Queen Elizabeth.Photo: Getty
An intruder pretending to be a priest spent a night in the barracks housing the soldiers who protectQueen Elizabethin Windsor last week.
An investigation into the security breach is underway after police removed the intruder, who talked his way into the Victoria Barracks.
Windsor Castle.Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty
A Thames Valley Police spokesperson said they received a report of an intruder at Victoria Barracks at 9:20 a.m. the following day. The man was removed and “no further action was required,” they said.
Queen Elizabethreturned from her visit to Sandringham just hours later. A source notes that there was no breach of security at Windsor Castle and there was no breach of royal security.
A spokesperson for the British Army tells PEOPLE: “The Army takes this breach of security extremely seriously and it will be thoroughly investigated as a matter of priority. This incident is now part of an ongoing investigation and it would therefore be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”
This isn’t the first time an unwelcome guest made their way onto royal residence grounds. In 2021, anintruder with a crossbowwas arrested on the grounds of Windsor Castle as Queen Elizabeth and members of the royal family, includingPrince CharlesandCamilla, Duchess of Cornwall, celebrated Christmas at the castle.
“We can confirm security processes were triggered within moments of the man entering the grounds and he did not enter any buildings,” Thames Valley Police Superintendent Rebecca Mears said in a statement.
Queen Elizabeth.Dominic Lipinski - WPA Pool/Getty
But perhaps the most famous intruder — so much so that thestoryline was featuredin season 4 of Netflix’sThe Crown —was Michael Fagan, who enteredQueen Elizabeth’s Buckingham Palace bedroom in 1982.
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In a 2012 interview withThe Independent on Sunday, Fagan recalled being in the monarch’s bedroom. “I was scareder than I’d ever been in my life,” he said. “Then she speaks and it’s like the finest glass you can imagine breaking: ‘Wawrt are you doing here?!’ "
While it was reported that the two had a long conversation, Fagan said: “Nah! She went past me and ran out of the room; her little bare feet running across the floor.”
source: people.com
