Britain's King Charles marked his first Trooping the Colour as sovereign with a Buckingham Palace balcony appearance where a boisterous Prince Louis stole the limelight yet again.
Charles and the queen acknowledged with a wave the thousands of well-wishers in The Mall who sang the English national anthem and gave three cheers after the king’s official birthday was celebrated with a display of pomp and military pageantry.
The king and Camilla were surrounded by the family’s core working royals including the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Louis.
The Princess Royal, and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, also joined her brother the king on the balcony, alongside the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent.
But all eyes were on the king’s five-year-old grandson, Louis, who rose to the occasion by saluting during the traditional Trooping flypast, which was extended because the coronation aerial display had been cut back in May due to bad weather.
The young royal, whose antics during some of the late queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations last year endeared him to many, also seemed to pretend to ride a motorcycle or bike with his arms outstretched and covered his ears as planes roared overhead.
And when he travelled in a carriage with his siblings and mother, Louis held his nose to possibly ward off the smell of horse manure from the many military mounts.
The day saw many milestones, from the king becoming the first monarch in more than 30 years to ride a horse throughout Trooping the Colour and it was a similar period since five of the UK’s most prestigious regiments had gathered to celebrate the sovereign’s official birthday.
Camilla and Kate – appointed royal colonels following the death of the queen – were given prominent new roles during Trooping, no longer just spectators.
Charles had deputised for Queen Elizabeth II at last year’s event, also known as the Birthday Parade, but now rode onto Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall as the nation’s head of state.
His first task was to inspect the lines of guardsmen on the parade ground – hundreds of servicemen and women from a total of 1,500 taking part in the day – casting a critical eye over the soldiers, formed in two lines, as he rode past.
Royal Colonels William, Anne and Edward rode behind Charles while Camilla and Kate travelled in a carriage – a symbolic image of the royal family uniting to support the king as he completed his first Trooping.
The queen, Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and the Princess of Wales, the Irish Guards’ Colonel, wore their regimental brooches and were dressed in outfits that paid homage to their military associations.
Camilla’s Fiona Clare red silk dress took inspiration from the scarlet tunics of the Grenadier Guards and even had military-style buttons, collars and cuffs while Kate wore a striking emerald green dress by Andrew Gn and matching hat by Philip Treacy in honour of her Irish Guards.
The pair later took their seats on a dais with the Duke of Kent, Colonel, Scots Guards, to watch the march past of the troops – a first for the royal women who in past years had joined other royals in the Duke of Wellington’s former office overlooking Horse Guards.
Trooping the Colour is a social as well as a ceremonial occasion and in the stands overlooking the parade ground were around 8,000 wives, girlfriends and parents of the guardsmen and officers on parade.
Interest in the recently crowned king saw Trooping spectators camp out on The Mall for the first time in decades to get a prime vantage spot and 250,000 people had applied for the 8,000 tickets for the ceremony staged in Horse Guards.
For the first time since 1989, all five regiments of Foot Guards – the Welsh, Scots, Irish, Coldstream and Grenadier – were on parade together for Trooping with the honour of trooping their colour, or regimental flag, falling to the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards.
During the pageantry the colour was first trooped through the ranks of soldiers before the guardsmen marched past the King, first in slow then in quick time with the king acknowledging the command of “eyes right” with a salute.
Later, a 41-gun salute was fired from Green Park by the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery to mark the king’s official birthday, and a further 62 volleys will be fired from the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company.
One of the highlights of the fly-past saw 18 Typhoon fighter jets spelling out the King’s monogram “CR” for Charles Rex.
Another was the sight of famous planes associated with the Second World War – Spitfire and Hurricane fighters with a Lancaster bomber, all from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
As the planes roared overhead Kate encouraged Prince George to wave to the crowds and smoothed down Prince Louis’ hair and ushered him to turn around and face the spectators.
The finale was precision formation flying from the Red Arrows who trailed red, white and blue smoke over the capital.
