Princess Anne: the republican's royal of choice - The Independent
If there is any royal who is the republican's royal of choice, it has to be the Princess Royal. Anne's republican claim to fame is not a bad one: she has married two untitled men and her children do not to carry a title because their father, Mark Phillips, refused an earldom when they married. On the quiet, Princess Anne has made some major advances for the royals, both good and bad. Her 1973 wedding to Mark Phillips attracted a huge television audience, paving the way for the Princess Diana spectacle eight years later. She became the first royal to undergo an embarrassingly public divorce. In some ways it presaged open season on the royal family, leading to the revelations about the marriages of Prince Charles and Prince Andrew. And she is the first royal with a criminal record – an offence under the Dangerous Dogs Act when her dog Dotty attacked two children in Windsor Great Park. 90 of Prince Phillip's most excruciating gaffes and jokes Let's not forget the kidnap attempt she survived in 1974 when a man shot her bodyguard and two other people (all survived). Ian Ball stopped his Ford Escort next to Princess. Source: www.independent.co.uk
