One public ceremony and two private and intimate ceremonies. All at the same time. In the foreground, this Saturday’s celebration of the British monarchy, with all its pomp and splendor. The military parade with the name Trooping the Color (Parading the Regiment’s Colors), to commemorate the official anniversary of the sovereign. The most important annual event for royalty.
And two other ceremonies. The most relevant to the public imagination. That of the acceptance and embrace of adversity by a king, Charles III (75 years old), who paraded on horseback a year ago and who this Saturday reviewed his troops from inside a glass-enclosed carriage, to protect themselves from the rain. Her mother, Isabel II, held out for 15 years until in 1986 she gave up riding during the parade. Cancer has slowed down the renewed impetus with which the monarch wanted to begin his reign.
Second ceremony: the fight against adversity of Kate Middleton (42 years old), and her desire to star in the future of the British monarchy. Also protected by a covered horse-drawn carriage, the Princess of Wales made her first public appearance after almost three months of intense chemotherapy treatment. Traveling with her were her three children, Jorge, Carlota and Luis.
“I’m making good progress. [en el tratamiento del cáncer]”But like everyone who undergoes chemotherapy, I have good and bad days,” Middleton explained in the statement that accompanied her first public photo this Friday, under the shade of a tree at her residence in Windsor. The princess announced her expected participation in Saturday’s ceremony. “On bad days I feel tired and weak, and I have to allow my body to rest. On good days, when I feel stronger, I want to take advantage of that well-being as much as possible,” she explained.
From one of the balconies of the Royal Stables – which was once the office of the Duke of Wellington – the princess stood and watched the military ceremony with her two sons. A year earlier, she had posed on the stand.
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Kate Middleton smiled and greeted the public, but without the effusiveness of 2023, when she appeared radiant in an emerald green dress, as a nod to the Irish Guards, of which she is an honorary colonel. This Saturday, her outfit was more sober. A black and white dress by British designer Jenny Packham and a hat by Philip Treacy. And a small brooch with the shield of her regiment.
“Kate’s appearance in this parade is key, now that two of the most important members of the royal family are fighting cancer,” he told the newspaper. Daily Mail Richard Fitzwilliams, one of the most serious analysts of British royalty, in itself a whole journalistic section. “Both in the March video, when he announced his illness [y acalló de modo tajante las especulaciones y rumores] “Like the photo and this Friday’s statement, they demonstrate both his resistance in the face of adversity and his character, but they are also clear evidence that he is going through a tough time,” added Fitzwilliams.
I have been blown away by all the kind messages of support and encouragement over the last couple of months. It really has made the world of difference to William and me and has helped us both through some of the hardest times.
I am making good progress, but as anyone goes… pic.twitter.com/J1jTlgwRU8
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) June 14, 2024
The metaphor of a country
He Trooping the Color It does not coincide with the monarch’s actual date. Charles III was born on November 14. His mother, on April 21. The ceremony is always celebrated on a Saturday in June. This year has coincided with the halfway point of the electoral campaign. The British will go to the polls on July 4. A country exhausted after 14 years of conservative governments debates whether to give the Labor opposition a chance for national renewal. A United Kingdom proud of its past and its traditions, but aware of the weakness of its economy and its social fabric, decides whether to put its house in order, but without destroying the foundations and taking advantage of the quality of the structure. Charles III of England and Catherine of Wales were this Saturday, more than ever, the metaphor of a country in transition.
For the first time in history, Royal Guard soldiers can wear beards. Before, only religious or health reasons allowed it. This year, Carlos III accepted a minimal change in tradition, but adjusted to the social reality of the country. Perhaps that is the meaning of his reign.
Behind the princess’s carriage, on horseback, paraded her husband and heir to the throne, William of England; Royal Princess Anne, sister of the monarch; and Prince Edward. The three are part of the solid core, past and present, that has preserved the public activity of the monarchical institution in recent months.
The rain fell heavily at the end of the military parade, which Charles III stoically witnessed from a platform, alongside the queen consort Camilla. They have had time to take shelter in the horse-drawn carriage that has taken them back to Buckingham Palace.
1,250 soldiers participated in the ceremony, all of them soaked to the skin during the parade back to the palace. Thousands of people were trying to take shelter without abandoning their coveted position on both sides of the avenue. The King, before the great gate at the entrance to Buckingham, once again greeted the regiments from a platform. This time, alone.
Nothing symbolizes the centrality of the British royal house in the universal image of the United Kingdom more than the image of them all on the palace balcony. Who is there, who is not there. Which member has been ostracized, which one takes center stage in the photo. The monarch, always in the center, although the story of each moment is in his orbit. Like this year, when Kate Middleton’s reappearance has given more conventional Britons hope that there is a future in their institutions.
Dozens of police officers have established a barrier between the end of the military parade and the thousands of citizens—with their thousands of umbrellas—who have walked towards the palace. The highlight of the celebration remained, when the aerobatic patrol of the Red Arrows, of the Royal Air Force (the legendary RAF) flew over Buckingham, to leave the white, red and blue trail of the colors of the Union Jackthe flag of the United Kingdom.
Charles III of England, Queen Camilla, Prince William and Kate Middleton have raised their gaze towards a sky that, in the end, gave a truce and turned blue again. A day full of metaphors.
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