Yeomen of the Guard
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- For the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, see The Yeomen of the Guard
The Queen's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard are a bodyguard of the British Monarch. The oldest extant British military corps, it was created by Henry VII in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field. As a token of this venerability, the Yeoman still wear red and gold uniforms of Tudor style. There are 73 Yeomen of the Guard, drawn from retired members of the British armed forces. However, the role of the Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard is a political appointment - the Captain is always the government Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Lords.
The Yeomen of the Guard have a purely ceremonial role. They accompany the Sovereign at the annual Royal Maundy Service, investitures and summer Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace, and so on. However, their most famous duty is to search the cellars of the Palace of Westminster prior to the State Opening of Parliament, a tradition that dates back to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up Parliament. (Today, officers from the Metropolitan Police join the search.)
The dress worn by the Yeomen of the Guard is in its most striking characteristics the same as it was in the Tudor period. It consists of a royal red tunic with purple facings and stripes and gold lace ornaments, together with a red cross-belt, red knee-breeches and red stockings, flat hat, and black shoes with red, white and blue rosettes are worn. The gold-embroidered emblems on the back and front of the coats consist of the Tudor crown with the Lancastrian rose, the shamrock and the thistle, the motto "Dieu et mon Droit", and the initials of the reigning sovereign. It is the red cross-belt that distinguishes the Yeomen of the Guard from the Yeomen Warders.
The term "Yeomen of the Guard" is frequently misapplied to the Yeomen Warders of the Tower of London, a distinct but similar body. Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta appears to share in this confusion.
External link
The Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page382.asp)