On Maundy Thursday the sovereign gave food, clothes and money to as many poor men and women as the years of the royal age, and once washed their feet as well. Elizabeth I did so at Greenwich in her thirty-ninth year, marking each foot with a cross and kissing it; James II was the last king to wash the feet himself. By Chambers’s day the washing had long been dropped and money was given in place of the provisions, with specially struck maundy pennies.
The royal maundy
3 days before Easter · Whitehall, London
Still kept
The king of England was formerly accustomed on Maundy Thursday to have brought before him as many poor men as he was years old, whose feet he washed with his own hands
From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 412. Read the original
Get a copy: Amazon · Bookshop.org · AbeBooks
We may earn a small commission if you buy through these links.
Questions and comments