CHARLES III'S FIRST HIGHLAND GAMES AS KING

Remembering his grandparents at their first Braemar Gathering as King and Queen

King Charles III, Queen Camilla, Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence in the Duke of Rothesay Highland Games Pavillion at the Braemar Gathering

Greetings to the Royals Extra community!

I had a restorative break, and now I’m back and ready to offer you something extra about the British royal family past and present, with thanks, as ever, for your interest in Royals Extra.

Seeing the images of the Highland Games in Scotland this weekend reminded me—perhaps inevitably, given the subject of my latest book-- of George VI and Elizabeth, who attended the colorful Braemar Gathering for the first time as monarch and consort in early September 1937. I have found some rare photographs that capture the scene.  Joining their parents for the carriage drive to the heather-bedecked royal pavilion were their two daughters, eleven-year-old Princess Elizabeth and seven-year-old Princess Margaret. The headlines described the event as “The Coronation Year Braemar Gathering.” It was a sunny day, although “slight showers fell and a tearing wind swept the Princess Royal Park, where the gathering was held,” reported The Times.

Last year Charles was still the Prince of Wales when he represented his mother, the ailing Queen Elizabeth II, only days before she died in nearby Balmoral Castle at age ninety-six after a reign of seventy years. On Saturday he presided over the annual Scottish ritual of strenuous physical competition, music, and dancing in his own right as King, with Queen Camilla by his side.  It was their coronation year gathering as well, coming four months after they were crowned in Westminster Abbey. They were accompanied by his sister, Princess Anne, and her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence.  Charles and Anne had been the only family members at their mother’s deathbed last September 8^th.

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth with their daughters in September 1937 arriving at the Braemar Gathering in a carriage pulled by four Windsor Grays.

Reigning British monarchs and their families have been attending the Braemar Gathering since the mid-nineteenth century, when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought Balmoral Castle in Royal Deeside. Traditionally, clansmen from the Highlands have assembled at the large grassy plateau rimmed by heather-swathed mountains and marched to the music of pipes and drums.  The games feature competitions in Highland dancing and bagpiping, obstacle races, hammer throwing, tug–of-war contests, and the tossing of the caber—a fifteen-foot tree trunk—by very large men in kilts.

“These Highland Games are ancient,” noted The Times in 1923—the first year Bertie and Elizabeth, the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth—attended the games after their marriage. “There was a good deal of ancient Greek in their origin. Their purpose was to train and exercise the youth in noble and warlike sports, and so keen was the Highlander of old on them that in times of danger nothing could prevent his coming down to the valleys for the games.”

King Charles and Princess Anne enjoying an amusing moment during the Braemar Gathering on Saturday

King Charles is an avid fan of the Braemar games, and photographs often show him convulsed with laughter. It’s never clear to onlookers what has tickled him, but one of his Windsor cousins told me,