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The King's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard is a bodyguard of the British monarch. The oldest British military corps still in existence, it was created by King Henry VII in 1485 after the Battle of Bosworth Field. The Yeomen of the Guard are popularly known as Beefeaters, a nickname they share with the Yeomen Warders of the Tower of London.

History

300px|thumb|[[Yeomen Warders|Beefeaters on duty as the Queen's bodyguard at the State Opening of Parliament (2022).]]

The kings of England always had bodyguards surrounding them. The Anglo-Saxon kings had their house guards, and the Danish kings their housecarls. By the 13th century, the Anglo-Norman kings had three groups specifically ordered to protect them: (1) the royal household sergeants-at-arms; (2) the king's foot archers (also known as the Yeomen of the Crown); and (3) the esquires of the royal household. The actual number of archers varied over the course of the 14th-15th centuries. In 1318, a Household Ordinance (the King's Proclamation containing the yearly budget for his royal household) specified that the number of archers should be 24. Edward III had between 16 and 22 yeomen, Richard II recruited an additional 300 archers from Cheshire, Edward IV had 24 yeomen, and Richard III had 138 yeomen.

Sources

Reconstructing the history of the Guard is difficult. An 1809 fire in St James's Palace, the headquarters of the Guard, destroyed whatever records may have remained from the 15th-18th centuries. The earliest mentions of the Guard are in histories from the 16th century: (a) Robert Fabian's The New Chronicles of England and France (1516); (b) Polydore Vergil's Angelica Historia (1534); and (c) Edward Hall's Chronicle (1547). Francis Bacon mentioned them in his History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh (1622). A short history of the Guard was written by Samuel Pegge as part of his Curialia (1782).

A 50-page history of the Guard appeared in 1852, with Thomas Smith's Some Account of the Royal Body-Guard entitled the ancient corps of the Yeomen of the Guard, instituted 1485. With a brief notice of the Warders of the Tower. Smith acknowledged he used Pegge's Curialia and records of the Guard as his sources. This was followed in 1904 with Sir Reginald Hennell's 350-page The History of the King's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard. Hennell was a lieutenant in the Guard at the time, who discovered that there were no records save for one old order book and miscellaneous papers. Extensive modern research has been done by Anita Hewerdine for her 1998 doctoral thesis The Yeomen of the King’s Guard 1485-1547. Results of her subsequent research are found in her 2012 book The Yeomen of the Guard and the Early Tudors: The Formation of a Royal Bodyguard (See Further Reading). Hewerdine's thesis is referenced in this article for the Tudor period, whilst Hennell's book is referenced for the 17th-19th centuries.

Battle of Bosworth Field

thumb|1902 depiction of Henry Tudor on Crown Hill, surrounded by his Yeomen. Note the hawthorn bush in which Richard III's crown was reportedly found.

On 22 August 1485, near the small village of Stoke Golding, Henry Tudor met King Richard III in battle for the Crown of England. The War of the Roses had persisted intermittently for more than 30 years between the rival claimants of the House of York (symbolised by a white rose) and the House of Lancaster (symbolised by a red rose). In 1483, Richard, of the House of York, had deposed his young nephew, 12-year-old Edward V. Henry Tudor, of the House of Lancaster, was the favoured candidate to replace Richard. At any one time, one of the commissioned officers was to be "always in waiting" to receive orders; and forty yeomen were to be "constantly upon duty as well, to attend upon Our Person".

As previously, the Yeomen of the Guard attended in the Great Chamber (also called the Guard Chamber) of the palace. According to the Ordinances made by Charles II for the government of his Household, the Yeomen of the Guard were there to serve "not only the safety of Our Person but the honour of Our Court", and he ordained that "none hereafter be sworn and enrolled of that Band that is not of tall personage, strong, active and of manly presence" and that such persons "according to Our prerogative [may] be chosen out of the servants of Our nobility if we please or where else they may be found".

