedicates a large part of its focus to the breakdown of the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana during the turbulent decade of the 1990s. However, a lesser-known royal love story is also examined between Princess Margaret and Group Captain Peter Townsend.

The series, which dramatizes key events during the life and reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II and her close family members, debuted in 2016. Margaret (played by actress Vanessa Kirby) was featured as a principal character in Seasons 1 and 2.

In Seasons 3 and 4, the princess was portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter, although it was a much smaller role as the real-life royal's position within the royal family became reduced once the children of Elizabeth became adults.

Seasons 5 and 6 see another British powerhouse actress take on the role of the princess dubbed the original "royal rebel": Lesley Manville, best known for her Oscar-nominated role in the 2018 movie Phantom Threads.

Manville plays Margaret as she reconnects with the love interest who she was prevented from marrying as shown in earlier seasons of the show.

So who was Peter Townsend and did he and Princess Margaret really meet again in the 1990s? Newsweek has the answers.

Who Was Peter Townsend?

Peter Townsend was a decorated World War II hero who flew with the Royal Air Force before joining the royal household as an equerry to King George VI in 1944.

In 1941 Townsend married Rosemary Pawle and the couple had two children. During their married life, the couple lived at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Great Park, the residence that is now the home of the prince and princess of Wales. The equerry built close relationships with the king and his family, including Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.

The Townsend marriage was not successful and the couple became estranged in the later years of the 1940s before eventually divorcing in 1952.

During the early 1950s, Townsend and Margaret formed a romantic attachment to one another, despite the aide being 15 years her senior, legally married, and the father of two children.

Accounts of exactly how and where the relationship developed vary. But following the death of King George VI and the accession of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, the pair became seriously involved.

At Elizabeth's coronation in 1953, Margaret was reported by journalists to have brushed a piece of fluff from Townsend's uniform in full view of the public. This intimate gesture was enough to confirm the relationship for the media who began reporting that the pair were considering marriage.

Townsend and Margaret had considered marriage, with the princess accepting a proposal. The aide's divorced status, however, became a central issue for the couple.

As Margaret was under 25 at the time, she needed royal permission from her sister to marry who, as head of the Church of England, could not give it as the church did not recognize divorce.

Margaret and Townsend agreed to wait two years until her 25th birthday to decide whether they would or would not marry, thus eliminating the need to place the queen in an awkward position. During this time Townsend was sent on a diplomatic posting to Brussels.

Why Did Peter Townsend and Princess Margaret Spilt?

When Princess Margaret turned 25, newspaper reports ran pressuring the royal to make up her mind quickly whether she would marry Townsend.

The aide returned to Britain to meet with Margaret. On October 31, 1955, they gave the press an answer in the form of a statement jointly drafted in the princess' name. It read:

Margaret, contrary to her representation in popular culture such as The Crown, was known for her devout Christian faith. Commentators have speculated that this, in combination with the realization that the relationship with Townsend might not have lasted, influenced the royal's decision.

For many years it was believed that in order to marry Townsend the princess would have been required to give up her royal titles, roles and income. This, however, was proven not to have been the case—with documents from the National Archives showing that a plan would have allowed Margaret to keep all of these after marriage, only being required to surrender her place in the line of succession.

In 1959, Townsend married 20-year-old Marie-Luce Jamagne. Margaret married the photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones in 1960. The marriage ended in divorce in 1978.

Did Princess Margaret Reconnect with Peter Townsend in the 1990s?

Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend fell out of touch following their separation and did not reunite again until a meeting over lunch in the 1990s.

The private event was only revealed in 2018 when the princess' former friend, Anne Glenconner, recounted the day in her memoir, Lady-in-Waiting: My Life in the Shadow of The Crown.

"Peter Townsend came to have lunch with Princess Margaret at Kensington Palace and I happened to be there," she wrote.

"They hadn't seen each other since he'd moved away in the 1950s...I watched him from the window, now a very old man, as he got out of the car and slowly made his way into the house.

"I didn't go to lunch," she continued, "but afterwards, once he'd left she asked me to sit with her. 'How did it go?' I asked her. 'He hasn't changed at all,' she replied.

"It was a charming response given the forty years that had passed."

There are no records of the couple having met again.

Townsend died soon afterwards in 1995 at the age of 80; Margaret died in 2002 at the age of 71.

Season 5 of The Crown is available to stream now on Netflix.

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