Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950) is the only daughter of
Queen Elizabeth II and
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. At the time of her birth, she was third, and later for a few years was second in the
line of succession to the thrones of
seven independent states; however, after additions to the Royal Family, and an evolution of the
Commonwealth, Anne is currently tenth in line to the thrones of 16 countries. She is resident in and most directly involved with the
United Kingdom, the oldest realm, while also carrying out duties in and on behalf of the other states of which her mother is sovereign. Anne is known for her charitable work, being the patron of over 200 organizations, and she carries out about 700 royal engagements and public appearances per year.
The seventh holder of the title
Princess Royal, Princess Anne is also known for equestrian talents; she won two silver and one gold medal at the
European Eventing Championships, and is the only member of the British Royal Family to have competed in the
Olympic Games. She is presently married to Vice-Admiral
Timothy Laurence, and has two children from her previous marriage to
Mark Phillips.
Early life and education
Anne was born at
Clarence House on 15 August 1950, the second child and first daughter of then
Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, and
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and second grandchild of
King George VI and
Queen Elizabeth. Baptised in the Music Room of
Buckingham Palace on 21 October 1950, by then
Archbishop of York,
Cyril Garbett, the Princess's godparents were her great-uncle,
Louis Mountbatten, Earl Mountbatten of Burma;
Andrew Elphinstone; her maternal grandmother; her paternal grandmother,
Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark; and her aunt,
The Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. By
letters patent of Anne's great-grandfather,
King George V, the titles of a
British prince or princess, and the style
Royal Highness, were only to be conferred on children and male-line grandchildren of the sovereign, as well as the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. However, on 22 October 1948, George VI issued new letters patent granting these honours to any children of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip; otherwise, Anne would merely have been
titled by courtesy as Lady Anne Mountbatten. In this way, the children of the
heiress presumptive had a Royal and Princely status.
As with royal children before her, a
governess, Catherine Peebles, was appointed to look after the Princess and was responsible for her early education at Buckingham Palace;
Peebles had also served as governess for Anne's older brother, Charles. When Anne's mother acceded after the death of George VI to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II, Anne was thereafter titled as Her Royal Highness The Princess Anne, but, given her young age at the time, did not attend her mother's coronation.
A
Girl Guides company, the
1st Buckingham Palace Company including the Holy Trinity Brompton Brownie pack, was reformed in May 1959, specifically so that, like her mother, Anne could socialize with girls her own age. The Princess Royal was active until 1963, when she went to boarding school. Anne remained under private tutelage until she was enrolled at
Benenden School in 1963, leaving five years later with six O-Levels and two A-Levels.
Anne's first boyfriend was
Andrew Parker Bowles, a former equerry to the Queen.
First marriage
On 14 November 1973, Princess Anne married
Mark Phillips, then a Lieutenant in the
1st Queen's Dragoon Guards, at
Westminster Abbey, in a ceremony that was televised around the world, with an estimated audience of 100 million. Following the wedding, Anne and her husband lived at
Gatcombe Park. By 1989, however, the Princess Royal and Mark Phillips announced their intention to separate, as the marriage had been under strain for a number of years. The couple divorced on 23 April 1992.
It was believed that the Queen had offered Phillips an
earldom on his wedding day, as was customary for untitled men marrying into the Royal Family. However, the offer was turned down, perhaps at the behest of Anne, who wanted to shield her future children from the publicity that titles might bring. The couple did have two children, and they thus became the first grandchildren of a Sovereign to carry no title, though they are not the first children of a Princess to carry no title: the children of
Princess Alexandra, the Queen's cousin, are also untitled.
Kidnapping attempt
As Princess Anne and Mark Phillips were returning to
Buckingham Palace on 20 March 1974, from a charity event on
Pall Mall, their
Austin Princess limousine was forced to stop by a
Ford Escort,
[Daily Express, 21 August 2006] the driver, Ian Ball, jumped out and began firing a gun.
