{"id":526,"date":"2024-11-14T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/?p=526"},"modified":"2025-04-25T23:32:57","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T23:32:57","slug":"why-does-king-charles-iii-have-two-birthdays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/14\/why-does-king-charles-iii-have-two-birthdays\/","title":{"rendered":"Why does King Charles III have two birthdays?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"The\t<\/div>
Trooping the Colour is the \u2018official\u2019 birthday of the monarch \u2013 but it\u2019s not the real one<\/strong> (Picture: Max Mumby\/Indigo\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As monarch, King Charles III <\/a>has two birthdays \u2013 just like his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II<\/a>, did.<\/p>\n

While a second birthday is something the rest of us could only dream of, the late Queen celebrated two birthdays each year<\/a> throughout her seven-decade reign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her Majesty was born in 1926 on April 21, but an ‘official birthday celebration’ took place in the form of Trooping the Colour<\/a> \u2013 a summertime parade.<\/p>\n

Indeed, King Charles has carried on this tradition. You may be wondering why monarchs have two birthdays \u2013 and how this first began.<\/p>\n

Here’s all you need to know.<\/p>\n

Why does King Charles have two birthdays?<\/h2>\n

King Charles has carried on the tradition of Trooping the Colour, which dates all the way back to 1748<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As a result, he does indeed mark two birthdays \u2013 the official one, which traditionally takes place on a Saturday in June<\/a>, and his actual date of birth, on November 14.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"The\t<\/div>
King Charles celebrated his official birthday with his family in June (Picture: Gareth Fuller\/PA Wire)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first sovereign to have two birthday events was King Charles’s distant relative, King George II \u2013 who wished to throw a public celebration, complete with a parade and plenty of pomp and circumstance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, having also been born in November, the odds of the weather holding out for a huge outdoor bash in the UK were pretty slim.<\/p>\n

Instead, the monarch decided to use the UK\u2019s annual military parade held in the summer as his official birthday celebration.<\/p>\n

He would therefore mark his birthday twice \u2013 once publicly in June, and once privately in November.<\/p>\n

How does King Charles celebrate his birthdays?<\/h2>\n

This year, King Charles will spend his birthday working to support the Coronation Food Project – just like he did for his 75th birthday.<\/p>\n

Last November, the King launched the Coronation Food Project<\/a>, which aims to support the nation during the cost-of-living crisis <\/a>by redistributing food destined for landfills.<\/p>\n

On his birthday, he toured a surplus food distribution centre outside London with Queen Camilla and hosted a reception for nurses and midwives at Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n

The King also shared his birthday celebrations with neighbouring 75-year-olds and community champions by hosting live music and tea parties at Highgrove House<\/a>, before ending the day with a private family dinner at Clarence House.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"King\t<\/div>
King Charles III with the cake for his 75th birthday party at Highgrove Gardens (Picture: Chris Jackson\/PA Wire)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How old is King Charles?<\/h2>\n
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King Charles turns 76 today (Provider: @theroyalfamily)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

King Charles is 76 years old<\/strong>, as of Thursday, November 14 2024.<\/p>\n

In September 2022, Charles became the oldest monarch to accede the throne at age 73<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Previously, that title was held by William IV, who was 64 when he assumed the throne in 1830.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Queen Elizabeth II, The King\u2019s late mother, was just 25 years of age when she became Queen in 1952.<\/p>\n

The youngest British monarch at the start of her reign was Mary, Queen of Scots, who became queen aged 6 days in 1542 \u2013 while the youngest King was Henry VI, who was 8 months and 26 days old at the time of his accession in 1422.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Their\t<\/div>
King Charles III was crowned at Westminster Abbey on\u00a06 May 2023<\/strong> (Picture: Richard Pohle – WPA Pool\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What will happen after King Charles?<\/h2>\n

As King’ Charles’ birthday<\/a> is also in November, the decision to host Trooping the Colour in June feels more connected to history than ever before.<\/p>\n

When the time comes for the nation to have William<\/a> as sovereign, the tradition of two birthdays might come to an end.<\/p>\n

This is because Prince William’s birthday<\/a> falls on June 21 already.<\/p>\n

Future king Prince George<\/a> also has a summer birthday<\/a>, on July 22.<\/p>\n

Follow Metro across our social channels, on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter <\/a>and Instagram<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Share your views in the comments below<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trooping the Colour is the \u2018official\u2019 birthday of the monarch \u2013 but it\u2019s not the real one (Picture: Max Mumby\/Indigo\/Getty Images) As monarch, King Charles III has two birthdays \u2013 just like his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, did. While a second birthday is something the rest of us could only dream of, the late Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":533,"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions\/533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}