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who could not bring themselves to be cruel to be kind. The Queen Mother had closed her
eyes to the growing romance taking shape in her own house; since the death of her
husband she had clung to the household in which, as far as she could be, she was happy.
Townsend was necessary to her. Elizabeth, now the head of the family, was devoted to
her mother and sister and could not bear to see them unhappy. She felt that she had
inherited responsibility for them from her father. In the interests of the monarchy
perhaps she should have pointed out, as Queen Victoria most certainly would have, that
the marriage was impossible and sent Townsend away before the scandal became public
and protracted. As a wise and kind human being she played for time, refusing to
pressurize her sister, insisting that Margaret make her own decision. In the end the
Princess was free to marry whomever she chose as long as she was prepared to sacrifice
everything for love and take the consequences. When Elizabeth’s Private Secretary,
Martin Charteris, was asked on television if Margaret had been sacrificed on the altar of
the establishment, he replied with a meaningful shrug, ‘She sacrificed herself The end of
the Townsend affair in 1955 had both public and private consequences. Unfairly, to a
growing section of the people it linked the monarchy with a hypocritical establishment,
while in private Elizabeth was made to feel still more responsibility for her sister. In her
dealings with her sister’s love affair, Elizabeth had failed to make the connection with
the public dimension of the royal family’s private life and was to make the same
mistake again when it came to the lives of her own children.