The late Queen is responsible for making the event the huge celebration that it is.

By Rebecca Russell, Deputy Royal Editor

11:35, Sat, Jun 14, 2025 | UPDATED: 11:36, Sat, Jun 14, 2025

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The late Queen changed the celebration (Image: Getty)

There are few better examples of British pomp and pageantry than Trooping the Colour. And while the parade goes back more than 200 years, it interestingly only became the enormous weekend celebration that it is during Queen Elizabeth II's reign.

Trooping the Colour - otherwise known as the King's Birthday Parade - is an annual event which sees over 1,400 soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians march in front of the King on Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall. This year it is the turn of the Coldstream Guards who will present their regiment's flag (or Colour) in front of King Charles.

However, the parade only became what it is in 1959 when the late Queen introduced a change.

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While the annual celebration has undergone many changes over the years, including being moved to its current position in June so that the monarch is able to have nicer weather for their official birthday, Queen Elizabeth also introduced a shift.

After years of the parade taking place on any day during the week throughout the previous reign of King George VI, the Queen moved the parade to take place on a Saturday each year, therefore allowing it to become the annual spectacle that it is.

The Queen first lead the parade when she was still Princess Elizabeth the year before her accession in 1951.

Trooping The Colour

The late Queen first led the parade when she was still a Princess in 1951 (Image: Getty)

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While Trooping the Colour was first performed during the reign of King Charles II, it became an annual event in 1760, after the accession of King George III.

Even though the ceremony begins and ends in front of Buckingham Palace, the most significant part of the parade takes place a stone's throw away on Horse Guards Parade.

The famous site has a rich history, which includes doubling as King Henry VIII's jousting ground and serving as the office to one of the influential military figures in history, the Duke of Wellington.