Anne, Princess Royal

Anne, Princess Royal  (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950) is the second child and only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. At the time of her birth, she was third (behind her mother and elder brother) and rose to second (after her mother's accession) in the line of succession to the thrones of the 16 Commonwealth realms; however, after the birth of two younger brothers, six nieces and nephews, and one grand-nephew, she is currently eleventh in line.

The seventh holder of the title Princess Royal, Anne is known for her charitable work, being the patron of over 200 organisations, and she carries out about 500 royal engagements and public appearances per year. She is also known for equestrian talents; she won two silver medals (1975) and one gold medal (1971) at the European Eventing Championships, and was the first member of the British Royal Family to have competed in the Olympic Games. Currently married to Vice-Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, she has two children from her previous marriage to Mark Phillips and two granddaughters.

Early life and education
Anne was born at Clarence House on 15 August 1950 at 11:50 am, as the second child and only 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: the Queen—later Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (her maternal grandmother); the Hereditary Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (her paternal aunt); Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark (her paternal grandmother); Earl Mountbatten of Burma (her paternal great-uncle); and the Hon. Rev. Andrew Elphinstone (her cousin).

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 eldest son 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 socialise 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 GCE O-Levels and two A-Levels. Anne's first boyfriend was Andrew Parker Bowles, who was Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall's first husband.

Princess Anne served as a bridesmaid on several occasions. She was a bridesmaid at the 1961 wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Kent.

First marriage
On Wednesday, 14 November 1973 (the twenty-fifth birthday of her brother, Prince Charles), Princess Anne married Mark Phillips, 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. He was made acting captain by the start of 1974 when he was appointed a personal aide-de-camp to Queen Elizabeth II. 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, Phillips did not accept the offer. The couple had two children, Peter Phillips and Zara Phillips, and so, unusually for the grandchildren of a monarch, they have no title. (However, they are not currently the only children of a British Princess to carry no title: the children of Princess Alexandra, the Queen's cousin, are also untitled.)

On 29 December 2010, the Princess Royal became a grandmother when a daughter, Savannah, was born to her son and his wife Autumn. On 29 March 2012, another daughter, Isla, was born to the couple.

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 Princess IV limousine was forced to stop by a Ford Escort. The driver of the Escort, Ian Ball, jumped out and began firing a gun. Inspector James Beaton, the Princess's personal police officer, responded by exiting the limousine in order to shield the Princess and to attempt 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 nearby tabloid journalist, also intervened, and was shot in the chest. Ball approached the Princess's car and told her of his kidnapping plan, which was to hold the Princess for ransom, the sum given by varying sources as £2 million or £3 million, which he intended to give 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 of 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 quickly. For his defence of Princess Anne, Beaton was awarded the George Cross, Hills and Russell were awarded the George Medal, and Callender, McConnell and Edmonds were awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal. Ball pleaded guilty to attempted murder and kidnapping, and was detained under the Mental Health Act.

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, and inspired story lines in the Tom Clancy novel Patriot Games and the Antonia Fraser novel Your Royal Hostage.

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 routinely allow divorced persons whose former spouses are still living to remarry in its churches, while the Church of Scotland did under certain circumstances. 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 St James's Palace and Gatcombe Park. Anne has no children by Laurence.

Court sanctions and criminal record
The Princess Royal faced court charges in March 2001, when she pleaded guilty to driving at 93 mph (150 km/h) 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 became the first senior member of the royal family to have a criminal record, after she was convicted of an offence under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. She pleaded guilty to the charge that her dog, Dotty, attacked two children while she and Laurence were walking the dog in Windsor Great Park. The Princess was fined £500 by Berkshire Magistrates' Court and ordered to give Dotty more training.

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. Princess Anne assumed the Presidency of the Fédération Équestre Internationale from 1986 until 1994. 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 equestrian competitor. Together with her horse, Toytown, she won individual and team gold medals at the 2005 European Eventing Championship as well as individual gold and team silver medals at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games. She went on to win a team silver medal at the London 2012 Olympics as a member of Great Britain Eventing Team.

Official duties
As Princess Royal, Princess Anne undertakes a number of official duties on behalf of her mother, in her role as sovereign 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 victims of the Black Saturday bushfires 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 grandmother had also held.

The Princess Royal carries out a full schedule of royal engagements 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 was a member of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. She was President of BAFTA from 1973 to 2001.

She is also a Royal Fellow of the Royal Society. Royal Fellows are members of the Monarchy who are recommended and elected by the Society's Council. There are currently only five Royal Fellows, including The Princess Royal herself, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duke of Kent, and The Duke of Cambridge.

