Attacks On The Royal Family - Part 2

The Queen was Shot at the Trooping Colour (1981)

The Queen on the Trooping Colour ceremony 1981

 The Queen has been shot during Horseguards' Parade for the start of the Trooping Colour ceremony on 13 June 1981 in London. This was done by a teenage boy, who was 17 years old, called Marcus Serjeant. He had used a blank cartridge pistol for that.

  On that day the Queen had rode past crowd on horseback traditionally. Suddenly Marcus pointed a gun directly at the Queen among the crowd and fired six blank cartridges. Therewith the Queen's horse startled, but she was able to bring it back under control with a few seconds. The monarch looked shaken by the episode, but soon recovered her composure. She comforted her 19 years old horse, Burmese, which she has ridden in birthday parades since 1969.

Marcus pointed his gun directly at the Queen

The Queen's horse startled, but she was able to bring it back under control with a few seconds.

  Meanwhile a guardsmen and police overcame and arrested Marcus, gunman. He had said " I wanted to be famous. I wanted to be a somebody " as he was arrested. When the police investigated his house, they had found his diary. There it was mentioned " I am going to stun and mystify the whole world with nothing more than a gun. I will become the most famous teenager in the world ". 

  He had also sent a letter to Buckingham Palace which read, " Your Majesty, Don't go to the Trooping the Colour ceremony, because there is an assassin set up to kill you, waiting just outside the palace". The letter arrived on 16 June, three days late.

A guardsmen and police were overcoming the struggle 

  Marcus was jailed for five years. He wrote to the Queen from prison to apologize  but he never received a reply. He was released in October 1984, at the age of 20 and he changed his name and disappeared into history.