Does anyone know how she felt about Margaret's relationship with Peter?Did she support it or opposed it?
The Queen Mother definitely did not support Margaret's relationship with Peter Townsend and performed what some courtiers called her "Imperial Ostrich Routine", thereby pretending the situation did not exist, much to Margaret's frustration. QEQM even kept on a friendly basis with Townsend but never discussed Margaret and their situation with either the Princess or Townsend.
It fell to the Queen to deal with this situation and of course, HM was bound to listen to her ministers.
In later years, PM stated that if the situation had been explained
fully to them, with all the repercussions that were unavoidable, they both would have given up on the idea much sooner instead of pining for each other until PM's twenty-fifth birthday.
PM's famous strong dislike for Lascelles came not from the advice he gave the Queen that the marriage could not go forward as a Royal marriage but rather stemmed from Margaret's frustration for Lascelles not clearly explaining the repercussions if PM were to marry Townsend at twenty-five; both the Princess and Townsend, upon discovering the "bottom line", immediately and mutually called a halt to the romance.
Princess Margaret so regretted the waste of time and additional unnecessary heartache that Kensington Palace lore has it that she once urged her chauffeur to run Lascelles over! Of course, I have no idea if that is a true story, but this was many years later and Margaret's resentment was still boiling. (Especially if one considers Lascelles was a very old man by the time PM supposedly made the "order" to her chauffeur.)
Back to the Queen Mother - Princess Margaret often spoke to her so rudely that some ladies-in-waiting finally told QEQM they could not stand to see her spoken to in such a manner and so often. Whereupon HM smiled gently, told them all not to worry, for she was used to it! Princess Margaret's other main bone of contention with her mother was what PM considered to be her inferior education. That subject was brought up regularly, and in front of guests at all the Royal Family's private homes for most of Margaret's adult life.
To insert my personal opinion here, I don't think it was easy to be Queen Elizabeth's daughter, in Margaret's case at least. HM The Queen had her Office and some protocol to protect her, and she married very young. I'm not suggesting there was not great love between all of them as clearly, there was. But love does not continuously conceal deep-rooted resentments. In Shawcross' biography, he reminded me of an incident mentioned in several books about the Queen Mother; the famous diarist, "Chips" Channon saw Margaret, around age eighteen, at a ball and wrote that night, "...there already seems to be an air of Marie Antoinette about her".
Another "IMHO" - had King George VI lived a few years longer, the Townsend situation would have never become out of hand and I think Margaret would have made a more practical (I don't mean without love) marriage, probably into the British Aristocracy. I think she would have been happier. The death of her father was a great, great blow to her and Princess Margaret was religious and remained so, all her life. Hmmm - I think this probably could have gone into the PM thread, but as we were discussing QEQM, too, it should be okay, I hope! Anyhow, Princess Margaret was certainly an enigma in many ways; she liked the bohemian set but never let it be forgotten "who she was"; she cavorted round the Caribbean with Roddy Llewellyn while married, yet remained unfailingly religious to the end of her life. Then there's the member of the Home family who supposedly committed suicide "over her" (they supposedly had a love affair) - but nothing interfered with her duties as a mother and she certainly raised two amazing children who adored and respected her and are both very much loved by HM The Queen.
When I'm done with all the QEQM bios, I'm going to read anything new about Princess Margaret; does anyone know if an authorised biography was/is/will be written about her? I'm sure that would be a real page-turner and it might also provide more insight into the private character of the Queen Mother.
