Royal Maundy

In 1931 Princess Marie Louise attended Royal Maundy, and afterwards suggested that her cousin, King George V, make the distributions the following year.

The reverse, with a crowned numeral enclosed by a wreath, derives from a design first used during the reign of King William III and Queen Mary II, and which has been virtually unaltered since 1822.

[5] By the fourth or fifth century a ceremony had been developed following Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday, in which high Church leaders washed the feet of the poor.

[6] The first English monarch to be recorded as distributing alms at a Maundy service was John,[7] who on 15 April 1210 donated garments, forks, food, and other gifts to the poor of Knaresborough, Yorkshire.

[12] According to Virginia Cole in her study of royal children's role in the 13th century Maundy, the service had a political purpose as well, as needing to humble himself by doing the pedilavium proclaimed the monarch's greatness.

[9] Nobles could hold their own Maundy distributions, as did Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland in the early 16th century, according to a contemporary record: "My Lord useth and accustomyth yerly uppon the said Maundy Thursday when his Lordshipe is at home to gyf yerly as manny Pursses of Lether ... with as manny Penys in every purse to as many poore men as his Lordshipe is Yeres of Aige and one for the Yere of my Lords Aige to come.

[18] Contemporary writer William Lambarde noted that the money was substituted for the gown "to avoid trouble of suite, which accustomabile was made for that perferment".

[19] In years in which plague was rife, the monarch did not attend, sending an official, usually the Lord High Almoner, to make the distributions and perform the pedilavium.

Even though scented water was used to disguise any unpleasant odours from the poor, the feet were washed three times before the monarch performed the pedilavium, once by a menial and twice by Court officials.

Author Brian Robinson, who traced the development of Royal Maundy, suggests that after the 1660 Stuart Restoration, his son Charles II attempted to gain popularity by assiduous attendance (and distribution of money) at the service.

[29] The same year, a report on the Civil List written for the House of Commons proposed eliminating the Royal Maundy: "Considering that the sum distributed annually as alms and charity is applied in a manner suited rather to ancient than modern times and is attended with some expense, it may not be inexpedient to consider whether the purpose of the Royal benevolence might not be more fully attained if some other and better mode of distribution were adopted.

"[30] William IV's death aged 71 that year and the accession of his 18-year-old niece Victoria resulted in a dramatic drop in the number of Maundy recipients.

One of each of these bags is given to the persons selected to receive the royal bounty; they have likewise given to them cloth, linen, shoes &c., as well as a small maple cup, out of which previous to the termination of the ceremony they drink the Queen's health ...

These small pieces are, by an order of Government declared current coins of the realm, therefore no one dare refuse to take them if offered in payment, still they are not in reality intended for that purpose.

In 1931, Marie Louise was present at Royal Maundy and suggested, after the service, that her cousin King George V make the distributions the following year.

[33][34] George VI, who succeeded in 1936, did not attend until 1940, and then not again until 1944, his place being taken in most years by the Lord High Almoner, Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury.

[35] In 1957, with the service leaving London for the first time in over two centuries (it was held in 1957 at St Albans), this became impractical and it was decided that, in future years, recipients would attend once only.

To honour the promise to the surviving lifetime appointees, they were given the opportunity to attend whenever the service was held in London, and were sent an equivalent sum by post in years when it was not.

[38] She was absent twice following childbirth, and twice because she was visiting other parts of the Commonwealth,[2] and, at age 95, did not attend the 2022 service at St George's Chapel in Windsor, with Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall standing in her place.

As their fees for the service amounted to over twenty pounds per year, this was deemed an abuse of charity, and in 1808 the old men were pensioned off and replaced by actual children.

[63] In 1968, a royal warrant was granted to Barrow Hepburn and Gale to produce the traditional white and red leather purses, which continues to today.

[65] The red purse contains £1 representing the money for redemption of the monarch's gown, £3 in lieu of the clothing once given, and £1.50 in place of the food once presented, totalling £5.50.

[66] In 2024, for the ceremony at Worcester Cathedral, the £5.50 not given in Maundy money took the form of a £5 coin with the image of a Tudor dragon and a 50p recognising the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's 200th anniversary.

[82] To evade statutory prohibitions on the striking of silver coin during the Napoleonic Wars, all Maundy pieces issued from 1800 to 1815 bear the date 1800, though most were struck later.

The designer is unknown (Richard Lobel, in his catalogue of British coins, suggests the artist was George Bower, an employee of the Royal Mint whose medals bear similar characteristics) but his work has endured, in a revised form, for over 300 years.

[96][97] In 1947 silver was removed from all circulating British coinage in favour of cupronickel, but as it was felt to be inappropriate to strike Maundy coins in base metal, their fineness was restored to 0.925.

[103] Small quantities of Maundy twopences and fourpences (principally the latter) were obtained by colleges at the University of Cambridge for use in making token annual payments.

These requests were fulfilled until the middle of the 20th century, after which the Royal Mint refused them; the colleges thereafter used obsolete circulation groats (fourpences), or dispensed with the custom.

[105] By 1897, Maundy recipients were being urged to sell the small pieces at a premium; there are tales of Americans paying high prices for a set that year, wanting a souvenir of Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

[107] There was little official response to this until the 1960s, when questions were asked in the House of Lords after the press reported that recipients were being approached by dealers after the service and being offered cash for their gifts.