A man was arrested by British police on Wednesday after throwing eggs at King Charles III, narrowly missing the monarch on the road to northern England.
British television footage shows the King and his wife Camilla shaking hands on a street in York, cheered by Britons who have come to greet them, when three eggs are thrown in their direction and crash couple centimeters.
“This country was built with the blood of slaves,” the man behind the incident reportedly shouted before being arrested by several police officers.
In a statement, local police said they had arrested a 23-year-old man on “suspicion of breaching public order”.
According to British media, it would be a former candidate of the Green Party, also an activist of the environmental group Extinction Rebellion.
“Shame on you”, denounced onlookers who came by the hundreds to greet the new king and his wife. “God save the King,” some added.
Charles, 73, and Camilla, 75, are traveling to the North of England and are due to inaugurate a new statue of Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday, the first since the monarch’s death in September.
Charles III, who will be crowned in May eight months after his accession to the throne, is much less popular than his late mother, adored by the British throughout her 70 years of reign.
past slavery
The comments on slavery made by the arrested man come at a time of growing criticism in the United Kingdom and its former colonies over the country’s imperialist, slavery and colonialist past.
As the debate over the issue intensifies, King Charles III told artists in Leeds on Tuesday that the country’s role in the slave trade should not be hidden.
The king “said he was ready to talk” about the slavery past, told reporters Fiona Compton, an artist and historian from Saint Lucia present in Leeds. “He agreed that this is UK history and it shouldn’t be hidden.”
The question of Britain’s imperial past is increasingly catching up with the royal family. In March, Prince William and his wife Kate went on a Caribbean tour that turned into a fiasco. Some images with very imperial airs had shocked and William had been called to apologize for the slavery past of the United Kingdom.
The king’s brother, Prince Edward, also faced similar criticism leading him to cancel a visit to Grenada after pro-republican protests in the Caribbean country.
A 33-year-old man was handed a suspended prison sentence by a London court on Wednesday for twice successfully breaking into Buckingham Palace in late 2021.
He had first scaled two fences to enter the gardens, then was arrested a few days later while hiding behind a car near the royal stables.
Queen Elizabeth II was not in London but at Windsor Castle during these intrusions.
The man had already been arrested shortly before these episodes when he tried to enter the palace.