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Uninvited
The latest on the intruder who broke into the grounds of Windsor Castle on Christmas morning suggests that a 19-year old armed with a crossbow used a rope ladder to hop the spiked fence that separates the private grounds of Windsor Castle from the public land of Windsor Great Park at about 8:30am. The man is understood to now be in custody.
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Reports suggested the intruder did not get far: police said that “security processes were triggered within moments” of him entering the grounds.
Superintendent Rebecca Mears, from Thames Valley police, told The Sunday Times: “An investigation is ongoing following this incident and we are working with colleagues from the Metropolitan Police. The man has been arrested on suspicion of breach or trespass of a protected site and possession of an offensive weapon . . . he remains in custody at this time. Members of the royal family have been informed about the incident.”
The royals are not commenting.
The Sun reported that the suspect had a crossbow and “may have used a rope ladder to climb over a spiked fence off the Long Walk, in a publicly accessible area close to apartments used by Her Majesty.”
The Sun quoted a royal source who said: “Police responded to this very quickly—but it is still terrifying and shocking that it happened while the Queen and senior royals were at Windsor for Christmas.”
What the queen really said yesterday
Sometimes in a big speech—such as the queen’s traditional Christmas Day speech—everything that is unsaid is just as significant as what is. So, while it was indeed important that in a deeply personal speech the queen paid tribute to her late husband, Prince Philip—noting that despite there being “one familiar laugh missing this year, there will be joy in Christmas”—there was no mention of scandal-vectors Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and Prince Andrew.
However, the queen did not leave the Sussexes or Andrew out of her speech entirely, paying them an oblique but resonant still-in-the-family nod. The queen said that children brought joy to the world, alluding to the arrival of “four more this year” in reference to Harry and Meghan’s daughter baby Lilibet, born in June, and the babies born to her other grandchildren—Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie and Zara Tindall—who also had babies this year.
However, while the queen was at pains to make public mention of the work she sees as valuable by Prince Charles, his wife Camilla, Prince William, and his wife Kate there was no mention of Harry and Meghan, which perhaps is no surprise. From the queen and royal family’s perspective, their accusations in their explosive Oprah Winfrey interview of a racist within the royal family—later alleged to be Prince Charles—and of an institution that cruelly turned its back on Meghan when she was at her most vulnerable, was seen as a damning indictment of the monarchy and a public relations nightmare.
The stone carried on rolling and accumulating fresh moss—with Harry claiming his father and brother were miserable with their royal roles, Meghan claiming it was Kate who made her cry near her wedding day, not the other way round, and a raft of claims about the couple’s unhappiness and what led to their exit from their senior royal roles in sympathetic biography, Finding Freedom.
The queen not mentioning them is, like her non-referring to Prince Andrew (mired in an ongoing legal nightmare around sexual assault allegations related to his links to Jeffrey Epstein), an implicit expression of sadness or anger or both at how both major royal storylines have reverberated in an already traumatic year for her.
It wasn’t just that her much-loved husband died, but also that she fell ill herself, and has been absent from the public stage for months. The queen’s very appearance making the Christmas speech, in resplendent red, was a statement of presence, of strength.
“Christmas can be hard for those who have lost loved ones. This year, especially, I understand why,” the queen said. “But for me, in the months since the death of my beloved Philip, I have drawn great comfort from the warmth and affection of the many tributes to his life and work—from around the country, the Commonwealth and the world. His sense of service, intellectual curiosity and capacity to squeeze fun out of any situation, were all irrepressible. That mischievous, enquiring twinkle was as bright at the end as when I first set eyes on him.”
A photograph of the couple was on the queen’s desk, taken on their diamond wedding anniversary in 2007. The message was more personal than the queen has ever delivered—far more so than her famous “annus horribilis” speech of 1992. But its striking nature and delivery was overshadowed by yet more royal drama: a 19-year-old intruder, armed allegedly with a crossbow, who had invaded Windsor Castle grounds on Christmas morning.
At Windsor this year, the queen had company: Charles, Camilla, and Prince Edward and wife Sophie—who also featured visually in the queen’s speech—were seen attending a morning church service at St. George’s Chapel, which is on the grounds of the castle. A source told The Daily Beast that the embattled Prince Andrew and his children would likely be joining his mother for lunch at Windsor Castle, but he did not attend church with the family.
Kate and William sent out a Christmas message, saying via social media that this year’s celebrations were “different to what so many of us had planned.” They said they were thinking of “those who are alone or having to isolate away from loved ones” and “the incredible people supporting our [National Health Service] and caring for those most in need.”
And so, in ways subtle and not-so subtle, the new Windsor power dynamics played out on Christmas Day. The nod to Lilibet in the speech showed Harry and Meghan were not left completely out in the cold, but their way back into the family fold, should it even be on the cards, looks ever more complicated. The queen just made that silently clear.
Today in royal history
It’s the national post-Christmas holiday of Boxing Day in the U.K. today, which can mean only one thing for the upper classes: shooting birds out of the sky. Of course, without Prince Philip or the queen present, the Sandringham shoot will be a very different affair this year but William, a keen shot, will likely be out with his gun. In 2006, the queen was pictured, to national outrage, wringing the neck of a wounded pheasant hit at Sandringham during one of the Christmas shoots. She defiantly wore pheasant feathers in her hat to church the next day.
Unanswered questions
The palace and the police have a vested interest in playing down the threat posed by the armed intruder who made it over the wall of Windsor Castle and into the grounds of the palace on Christmas morning. But questions need to be asked about how this was able to happen. Was someone asleep on the job?
