Trooping the Colour 2026: King Charles and the Royal Family's Birthday Parade
Trooping the Colour 2026 took place on Saturday June 13 at Horse Guards Parade, London. King Charles III rode in a carriage with Queen Camilla rather than on horseback, a change owing to his ongoing cancer treatment. Prince William, Kate, and children George, Charlotte and Louis also attended. The Grenadier Guards trooped their Colour.
The context
Trooping the Colour 2026 brought the Royal Family together on Horse Guards Parade in London on Saturday June 13 for the annual King’s Birthday Parade. This year’s ceremony featured one notable change: King Charles III, who continues to undergo cancer treatment, rode in a carriage alongside Queen Camilla rather than on horseback, a shift from the traditional mounted role of the sovereign that signals a pragmatic adaptation of a centuries-old pageant. Both wore coordinating bold red; Camilla’s outfit paid tribute to the Grenadier Guards, whose Colour was being trooped.
The King’s Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards performed the central honour of trooping their Colour in the King’s presence, accompanied by over 1,350 soldiers of the Household Division and the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, with more than 400 musicians from the Massed Bands providing the ceremonial score. Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, joined the ceremony alongside their children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
The afternoon ended, as tradition demands, with the Royal Family on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the Royal Air Force flypast, a moment that drew crowds along The Mall and provided the ceremony’s most recognisable public image. Despite the adjustment to the King’s participation, the 2026 parade was a full and ceremonially complete edition of one of Britain’s most watched royal events.