Lucerne Incident

The Lucerne Incident was an assassination attempt made against the Duke of Clarence and Avondale by an Italian anarchist, Gumesindo Carlucci when the duke and his then fiancée, Princess Astrid of Sweden were then residing at the Hotel Palace Luzern in Lucerne, Switzerland.

The attempt, which occurred when the assassin spotted the royal couple in the hotel's hallways ultimately failed when the duke himself, whom was armed at the time resisted the attempt, leading to a brief altercation which saw the assassin himself killed in the process. Eventually, while Swiss authorities never persecuted the latter due to the self-defence nature present during the incident, the royal couple promptly departed from Switzerland out of fear of a repeated incident.

Background

Mandarin Oriental Palace, formerly known as the Hotel Palace Luzern

In March 1923, Prince Frederick, Duke of Clarence and Avondale and his then fiancée, Princess Astrid of Sweden had chose to visit Switzerland incognito after having gotten engaged to one another. The couple, whom were then residing in Sweden first entered Switzerland via France where upon crossing the Franco-Swiss border, their identites were voluntarily kept secret by the Swiss authorities whom had done so upon the couple's behest. Reportedly, through the initiative of the local authorities, both Frederick and Astrid were instead disguised as Mr. and Mrs. Gustavus, which alluded to the princess's Swedish background.

Following their arrival, while still using their provided pseudonyms, then assisted by their common-like choice of apparel, the couple checked into a hotel in the Swiss city of Lucerne, namely the Hotel Palace Luzern, where for the duration of the next two weeks was to be the couple's main residence in the country.

Gumisendo Carlucci

Gumisendo Carlucci in his early 20's

The assassin, namely Gumesindo Carlucci had been a former low-ranking soldier in the Italian Army when, following Italy's plunge into anarchy after the end of the First World War which, among others saw a massive spike in unemployment led a then twenty one year old Carlucci to be dismissed from the military. Consequently, a disaffected Carlucci began grsudally aligning himself with the radical political movements in the country, eventually siding with the Italian far-left movements against its right-wing opposite most notably led by Benito Mussolini, whom subsequently assumed power as Prime Minister of Italy.

Due to rife political persecutions, on November 1922, Carlucci fled from his hometown city of Milan before moving further north into Switzerland, where he was promptly received as a refugee fleeing political persecution. Subsequently, a homeless and poor-ridden Carlucci began working for discreet socialist organisations, an effort which turned out to be a relative success. However, on January 1923, he was momentarily arrested for participating in a minor socialist protest, though the sentence itself proved lenient, as he was to only serve for two weeks. Upon his release, Carlucci promptly withdrew into obscurity though he continued his work for socialist organisations in the country.

Incident

On March 7th 1923, a fellow member of the socialist organisation that Carlucci had been working with informed the latter of the sight of a couple whom, according to a leak by one of the Swiss border officials, had been that of a royal couple from Sweden that had prior entered the country incognito. Carlucci however was initially reluctant to mimic the implied assassination attempts successfully committed by past anarchists towards members of royalty out of fear of being arrested by the authorities once more, but he promptly reneged on his initial hesitation upon being told of the couple's lack of security, which had been virtually non existent aside from the degree of security provided by the local Swiss police, with some of its officers having been covertly tasked to supervise the royal couple throughout the duration of their stay. Almost immediately, Carlucci subsequently headed for the Hotel Palace Luzern in the city of Lucerne, but not before having armed himself with a Bodeo Model 1889 revolver alongside a stiletto knife.

At approximately 10:25 A.M., Carlucci, whom had been monitoring the royal couple's movements from the hotel's reception area first noticed the duke and duchess walking down the hotel hallways by themselves. As Carlucci had anticipated, both the duke and duchess had been wandering around the hotel in a generally unguarded manner and were only supported by a number of strategically placed guards positioned around the hotel, to which none of them had paid any attention to Carlucci himself. Soon after, as the two were waiting for the elevator, Carlucci quickly approached the royal couple with his stiletto knife in possession but was promptly caught off-guard when Princess Astrid herself unexpectedly caught wind of Carlucci's strange behavior, before noticing the concealed stiletto knife in the assassin's left hand, which led the duke, whom was in turn personally armed with a Colt Model 1903 pistol into aiming his own weapon towards the stunned assassin instead. Carlucci, whom had then reportedly conceived the idea of running away immediately as he had lost the element of surprise necessary for his attempt's success, promptly lunged towards the royal couple but was immediately killed when the duke soon after fired his own pistol thrice, with all three bullets fatally striking the assassin. Soon after, the now dead Carlucci was promptly taken away by nearby Swiss officers, some of whom had already surrounded the assassin just seconds prior to his death.

After the royal couple was momentarily questioned regarding the incident, they were soon after exonerated from any potential charges as they had acted in self-defence. Nevertheless, they were soon advised to leave Switzerland out of fear of their safety, which they did so just a few hours later. In the immediate aftermath, the Swiss authorities promptly launched a crackdown on several underground socialist organisations which were believed to had ties to Carlucci, while approximately two weeks later, the border official whom had reportedly leaked the royal couple's identity to Carlucci himself, leading to the subsequent assassination attempt was ultimately arrested and sentenced to imprisonment. At the same time, on April that year, noted Italian socialist leader Anna Kuliscioff reportedly expressed much despair at the lack of success in the assassination attempt, as she then reportedly compared the success of the assassination attempt against the then Austrian Empress Elisabeth twenty five years prior with Carlucci's own failed assassination attempt.