The relationship between Princess Margaret and Group Captain Peter Townsend was under great scrutiny during the 1950s. Divorced Townsend was seen by many as an unsuitable match for the young princess, and in the end the Princess had no choice but to choose between her royal title or the love of her life.

The Queen had to give permission for Princess Margaret to marry, under the Royal Marriages Act of 1772.

However, at the time of Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend’s relationship, the Church of England opposed divorce.

The Royal Family had also been scandalised before in a similar situation, with the marriage of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson leading to the abdication crisis of the 1930s.

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As head of the Church of England, it is thought the Queen could not allow her sister to marry a divorced man, and subsequently, Margaret and Peter did not marry.

While Princess Margaret is often portrayed as helpless to the situation, the Telegraph reported in 2009 how an unearthed letter dated from 1955 showed the Princess was determined not to allow the decision to be made for her.

Six days before her 25th birthday, Princess Margaret wrote to the then-Prime Minister, Anthony Eden.

The letter said: “I am writing to tell you, as far as I can of any personal plans during the next few months … During the last of August and all September I shall be here at Balmoral, and I have no doubt that during this time – especially on my birthday on August 21st – the press will encourage every sort of speculation about the possibility of my marrying Group Captain Peter Townsend.

“I am not going to see him during this time but in October I shall be returning to London, and he will then be taking his annual leave – I do certainly hope to see him while he is there…

“But it is only by seeing him in this way that I feel I can properly decide whether I can marry him or not.

“At the end of October or early November I very much hope to be in a position to tell you and the other Commonwealth Prime Ministers what I intend to do.

“The Queen of course knows I am writing to you about this, but of course no one else does, and as everything is so uncertain I know you will regard it certainly as a confidence.”

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Princess Margaret’s official biographer, Christopher Warwick, told the publication the documents “put a completely different complexion on the accepted version of events.”

Mr Warwick added: “This letter rewrites history, because here you’ve got a very determined and confident young woman in control of the situation, telling the Prime Minister that she has not decided and is wavering, which is at odds with what the public was led to believe and certainly with what she told me.

“The perception was that she gave up the love of her life for duty and protocol, but this letter sets a question mark over that.

“It shows that the love, conceivably, was not as strong as it was to begin with.

“It’s likely she didn’t want anyone other than Eden to know she’d had doubts, because it had gone so far.”

Group Captain Townsend went on to marry Marie-Luce Jamagne in 1959.

Princess Margaret later married Anthony Armstrong-Jones, a photographer, in 1960.

Although they were the picture of happiness on their wedding day, Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon divorced in 1978.

Princess Margaret died in 2002 at the age of 71.

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