The Royal Family have put up a united front today to mark King Charles’s birthday in London. The annual event, known as Trooping the Colour, is steeped in pageantry, history and breathtaking displays of military precision. Members of the Royal Family joined thousands of spectators in Whitehall for the celebrations, which will end with them assembled on Buckingham Palace’s balcony for the traditional RAF flypast. Crowds will be treated to the sight of a royal carriage procession along The Mall as the King, Queen and the Princess of Wales, likely to be joined by her children, are guarded by a Sovereign’s Escort provided by the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.

Riding in the formation will be the royal colonels – the Prince of Wales, who is Colonel of the Welsh Guards; the Princess Royal, Colonel of the Blues and Royals; and the Duke of Edinburgh as Colonel of the Scots Guards. The colour – regimental flag – being trooped this year is the King’s Colour of the Grenadier Guards presented by the King earlier this week during a Buckingham Palace ceremony and it will be escorted during Saturday’s spectacle by guardsmen from the King’s Company. The new Defence Secretary, Dan Jarvis, is expected to be among the spectators with other senior Cabinet members, including the Prime Minister. It comes after a very few turbulent months for the Royal Family, following the Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor bombshells.

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