While King Charles took centre stage surrounded by senior working members of the royal family on the Buckingham Palace balcony at Trooping the Colour today, many notable royals were missing from the line up
While most of the senior working members of the royal family took pride of place on the Palace balcony at Trooping the Colour today, others were notably absent from their coveted spot to watch the RAF flypast.
King Charles was centre stage, with Queen Camilla by his side. Prince William and Princess Kate, along with their three children George, Charlotte and Louis, were also present on the balcony. Princess Anne, Prince Edward and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh also made an appearance, alongside the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Anne’s husband Vice-Admiral Sir Tim Laurence and the Duke of Kent.
The royals who missed out on a spot on the balcony were Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, Prince Andrew, Zara Tindall, James, the Earl of Wessex, who also weren’t present on the balcony last year. Unsurprisingly, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were also left out of the Trooping celebrations.
Lady Louise Windsor, the daughter of Prince Edward and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, was also mysteriously absent from this year’s Trooping the Colour, despite her parents landing a spot on the balcony.
While Lady Louise doesn’t accompany her parents to all royal engagements, many believed she would be at this year’s event, after being invited to the celebrations last year.
As she is not a working royal and is currently studying at St Andrew’s University in Scotland, she is not always seen at royal events, with her last public appearance with the family being during the annual Sandringham walkabout on Christmas Day last year.
In years past, the late Queen Elizabeth would often invite the royal family at large to join her on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the RAF flypast, but that all changed for the return of the grand Trooping the Colour event in 2022, which coincided with the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
For the first time, the Queen decided to only invite working members of the royal family to the balcony, meaning both Harry and Meghan, along with Prince Andrew, were omitted from the royal line up.
At the time, Buckingham Palace said the monarch’s decision to only include royals carrying out official public duties was taken “after careful consideration”.
However, the Queen made an exception for one little-known, non-working royal – her son-in-law, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence. Sir Tim is the husband of Princess Anne and is often at her side during her countless royal engagements.
The palace said at the time that the Queen was happy for him to be on the balcony as he is a “frequent attendee and support for the Princess Royal on official engagements”.
Source: Mirror
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