Crowds packed The Mall, carriages rolled past cheering spectators, and a 41-gun salute echoed across St James's Park — Trooping the Colour 2025 delivered every ounce of the pomp and pageantry the British public turns out for year after year.
And at the heart of it all, King Charles and Queen Camilla took their place on the Buckingham Palace balcony to watch one of the most talked-about moments of the day: a Red Arrows flypast that carried a significance few in the crowd may have fully realised.
A Last Hurrah for the Famous Nine
Today's Red Arrows display was, quietly, a historic one. The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team — officially known as the RAF Aerobatic Team — has flown in a nine-aircraft formation for decades, but that era is coming to an end. In May, it was announced the team would begin flying with fewer aircraft for the majority of their displays in order to preserve the ageing fleet of Hawk T1s, which have been in service since 1980 and are due to be retired in 2030.
The full nine-aircraft formation will be kept for just one more occasion after today: next month's 250th anniversary celebrations for the United States. After that, the Red Arrows will fly as a seven-strong team. For anyone watching from The Mall this afternoon, they witnessed a piece of aviation history.
The Royal Procession — and Who Was on Horseback
The King and Queen made their way back to Buckingham Palace in an Ascot Landau carriage — a vehicle that dates to the reign of Queen Victoria — while Prince William rode a horse named Darby, Princess Anne was mounted on Noble, and Prince Edward rode Sir John along The Mall. The Princess of Wales travelled in an open carriage with her three children, smiling and waving to the crowds lining the route.
On Horse Guards Parade, Guardsmen in scarlet tunics and bearskin caps performed their precision marching display, with the colour being trooped this year belonging to the Grenadier Guards — a regimental flag presented by the King himself in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace earlier in the week. The royal colonels also rode in formation: the Prince of Wales as Colonel of the Welsh Guards, Princess Anne as Colonel of the Blues and Royals, and the Duke of Edinburgh as Colonel of the Scots Guards.
"It has been a turbulent year for the Royal Family. Since the last Trooping the Colour, we have seen the scandal around the King's brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor widen and more questions being asked around royal properties and finances. But today is very much the traditional display of royalty — showcasing pomp and ceremony and the role of the King as head of the armed forces." — Daniela Relph, BBC Chief Royal Correspondent
The Balcony Moment — and the Familiar Faces
Waiting on the Buckingham Palace balcony ahead of the King and Queen's return were several senior royals, including some of the more rarely seen members of the extended family. The Duke of Kent — a grandson of King George V and first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II — was among those gathered, alongside Sir Tim Laurence, husband of Princess Anne, and the Duchess of Edinburgh.
The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were also present; Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, is another first cousin of Elizabeth II. For royal watchers, it was a welcome reminder of the breadth of the extended royal family still very much involved in public life.
Protesters Make Their Presence Felt
Not everyone lining The Mall was there to cheer. Anti-monarchy group Republic staged its customary protest at the event, with demonstrators holding bright yellow placards reading "Not My King" and chanting as the troops passed by. Some protesters also held up photographs of Prince Andrew — stripped of his royal titles over his associations with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — with chants growing louder as the military procession went by.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed they had a policing plan in place and said they were working with protesters "to ensure we can balance these needs with their right to lawfully protest", with particular care taken to avoid disturbing the horses involved in the ceremony.
Republic has protested at Trooping the Colour in previous years and maintains it has every right to demonstrate peacefully at what it describes as a public event. The demonstrations passed without serious incident, leaving the spectacle of the carriages, the horsemanship, the gun salutes, and those nine Red Arrows streaking overhead as the defining images of the day — a monarchy putting its grandest foot forward, whatever the noise around it.
