On a spring evening in 1974, Princess Anne was sitting in the back of a Rolls Royce with her new husband, Captain Mark Phillips, as they sped down The Mall towards Buckingham Palace.
But just metres from home, a man swerved his car to block their path, shot her bodyguard and driver, and pointed his pistol at the Queen's only daughter.
"I want you to come with me for a day or two, because I want 2 million [pounds]," her would-be kidnapper, Ian Ball, told her.
"Will you get out of the car?"
In his Ford Escort, Ball had stashed two pairs of handcuffs, Valium tranquillisers, and a typed ransom note for Queen Elizabeth II.
But despite her titles and tiaras, 24-year-old Anne was no shrinking violet.
She had earned herself the nickname "her royal rudeness" because she suffered no fools — whether they were impertinent tabloid reporters, or armed men trying to force her into a car.
"Not bloody likely," she shot back.
"And I haven't got 2 million."
A tabloid reporter who happened to be walking by recognised Anne's Rolls-Royce and tried to intervene.
"Don't be silly, old boy, put the gun down," Brian McConnell said.
Ball responded by shooting him in the chest. A police officer, Constable Michael Hills, then arrived at the scene and was shot in the stomach.
Surrounded by blood, injured men and broken glass, Anne later told the police she wondered if she would have to fight Ball off herself.
"It was all so infuriating; I kept saying I didn't want to get out of the car, and I was not going to get out of the car," she said.
"I nearly lost my temper with him, but I knew that if I did, I should hit him and he would shoot me."
Princess Anne later recalled to TV host Michael Parkinson that she spent about 15 minutes arguing with her would-be kidnapper, stoically refusing to go with him.
When Ball tried to pull her out of the Rolls-Royce by her arm, she felt like the rope caught in a game of tug of war, her velvet dress splitting up the back as Captain Phillips grabbed hold of the other arm to keep her inside the car.
Fearing the situation could spiral, Anne decided to save herself by escaping out the other side of the car.
"I could reach the door handle behind my head," she told Parkinson.
"So I opened the door and literally put my feet over my head and did a backwards somersault."
The plot to kidnap a princess
When Anne fell out of her Rolls-Royce and landed in the street, her would-be kidnapper realised that he was rapidly losing control of the situation.
But before he could make a move towards the princess, a passing motorist named Ronnie Russell pulled his car over, charged into the fray and punched Ball twice in the head.
Standing 6 feet 2 inches, and weighing 107 kilograms, the former heavyweight boxer had a powerful swing.
"I hit him as hard as I could — if he had been a tree he would have fallen over — and he was flat on the floor face down," Russell later recalled to The Guardian.
Dazed and injured, Ball made eye contact with Anne.
"Go on," the princess said to the man trying to abduct her, nodding towards St James' Park in the hope he would run away and finally leave her alone.
"Now's your chance."
He immediately ran into the park, where he was wrestled to the ground and arrested by police.
Her ordeal over, Anne learned chilling details about the kidnapping plot when Ball faced court two months later.
It appeared that Ball's motives were not just financial. He had become fixated on the princess, moving close to her house in Hampshire, and calling Buckingham Palace's media office to find out details about her packed public schedule.
"I had thought about it for years," he told police of his plans when interrogated.
"She would have been the easiest. I have seen her riding with her husband."
Under an alias, he had rented a house in central London, and planned to take Anne there while he waited for the Queen to deliver on his ransom demands.
According to the note, he wanted $6 million — which would be $55 million today — and a plane to take him to Switzerland.
He demanded that Queen Elizabeth herself be there to deliver the money in five pound notes so he would know it was real.
Ball was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and sentenced to a mental health facility, where he remains to this day.
"I suppose I'll be locked up for the rest of my life. I am only sorry I frightened Princess Anne," he told police.
"There is one good thing coming out of this: you will have to improve on her protection."
'The thank you is from Anne's mother'
As the world's most famous family, the Windsors have always lived with the spectre of danger.
Queen Victoria faced eight assassination attempts during her six-decade reign. In 1840, Edward Oxford shot at her while she was riding her carriage around Hyde Park.
He was arrested, declared "insane" and deported to Australia, where he assumed a new identity, and became a prominent journalist in Melbourne.
Queen Elizabeth II endured five known attempts on her life.
In 2021, a man broke into Windsor Castle with a crossbow, and when stopped by police, he declared, "I am here to kill the Queen".
But no modern royal has come quite so close to their attacker as Princess Anne.
The day after the kidnapping attempt, all senior royals were assigned two protection officers instead of one.
Anne's bodyguard Jim Beaton, who was shot three times by Ball, said he was also given better weapons and training.
"I had nothing … there was no back-up vehicle," he told the UK Times in 2020.
"The training was non-existent; but then again, [we thought] nothing was going to happen. They are highly specialised now, highly trained."
Four days after the incident, Anne went to Westminster Hospital to thank the four men who were injured trying to save her life.
A few months later, Queen Elizabeth awarded the George Cross, Britain's highest civilian award for courage, to Beaton.
To Russell, the boxer, and Hills, the police officer, she presented the George Medal, the second-highest civilian honour for bravery.
And tabloid reporter Brian McConnell received the third highest honour, the Queen's Gallantry medal.
To each man, Elizabeth had the same message.
"The medal is from the Queen of England," she said to them.
"The thank you is from Anne's mother."
Russell had heard the Queen might pay off his mortgage to thank him for knocking out Anne's would-be kidnapper.
"At the time, this was mentioned by some visiting police officers that Her Majesty was keen to thank me with more than a medal, but I was never paid anything," he said.
But in 2020, he auctioned off the medal for $120,000 to fund his retirement.
"I am absolutely blown away with this price and it gives me opportunities to do things that I never thought we could," he said.
From 'renegade royal' to 'national treasure'
Princess Anne, now 74, is one of the most popular members of the House of Windsor, ranked higher in opinion polls than King Charles III.
She is famous for her trademark bouffant, her sporty Adidas frames, and her unyielding devotion to her family.
But Anne's popularity was hard won over decades in public life.
"Where once Anne was regarded as haughty and stand-offish, she is now hailed as one of the great English eccentrics whose unparalleled royal work ethic, carrying out 500 engagements a year, has rightly earned her national treasure status," royal commentator Camilla Tominey wrote for the UK Telegraph.
Anne was often misunderstood, if not outright derided by the tabloid editors, who might have preferred a softer, sweeter princess who didn't tell them to "naff off" when they were annoying her.
But it was her fiery nature that probably saved her life in 1974 — and helped the British public catch a glimpse of the woman they would learn to love.
After all, Anne returned to work just 48 hours after the attempted kidnapping, waving to the crowds during a visit to Wiltshire.
And when asked if she lived in fear of another attempt on her life, Anne said it was part of her reality as a public figure.
"If anybody was seriously intent on wiping one out, it would be very easy to do," she shrugged.