James Beaton, the Princess's personal police officer, responded by exiting the limousine in order to shield the Princess and try to disarm Ball. Beaton's firearm, a
Walther PPK, jammed, and he was shot by the assailant, as was Anne's chauffeur, Alex Callender, when he tried to disarm Ball.
Brian McConnell, a passerby, also intervened, and was shot in the chest. Ball approached the Austin Princess and told Anne of his kidnapping plan, which was to hold the Princess for ransom, the sum given varying sources as £2 million, or £3 million to the
National Health Service.
Ball then directed Anne to get out of the car, to which she replied: "Not bloody likely!", and briefly considered hitting Ball.
Eventually, she dived out the other side of the limousine and another passing pedestrian, Ron Russell, punched Ball in the back of the head and then led Anne away from the scene. At that point,
Police Constable Michael Hills happened upon the situation; he too was shot by Ball, but not before he called for police backup.
Detective Constable Peter Edmonds, who had been nearby, answered and gave chase, finally arresting Ball.
All of the victims were hospitalised, and recovered from their wounds. For his defence of Princess Anne, Beaton was awarded the
George Cross, while Callender, McConnell, Russell, Hills, and Edmonds were each given the
Queen's Gallantry Medal.
Ball pleaded guilty to attempted murder and kidnapping, and was detained under the Mental Health Act, being sent to the
Broadmoor Hospital, where he remains. He later placed strange advertisements in a magazine, directing readers to , which offers £1 million to anyone who can prove Ball's theory that the whole incident took place a year after, and formed a part of a long-standing and elaborate persecution of Ball by a policeman.
The incident was the closest in modern times that any individual has come to kidnapping a member of the Royal Family, and prompted higher security levels for the Royals. It also served as the focus of the 2006 Granada Television produced docu-drama,
To Kidnap a Princess, as well as a real-life story line to the
Tom Clancy novel "
Patriot Games".
Second marriage
Anne married
Timothy Laurence, then a
commander in the Royal Navy, at
Crathie Kirk, near
Balmoral Castle, on 12 December 1992. The couple chose to marry in
Scotland as the
Church of England did not allow divorced persons to remarry in its churches, while the
Church of Scotland did. In participating in this ceremony, Anne became the first Royal divorcée to remarry since
Victoria, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine, did so in 1905. Like Phillips before him, Laurence received no peerage, and the couple leased a flat in
Dolphin Square, London. They later gave up this city home and now reside between an apartment at Buckingham Palace and Gatcombe Park. Anne has no children with Laurence.
The Princess Royal faced
civil court charges in March 2001, when she pleaded guilty to driving at 93 mph on a
dual carriageway, while on her way to
Hartpury College in
Gloucestershire. She was fined £400 by
Cheltenham Magistrate's Court, and had five points added to her driving licence. The following year, she was convicted of a second offence under the
Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, after she pleaded guilty to the charge that her dog, Dotty, attacked two boys while she and Laurence were taking the dog for a walk in
Windsor Great Park. The Princess was fined £500 by
Berkshire Magistrates' Court and ordered to give Dotty more training.
Personal interests
Pharology, the study of lighthouses, is a focus of interest for Princess Anne; she made it an ambition to see personally each of Scotland's 215 lighthouses, often touring them with the
Northern Lighthouse Board, of which she is
patron. It is thought the interest stems from Anne's visit, when she was five years old, to
Tiumpan Head with her mother. Princess Anne also has been patron of
Sense (The National Deafblind and Rubella Association) since 1986. Sense is a national charity in the United Kingdom that supports and campaigns for children and adults who are deafblind. It provides specialist information, advice and services to deafblind people, their families, carers and the professionals who work with them. In addition, it supports people who have sensory impairments with additional disabilities. The Princess Royal takes a great interest in the work of this charity and hosts a number of events to raise money for its continued good work in the community and beyond.
