The Church of England was against her second marriage. So how did Princess Anne sort out a very practical route to happiness on this day?<\/h1>\n

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• Princess Anne and Sir Timothy Laurence were married\u00a0on December 12, 1992<\/span><\/li>\n
• Don’t miss our brilliant new podcast, The Crown: Fact or Fiction with Robert Hardman and Natasha Livingstone. Listen now on Spotify , Apple or wherever you get your podcasts<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Long known as a straightforward, practical kind of woman,\u00a0Princess Anne\u00a0found a very practical solution when things conspired to make her second marriage tricky.<\/p>\n

  Anne was already divorced from first husband, Captain Mark Philips, when she agreed to marry Timothy Laurence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

  But the Church of England did not permit the remarriage of divorcees. So on this day, December 12, 1992, Anne and Timothy Laurence wed in a small ceremony north of the border in the Scottish Presbyterian Church.\u00a0<\/p>\n

  It was a far cry from the magnificence of Princess Anne’s 1973 marriage to Mark Philips at Westminster Abbey, which had been the first royal wedding to reach a mass television audience – and in colour!\u00a0<\/p>\n

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  Princess Anne and Sir Timothy Laurence were married on\u00a0on December 12, 1992, in\u00a0Crathie Kirk, near Balmoral in Scotland<\/p>\n

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  Princess Anne and Tim Laurence pictured with his mother,\u00a0Prince Philip, Peter Phillips, Zara Phillips and Queen Elizabeth on their wedding day<\/p>\n

  It was less than a month after her decree absolute that the Princess Royal and Tim Laurence were married\u00a0at Crathie Kirk, Balmoral.<\/p>\n

  Sir Tim first made it to the heart of royal life in 1986, when he was appointed as the Queen’s Equerry – an official assistant to the\u00a0Royal Family.<\/p>\n

  READ MORE:\u00a0\u00a0How Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence rose from being an unknown aide to the Queen to Princess Anne’s devoted husband<\/h3>\n

  The pair slowly fell in love and three years later, Timothy proposed to Anne\u00a0with a cabochon sapphire and diamond ring. It was a simple yet unique design, suited perfectly for the no-nonsense royal.<\/p>\n

  The ceremony involved just\u00a030 guests including her parents the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Princess Margaret, her children Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips, Prince Charles and Prince Andrew.<\/p>\n

  The wedding also happened to take place just days after Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their legal separation.<\/p>\n

  For the big day, Princess Anne opted against the traditional bridal gown and instead wore a\u00a0high-neck shift-style dress with a white suit jacket.<\/p>\n

  She accessorised the look with black shoes and carried a small bunch of heather for her bouquet – matching the flowers in her hair, styled with her signature beehive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

  Sir Timothy wore his naval uniform.<\/p>\n

  Traditional Scottish bagpipes played as the newlyweds left the church for their\u00a0post-ceremony celebration at Craigowan Lodge on the Balmoral estate.<\/p>\n

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  The low-key affair had just 30 guests in attendance, including her parents the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip (pictured)<\/p>\n

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  Pictured: Tim Laurence and Princess Anne seen in their car after their wedding ceremony<\/p>\n

  Having made the leap from royal servant to royal spouse, Sir Tim has now been at the heart of the world’s most famous family for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n

  As well as accompanying the Queen at engagements, Sir Tim also escorted other royals, such as Princess Diana and the Duchess of York to venues and events.<\/p>\n

  His discretion and calm competence quickly won the trust of other royals with the late Queen and Prince Philip said to have been firm admirers.<\/p>\n

  A connection between the princess and her future husband first became noticed when, in 1988, Anne invited him to become a trustee of her charity – The Princess Royal’s Charity Trust.<\/p>\n

  By then, her relationship Mark Philips was on the rocks and matters seemed to escalate when the existence of a series of letters written by Sir Tim to Anne became public knowledge.<\/p>\n

  The letters had been stolen from Anne’s briefcase and delivered to The Sun. Rather than publishing them, the newspaper handed them to the police.<\/p>\n

  Almost overnight, he went from being an unknown member of the Queen’s staff to a potential love interest of the married Princess Royal. The navy officer believed that the saga would be the end of his career.<\/p>\n

  It had been less than four decades since King George VI’s married Equerry, Peter Townsend, had seen his own career come to a virtual halt when it emerged that he and Princess Margaret were in love.<\/p>\n

  Times had changed, however.\u00a0<\/p>\n

  Within days of the letter’s existence emerging, the Queen showed her support for Sir Tim by having him by her side at public engagements.<\/p>\n

  It was said, however, that Prince Philip had been less forgiving and had been angry that a servant of the Queen had acted in such a way with his married daughter.<\/p>\n

  But that did not stop Sir Tim’s romance with Anne from blossoming, as her marriage to Phillips petered out.<\/p>\n

  The pair announced their separation at the end of August in 1989 and in April 1992 the Palace announced that Anne had filed for divorce.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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  Pictured: A bystander waiting for\u00a0for the Princess Royal’s wedding at Crathie Church, Scotland<\/p>\n

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  Pictured: Princess Anne and Sir Tim with their dog on their first wedding anniversary in 1993<\/p>\n

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  Pictured: The banns of marriage for the Princess Royal and Timothy Laurence in 1992<\/p>\n

  Anne and Sir Tim went public with their romance in May 1992, a fortnight after her divorce was finalised. The couple took to the floor together at the Royal Caledonian Ball in London for a series of dances.<\/p>\n

  Their wedding later that year provided a happy ending to what the Queen had described as her ‘annus horribilis’.<\/p>\n

  Princess Anne and Sir Timothy now live together on the Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire.<\/p>\n

  Anne’s two children from her first marriage, Peter Philips and\u00a0Zara Tindall, also live on the estate with their respective partners and children.<\/p>\n

  Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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