

In a quiet but meaningful moment of diplomacy and symbolism, King Charles III and Queen Camilla welcomed King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden to Windsor on Wednesday evening for a ceremonial tree planting.
The Swedish oak, a gift from the Scandinavian royals, was planted in Home Park to commemorate the British monarchs’ coronation in May 2023.
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Charles and Carl get their hands dirty
The event took place just a day after King Carl XVI Gustaf’s 79th birthday, which he celebrated in Stockholm with a traditional military tribute and a family appearance on the palace balcony, marking baby Princess Ines’s first time joining the royal gathering.
The Swedish royal couple, now grandparents to nine, continued their celebratory spirit in Windsor with this joint royal engagement.
The kings, accompanied by Queen Camilla, strolled down companionably from Windsor Castle to the planting site.
Queen Silvia, recovering from foot surgery, arrived separately by car.
Their Majesties appeared in high spirits, particularly King Charles and King Carl, who were so deep in conversation with staff from the Crown Estate and their Swedish counterparts that Queen Camilla had to give her husband a gentle nudge to remind him to join in the tree-planting itself.
Laughing, Charles obliged and joined Carl at the base of the oak, where they each shoveled in soil around the young tree.
“I think that will probably do it,” Charles said, inspecting the mound.
“It may have some lumps in it.”
King Carl demonstrated his technique, pressing down with his foot and telling his British counterpart, “You know what it’s like. The trick is to do this. You know the drill!”
To which Charles replied with a chuckle, “You do it well.”
Following tradition, the two monarchs gave the tree a gentle shake for luck.
“I am so glad you do that as well,”King Charles smiled.
Then it was the queens’ turn.
Each armed with a watering can, they completed the ceremonial gesture.
“There we are,”Camilla announced cheerfully.
“We are going to give it a good splash of water.”
She urged Queen Silvia with a grin: “Put the whole lot in!”
King Carl used a historic spade for the occasion, the very one his great-grandfather, Gustavus V, used to plant an English oak in Windsor Great Park back in 1908.
“1908!”Carl exclaimed as he admired the tool.
A Crown Estate representative noted the original tree still stands today.
The oak planted this week is also symbolically twinned with another to be planted by Crown Princess Victoria in Stockholm’s Royal Djurgården. “I shall keep a very good eye on it,” Charles promised.
“If we are very lucky it will take to the soil and we will keep it watered. Thank you very much, you are so kind.”
Pointing toward the castle, he joked, “Don’t worry, I can keep an eye on it from over there for you!”
As the royals moved on to their next engagement, a reception for the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association, King Charles added with a smile, “The good thing is that it is near the Pope’s tree,” referring to another commemorative tree planted five years ago as a gift from the late Pope Francis.
This news was originally published on this post .
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