page_title: Royal Maundy
section_title: Post-Restoration
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Maundy / Post-Restoration
caption_attribution_description: Royal Maundy service, 1877
context_page_description: Royal Maundy is a religious service in the Church of England held on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. At the service, the British monarch or a royal official ceremonially distributes small silver coins known as "Maundy money" as symbolic alms to elderly recipients. The coins are legal tender but do not circulate because of their silver content and numismatic value. A small sum of ordinary money is also given in lieu of gifts of clothing and food that the sovereign once bestowed on Maundy recipients.
  The name "Maundy" and the ceremony itself derive from an instruction, or mandatum, of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper that his followers should love one another. In the Middle Ages, English monarchs washed the feet of beggars in imitation of Jesus, and presented gifts and money to the poor. Over time, additional money was substituted for the clothing and other items that had once been distributed.
  Beginning in 1699 the monarch did not attend the service, sending an official in his place. The custom of washing the feet did not survive the 18th century.
context_section_description: Charles I rarely attended the Royal Maundy service.  Author Brian Robinson, who traced the development of Royal Maundy, suggests that after the Restoration, his son Charles II attempted to gain popularity by assiduous attendance (and distribution of money) at the service.  Charles II even attended during the plague years of 1661 and 1663.  His brother and successor, James II performed the ceremony as well.  Although there is a record of William III doing so in 1698, most sources state that James was the last to wash the feet of the poor himself, in 1685.  There is no record of any attendance by a monarch at the Royal Maundy ceremony after 1698 until 1932, but pre-1725 records are vague.  The Lord High Almoner continued to perform the pedilavium at the Maundy ceremony until 1737.  Today, the only traces of the pedilavium at Royal Maundy are the nosegays and the linen towels worn by several of the officials.
  The service was usually held somewhere near London.  This was done to suit the monarch's convenience:  in medieval times, it was held in Windsor, Eton, Richmond, Greenwich, or wherever the monarch happened to be at Eastertime.  In 1714, with the monarch no longer present at the ceremony, the service was moved to the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, where it remained until 1890, when the Chapel was given to the Royal United Services Institute.  After 1890, by order of Queen Victoria, it was moved to Westminster Abbey, though in years when there was a coronation and the Abbey was closed for preparations, the service was held at St. Paul's Cathedral.  From 1954 to 1970, it was held in even-numbered years at Westminster, and in odd-numbered years at provincial cathedrals; since then it has, in most years, been held outside London.  When the service was confined to London, recipients were customarily householders who had met their financial obligations to society, but had since fallen on hard times.
  The number of recipients continued to track the monarch's age.  Until the joint reign of William III and Mary II, the recipients were of the same sex as the monarch.  During that reign, each of the monarchs made gifts to poor people of their sex, but after Mary's death, only men received gifts from William.  Beginning with the reign of George I (1714–1727), both men and women have received gifts, each sex in a number corresponding to the monarch's age, each recipient receiving that number of pence.  Despite the monarch's absence, the ceremony was held each year, with the Lord High Almoner or the Sub-Almoner deputising for the sovereign.
  The gift of clothing was eliminated for women beginning in 1724, as the recipients immediately tried on the gifts and exchanged ill-fitting ones with each other, a practice thought unseemly in a church.  The women were instead given 35 shillings (decimalised as £1.75).  For men, the clothing gift was replaced by woollen cloth that year.  Men continued to be given cloth until 1883, when royal officials realised that many of the recipients were too poor to have the cloth made into garments and were instead selling it.  Men were given 45 shillings (decimalised as £2.25) in lieu of the cloth, an amount increased in 1973 to £3 for both men and women.
  There is a record of the 1802 Royal Maundy; it notes that the recipients were given 4 pounds (1.8 kg) of beef and four threepenny loaves.  After the 1837 Maundy, William IV ordered that as the recipients were selling the food gift for less than its full value—they were to be given 30 shillings in food which was sometimes sold by the recipients for as little as five shillings—it was to be replaced by a money gift of 30 shillings. This amount (decimalised into £1.50) is still given.  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 full
caption: A Royal Maundy ceremony in 1877
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