18 things you never knew about Princess Anne

The royal family isn’t just known for the priceless jewels in its collection, the palaces scattered around the United Kingdom or the long-lasting love story of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip (nearly eight decades!). Before Queen Elizabeth’s death, she reigned for over 70 years and did her best to pass on a strong work ethic to her children. Although her sons may get most of the attention, England’s hardest-working member of the royal family tree is actually the princess royal, Princess Anne. Despite being the queen’s only daughter and second-eldest child (she’s just two years behind King Charles), Princess Anne has stayed out of the spotlight for most of her life.

Most recently seen at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, walking in the procession in a neat Royal Navy ceremonial uniform, the princess royal’s wish for privacy is well-known. She’s so reserved that Princess Anne doesn’t shake hands with the public – although handshakes have apparently dropped off in pandemic times, so perhaps she was simply ahead of the curve. But behind that stiff upper lip, the princess royal is hiding some fascinating facts. Here are the most interesting things you never knew about Princess Anne.

The royal family has a long tradition of enjoying equestrian sports, from hunting and polo to eventing and racing. But Princess Anne takes ‘horse girl’ to a whole new level. In 1976, she became the first member of the royal family to compete in the Olympic Games, taking the queen’s horse Goodwill to Montreal for the three-day equestrian event. “She completed her round after sustaining a concussion during a bad fall,” says royal expert and historian Nicoletta Gullace, a professor at the University of New Hampshire. If that’s not bravery worthy of a fairy-tale princess, we don’t know what is.

The princess royal was appointed to the International Olympic Committee in 1988, and her daughter – Zara Phillips, one of Queen Elizabeth’s lesser-known grandchildren – went on to compete in the same three-day event at the 2012 Olympics in London. The Great Britain equestrian team won silver, and Princess Anne had the honour of presenting the medals.

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The world loves a royal wedding, and the one that took place on November 13, 1973, was historic. Princess Anne married army officer Captain Mark Phillips at Westminster Abbey in a televised event that about 500 million people worldwide tuned in to watch. It was only the second time in 200 years that a royal had married a commoner.

The princess royal met Phillips through a shared love of equestrian sports – they competed on the same European eventing team in 1971. They had two children together, Peter and Zara, before divorcing after nearly 20 years of marriage in April 1992.

In December of that same year, Princess Anne married Timothy Laurence, a naval officer (now a vice admiral) and one of Queen Elizabeth’s former aides. There was a hint of royal scandal surrounding her second wedding, and not only because it came so soon after her divorce. In 1989, The Sun apparently obtained personal letters from Laurence to Princess Anne, and although the tabloid never published them, there has been considerable speculation about their contents over the years. After three decades of marriage, however, the couple is still rock solid. In fact, Princess Anne’s husband was most recently seen alongside Princess Anne and Prince William in Queen Elizabeth’s funeral procession.

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Princess Anne has a bit of a reputation as a royal rebel, and she broke with royal tradition when it came to her children as well. Peter and Zara took their father’s surname to become Peter Phillips and Zara Phillips – and that’s it. Princess Anne chose not to give them the titles of His or Her Royal Highness, though the queen offered. It seems that the princess wanted her children to have ordinary childhoods – as much as is possible for members of the royal family.

“I think it was probably easier for them,” she told Vanity Fair in 2020. “And I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles.” The children certainly haven’t suffered any ill effects: Peter runs a successful sports and entertainment agency, and Zara has forged a successful career as an equestrian and even won an Olympic medal.

Princess Anne’s children may be untitled, but she’s been the princess royal since 1987. The eldest daughter of the monarch traditionally carries the title, and she holds it for life. So even if Prince William becomes king, his daughter, Princess Charlotte, can only receive the title of princess royal if Princess Anne has passed away.

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It was early 1974, and Princess Anne was returning home to Buckingham Palace with her new husband after attending a charity event when her chauffeur stopped the Rolls-Royce on the Mall in London. Another car was blocking the way. A man named Ian Ball got out of his car, shot the chauffeur and a security officer, and demanded Princess Anne get out of the car. With her characteristic sharp tongue, she replied, “Not bloody likely!”

