It’s that time again, everybody: the King’s very merry un-birthday has been celebrated with a bejeweled parade during the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London!
King Charles III wore the uniform of the Grenadier Guards, the regiment trooping during today’s birthday parade, as he rode from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade in a carriage with Queen Camilla by his side. Today is the monarch’s ceremonial birthday. His real birthday, of course, is in November, when the weather in London is far less appropriate for a grand outdoor celebration.
Queen Camilla has been colonel of the regiment since 2022. For today’s parade, she wore a Fiona Clare dress inspired by the Grenadier Guards uniform, paired with a Grenadier-inspired hat from Philip Treacy. We previously saw her wear the same dress with a different hat during Trooping the Colour in 2023. On both occasions, she wore gold and diamond earrings with a brooch in the shape of the Grenadier Guards badge.
The brooch is a particularly special one. It’s the same badge worn by her mother-in-law, the late Queen Elizabeth II, who received it on her sixteenth birthday shortly after she became colonel of the regiment in 1942. Elizabeth wears the brooch above in May 1944 while watching parachutists from the regiment prepare for the D-Day invasion.
The badge of the regiment changes with each reign, with the cypher of the reigning monarch placed inside the Garter, but the brooch worn by both Elizabeth and Camilla bears the cypher of King George VI, who was monarch and colonel-in-chief of the regiment when Elizabeth was first appointed colonel.
The brooch has been on display since April at the King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace as part of Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style. It was temporarily removed from the exhibition so that Camilla could wear it for this morning’s birthday parade.
The King was accompanied from the palace to Horse Guards Parade by three senior members of the royal family on horseback: his son, the Prince of Wales, riding Darby; his brother, the Duke of Edinburgh, riding Sir John; and his sister, the Princess Royal, riding Noble. All three horses were presented to the royal family by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The Princess of Wales rode in the carriage procession with her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
Princess Catherine wore a blue and white coatdress from Catherine Walker for the occasion, paired with a Philip Treacy hat. Her accessories included the Cavolfiore Earrings from Cassandra Goad and a brooch in the shape of the badge of the Irish Guards. Kate has been the regiment’s colonel since 2022.
Since both of their spouses were on horseback, the Duchess of Edinburgh and Vice-Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence shared a carriage during the procession.
Sophie was elegant in a cream-colored dress and coordinating Jane Taylor hat, paired with diamond and pearl drop earrings and a diamond oak leaf bracelet. She also wore a special diamond rose brooch. We first saw her wear the modern jewel in June 2019 on the day after she and Edward celebrated their twentieth wedding anniversary.
The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester also rode together in the carriage procession from the palace to Horse Guards Parade, with the Duke in a morning suit and top hat and the Duchess in a favorite navy and white polka dot ensemble from her wardrobe archive.
Birgitte, perhaps the very best jewelry-wearer in the royal family, chose diamond floral earrings, a pearl necklace, and a pair of diamond clip brooches to add sparkle to her outfit. The brooches in particular are worth mention: they’re part of a tiara!
The clips form part of the diamond bandeau tiara that the Duke’s father, Prince Harry, gave to his mother, Princess Alice, as a wedding present in the autumn of 1935.
Here’s a photograph of Alice wearing the clips as part of the bandeau tiara, taken at the Queen Charlotte Birthday Ball in London in 1953, just a few weeks before the coronation of her niece, Queen Elizabeth II.
The tiara can also be worn with diamond and emerald brooches swapped in for the all-diamond elements. Birgitte wore this emerald setting of the bandeau for the South Korean state banquet at Buckingham Palace in 2023.
One more member of the family was also present on the balcony when the family adjourned to Buckingham Palace after the trooping was done: the 90-year-old Duke of Kent, seen here standing beside an inquisitive Prince Louis during the flypast.
The sparkle has only just begun today! I’ll see you all back here later for a look at the gala jewels worn in Stockholm to celebrate the golden wedding anniversary of the King and Queen of Sweden.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.thecourtjeweller.com ’
