Yeomen Body Guard

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The first part of the ceremony of the State Opening of Parliament takes places out of public sight, when the cellars beneath the palace of Westminster are searched by the Yeomen of the guard, in a tradition that sates back to 1679, after Guy Fawkes' gunpowder plot in 1605, when was dicovered with 36 and a match in his hands in an attempt to blow up both the King and the Parlliament. The body guard of the yeomen of theh guard was created by Henry VII in 1485 at the battle of Bosworth and is the oldest military corps in existence in Britain and have served the monarch continuously since then, even during The Commonwealth when King Charles II was exiled in France. This corps was responsible for guarding the interior of the monarch's palaces, tasted all of the …show more content…

From then on their role became purely ceremonial until 1914, when because of the outbreak of the IWW , George V requested that they again resume guarding the Royal Palaces, releasing the police elsewhere. he also them to join the armed forces. The Yeomen of the Guard are easily recognosible due to their elaborate Tudor uniforms. They are often confused with the yeoman Warders who guard the Tower of London , as their uniforms are very similar and also date from Tudor times. However, the Yeomen of the Guards can be distinguished from the yeoman Warders by the red cross belts that run diagonally across the front of their tunics. There are 73 yeomen of the Guard aged between 42 and 55 and have served in the military for at least 22 years. They must have attained the rank of sergeant or above, but not be a commissioned officer, they must also have been awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. There are 4 ranks of officer in the guard: Exon, Ensign, Lieutenant and the highest rank Captain. The Yeomen of the Guard ranks include: Yeoman, Yeoman Bed Hanger, Yeoman Bed Goer, Divisional Sergeant-Major, Messenger

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