A PRIVATE letter in which Queen Victoria gave a princess her blessing to marry a commoner for love has been revealed to the public for the first time.
The poignancy of the correspondence, which was suppressed by the government in the 1950s as speculation grew over Princess Margaret's relationship with Group Captain Peter Townsend, will not be lost on subsequent generations of the royal family.
It was written in 1880, after Princess Frederica of Hanover, affectionately known as Lily, eloped to England because her father had refused to allow her to marry his equerry.
In a letter to Frederica's brother, Victoria said she had taken in the couple and given her consent to their marriage.
"I know well that you, as well as your dear mother . . . would have desired another marriage more in accordance with her rank, for Lily is worthy of the highest positions; but she cannot marry without her heart and her heart belongs to another.
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"I can only respect her noble decision and I believe that a peaceful life with the man she loves and esteems will be best for her."
Victoria's tender words may jar with her stern reputation, but they seem prescient given the romantic troubles that have plagued the House of Windsor - from the abdication crisis of 1936, when Edward VIII chose marriage to Wallis Simpson instead of the throne; with Margaret and, later, with the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles.
The letter is contained within top secret government papers released this weekend by the National Archives under the Freedom of Information Act. It was supposed to be produced as evidence during a legal action brought in 1955 by Prince Ernst of Hanover who, despite having served in Hitler's army, was determined to establish that he was a British citizen.
At the time the Queen was facing a dilemma over whether her sister, Margaret, should be allowed to marry Townsend, a royal equerry and divorcé. As head of the Church of England it was impossible for her to sanction the union.
However, the government feared that Ernst's complicated claim could cause an even bigger scandal, which led to a partial cover-up that was sanctioned by the cabinet.
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The German prince's case, which went all the way up to the House of Lords, revolved around an act of parliament of 1705 which declared that descendants of Sophia, the mother of King George I - who was also king, or elector, of Hanover - had the right to British nationality.
The prince's action also presented a challenge to the legitimacy of several royal marriages, raising awkward questions about the legitimacy of Princess Alice, the Duke of Edinburgh's mother, and Lord Mountbatten, a mentor to Charles. Under the Royal Marriages Act 1772, members of the royal family are required to seek the sovereign's permission to wed, unless they are the children of princesses who had married into foreign families.
The effect of Ernst winning the case was that all German princes descended from Sophia are technically British subjects - and should also have had their marriages approved by the sovereign. Without this permission their offspring would, in theory, be illegitimate.
In a letter to Gwilym Lloyd-George, the home secretary, on October 28, 1955, Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, the attorney-general, wrote: "According to one view, a princess who married someone made a British subject . . . has not married into a foreign family, so that her children require the sovereign's consent for their marriages to be otherwise than null and void.
"If this view is correct then the Duke of Edinburgh's mother [Princess Alice], Lord Louis Mountbatten, and I think Lord Milford Haven also, are illegitimate . . . public controversy on this question would obviously be most undesirable."
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Alice's parents were Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, the granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and Louis of Battenberg, a German prince. Alice had a sister and two brothers, including Lord Mountbatten of Burma, who was close to Prince Charles until his assassination by the IRA in 1979.
Manningham-Buller, whose daughter, Dame Eliza retired last year as head of MI5, added in his letter: "Questions of inheritance to property and of the right to sit in the House of Lords may be involved."
Although Ernst won his case without having to refer to the 1705 act, the government papers reveal that Manningham-Buller struck a deal with the prince's lawyer, Sir Leslie Farrer (who was also solicitor to the Queen), to prevent any discussion in court of the Royal Marriages Act.
"The affidavit which had been filed on behalf of the prince contained material which was thought by the government likely to provoke further comment of an embarrassing character and, at the request of the cabinet, the attorney-general saw Farrer and asked that the affidavit should not be read out in court," a civil servant later wrote. Ernst had intended to use Victoria's letter to back up his claim of loyalty to the monarchy, but it was never made public.
Queen Victoria's letter was suppressed for fear it would encourage a marriage between Margaret and Townsend.
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On October 31 1955, Margaret issued a statement in which she said she would not be marrying Townsend. The princess, who went on to wed the photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones, said she had reached the decision "entirely alone" and had been "strengthened by the unfailing support and devotion" of Townsend.