On a spring evening in 1974, Princess Anne was sitting in the back of a Rolls Royce with her new husband, Captain Mark Phillips, as they sped down The Mall towards Buckingham Palace.
But just metres from home, a man swerved his car to block their path, shot her bodyguard and driver, and pointed his pistol at the Queen’s only daughter.
“I want you to come with me for a day or two, because I want 2 million [pounds],” her would-be kidnapper, Ian Ball, told her.
“Will you get out of the car?”
In his Ford Escort, Ball had stashed two pairs of handcuffs, Valium tranquillisers, and a typed ransom note for Queen Elizabeth II.
But despite her titles and tiaras, 24-year-old Anne was no shrinking violet.
She had earned herself the nickname “her royal rudeness” because she suffered no fools — whether they were impertinent tabloid reporters, or armed men trying to force her into a car.
“Not bloody likely,” she shot back.
“And I haven’t got 2 million.”
A tabloid reporter who happened to be walking by recognised Anne’s Rolls-Royce and tried to intervene.
“Don’t be silly, old boy, put the gun down,” Brian McConnell said.
Ball responded by shooting him in the chest. A police officer, Constable Michael Hills, then arrived at the scene and was shot in the stomach.
Surrounded by blood, injured men and broken glass, Anne later told the police she wondered if she would have to fight Ball off herself.
“It was all so infuriating; I kept saying I didn’t want to get out of the car, and I was not going to get out of the car,” she said.
“I nearly lost my temper with him, but I knew that if I did, I should hit him and he would shoot me.”
Princess Anne later recalled to TV host Michael Parkinson that she spent about 15 minutes arguing with her would-be kidnapper, stoically refusing to go with him.
When Ball tried to pull her out of the Rolls-Royce by her arm, she felt like the rope caught in a game of tug of war, her velvet dress splitting up the back as Captain Phillips grabbed hold of the other arm to keep her inside the car.
Fearing the situation could spiral, Anne decided to save herself by escaping out the other side of the car.
“I could reach the door handle behind my head,” she told Parkinson.
“So I opened the door and literally put my feet over my head and did a backwards somersault.”
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# Snippet from article:
On a spring evening in 1974, Princess Anne was sitting in the back of a Rolls Royce with her new husband, Captain Mark Phillips, as they sped down The Mall towards Buckingham Palace.
But just metres from home, a man swerved his car to block their path, shot her bodyguard and driver, and pointed his pistol at the Queen’s only daughter.
“I want you to come with me for a day or two, because I want 2 million [pounds],” her would-be kidnapper, Ian Ball, told her.
“Will you get out of the car?”
In his Ford Escort, Ball had stashed two pairs of handcuffs, Valium tranquillisers, and a typed ransom note for Queen Elizabeth II.
But despite her titles and tiaras, 24-year-old Anne was no shrinking violet.
She had earned herself the nickname “her royal rudeness” because she suffered no fools — whether they were impertinent tabloid reporters, or armed men trying to force her into a car.
“Not bloody likely,” she shot back.
“And I haven’t got 2 million.”
A tabloid reporter who happened to be walking by recognised Anne’s Rolls-Royce and tried to intervene.
“Don’t be silly, old boy, put the gun down,” Brian McConnell said.
Ball responded by shooting him in the chest. A police officer, Constable Michael Hills, then arrived at the scene and was shot in the stomach.
Surrounded by blood, injured men and broken glass, Anne later told the police she wondered if she would have to fight Ball off herself.
“It was all so infuriating; I kept saying I didn’t want to get out of the car, and I was not going to get out of the car,” she said.
“I nearly lost my temper with him, but I knew that if I did, I should hit him and he would shoot me.”
Princess Anne later recalled to TV host Michael Parkinson that she spent about 15 minutes arguing with her would-be kidnapper, stoically refusing to go with him.
When Ball tried to pull her out of the Rolls-Royce by her arm, she felt like the rope caught in a game of tug of war, her velvet dress splitting up the back as Captain Phillips grabbed hold of the other arm to keep her inside the car.
Fearing the situation could spiral, Anne decided to save herself by escaping out the other side of the car.
“I could reach the door handle behind my head,” she told Parkinson.
“So I opened the door and literally put my feet over my head and did a backwards somersault.”
Would have made a fabulous plot on The Crown.
“Not bloody likely.”
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