Royal Family News: How Many Times Has Queen Elizabeth Been Targeted For Assassination?

British royal family news reveals that being a popular, high-profile VIP comes with both perks and downsides. Iconic Queen Elizabeth has ruled the UK for nearly 70 years and during her reign she has faced down the bad guys, as in assassins, at least three times–that we know about.

Here are three times the queen faced danger and lived to tell the tale.

Royal Family News – Trooping The Colour, 1981

Trooping the Colour takes place every year in London, in honor of Her Majesty’s birthday. In 1981 the usual crowds gathered along the Mall to watch the extravagant parade. When the queen rode by, 17-year-old Marcus Sarjeant shot at her. He fired six blanks from a starting pistol and her horse, Burmese, balked. She managed to calm him down and kept riding along.

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Sarjeant was arrested and tried. He was sentenced to five years in prison under the Treason Act because he, “willfully discharged at or near Her Majesty the queen a gun with the intent to alarm or distress Her Majesty.” According to The Times he stated that he wanted to be famous and had been influenced by the assassination of John Lennon in 1980.

Royal Family News – New Zealand, 1981

That same year the queen once again faced an attempt on her life while in New Zealand. She was a museum in Dunedin when Christopher John Lewis, 17 fired at her from the window of a nearby building. It happened as she as exited her vehicle and luckily he missed Her Majesty.

Witnesses who were in the area at the time reported hearing a loud crack and Lewis was arrested eight days later. He spent three years incarcerated, at times in a psychiatric facility.

Royal Family News – Australia, 1970

In 1970 Queen Elizabeth and her husband, the late Prince Philip, were on a tour of Australia. That official royal tour was greatly looked-forward to by the country, except for one citizen.

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According to former Detective Superintendent Cliff McHardy an unsuccessful attempt was made on her life while she was there. It was discovered that someone put a log on the train tracks in an attempt to derail the train near Lithgow. Luckily the tracks were inspected beforehand, but the log was missed!

The train struck the log but was going too slow to do damage. There were no arrests made and the plot became known in 2009 when McHardy talked about it when he retired.

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