Watch: Crowd Boo Protester Who Threw Eggs at King Charles III on Public Walkabout

King Charles Walkabout
Getty Images / Collage
Oliver JJ Lane

A lone protester threw several eggs at new UK King Charles III while he was out meeting well-wishers from the public on Wednesday morning, the would-be attacker shouting about slavery before being bundled to the ground by police.

King Charles III was on a walkabout meeting the public while on a trip to the ancient city of York Wednesday, where he was unveiling a new statue of his late mother Queen Elizabeth II on York Minster. While speaking to the public four eggs landed on the pavement around him, with some landing just feet away, according to reports.

According to a report by the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, the lone man throwing eggs at the King and Queen was heard to shout “this country was built on the blood of slaves”, but that the crowd around him responded with shouts of their own, including “shame on you” and “God save the King”.

Bodyguards secured the suspect before handing him over to the police, video from the scene suggests, and the event went on otherwise without interruption. Characteristically, perhaps, King Charles seemed unphased by the eggs. Famous footage of him cooly reacting to being the target of two shots of what later transpired to be a blank-firing pistol at close range by a protester in 1994 is well known.

After the protest, King Charles continued to meet the public on the streets of York, attended a service at York Minster, and unveiled a statue of the late Queen Elizabeth II before leaving the city.

The Daily Mail claims to have identified the egg-thrower as a long-time left-wing activist who has stood for election for the Green party and who has been convicted for blocking a highway as part of an extremist environmental protest.

This is not the first time a lone protester has attempted to use the arrival of the new King at a British city as an opportunity to get their political views airtime, nor is it the first time the majority responded to such attempts with boos. As Breitbart reported in September, a heckler in Edinburgh was bodily removed by monarchist supporters after shouting at passing royals, with the kerfuffle drowned out by shouts of “God Save the King”.

The heckler was subsequently arrested and charged, but so were the two men who encouraged him to be quiet, with the pair being charged with assault.

A more common target for ‘eggings’ in the United Kingdom over the years has been politicians, rather than royals. Perhaps the most famous incident was in 2001, when then left-wing deputy Prime Minister John Prescott had an egg thrown at him. Not reacting with the sang-froid of the King on today’s occasion, perhaps, Prescott immediately swung around and punched the man responsible in the face.

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