King Charles and Queen Camilla will be carrying out one of the most important religious ceremonies on the calendar as they head to Durham Cathedral to attend the Royal Maundy service. 

Maundy Thursday marks the day before Jesus’s crucifixion when he ate food with his disciples and then washed their feet out of love. In an ancient tradition, the Monarch now hands out money to people chosen from their local communities for their service to others. King Charles had to miss the 2024 ceremony because of his treatment for cancer but now he will return to the tradition with Queen Camilla, who handed out the money on his behalf last year, at his side.

The first monarch recorded to take part in a Maundy Thursday service was King John who handed out alms in 1210 but it is likely the tradition went on before that. Medieval monarchs continued to take part in the service and the ceremony evolved to see the king or queen washing the feet of the poor and handing out Maundy money. 

King James II is the last monarch known to have washed feet as part of the ceremony. 

Throughout the centuries, the parishioners chosen to take part in the ceremony would receive various items, including food, clothing, and money. 

During King Charles II’s reign, specially minted Maundy money was created, a tradition still carried on. 

Although Queen Victoria and King Edward VII did not prioritise the ceremony, King George V started attending annually in the early 1930s. 

Queen Elizabeth II cemented the tradition in the royal calendar, attending for all but five of the years of her 70 year long reign. In the 1950s, the ceremony was held outside of London for the first time in two centuries. 

It is now held in different cathedrals across the United Kingdom. The King has followed in his mother’s footsteps and hands out Maundy money to both women and men. 

The 2025 ceremony will be held at Durham Cathedral where His Majesty will give money to seventy-six women and seventy-six men, in line with his age.