The Royal Household have world-class safety at their disposal always however they’ve nonetheless endured horrifying break-ins and uncontrollable fires over time.
One infamous incident passed off in 1982 when an intruder bypassed Buckingham Fortress’s barbed wire fences and managed to get all the way in which into the late Queen Elizabeth II’s bed room earlier than he was apprehended.
The intruder couldn’t truly be charged with trespassing attributable to a quirk of British legislation on the time, so he agreed to endure psychiatric remedy to keep away from prosecution for stealing a bottle of wine from the palace.
Extra just lately, there have been three separate break-in makes an attempt at Windsor Fortress, together with an incident on Christmas Day 2021 the place a person armed with a crossbow unsuccessfully tried to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.
The British royal household might seem prim and correct to the general public, however they’ve confronted their justifiable share of controversies over time. One of many greatest royal scandals in latest reminiscence got here when King Charles III and the late Princess Diana introduced their separation in 1992 after 10 years of marriage. On the time, […]
Hold scrolling for a glance again at some horrifying incidents that passed off at royal residences:
Windsor Fortress Break-In
Thames Valley Police confirmed that an intruder was in custody after making an attempt to interrupt into the royal household’s nation property. Prince William and Kate Middleton stay on the grounds of Windsor Fortress at Adelaide Cottage with their youngsters Prince George, born 2013, Princess Charlotte, born 2015, and Prince Louis, born 2018.
A police spokesperson informed People, “At simply after 1 p.m. on Sunday a person entered restricted grounds at Windsor Fortress. He was shortly challenged by Met cops and arrested. He didn’t enter the inside grounds of Windsor Fortress.”
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that the suspect was arrested on “suspicion of trespass on a protected web site and possession of Class A medication,” earlier than being launched on bail.
“Officers within the grounds noticed the person simply after 13:00 hrs on Sunday, 1 June and shortly arrested him. He was then handed into the custody of Thames Valley Police,” the Metropolitan Police assertion added.
Princess Diana House Focused in Arson
Althorp Home David Goddard
The late Princess Diana’s brother Charles Spencer wrote through X in Could 2025 that he was “surprised” that their childhood house – often called Althorp Home – was focused in a suspected arson.
“Shocked to be taught that one in all @AlthorpHouse ’s farmhouses – thankfully, unoccupied on the time – was apparently burnt down by vandals final night time. With because of @northantsfire for doing their easiest. So very unhappy that anybody would suppose this a enjoyable factor to do,” he wrote.
A Northamptonshire Fireplace and Rescue Service spokesperson confirmed to BBC News that first responders arrived to discover a disused farmhouse “absolutely on hearth.” 4 hearth crews had been dispatched to subdue the blaze at Althorp Home.
Chris Jackson/Getty Photos For Buckingham Palace It has been an eventful 12 months since King Charles III was formally blessed and anointed because the monarch of the UK and its Commonwealth territories. Charles assumed the British throne in September 2022 after the dying of his mom, Queen Elizabeth II, on the age of 96. “My […]
An investigation into the hearth was ongoing in June 2025. Police recommended the hearth was prompted intentionally however the precise trigger is “but to be decided.”
A earlier hearth destroyed an industrial unit at Althorp Home in September 2024. Althorp Home hosted an exhibition about Princess Diana’s formative years between 1998 and 2013.
Masked Break-In Try
In November 2024, Sky News reported that masked thieves stole two farm autos after breaking into Windsor Fortress whereas Prince William and his household slept close by in Adelaide Cottage.
Two masked males reportedly scaled the 6-foot fence to illegally acquire entry to the property after which commandeered a truck to burst by way of a safety gate. The pair fled the scene a short while later after stealing a purple quad bike and an Isuzu pick-up truck.
“At round 11:45 p.m. on Sunday 13 October, we acquired a report of housebreaking at a property on Crown Property land close to to the A308 in Windsor,” Thames Valley Police mentioned in an announcement on the time. “Offenders entered a farm constructing and made off with a black Isuzu pick-up and a purple quad bike. They then made off in direction of the Outdated Windsor/Datchet space.
“No arrests have been made at this stage and an investigation is ongoing.”
No additional updates have been introduced publicly.
Santa Barbara Safety Breach
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s California property. VALERIE MACON/AFP through Getty Photos
The New York Post reported in July 2022 that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had six safety alerts at their Montecito, California mansion inside a 16-month interval. Two intruder incidents allegedly occurred inside 12 days of one another.
Within the first occasion, a suspected trespasser acquired onto the couple’s property on their marriage ceremony anniversary of Could 17, 2022. A second incident concerned the couple’s safety crew confronting an alleged trespasser who agreed to depart the property with out additional motion taken.
