The Unflappable Princess Anne: How the Queen’s Daughter Dealt With a Kidnap Attempt, Divorce, Diana & the Title ”Her Royal Rudeness”
On March 20, 1974, Princess Anne was almost kidnapped.
The only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip was on her way to Buckingham Palace with her husband, Mark Phillips, after a film screening when their maroon Rolls Royce was waylaid on the Mall by a white Ford Escort.
Anne's Scotland Yard-issued bodyguard, Inspector James Beaton, got out of the car and was shot in the shoulder by Ian Ball, a 26-year-old unemployed laborer from north London.
Beaton fired back once but then his gun jammed.
Ball approached the Rolls and ordered Anne to get out—or he'd shoot.
"Bloody likely," the 23-year-old princess retorted.
Ball ended up shooting...
