Princess of Wales stuns in a chic blue outfit alongside her children Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 11, and Prince Louis, 8, as they arrive for Trooping the Colour
The Princess of Wales looked typically stunning as she attended the King’s official birthday parade in London today.
Kate, 44, wore a light blue-white suit and a matching hat to the annual Trooping the Color event with her children Prince George (12), Princess Charlotte (11) and Prince Louis (8).
Photographed arriving at the celebrations with a dapper Prince William dressed in military uniform, the princess completed her dazzling look with a pair of statement pearl flower earrings.
The Royal Family joined thousands of spectators in Whitehall for the annual event, which brings together some of the army’s most prestigious regiments to celebrate Charles’ anniversary.
It was an event that once saw the balcony of Buckingham Palace packed with at least 44 royals, including more distant relatives. But in the last few years, only royal family members and children of Welsh people have attended the event.
Today, the guardsmen, in their red tunics and bearskin caps, performed a precision march in the Horse Guards Parade, honed over weeks of practice and as part of their ceremonial duties when not fighting soldiers.
The national celebration is a highlight of the royal calendar and the royal family will later gather on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the traditional flyby of RAF aircraft.
The color to be flown this year – the regimental flag – is the Color of the King’s Grenadier Guard, presented by the King at the Buckingham Palace ceremony earlier this week, and will be accompanied by guards from the King’s Company during Saturday’s demonstration.
New Defense Secretary Dan Jarvis is expected to be in the audience along with other senior cabinet members, including the Prime Minister, after his predecessor John Healey resigned on Thursday over a dispute over long-term funding for the military.
The Grenadier Guards were recruited by the exiled King Henry II to protect Olive Cromwell during his rule over England. It was cultivated by Charles in 1656 in Bruges, Belgium.
Charles, Colonel-in-Chief of the Grenadier Guards, visited the King’s Company at their barracks in Aldershot on the eve of enlistment and wished them ‘great success’ for the big day.
He told the company: ‘You’ve been training hard since Easter and I can hear the drums beating regularly from Buckingham Palace, so I know you’re all walking up and down trying to get ready for the parade.’
The King continued: ‘…for the last 370 years of your existence, you have made all of us in this country incredibly proud of your effort, service and sacrifice, and I feel great pride and privilege to be here.’
HELLO! I’m Richard Eden, Journal Editor and writer of the Palace Confidential newsletter.
I spent hours dissecting what Meghan Markle’s relationship with the Queen is really like. Although I’d say Meghan was welcomed with open arms, my sources have told me that the Queen became worried very quickly. Sign up here to read about what I discovered
The King’s Birthday Parade this year takes place exactly a week after the royal family gathered for the ‘intimate’ wedding of Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling in Kemble, Gloucestershire.
Catherine looked perfectly composed as she arrived at All Saints Church with husband William, 43, wearing a £750 Roland Mouret dress and Jane Taylor hat.
The future Queen was greeted to the sounds of cheering crowds of well-wishers who gathered to catch a glimpse of the royal guests.
Trotting the Color is a military ceremony that dates back to the 18th century and is one of the most high-profile royal events of the year.
This has its roots in the battlefield tradition where regimental flags or ‘colours’ were hung in front of soldiers to ensure they could be identified through the smoke of war.
This year, the honor of rallying the Colored troops falls to the Grenadier Guards, the British Army’s most senior infantry regiment, which is celebrating its 370th anniversary.
This year marks the fourth year to Unite the Color of Her Majesty’s reign, following the death of Queen Elizabeth on 8 September 2022.
In 1951, at the age of three, Charles attended his first Trooping the Color, riding in a carriage with his grandmother Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and his aunt Princess Margaret.
The King first attended the parade in 1975 as Colonel of the Welsh Guards.
The Colors recruited today were presented to the Regiment by the King in Buckingham Palace Gardens on Tuesday 9 June.
Trooping the Color was once the largest public gathering of royals, with more than 40 members of the Firm jostling for position on the Buckingham Palace balcony during the flight.
Now, the sparse group consists solely of working royals, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Princess Crown and her husband, Vice-Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.
They will be joined by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent, who is now the oldest working royal at 90. The King’s estranged son, Prince Harry, who lives in Montecito, and his wife, Meghan Markle, will significantly not be there.
The daughters of disgraced former prince Andrew and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie will not be able to attend today’s Connecting the Colours, having last attended in 2022.
They were last seen on the palace balcony with the late Queen Elizabeth in 2019, after arriving at the Horse Guards Parade in a convertible, accompanied by Eugenie’s husband Jack Brooksbank and Prince Edward.
Following the scandal surrounding Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson’s friendship with billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Eugenie, who is expecting her third child with Beatrice and Jack, has largely stayed out of the spotlight.
While they will be welcomed back into the royal family for Peter and Harriet’s wedding, Beatrice and Eugenie, who are not working members of the Firm, will not be attending today’s festivities.
