Elizabeth marks 93rd birthday with pageantry fit for a queen

LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II marked her official birthday Saturday with the annual Trooping the Color parade, a traditional display of British pageantry at its very best.

About 1,400 soldiers in ceremonial scarlet coats and bearskin hats marched past the queen in a ceremony on Horse Guards Parade in Westminster. Royals taking part included Prince Charles, Prince William and his wife Kate, and Prince Harry and his wife Meghan — who appeared in her first public outing since giving birth to their son, Archie, to watch the birthday fly-past of military aircraft.

Baby Archie did not appear, but another young royal almost stole the queen’s limelight when he made his debut on Buckingham Palace’s balcony. One-yearold Prince Louis, the youngest child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, waved frantically at the first of the helicopters in the show.

The queen marks her birthday twice a year — an official ceremony is always held in June, in hopes of holding the parade in good weather. Her actual birthday, on April 21, is usually celebrated with close family only.

Thousands of spectators lined the parade ground and gathered in nearby St. James’s park to watch the spectacle in sparkling sunshine. They then walked down the road leading to Buckingham Palace, gathering at the gates to honor the monarch ahead of the fly-past, the punctuation mark of the event.

It’s been a big week for the 93-year-old monarch. Demonstrating the close link between the monarchy and the armed forces, she was the center of ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the invasion of France that marked the beginning of the end of the Nazis.

Danica Kirka is an Associated Press writer.

Frank Augstein / Associated Press Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II rides in a carriage to attend the annual Trooping the Color ceremony in her honor in London.