Trooping the Colour in 2023 saw King Charles, Queen Camilla, the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Princess Anne and her husband, the Duke of Kent, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony.
These members of the Royal Family (except Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis) are all working royals with a busy schedule of engagements.
Non-working royals such as Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie and Zara Tindall were not present on the balcony, despite appearing there in recent years.
When Queen Elizabeth II was the monarch, she had all members of the Royal Family (working and non-working), present on the balcony for Trooping the Colour.
But now that King Charles III is sovereign, he made the decision to only have working members of the Royal Family on the balcony.
This was likely to have an excuse not to include Prince Andrew on the balcony, who stepped down from royal duties in December 2019.
Judi James, a body language expert spoke exclusively to Express.co.uk to explain the differences between King Charles’s Trooping the Colour balconies and those of his late mother.
She claimed: “The composition of this ‘slimmed down’ royal balcony pose looks like a gappy smile with several teeth missing.
“Instead of a smaller, tighter, loyal group it looks like five factions in apparent conflict: Anne and Tim stand awkwardly at one end; William and Kate pose in a glittering but slightly cordoned-off family group; Charles and Camilla take all the goodwill from the crowds in the middle; Edward and Sophie try hard to create some sociable links with the Gloucester’s at the other end.
“Any ‘One united family group’ vibe seems to be totally lacking.”
According to the expert, King Charles’s balcony during Trooping the Colour only reminded fans about who stood there in years gone by.
Judi suggested: “The gaps only call to mind the people who are missing. Charles once had a mother, father, brother, son and his son’s family to mingle with.
“But each of the gaps now seems to tell its own tragic or murky tale. The dynasty seems to have been dismissed or scattered, leaving this tentative group that is left looking like uneasy survivors of a business cull.”
In the late Queen’s reign, her Trooping the Colour celebrations were always slightly more “animated”, Judi opined.
She continued: “Nobody seems to know where to stand now and there is little in the way of mingling.
“During previous balcony appearances during the Queen’s reign, there were royals standing several deep and all seemed to be chatting and catching up, like a wedding group or a family Christmas.
“People looked animated and excited and, with the Queen in the middle of the pose, there was always a suggestion of pride in the achievement of a huge, far-spread family group that grew each year up until the point that Charles set about pruning it.”
According to the body language expert, the “working royals only” message could backfire for the King.
Judi explained: “The message about ‘working royals only’ might be a prudent one in times of cut-backs. But fans love the Royal Family as much, if not more than they love the royal firm.
“This working party needed Anne and Edward’s children and Anne’s grandchildren as well as Beatrice and Eugenie’s growing families to make it look more like the happy, warm birthday celebration it was.
“In previous years the Queen’s huge family group always looked like a party that had moved out onto the balcony before going back inside again to continue the fun. Charles’s group looked much more serious and a lot less playful.”
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