What do you do when the king and queen of the United Kingdom take a trip to your 15,000-person town?
If you’re anything like Madeline Nesbitt of Front Royal, Virginia, you dig for the Capri-blue, English-countryside-style outfit in the back of your closet, pair it with a wide-brimmed hat, and bring along a book your grandfather wrote about hiking the Appalachian Trail to try to gift it to King Charles III. You show up a couple hours after dawn for a parade that won’t start until around 1:30 p.m.
“I was trying to decide between this and a square dancing outfit I have,” she said while waiting in a line that stretched over a quarter-mile. “And if I were to wear the big, huge crinoline, I would take up too much space.”
About 2,500 people were permitted beyond the security perimeter Thursday to catch a glimpse of King Charles III and Queen Camilla on one of the final stops of their state visit. For the royals, this small-town tour was sandwiched between laying wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery and visits to Shenandoah National Park and a horse racing farm. On Thursday evening, they jetted off to Bermuda for the king’s first visit to the territory since he assumed the crown.
But for the people of Front Royal, the monarchs’ roughly hour-long stop was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that shut down much of their daily routine and invited them to wave an American flag in one hand and a British flag in the other.
Many Front Royals (the townsfolks’ self-title, according to one woman in a fascinator hat) did not believe at first that their town would be graced by the actual royals. But earlier this week, the public schools announced plans to close for the VVIP visit. Some people took off work.
Alanah Graham, a 20-year-old Front Royal resident, said she didn’t know about Charles and Camilla’s visit until she was driving around town.
“They had a sign down by the Taco Bell that said ‘The Royals Are Coming,’ so that let me know that the royals are coming,” she said. She was excited to see the king, she said, but wished the late Princess Diana or Queen Elizabeth II — who died in 1997 and 2022, respectively — and could have passed through, too.
“That would have been so much more epic,” she said.
Cindy Butterfield and her husband, Terry, reorganized their work schedules to watch the parade. She works as a dental assistant at his private practice, though that morning they were doing dental work at the local jail.
“It’s cool that they would grace a town like this, given the elevation that they are,” she said. “ … It’s just a great small town, but why us, you know?”
Meg Spencer, chief communications officer at the British Embassy in Washington, said the visit was meant to honor the America that exists outside major cities like Washington or New York, which the royal couple also visited this week.
“[A big part of America] happens in small towns, so this is an opportunity for their majesty to connect with everyday Americans,” she said. “This visit is really about honoring all Americans, not just political folks and business leaders. America 250 is for everyone.”
Front Royal is, in 2026, a quiet place nestled in the foothills of the Shenandoah Valley.
But in the late 1700s, when its taverns nearly outpaced its residences, it was known to travelers as “Helltown.” It was the site of a Civil War battle, and it still has Confederate soldiers buried in its graveyards. Theories abound about the town’s peculiar name, but the one posited by its tourist site dates to the Revolutionary War when a camp of British soldiers was located near Front Royal: Visitors had to respond with the password “royal” to the sentry’s challenge of “front.”
Those soldiers could not have known that centuries later, a descendant of their own king would come to celebrate the independence of the colony they fought to keep.
About 90 minutes before the parade began, 53-year-old Charlie McClanahan sat on a side street away from the scrum smoking a cigarette in his patch-covered denim jacket.
“So we defeated them in the war,” he said, laughing. “So we’re 250 years old. But now you’re going to parade them down the street. Are we to throw tomatoes or are we to wave at them? Can you explain?”
For hours, residents and visitors packed Main Street biding their time. A woman explained the royal lineage to a group of round-eyed children. “So then Charles married Diana,” she said.
“And she died?”
“Yes, she died.”
Then, someone shouted: “The British are coming!”
Heads snapped in unison to watch the black government SUVs laze down the street. From one car’s windows, Charles and Camilla waved. For those situated further down the parade route, that was the extent of their brush with the royals.
But spectators situated near the town’s main square watched as the king and queen exited their vehicles, shook hands and took a spot next to Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) to watch the parade go by from a shaded gazebo. Marching band members and vintage car drivers strained their necks to catch a glimpse of Charles, who looked, on his perch, less like a king than an American mayor on the Fourth of July.
Said the actual Front Royal mayor, Lori Athey Cockrell: “We know that when they have an opportunity to see our town and engage with our residents and businesses, they will understand why we love to call this community our home.”
For the royals, the quick program included meetings with young farmers, Welsh-heritage sheep, a local beekeeper and the Front Royal Little League All-Star team, which won the Virginia State Championship last summer in the town’s first state title since 1962. They nibbled at a potluck meal. The king did not clap during the festivities.
The Low Water Bridge Band opened the event with Americana music.
“We’ve been working with some new guys,” said front man Logan Moore, “so it was kind of a good first gig for them.”
John Evans and his wife, JoAnn, who live 10 miles from Thursday’s action, got in the security line before 8 a.m. and didn’t enter until around 11:30 a.m. But the retirees didn’t mind the hassle. This was a rare opportunity.
As gridlocked attendees started shuffling toward the exits, Evans pulled his phone from his pocket and opened a zoomed-in photo he had just taken of the tired-looking king.
“They can use this for their Christmas card next year,” he said.
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