You don't often hear "criminal record" in connection with members of the Royal Family, but it turns out there's only one British royal who actually has one—and it's not who you might expect. In Craig Brown's new biography of Queen Elizabeth II, Q: A Voyage Around The Queen, he reveals the story around the unlikely culprit.
Of course, Queen Elizabeth was known for her love of Corgis, and Brown shared many stories about her pack of dogs in the book. But he also recalled an unfortunate incident surrounding one of Princess Anne's pups, Dotty, that caused the royal to leave "court with a criminal record."
No-nonsense Anne is probably the last person in the Royal Family you'd expect to be charged with a crime, but back in April 2002, The Princess Royal took Dotty for a walk through Windsor Great Park with a disastrous result. "Dotty spotted two little boys, aged 12 and 7, racing along on their bicycles," Brown wrote, adding the dog took off after the kids.
"Confronted by this barking bull terrier, both boys fell off their bikes. Princess Anne yelled, but Dotty carried on, biting one boy on his leg and the collar bone and scratching the other on his leg, his back and his arm," the royal biographer continued.
According to Brown, the children "were rushed to hospital 'in a traumatized state,' though neither needed stitches." The parents of the two boys took The Princess Royal and her husband, Tim Laurence, to court over the incident and the couple ended up "prosecuted for being in charge of a dog that was dangerously out of control in a public place."
Brown noted that the charge against Commodore Laurence was later dropped because his wife "admitted sole responsibility." However, Princess Anne—who was "booked under the downbeat name of Anne Elizabeth Alice Laurence"—per Brown, had to appear in Slough Magistrates Court in November 2002.
Dotty even had her own character witness, a dog psychologist named Dr. Roger Mugford. Apparently, The Queen had consulted the doctor on canine matters "since 1984," and he called the terrier a "totally placid, playful, tolerant dog" and said she "could be trained not to repeat the offense." Another witness, per Brown, said the royal dog was "like a big puppy."
However, the expert testimony didn't help, and Princess Anne was found guilty. A judge "spared Dotty's life," per Brown, but The Princess Royal "was fined £500 and ordered to pay £250 compensation to each of the boys." The judge pointed out that the children "had suffered considerably," and were so traumatized that "it had put them off dogs entirely."
Brown wrote that one of the parents expressed frustration at the "leniency of the sentence," saying, "We do not think justice has been done. The dog is still free and is a danger to society."
The parent might have been on to something, although it wasn't Dotty who ended up a murderer. On Christmas Eve 2003, Brown noted that another one of Anne's dogs injured Pharos, one of Queen Elizabeth's Corgis, so badly that he had to be put down the next day.
