The British Royal Family is always extremely well protected, but not without reason. Did you know that several royals have narrowly escaped death? We list them.
A royal life is not all fun and games. Your life is under a magnifying glass, you have all kinds of responsibilities and if you are unlucky there are also people who have it in for your life. We have of course seen it with our own Amalia, but the British royal family also has to deal with the necessary threats. These 5 royals once escaped an assassination attempt.
Kidnapping of Princess Anne
In 1974, Princess Anne escaped a kidnapping that put her life at risk. While traveling through London in a limousine with her husband, Mark Phillips, their vehicle was pulled over by a Ford Escort. The driver, Ian Ball, got out with a gun and demanded that Anne leave with him for a ransom of £2 million.
But Anne? Miraculously, she managed to keep her cool. She said the famous words: “Not bloody likely”, and eventually a passer-by (who also turned out to be a boxer) managed to knock Ball to the ground. This allowed the police to overpower him and Princess Anne remained unharmed. Her driver, bodyguard and a passing journalist were shot by the kidnapper, but fortunately they survived.
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Princess Anne visits the injured men in hospital after the attack in 1974 (Image: Getty Images)
Queen Elizabeth
The late Queen Elizabeth II also had to deal with threats during her long reign. The first, not very well-known attempt took place in 1970, when Liz was travelling by train through Australia with Prince Philip. A group of men tried to derail the train by placing a large tree trunk on the tracks. The train hit the trunk, but because of the low speed it did not derail and no one was injured.
1981 will not have been the Queen’s favourite year either, because she was confronted with no less than two attempted assassinations. During the Trooping the Colour ceremony that year, a 17-year-old boy fired six blanks at her while she was on horseback. Fortunately, the Queen remained calm and led her horse safely away. Afterwards, the boy explained that he simply wanted to become ‘famous’. But why did it have to be this way again? That is also a mystery to us.
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Elizabeth II on horseback during Trooping the Colour 1981 (Image: Getty Images)
The second attempt that year came during a royal visit to New Zealand, when a young man, Christopher John Lewis, fired a shot as the Queen was getting out of a car. Fortunately, he missed, and the incident was initially played down to avoid panic.
But even in her later years, the Queen escaped assassination attempts. In 2021, a man armed with a crossbow was arrested in the grounds of Windsor Castle, where the Queen was staying. The intruder, who claimed to be planning an attack in revenge for the treatment of Indian people in the past, was intercepted by security before he could reach the Queen.
Bullets fired at Charles
Charles was also once startled by what appeared to be an attempted murder. On January 26, 1994, during an official visit to Australia, Charles attended an Australia Day ceremony in Sydney. And there it almost went wrong: a gunman, David Kang, broke through security and fired two shots in Charles’ direction. Later it turned out that they were only blanks, but it did cause a moment of panic. Fortunately, Kang was quickly overpowered and taken away.
Prince George
It’s too bizarre for words, but in 2018, even young Prince George was the target of a disturbing threat. Husnain Rashid, an extremist ISIS supporter, called for an attack on the then four-year-old prince online and provided detailed information about his school. He shared a photo of George at the school with the message that the prince was not safe. Fortunately, Rashid was arrested before anything could happen and was sentenced to life in prison. Security around Prince George and the British royal family was further tightened after this.
Queen Victoria
In this list, only one person can take the crown, and that is Queen Victoria. She survived no less than seven (!) assassination attempts during her life. The first took place in 1840, when Edward Oxford fired two shots at her while she was sitting next to Prince Albert in a carriage. Fortunately, he missed, and Victoria was unharmed.
The Queen was not a fearful person, and continued her regular carriage rides. Bizarrely, she was attacked six more times in the following decades by different individuals, often while riding in her carriage through London. She was almost always unharmed, but during one attack with a walking stick, things went wrong. In 1850, a man managed to hit her over the head with the metal knob of his cane, and she briefly lost consciousness. But the undeterred Victoria quickly recovered, and that same evening she appeared at the opera as usual. Head wound included.
Source: Royalty Online, Stars Insider, Tatler | Image: NL Beeld
