Word: townsend
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Margaret's roller-coaster romantic history goes back to the 1940s, when, as a coltish teenager, she developed a serious crush on Group Captain Peter Townsend, a handsome World War II flying hero and aide to King George VI. The crush developed into a full-fledged romance. When she was in her mid-20s, and Townsend had divorced his wife, a wedding seemed to be the next thing on Margaret's agenda. But Queen Elizabeth, as head of the Church of England, could not sanction the marriage of her younger sister, then third in line to the throne...
...princess gave up Townsend. "Mindful of the Church's teaching that marriage is indissoluble," she announced, "and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have resolved to put these considerations before any others...
That painful decision, say some who know Margaret, drove the unhappy princess into her marriage to Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960. Margaret was bitter following the Townsend bust-up, and seemed intent on getting even by finding a partner whose marital status was suitable but who conspicuously lacked the usual aristocratic Establishment credentials. For this scenario, Tony Armstrong-Jones seemed perfect: well-enough educated (Eton, Cambridge) but more than a little bohemian, a trendy, fast-living commoner who dared to court Margaret by inviting her-so friends said-to a balconied flat he had rented overlooking the Thames docks...
...Church still considers marriage indissoluble. Where civil divorce occurs, remarriage in the church is refused. Thus Margaret's uncle, King Edward VIII, had to abdicate his throne in 1936 to marry "the woman I love," the American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson, and Margaret had to forget Peter Townsend...
...Margie Townsend...