Trooping the Colour happens this Saturday, June 13. King Charles will travel by carriage from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade. Queen Camilla will be there. Prince William and Kate will be there, with all three children. Princess Anne. The Edinburghs. The Duke of Kent. Over 1,300 soldiers, 300 musicians, and a Red Arrows flypast at 1pm.
Prince Harry will not be there. He has not been there since 2019.
The history is not complicated. Harry and Meghan attended in 2018 and 2019, in the carriage procession, on the balcony, in full view. They attended in 2022 as non-working royals, in a separate viewing room above Horse Guards Parade, not on the balcony. Since King Charles took the throne, they have not been invited at all. Three years in a row under Charles, and now four, the occasion proceeds as though Harry does not exist on the guest list.
This week, a poll found that 95% of respondents believe Harry should stay away. The comments were not subtle. “He’s no longer an active member of the Institution,” one reader wrote. Another: “He stood down from royal duties.” These are technically accurate statements. They are also, depending on who is reading them, a verdict.
The palace has never made a statement about the exclusion. It has never needed to. The event simply happens, every June, with the same people on the balcony and the same person not on it. Royal commentator Richard Eden of the Daily Mail noted in 2023 that it was “the first year of his life that Harry hasn’t been invited at all.” The phrasing has stopped being remarkable. It is now just the annual description of what happens.
The particular absurdity of this year is timing. Just five days ago, Harry was not invited to his cousin Peter Phillips’s wedding. Before that, he was not invited to the Duke of Westminster’s wedding. The palace’s strategy, if it can be called that, is to keep producing occasions Harry is not at, and trust that absence, repeated often enough, answers the question without anyone having to say the words.
Harry has said publicly he would like reconciliation. He is due back in the UK next month for the one-year countdown to the 2027 Invictus Games. He will be photographed. There will be speculation. The cycle will begin again.
When the answer to a question is delivered every June in the form of an empty seat, at what point does everyone agree to stop calling it a question?
Sources
Daily Mail UK: Trooping the Colour News
IBTimes UK: Prince Harry Allegedly Crushed by Staggering 95% Vote Demanding He Stay Away From King’s Birthday
Official King’s Birthday Parade
