It was an avian assassination.
In the new book “The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy,” author Robert Hardman writes that ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s pet Jack Russell murdered one of Queen Elizabeth’s goslings in the Buckingham Palace Gardens — and Johnson couldn’t be bothered to tell the royal.
Johnson, 59, was the Prime Minister of the UK and leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022.
In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic locked down England, the queen, welcomed Johnson to use the gardens of Buckingham Palace for walks with his then-fiancée, Carrie, and their newborn son, Wilfred, who was born in April that year.
“During one such walk, to Johnson’s horror, Carrie’s Jack Russell, named Dilyn, attacked and killed a gosling near the palace pond,” Hardman writes.
Bizarrely, the Conservative leader “decided that it would be best to say nothing at all,” perhaps forgetting that groundskeepers would inevitably keep the top boss informed of a gosling murder.
During her next meeting with Johnson, the queen casually chatted about strolling in the palace gardens before tartly noting: “I gather Jack Russells don’t go very well with the goslings.”
It wasn’t the first time Dilyn misbehaved.
The rescue dog reportedly destroyed priceless books and historical artifacts at Chequers, the PM’s country retreat, landing Johnson with a four-figure bill.
Dilyn allegedly chewed chair legs, climbed valuable artifacts and urinated on carpets.
The dog, whose name means “Follow” in Welsh, also had a difficult time suppressing his desires.
According to Johnson, the canine enjoyed expressing his “romantic urges” by humping people’s legs.
But owning a murderous dog wasn’t the only misstep by Johnson.
He also breached a confidentiality code surrounding audiences with the late royal.
“Within hours of being appointed prime minister in July 2019, he had let slip to colleagues that her first words to him had been: ‘I don’t know why anyone would want the job,’” Hardman writes.
The aside was a “flagrant breach of the confidentiality rules regarding audiences with the monarch.”
The queen, who died in September 2022 at the age of 96, met 15 Prime Ministers in her time, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, whom she convened with just two days before her passing.