She relived the incident for a 2020 documentary, crediting her equestrian training for her cool-as-a-cucumber response. “One thing about horses and sport is you have to prepare for the unexpected,” she said. “I suppose that was the discipline which, to some extent, coloured my thought processes.”

In the end, Ball injured four people in his attempt to ransom the princess for a reported £2 million before a passer-by overpowered the would-be kidnapper by punching him in the head. He can count himself lucky that the daughter of Prince Philip (who once killed a tiger in a single shot) didn’t have him stuffed and mounted!

The sovereign can’t be tried in court – the last monarch who became the subject of a court hearing was Charles I, who was tried for treason in 1649 and executed – but other members of the royal family can. Case in point: Princess Anne, who became the first member of the British royal family with a criminal record – at least in the modern age.

In 2002, Princess Anne and her husband took their bull terrier, Dotty, out for a walk in Windsor Great Park. Dotty got loose and attacked two children, leaving them with bites and scratches. When the case went to court, Princess Anne admitted to violating the Dangerous Dogs Act. The judge ruled that Dotty’s life should be spared but ordered the princess to pay a fine of around $785 and leash Dotty in public for the rest of the dog’s life.

According to some accounts, Queen Elizabeth liked to floor it in her Land Rover on occasion, and it seems her lead foot was hereditary. In 2001, Princess Anne appeared in court on charges of speeding. She admitted to driving her Bentley at 150 km per hour in a 100 km per hour zone near her home in Gloucestershire and had to pay a fine of about $437 and around $33 in costs. This wasn’t her first speeding incident: she received a written police warning in 1972 and fines in 1977 and 1990, after which she was banned from driving for a month.

Just like horsewomanship, the princess seems to have passed a love for speed down to her daughter. Zara overturned a Land Rover when she was 19 (without injury) and was reportedly banned from driving for six months in 2020 after driving 145 km per hour in a 100 km per hour zone in Gloucestershire. Sound familiar?

As Gullace explains, Princess Anne is known as the hardest-working royal, and she has the numbers to back it up. Between 2016 and 2019, she carried out a total of 1945 engagements, with a packed schedule sometimes totalling four or five events a day. “If I’m going to be in London, I don’t want to be hanging about,” she told Vanity Fair in 2020.

The princess is the patron of more than 300 charities and military organisations, including various equine charities. With Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, removing themselves from royal duties, some of the pressure to serve has fallen on the older royals. Fortunately, Princess Anne seems up to the challenge. In 2021, she carried out more engagements than any other royal – and two more than her brother King Charles III.

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For her decades of work with Save the Children, Princess Anne earned a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. She had served as president of the organisation since 1970 and took over as royal patron from the queen in 2017.

The job involves a lot of travel, visiting Save the Children’s projects in countries like Ethiopia, South Africa, Mozambique, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as throughout the United Kingdom. President Kaunda of Zambia nominated the princess for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. But the prize that year went to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev for his role in changing East-West relations. Of course, Anne isn’t the only princess to accomplish significant charity work. The late Diana, Princess of Wales, was legendary for her kindness and charity efforts, and the new Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, will no doubt find a way to make the role her own as well.

Many members of the royal family have served in various branches of the military (even a young Queen Elizabeth!), but Princess Anne is not among them. She has, however, been awarded a few honorary military titles. “Princess Anne is breaking the mould of what it means to be a female royal,” says Gullace. “She was the first woman to walk in a royal funeral cortege, and she did so in a naval uniform, breeches and all.”

That’s an outfit that few royal women have ever worn. In 1993, the Royal Navy made her a rear admiral. And in 2009, she was promoted to vice admiral, a title her husband also holds. She now outranks him, though; in 2012, she was promoted to admiral.

It’s not all about the sea either. The princess also holds the rank of general in the British Army and air chief marshal in the Royal Air Force, among other titles across the British Commonwealth. So if you ever meet the princess royal, don’t forget to salute.