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Duties

Today, the Yeomen of the Guard have a purely ceremonial role. As a visual reminder of their origin, the Yeomen still wear the red and gold uniforms of the Tudor period. Armed with a sword (which is always sheathed) and an ornamental partisan, they escort the sovereign. The Guard is mustered on demand, about eight times each year. This includes an annual Roll Call and the Sovereign's Inspection (which has been changed to once every 4–5 years). They are in attendance at various occasions such as at the annual Royal Maundy service, the Epiphany Service in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace, installations of Knights of the Garter, investiture of the prince of Wales, lying-in-state, the funeral of the Sovereign, as well as all investitures, and summer garden parties at Buckingham Palace. One of their most famous duties is to perform a ceremonial search of the cellars of the Palace of Westminster prior to the State Opening of Parliament, which remembers the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In the 20th century it is described as a scarlet cloth double-breasted coatee with gold epaulettes and dark blue collar and cuffs; the skirts turned back with white cloth. Nine buttons in each row down the front, and two on the skirts behind. The buttons have a rose, shamrock and thistle device, topped by a crown; and a rose, shamrock and thistle appear within the gold embroidery of the epaulettes, collar, cuff slashes, sword flaps and also on the skirts of the coatee. The trousers are blue, with a gold stripe, and the hat has a 'General's plume' of 11-inch white swan feathers with red feathers under.

Aiguillettes are worn by the Captain, the Lieutenant, the Clerk of the Cheque & Adjutant and the Ensign, but not by the Exon. A 'gold stick' (ebony, with a gold top) is carried by the captain, and 'silver sticks' by the other officers.

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Differences between the Yeoman of the Guard and the Yeoman Warders

The Yeomen of the Guard, the original "Beefeaters", are often confused with the Yeomen Warders of His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, who are also known as "Beefeaters", a similar but distinct body. The Yeoman Warders wear their daily "undress" dark blue uniform and only on ceremonial occasions wear the Yeomen of the Guard's distinctive uniform that consists of a royal red tunic with purple facings and stripes and gold lace ornaments, red knee-breeches and red stockings, flat hat, and black shoes with red, white and blue rosettes. The gold-embroidered emblems on the back and front of the coats consist of the crowned Tudor Rose, the shamrock and the thistle, the motto Dieu et mon droit, and the royal cypher of the reigning sovereign (currently CIIIR for "Carolus Rex"). The State Dress is sometimes worn without a white ruff, which is reserved for highly official occasions.

The item of uniform that distinguishes The Yeomen of the Guard from the Tower Warders is the red cross-belt or baldric, worn from the left shoulder. This is a relic from the time when the Guard, and not the Warders, carried the harquebus.

Standard

Traditionally, the corps carried a standard, in the manner of army regiments. The corps' first standard was supposedly destroyed in a fire at St James's Palace in 1809. King George VI presented a replacement standard to the corps in 1938. This was replaced by a new standard presented by Queen Elizabeth II in 1985.

The standard is a crimson-coloured damaskin the centre is the corps' badge of a combined rose, thistle and shamrock, with the royal cypher of the reigning monarch either side, and the royal motto Dieu et mon Droit below. Either side of this device are ribbons containing two of the corps' battle honours, Tournai and Boulogne. In each corner are symbols representing the various royal houses that the corps has served:

  • Top left: a crowned hawthorn bush and the letters 'HR', representing King Henry VII and the legend that the crown was discovered by the guard in a hawthorn bush following the Battle of Bosworth Field.
  • Top right: a crowned thistle, representing King James I and the personal union of England and Scotland.
  • Bottom left: a white horse on a green mound surmounted by the crown, representing the House of Hanover.
  • Bottom right: the Round Tower of Windsor Castle crowned, representing the House of Windsor.

Battle honours

  • Field of Stoke, 1487
  • Boulogne, 1492
  • Blackheath, 1497
  • Tournai 1513
  • Boulogne, 1544
  • Boyne, 1690
  • Dettingen, 1743

:Honours in bold are displayed on the corps' standard.

References

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Further reading

  • Yeomen of the Guard
  • Yeomen of the Guard (The Royal Household site)
  • Opening of the British Parliament (contains photographs of the Yeomen of the Guard performing their ceremonial search)