The Royal Mail can trace its history back to 1516, when Henry VIII established a "Master of the Posts",[8] a position that was renamed "Postmaster General" in 1710.

[11] In the 1640s, Parliament removed the monopoly from Witherings and during the Civil War and First Commonwealth the parliamentary postal service was run at great profit for himself by Edmund Prideaux (a prominent parliamentarian and lawyer who rose to be attorney-general).

In July 1655, the Post Office was put under the direct government control of John Thurloe, a Secretary of State, best known to history as Cromwell's spymaster general.

[16] Between 1719 and 1763, Ralph Allen, postmaster at Bath, signed a series of contracts with the post office to develop and expand Britain's postal network.

[22] Greater changes took place when the Uniform Penny Post was introduced on 10 January 1840, whereby a single rate for delivery anywhere in Great Britain and Ireland was pre-paid by the sender.

[29] British pillar boxes traditionally carry the Latin initials of the reigning monarch at the time of their installation, for example: VR for Victoria Regina or GR for Georgius Rex.

That same year, Royal Mail Parcels was rebranded as Parcelforce as part of an attempt to compete with international courier firms, which were fast expanding into the European market.

Romec was 51% owned by Royal Mail, and 49% by Haden Building Management Ltd, which became Balfour Beatty WorkPlace and is now Cofely UK, part of GDF Suez in a joint venture.

[38] In the 1990s the President of the Board of Trade, Michael Heseltine, began to look again at privatisation, and eventually a Green Paper on Postal Reform was published in May 1994, outlining various possible options.

[40] In 1999, Royal Mail launched a short-lived e-commerce venture, ViaCode Limited, aimed at providing encrypted online communications services.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) boycotted the name, and the following year, it was announced that the company would be renamed Royal Mail Group plc.

[59] In 2008, due to a continuing fall in mail volumes, the government commissioned an independent review of the postal services sector by Richard Hooper CBE, the former deputy chairman of Ofcom.

The recommendations in the Hooper Review led Business Secretary Lord Mandelson to seek to part privatise the company by selling a minority stake to a commercial partner.

[60] After the departure of Adam Crozier to ITV plc on 27 May 2010, Royal Mail appointed Canadian Moya Greene as chief executive,[61] the first woman to hold the post.

[63] A new holding company, Royal Mail plc, was established in September 2013, in anticipation of its initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange.

[64] Applications for members of the public to buy shares opened on 27 September 2013,[65] ahead of the company's listing on the London Stock Exchange on 15 October 2013.

It was also suggested that the board of directors may look to separate GLS in order to distance the profitable company from Royal Mail, which were in negotiations with the CWU over both pay and future changes to ways of working.

[71] Royal Mail is required by law to maintain the universal service, whereby items of a specific size[72] can be sent to any location within the United Kingdom for a fixed price, not affected by distance.

[73] On 20 January 2025, Royal Mail announced that it is expected to be permitted to discontinue Saturday deliveries for second-class letters under proposals put forward by Ofcom.

Prohibited goods include alcoholic, corrosive or flammable liquids or solids, gases, controlled drugs, indecent or offensive materials, and human and animal remains.

[82] In June 2005, Postcomm decided to refuse the application on the grounds that Royal Mail had not provided sufficient evidence that carrying firearms caused undue disruption or that a ban would reduce the number of illegal weapons.

[84] The proposals provoked a large negative response, following a campaign led by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, backed by numerous shooting-related websites and organisations.

[102] Royal Mail Group have lost 59 employment tribunals since 2017[103] On 28 December 2024, the UK's longest serving postman, Robert Hudson, retired at the age of 76, after 60 years' service.

[135] In a statement dated 27 September 2012, Ofcom announced it would approve the scheme after noting that more goods were being purchased over the internet and that Royal Mail's competitors were permitted to leave undelivered items with neighbours.

[155] Royal Mail is famous for its custom load-carrying bicycles (with the rack and basket built into the frame), made by Pashley Cycles since 1971.

[157] In addition to running a large number of road vehicles, Royal Mail uses trains, a ship and some aircraft, with an air hub at East Midlands Airport.

[160] The new contract called for the replacement of the British Aerospace 146-200QC (Quick Change) aircraft in favour of a standard Boeing 737 fleet,[161] and the type was withdrawn by Titan Airways in November 2013.

[162] In 2021 Royal Mail announced plans to trial using a drone between the UK mainland and St Mary's airport, Isles of Scilly.

[166] Royal Mail operated the London Post Office Railway, a network of driverless trains running on a private underground track, from 1927 until it closed it in 2003.

[169] Just over ten years later, after British Telecom was separated from the Post Office, a new grant of arms was made: the telecommunications references were removed from the blazon, with the "barrulet wavy" being replaced by gold bezants (to represent the Girobank, whose colour (blue) was also introduced).