King Charles' Health Sparks Big Change To This Year's Trooping The Colour
2024 has certainly been a challenging year for the royal family so far. Both King Charles III and Catherine, Princess of Wales have been largely out of the public eye for most of the year as they undergo cancer treatment. Now, as the summer fast approaches, a new report has announced that Kate Middleton may not return to the public for the remainder of the year. "I am told that Kate's diary for this year is empty. There is nothing planned," a source told The Daily Beast.
As far as Charles is concerned, though, the show must go on. In late April, Buckingham Palace announced that the king would return to public duties soon, and this includes the upcoming Trooping the Colour celebration. Still, while the palace is eager to get back to business as usual, it's difficult to ignore the turmoil within the royal family. There will be at least one change to this year's celebration that acts as a reminder of what's going on behind closed doors — Charles won't appear on horseback.
Charles' involvement is vital to Trooping the Colour, since the entire event is meant to be a birthday celebration for the monarch. Charles plans to participate in this year's parade, but he and Queen Camilla will ride in an Ascot Landau carriage. This differs from last year when Charles participated in the parade on horseback. That said, a monarch hadn't previously ridden horseback at Trooping the Colour since Queen Elizabeth II did in 1986. So, while this may be a change from a year ago, it's far from unheard of.
The carriage will likely be a good addition to this year's celebration
According to the royal family's official website, The Crown Equerry, Colonel Toby Browne describes the carriage that King Charles III will use as a "wonderfully bright, small, lovely carriage, very easy for people to see – the passengers can sit up quite high. So there's lots of visibility for everybody." Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, rode in an Ascot Landau carriage on their wedding day. So, not only will riding in this carriage be physically easier for Charles than riding horseback would, but it will also be nice for the public to see the king and queen together at a happy event for the first time in quite a while.
Trooping the Colour takes place annually to celebrate the current monarch's birthday. Charles will turn 76 this November, but the official birthday celebration has taken place on the second Saturday in June for more than 260 years, regardless of when the monarch's birthday lands. This is an important tradition within the monarchy, and it's a lighthearted, celebratory one at that. Considering the illness within the family, the surrounding PR situation as people speculated over Kate's disappearance before she revealed her diagnosis, and the resulting mistrust from the public, it would be a benefit to the royal family for Trooping the Colour to succeed and indicate stability and joy within the monarchy.
It's uncertain if Kate Middleton will be at Trooping the Colour
In line with tradition, this year's Trooping the Colour will take place on Saturday, June 15. While King Charles plans on being front and center at the event, Catherine, Princess of Wales, may not be in attendance, although there has been no official confirmation of this yet. What's certain is that she will miss the Colonel's Review, a dress rehearsal for Trooping the Colour that will take place the week before the big event. Under typical circumstances, Kate, who is the honorary Colonel in Chief of the Irish Guards, would act as Inspecting Officer of the Colonel's Review. But this year, Lieutenant General James Bucknall, KCB, CBE. will take her place, according to a statement from Kensington Palace (via People).
People reported that we should know which royals will attend Trooping the Colour as the event draws closer. Kate's absence seems likely, given her focus on her recovery, and we almost certainly won't see Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, either, since they're no longer senior royals and weren't at the event last year. While it used to be tradition for dozens of royals to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony to wave to the crowd, Queen Elizabeth II pared things down in 2022 by only having working royals (and some of their immediate family members) appear. Only 14 members of the royal family were there last year, and it seems this year's crowd may be even smaller.