Buckingham Palace released a new photo of King Charles III on Friday to mark his 77th birthday. The image, taken in May by photographer Millie Pilkington, shows the monarch in the gardens of Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, with the stately home in the background.
Additional photos, also taken at Sandringham, show Charles wandering the gardens and tending to a maple sapling. These were published in Country Life magazine on Wednesday to highlight his restoration of the historic gardens.
On his birthday, the King and Queen Camilla traveled to Cyfarthfa Castle in Wales, about 25 miles north of Cardiff. There, Charles cut into an enormous birthday cake shaped like the castle. He later officially opened the South Wales Metro Train Depot, briefly sitting in the driver's seat of a new tram-train, and greeted members of the public who waited in the rain.
In London, gun salutes were fired in Green Park and by Tower Bridge. The autumnal rain underscored the tradition of British monarchs having two birthdays, with the official one marked by the Trooping the Colour parade in summer.
The tradition dates back to King George II in 1748, who also had a November birthday. Charles has faced a difficult few weeks, including stripping his brother Andrew of royal titles in late October due to links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Earlier in October, Charles became the first British monarch in at least 500 years to publicly pray with a pope during a Vatican visit.
Charles continues to balance his duties with ongoing cancer treatment, following a diagnosis of an undisclosed form of the disease in early 2024.
