King Charles III presided for the first time this Saturday at the Royal Guard’s traditional annual parade, “trooping the colour”, in honor of the birthday of the United Kingdom’s head of state.
Although Charles III’s birthday falls on November 14, the third Sunday in June is traditionally set aside for this celebration, taking advantage of the British capital’s good weather.
Dressed in the ceremonial red uniform, Charles III, aged 74, left Buckingham Palace, the residence of the royal family, on horseback, followed, also on horseback, by his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, heir to the British crown, William , and by Princes Anne and Edward, brothers of the Sovereign.
Behind followed the carriage with Queen Camilla, dressed in the red uniform of a colonel of the Grenadiers, the Princess of Wales, Catherine, dressed in green, the color of the Irish Guards, of which she is a colonel, and the three children of the Princes of Wales, George, Charlotte and Louis.
Thousands of people watched as the royal procession, accompanied by mounted guards on horseback, made its way through The Mall, draped in British flags, to the Royal Horse Guards parade ground, where Charles III saluted the assembled guards before the national anthem was played “God save the king”.
“Trooping the colour” is a colorful parade dating back to the reign of Charles II (1660-1685), as a way of celebrating the official birthday of the monarch of the United Kingdom, in which the different regiments each wear a different colour.
Source: DN
