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
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
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.
Three armies met that day on Bosworth Field: Richard, with his supporters, John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk and Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland; Henry, with his troops under command of the veteran John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford; and the troops of Thomas, Lord Stanley. Stanley was a powerful lord in northwest England. But he was stepfather of Henry Tudor, and Richard was holding his son hostage. Stanley's forces remained uncommitted as the battle raged. As Oxford advanced, the troops appeared to leave Henry, his bodyguards, and some French mercenaries isolated, or so it appeared to Richard. Sensing an opportunity, Richard charged toward Henry. Seeing this, Stanley made his decision, and charged to reinforce Henry. Henry's bodyguards fought bravely to hold off Richard's bodyguards until the arrival of Stanley's troops. During the melee, Richard's horse became mired in the marsh, and he was killed. Henry had won.
Original unit formation Henry rewarded his bodyguards by formally establishing the Yeomen of the Guard of (the body of) our Lord the King. This royal act recognized their bravery and loyalty in doing their duty, and designated them as the first members of a bodyguard to protect the King (or Queen) of England forever. In their first official act on 1 October 1485, fifty members of the Yeoman of the Guard, led by John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, formally escorted Henry Tudor to his coronation ceremony. This appearance of the Guard at Henry VII's coronation was first documented by Francis Bacon in 1622. The coronation appears to have been hastily arranged, using the regulations for Richard III's coronation as a draft. The Guard is not mentioned in the regulations.
There are no surviving original documents ordering the establishment of the Guard. There is only a draft document from ca 1536-37 proposing the formation of what would become the Gentlemen at Arms. The proposal contains this statement for a precedent:
Hewerdine proposes that Henry VII may have copied the Scots bodyguard of the French king. In 1445, Charles VII of France had established two companies of Scots: one contained 100 men-at-arms; the second contains 104 archers designated as personal bodyguards. These Scottish archers were being recognized for their service and loyalty to the French crown. Part of the royal retinue and used for ceremonial purposes, they wore richly decorated and embroidered jackets displaying the royal badges. They were armed with swords and halberds.
The earliest documents mentioning individual Yeomen of the Guard date from September 1485 through January 1846. They are signet warrants (signed orders) from Henry to his Keeper of the Privy Seal, granting offices throughout the realm. The first is dated 16 September 1485, less than one month after the Battle of Bosworth, and about six weeks before his coronation. It appointed John Frye, yeoman of the king's guard, to the office of Searcher at the port of Bristol. From these warrants, Hewerdine was able to identify 32 Yeomen. Of these 32 warrants, 13 mention former service overseas, and 6 indicate presence at Bosworth Field. The remaining warrants mention "good and faithful service", which Hewerdine interprets as meaning either service overseas, or presence at Bosworth, or both. Service overseas refers to Henry's exile to Brittany after the execution of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. According to sources quoted by Hewerdine, Henry had a retinue of about 500 men while in Brittany, of which 200 followed him to France. It was probably from among these 200 followers that the original Guard was formed.
Under Henry VII the Guard had only 2 officers: the Captain, and the Clerk of the Cheque. The latter position (similar to a bookkeeper) was added by Henry later in his reign.
Size of the Guard
The only accounts which provide a size of the Guard during the early years of Henry VII's reign are Virgil, who gives a total of about 200, and Bacon, who gives a total of 50. Hewerdine has reconstructed a list of approximately 100 yeomen for the first year or two of Henry's reign. During the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII, Hewerdine has established that the size fluctuated greatly between the 1470s and about 1540. In April 1489, Henry VII took 200 yeomen to northern England, and a similarly sized contingent in 1500, when Henry visited Archduke Philip of Austria in Calais. However, for Arthur, Prince of Wales marriage with Catherine of Aragon in 1501, the Guard numbered 300. Eight years later (1509), the names of 193 Yeomen are listed in the Lord Chamberlain's records for Henry VII's funeral. However, 300 Yeomen appeared for Henry VIII's coronation. The greatest increase in Guard size occurred in 1513, for Henry VIII's campaign in France. Two years later, 170 Yeomen were discharged as part of an effort to reduce spending. During the 1520s, the royal household sizes and expenses were scaled back in the Eltham Ordinance. The Guard was probably reduced to 80 members at that time. Hewerdine proposes another possible reason for the inability to determine the number of Yeomen of the Guard. It appears that the Yeomen served at court for specified terms of duty. Some of the Household Ordinances indicate that some served quarterly, whilst others served daily.
Original duties
Hewerdine mentions that the primary sources appear to make little distinction between the newly instituted Yeomen of the Guard, and the older positions of Yeomen of the Chamber, and the Yeomen of the Crown, which Henry VII kept as part of his household. Based upon the names of individuals, she suggests that the Yeomen of the Crown was the group of retainers who could serve as Yeomen of the Chamber or Yeomen of the Guard as openings occurred.
The Guard's primary function was protection. Hewerdine quotes one of Henry VII's heralds describing the Guard as: "evermore standing by the ways and passages upon a row in both the sides where the king's highness should from chamber to chamber or from one place to another at his goodly pleasure be removed". In other words, the Guard formed a physical security shield wherever he went in the palace. (Illustrations in this section are from the reign of Henry VIII. Very little remains of palace interiors from Henry VII's reign due to remodelling, for example, Windsor Castle, or demolition, such as Greenwich Palace, by later monarchs.)
In the King's Chambers
Many of the daily duties performed by the yeomen who served the King are described in Yeoman. Additional duties performed included: (1) carrying torches when escorting the king to and from the royal chapel; (2) advising the Officer of the Kitchen when to prepare the King's meals; and (3) during meals, a yeoman usher was required to circulate throughout the King's Chambers, ensuring good service and good order.
In the evening, the All Night ritual would begin. A Yeoman Usher would assist a Gentleman Usher in collecting food and drink for the king, should he become hungry or thirsty overnight. The food and drink was given to the Squire for the Body who was on duty in the King's Chamber that night. The roster of the night watch was also given to the Squire, who was responsible for locking the chamber doors. Next came the making of the king's bed for the night. There were two versions of the ritual. The old order required that a yeoman would stab the straw mattress with a dagger, searching for anything that should not be there. Then the canvas and feather beds were laid over the straw mattress. The new order required that a yeoman would jump upon the canvas and feather beds, and roll around, spreading them out. After either procedure was carried out, precise instructions were followed for placing the sheets, pillows and covers on the bed.
Yeomen on night watch not serving within the King's Chamber were required to sit outside in the Guard Chamber. Four times each night, the yeomen locked inside the King's Chamber would patrol the king's chamber, and the yeomen in the Guard Chamber would patrol the palace. They were alert to signs of fire, any disturbances that might wake the king, or possible attacks on the king's person.
At royal events