"Luck Story": all the times Queen Elizabeth II escaped death
At 90, Elizabeth II reigns over England for the 64th year. A feat when we know the extent of the assassination attempts carried out against him.
While the BBC accidentally announced the death of the Queen of England on June 3, 2015, when she was in good spirits, Elizabeth II has nevertheless been the subject of several attacks during her long years of rule. Among the most spectacular:
The July 9, 1982 intrusion
It is 7 am, daylight wakes the queen. And for good reason, Michael Fagan, a stranger in his thirties, has just opened the curtains in his bedroom and is now standing at the foot of his bed, his hand bleeding, looking at her. Panicked - understandably - Elizabeth II presses the alarm button next to her bed. But no one hears him. The queen then tries to phone the police. But she doesn't respond either.
When he had just been left by his wife, Michael Fagan, father of four, is said to have broken into Buckingham Palace to commit suicide in front of the Queen. But since "it's not very nice to do that," he said, he would have finally changed his mind. Maybe the Queen could advise him then he thought.
Finally, during these few interminable minutes, Michael Fagan explains to the queen wanting to smoke a cigarette. If he seems comfortable, he is quite familiar with the place. The man had indeed already infiltrated the palace in the middle of the night some time before.
“I walked in like that. I was amazed not to be arrested from the start. I could have been a rapist or something. But I knew I could hijack the security system, which was far too weak, ”he said during his trial.
Regardless, it was Michael Fagan's sudden urge for a cigarette that caused the Queen to slip out of the bedroom in the 30-year-old's absence, only to alert the housekeeper to the situation. This leads the man into the dining room. But given the Queen's absence, Michael Fagan ended up getting restless. The valet then serves him a scotch, and this until the police arrive.
Despite this crazy story, Michael Fagan was ultimately not sentenced, except the obligation to spend the 6 months following his intrusion in a psychiatric hospital. So lucky, probably because he "thinks highly of the queen," his mother assures us.
The attempted attack of August 15, 2015
Two terrorists born in Britain, rallied to the Islamic State, were shot dead in Syria in the summer of 2015 under the orders of David Cameron. They actually planned to carry out a series of attacks on British streets, but also, and above all, an attack on the Queen of England. All this on August 15, 2015, during the commemoration of the end of World War II in the Pacific.
The assassination attempt of August 12, 2016
That day, Hang Zhang, a 25-year-old Chinese student, broke into Buckingham Palace with a knife hidden in his shoe. Fortunately, the Queen of England is not there. As every year in August, she is in Balmoral. And to justify himself, the young man therefore explained in the simplest way possible that he was planning to assassinate the queen, "in accordance with the demands of his government". And unsurprisingly, Hang Zhang was subsequently diagnosed with "mentally unstable".
But in the meantime, the queen is still here!
