THE Queen prevented the Duke of Kent from being kidnapped by the IRA during the 1970s, according to revelations made in a new book.
In new Royal biography Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II by Robert Hardman, secret correspondence was unearthed in the National Archives.
The letter detailed how Her Majesty played an integral part in foiling a kidnap plot against her cousin after alerting then prime minister Edward Heath, the Telegraph reports.
In 1971, the then 35-year-old Duke, an Army officer with the Royal Scots Greys, was sent to Northern Ireland with his unit.
But Northern Ireland prime minister Lord O’Neill had received intelligence the IRA was plotting to kidnap the Duke when he entered Belfast.
The peer passed the message to the Queen via her private secretary, before the monarch alerted Heath who then relayed a warning to his ministers.
Commanding officers were told the Duke was not to be sent to Belfast without special orders and thankfully, a few weeks later, he was posted back to mainland Britain.
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