One other suspected intruder was caught on the property in 2020 and ordered to not return.
Crossbow Intruder
Windsor Fortress in June 2023. P Photograph/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool
Jaswant Singh Chail pleaded responsible to 1 rely of attempting to “injure or alarm” the Queen beneath the Treason Act, possession of an offensive weapon and making threats to kill following a botched Christmas Day 2021 break-in try at Windsor Fortress, Sky News reported.
Prosecutors mentioned in courtroom that Chail formulated a plan over the course of a 12 months to attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II as revenge for the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh bloodbath in India, the place lots of had been killed throughout a conflict between British colonial forces and independence activists.
Chail allegedly vlogged about his intention to invade Windsor Fortress whereas armed with a crossbow and sporting a Star Wars masks. Prosecutors found that the suspect was inspired to hold out his plan by an AI chatbot that he thought-about his “girlfriend.”
Getty Photos (3) Maybe it’s no shock that residences as outdated as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Fortress have their share of supernatural power, however studying concerning the royal household’s haunted historical past nonetheless gave Us the creeps. Within the documentary The King of UFOs, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video final month, Paranormal historian Richard Felix […]
“I’m sorry for what I’ve achieved and what I’ll do. I’m going to aim to assassinate Elizabeth, Queen of the Royal Household,” he mentioned in a single chilling vlog.
Police apprehended Chail on the grounds of Windsor Fortress earlier than he may carry by way of his plot. He was sentenced to 9 years in custody.
Windsor Fortress Fireplace
A raging fire destroyed 115 rooms – together with 9 State Rooms — at Windsor Fortress within the early morning hours of November 20, 1992 after a highlight ignited a curtain inside Queen Victoria’s Non-public Chapel.
By the point the hearth was noticed, it had already moved past the chapel and engulfed the close by St George’s Corridor subsequent door. As firefighters had been busy utilizing 36 pumps to attempt to extinguish the flames, royal workers desperately tried eradicating as many artistic endeavors and different historic objects from the property earlier than they had been burned. Their exceptional efforts had been profitable, as solely a rosewood sideboard and a Sir William Beechey portray had been misplaced within the blaze.
Fireplace crews finally contained the scenario after 15 hours. It took an in depth reconstruction effort over the course of 5 years to completely restore Windsor Fortress by 1997.
Bed room Intruder
Buckingham Palace in April 2025. James D. Morgan/Getty Photos
Michael Fagan broke into Buckingham Palace twice in July 1982, together with getting into Queen Elizabeth II’s bedroom in his second try. Fagan allegedly made it over barbed wire fencing on Buckingham Palace’s partitions after which scaled a drainpipe, earlier than getting into the royal household’s residing quarters.
The Queen woke as much as discover Fagan holding a shard of glass at her bedside, so she engaged him in a prolonged dialog with a view to preserve him occupied. When her try to alert the palace switchboard went unanswered, she lastly used the alarm bell at her bedside.
Fagan was apprehended however wasn’t truly charged with trespassing within the Queen’s bed room attributable to a quirk in British legislation on the time. (It wasn’t till Buckingham Palace turned a “designated web site” in 2005 that trespassing there turned a felony offense.)
The intruder was charged with theft of wine from the property however the Palace finally dropped all adjustments when he agreed to endure psychiatric care.
Netflix’s hit collection The Crown dramatized the ordeal within the season 4 episode “Fagan,” the place Sluggish Horses star Tom Brooke performed the intruder and Olivia Colman portrayed Queen Elizabeth II.
Cigarette Burns
Former Buckingham Palace kitchen staffer Agnes Cooke revealed in his guide Sure, Ma’am: The Secret Lifetime of Royal Servants that Prince Philip’s mom Princess Alice of Battenberg repeatedly prompted injury whereas taking cigarette breaks with a lady-in-waiting working for the royal household within the Nineteen Sixties (through Marie Claire).
“Effectively, there was a lady-in-waiting who was very pleasant with Philip’s mom, Princess Alice of Battenberg, when Alice was residing at Buckingham Palace, and so they used to smoke cigarettes collectively in Alice’s condo — a lot in order that they often set hearth to it,” Cooke confirmed.
She went on, “And regardless of being very grand certainly — a member of one in all Britain’s oldest and most aristocratic households — this specific lady-in-waiting used to wander about with a cigarette caught behind her ear, like a coal miner or a carpenter.”
Princess Alice of Battenberg died in 1969 after spending the ultimate two years of her life residing on the palace.