Uninvited guest in the queen's chambers (6 photos)

Of course, many people dream of taking at least one peek at the behind-the-scenes life of royalty. But not everyone decides to put their plans to visit the royal bedroom into action.





Michael Fagan was born in 1948 in London into the family of a builder and a housewife. The boy did so-so at school, and then dropped out of school altogether. For some time he worked as a laborer. Met a girl. Michael and Christina got married. But, despite the birth of four children, scandals did not stop in the family, provoked mainly by financial difficulties. The couple repeatedly came together and separated, until after another quarrel the woman again forgave her husband. Christina did not yet know that her husband had become a celebrity.

Bad Morning to Her Majesty



Elizabeth II in the 80s

On June 7, 1982, a man was returning home in the early morning after another productive night at the pub. Apparently, intoxicated fumes demanded bold and crazy actions. And, passing by Buckingham Palace, Fagan decided to storm it.

Literally, I jumped over the wall and decided to see what would come of it. The wall, for a moment, is four meters high, but this did not bother the reckless hero. The officer on duty saw the violator and immediately informed his superiors. The search began, but the adventurer seemed to disappear into thin air.

In fact, he climbed up a drainpipe to the top floor of the palace, climbed through the window and began wandering through the corridors and rooms. I came across a maid. The woman also immediately informed the guards, but they did not believe it, deciding that she had simply imagined the thief.





Buckingham Palace

According to Michael, he even sat on the throne in the throne room and treated himself to wine from an unfinished bottle found in the room of then-Prince Charles. The drink seemed too cheap to him. And the burglar went in search of adventure.

And I found them. In the form of Queen Elizabeth II's bedroom. In the hallway, he accidentally stumbled upon a crystal ashtray, broke the elegant thing, injured his hand and, with a splinter and blood, leaked into the bedchamber. There he pulled back the heavy blackout curtains. The woman woke up from the sunlight (it was already past eight in the morning). But she did not fall into hysterics when she saw a disheveled, half-crazed-looking stranger covered in blood, but calmly pressed the button to call the officer on duty. He was not there - the call just happened to be during a shift change. The servant was also absent. And the maid was vacuuming in the next room. And the noise of the device drowned out all extraneous sounds.

Oh, devils in the underworld! What is he doing here?



Michael Fagan in the 80s

According to Fagan, Elizabeth invited him to smoke and called the palace telephone operator with a request to bring cigarettes. While the minutes of waiting dragged on (all the staff, of course, knew that the queen did not smoke), they talked about life, politics, and children. When, finally, the maid Elizabeth Andrews finished cleaning and entered the queen’s bedroom, she spoke clearly and categorically. Her words were later quoted by all British newspapers: “Oh, devils in hell! What is he doing here?

To which Elizabeth calmly replied that the visitor wanted to smoke. And it’s very strange why her requests to bring cigarettes are ignored. Finally the police appeared and took the “guest” out of the bedroom.

The Queen herself never commented on this situation. But in reality, most likely, during these 15 minutes there were no small conversations about life, country and family. The woman simply asked Michael to leave several times and then ran out of the room.

Naturally, the incident showed the imperfections of the palace security system. But, what is noteworthy, the actions of the burglar, if you do not take into account the wine you drank, only amounted to an administrative, and not a criminal, offense. The burglar was released right in the courtroom. True, they were required to undergo a three-month course of treatment in a psychiatric hospital.



Fagan today

However, the creative and not entirely mentally healthy man did not calm down and continued to get involved in stories. A year later he attacked a policeman, and a couple of years later he went to prison for four years for distributing prohibited substances with his wife and son.



Still from the series "Playhouse"

Michael, 75, still lives in London. And the episode with the invasion, the reasons for which he himself could not explain, was played out in the series “The Crown” and “Playhouse”, where the queen and the intruder were played by Emma Thompson and Eddie Marsan.