Queen Elizabeth II Was Nearly Shot on One of Her Morning Walks

Queen Elizabeth once had a near brush with death while on one of her morning walks, anex-guardsman revealed to the U.K’s The Times.

According to the guard, the Queen occasionally takes late-night walks around the palace grounds when she struggles to sleep. One of these walks occurred one morning around 3 a.m. while the guard was on patrol, and he initially mistook the royal for an intruder.

The guard said he shouted, “Who’s that?” before discovering it was the Queen. Relieved, he couldn’t help but say, “Bloody hell, Your Majesty, I nearly shot you!” After realizing he spoke out of turn, he expected to be scolded but was surprised when the monarch responded.

“That’s quite all right,” he says she told him. “Next time I’ll ring through beforehand so you don’t have to shoot me.”

While she avoided a scare on that occasion, the Queen’s health has made the news recently as she came down with a heavy cold which forced her to alter her Christmas plans and miss her traditional New Year’s Day church service.

“Her Majesty The Queen will not attend Sunday worship at Sandringham today,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement on New Year’s Day. “The Queen does not yet feel ready to attend church as she is still recuperating from a heavy cold.”

This story first appeared at Womanista.