Known for her strong character, but also her discreet devotion to her royal duties, Princess Anne rarely shows her emotions.
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But the daughter of Elizabeth II might not hide her grief following the death of her mother.
“I had the chance to share the last 24 hours of my dear mother’s life. It has been an honor and a privilege to accompany him on his final journey,” Princess Anne said in a statement from Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening, thanking those who have shown so much “love and respect” to the deceased.
Praising Elizabeth II’s contribution to “national identity”, the Princess concludes her message: “Thank you to my mother, the Queen”.
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His brother King Charles III called back to London to fulfill his first obligations as sovereign, it was his sister who followed the procession, visibly upset, during the six hour drive from Balmoral Castle to Edinburgh.
Her bow to the hearse as she arrived in the Scottish capital moved Britons in the ultimate act of devotion to her mother following a lifetime of service.
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The Princess Royal, a title she has held since 1987 as the monarch’s eldest daughter, walked alongside the King and their two brothers on Monday in the procession bringing the coffin of Elizabeth II from Holyroodhouse Castle to Saint-Gilles Cathedral.
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She was still on board the military plane that brought the body to London.
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At 72, his role might now change with the advent of Charles III, who might find support from his sister when he takes on his new role.
Anne has indeed the reputation of being the most zealous member of the royal family, combining a career as a high-level horsewoman having taken her to the Olympic Games, and a life of public engagements carried out at a sustained pace and in relative discretion, far from the scandals of recent years.
Looking a lot like her outspoken father, Prince Philip, she reportedly described herself as ‘not fitting everyone’s image of a fairy tale princess’.
“You learn the hard way,” she said. “There is no school for royalty”.
Anne, sometimes considered cold and criticized for her acerbic humor, never sought to please the press, believing that she was not there to “do acrobatics”, and once asking photographers to “get the hell out “.
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She worked her way through her parents’ royal system while choosing a more modern path for her children.
The princess, who writes her speeches herself, has also earned respect for her support of more than 300 charities, various organizations and military regiments.
In 1974, she was the target of an attempted kidnapping, when the car she was traveling in was targeted. Two police officers, his driver and a passerby were injured by gunfire.
A document released by the National Archives later revealed that the assailant, Ian Ball, pointed his gun at Anne, telling her: ‘I want you to come with me for a day or two because I want two million pounds. Are you going to get in the car?” To which Anne replied sharply: “Certainly not and I don’t have two million pounds”.
Born on August 15, 1950, Anne inherited her mother’s passion for horses and quickly became a seasoned athlete.
In 1971 she won the European Eventing Championship.
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“I saw (in this sports career) the way to prove that I had something outside of my family, and that victory or defeat depended only on me,” she said.
She became a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1988 and took part in the organizing committee of the London Olympics in 2012.
Married to rider Mark Philipps in 1973, their union was watched by an estimated 500 million people on television.
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They had two children – Peter and Zara – and breaking tradition, the couple decided that Mark Phillips would not take the royal title so their children might feel free to lead their own lives.
The couple divorced in 1992 and nine months later the princess married Commander Timothy Laurence, a former squire to Queen Elizabeth, in Scotland, as the Church of England does not allow marriages between divorced people.
Princess Anne has five grandchildren.