Equestrianism
Anne has always shown a keen interest in
horses and equine pursuits. At the age of 21, the Princess won the individual title at the
European Eventing Championship, and was voted the
BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1971. For more than five years she also competed with the British
eventing team, winning a silver medal in both individual and team disciplines in the 1975 European Eventing Championship, riding the home-bred
Doublet. The following year Anne participated in the
1976 Olympic Games in
Montreal as a member of the British team, riding the Queen's horse,
Goodwill. On 5 February 1987, she became the first Royal to appear as a contestant on a television quiz-show when she competed on the BBC panel game
A Question of Sport.Her daughter, Zara Phillips is also a keen horse rider and she has performed at many a competition with her faithful horse, Toytown.
Official duties
thumb|200px|right|The Princess Royal with Vladimir Putin in 2000
As Princess Royal, Princess Anne undertakes a number of official duties on behalf of her mother, in her role as sovereign of any of the
Commonwealth realms. Anne began to undertake official royal duties overseas upon leaving secondary school,
and accompanied her parents on a
state visit to
Austria in the same year.
She will sometimes stand in for the Queen at the funerals of foreign dignitaries (which the Queen customarily does not attend), and resides at
Holyrood Palace in
Edinburgh each summer, hosting engagements there. The Princess also travels abroad on behalf of the United Kingdom up to three times a year; she was the first member of the Royal Family to make an official visit to the
USSR when she went there as a guest of the government in 1990.
The Princess's first tour of
Australia was with her parents in 1970, since which she has returned on numerous occasions to undertake official engagements as a
colonel-in-chief of an Australian regiment, or to attend memorials and services, such as the National Memorial Service for Bushfire Victims in
Melbourne,
Australia, on 22 February 2009.
Following the retirement of the Queen Mother in 1981, Anne was
elected by graduates of the
University of London as that institution's
Chancellor. Throughout May 1996, the Princess served as
Her Majesty's High Commissioner to the
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which granted her, for the duration of the appointment, a higher precedence in Scotland, and the alternative style of
Her Grace. In 2007, the Princess Royal had the honour of being appointed by the Queen as
Grand Master of the
Royal Victorian Order, a position her late grandmother had also held.
The Princess Royal carries out the most engagements of any member of the Royal Family, and is involved with over 200 charities and organisations in an official capacity. She works extensively for
Save the Children, of which she has been president since 1970, and she initiated
The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in 1991; her work for the charity takes her all over the world, including many poverty stricken
African nations. She is also the Royal Patron of
WISE, an organisation that encourages young women to pursue careers in science, engineering and construction. Her extensive work for
St. John Ambulance as Commandant-in-Chief of St. John Ambulance Cadets has helped to develop many young people, as she annually attends the Grand Prior Award Reception. She is also a British representative in the
International Olympic Committee as an administrator, and is a member of the
London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles and styles
- 15 August 1950 6 February 1952: Her Royal Highness Princess Anne of Edinburgh
- 6 February 1952 14 November 1973: Her Royal Highness The Princess Anne
- 14 November 1973 13 June 1987: Her Royal Highness The Princess Anne, Mrs. Mark Phillips
- 13 June 1987: Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal
The Princess's British style and title in full:
Her Royal Highness The Princess Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise, The Princess Royal, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Dame Grand Cross and Grand Master of the Royal Victorian Order, Dame Grand Cross of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem. In 1996, Anne was entitled to be called Her Grace The Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
Anne is the seventh creation of the title
Princess Royal, an appellation only given to the eldest daughter of the sovereign, the last holder being
George V's daughter,
Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood.
Honours
Appointments:
- * 1998: Dame Grand Cross of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem (GCStJ)
Decorations
Foreign honours
- 1969: Decoration for Honour of Merit, in Gold with Sash
Honorary degrees
Honorary military appointments
As with other senior royals, Princess Anne holds a number of honorary appointments in the armed forces of several
Commonwealth realms. In 2002, she became the first non-reigning woman to attend a funeral in uniform when she wore that of the
Royal Navy at the funeral of her grandmother,
the Queen Mother.
Anne is of the following regiments, corps, and branches:
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
United Kingdom
- Royal Honorary Colonel of the University of London OTC
- Rear Admiral and Chief Commandant for women of the Royal Navy
Arms
Ancestry
Issue