The Princess Royal was elected Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh in 2011, effective 31 March, succeeding her father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh who stepped down from the role in 2010. Likewise she accepted in 2011 the roles of President of City and Guilds of London Institute, Master of the Corporation of Trinity House and President of the Royal Society of Arts, also in succession to her father. She is also Patron of Edinburgh University’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London, International Students House, London, Acid Survivors Trust International, Townswomen's Guilds and College of Occupational Therapy.

The Princess Royal attended Royal Variety Performance show on behalf of the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund On 5 December 2011.

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 – present: Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal

The Princess Anne's style and title in full: Her Royal Highness The Princess Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise, Princess Royal, Royal Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Extra Lady 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 given only to the eldest daughter of the sovereign, the last holder being George V's daughter, Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood.

Honours
See also List of honours of the British Royal Family by country


 * Orders
 * 1969 – : Member of the Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II
 * 1971 – 1998: Dame of Justice of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem (DStJ)
 * 1998 – : Dame Grand Cross of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem (GCStJ)
 * 1974 – : Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) – (Grand Master from 2007)
 * 🇳🇿 1990 – : Extra Companion of the Queen's Service Order (QSO)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 23 April 1994 – : Royal Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (KG)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 2000 – : Extra Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle (KT)
 * 🇵🇬 29 September 2005 – : Chief Grand Companion of the Order of Logohu (GCL)


 * Decorations
 * 🇨🇦 1982: Canadian Forces Decoration (CD)


 * Medals
 * 2 June 1953: Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal
 * 1977: Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal
 * 2002: Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal
 * 2005: Commemorative Medal for the Centennial of Saskatchewan
 * 2012: Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal


 * Foreign honours
 * 🇦🇹 1969 – : Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash for Services to the Republic of Austria
 * 🇫🇮 1969 – : Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose of Finland
 * 🇯🇵 1971 – : Grand Cordon of the Order of the Precious Crown
 * 1972 – : Grand Cross of the Order of the House of Orange
 * 🇱🇺 1972 – : Grand Cross of the Order of the Oak Crown
 * 1972 – 1992: Order of the Yugoslav Flag with Sash, 1st Class

Appointments

 * Fellowships
 * 1986 – : Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (FRCVS)
 * 1987 – : Royal Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)


 * Academic
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 1981 – : University of London, Chancellor
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 2011 – : University of Edinburgh, Chancellor
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 2012 – : University of the Highlands and Islands, Chancellor
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 2013 – : Harper Adams University, Chancellor


 * Academic degrees
 * 2004: University of Regina, Doctor of Laws (LLD)
 * 23 April 2010: Memorial University of Newfoundland, Doctor of Laws (LLD)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 2011: Cranfield University, Doctor of Science (DSc)

Honorary military appointments
As with other senior royals, Princess Anne holds a number of honorary appointments in the armed forces of several Commonwealth realms. Anne is of the following regiments, corps, and branches:


 * 🇦🇺 Australia
 * 🇦🇺 Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals


 * 🇨🇦 Canada
 * 🇨🇦 Colonel-in-Chief of the Grey and Simcoe Foresters (11 June 1977 – present)
 * 🇨🇦 Colonel-in-Chief of the 8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise's)
 * 🇨🇦 Colonel-in-Chief of the Communications and Electronics Branch (11 June 1977 – present)
 * 🇨🇦 Colonel-in-Chief of the Canadian Forces Medical Service
 * 🇨🇦 Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Regina Rifles
 * 🇨🇦 Colonel-in-Chief of Royal Newfoundland Regiment


 * New Zealand
 * Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals
 * Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal New Zealand Army Nursing Corps


 * United Kingdom
 * Colonel-in-Chief of the King's Royal Hussars
 * Colonel-in-Chief of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment (29/45 Foot)
 * Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Corps of Signals
 * Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Logistic Corps
 * Colonel-in-Chief the Royal Army Veterinary Corps
 * Colonel of the Blues and Royals
 * Royal Colonel of the Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland
 * Royal Colonel of the 52nd Lowland Regiment, 6th Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland
 * Royal Honorary Colonel of the University of London OTC
 * Commandant-in-Chief of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteer Corps)
 * Honorary Air Commodore of RAF Lyneham
 * Honorary Air Commodore of the University of London Air Squadron
 * Admiral and Chief Commandant for Women in the Royal Navy
 * Commodore-in-Chief of HMNB Portsmouth