Post-Restoration
Charles I rarely attended the Royal Maundy service. Author Brian Robinson, who traced the development of Royal Maundy, suggests that after the Restoration, his son Charles II attempted to gain popularity by assiduous attendance (and distribution of money) at the service. Charles II even attended during the plague years of 1661 and 1663. His brother and successor, James II performed the ceremony as well. Although there is a record of William III doing so in 1698, most sources state that James was the last to wash the feet of the poor himself, in 1685. There is no record of any attendance by a monarch at the Royal Maundy ceremony after 1698 until 1932, but pre-1725 records are vague. The Lord High Almoner continued to perform the pedilavium at the Maundy ceremony until 1737. Today, the only traces of the pedilavium at Royal Maundy are the nosegays and the linen towels worn by several of the officials.
The service was usually held somewhere near London. This was done to suit the monarch's convenience: in medieval times, it was held in Windsor, Eton, Richmond, Greenwich, or wherever the monarch happened to be at Eastertime. In 1714, with the monarch no longer present at the ceremony, the service was moved to the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, where it remained until 1890, when the Chapel was given to the Royal United Services Institute. After 1890, by order of Queen Victoria, it was moved to Westminster Abbey, though in years when there was a Coronation and the Abbey was closed for preparations, the service was held at St. Paul's Cathedral. From 1954 to 1970, it was held in even-numbered years at Westminster, and in odd-numbered years at provincial cathedrals; since then it has, in most years, been held outside London. When the service was confined to London, recipients were customarily householders who had met their financial obligations to society, but had since fallen on hard times.
The number of recipients continued to track the monarch's age. Until the joint reign of William and Mary, the recipients were of the same sex as the monarch. During that reign, each of the monarchs made gifts to poor people of their sex, but after the death of Mary, only men received gifts from King William. Beginning with the reign of George I (1714–1727), both men and women have received gifts, each sex in a number corresponding to the monarch's age, each recipient receiving that number of pence. Despite the monarch's absence, the ceremony was held each year, with the Lord High Almoner or the Sub-Almoner deputising for the sovereign.
The gift of clothing was eliminated for women beginning in 1724, as the recipients immediately tried on the gifts and exchanged ill-fitting ones with each other, a practice thought unseemly in a church. The women were instead given 35 shillings (decimalised as £1.75). For men, the clothing gift was replaced by woollen cloth that year. Men continued to be given cloth until 1883, when royal officials realised that many of the recipients were too poor to have the cloth made into garments and were instead selling it. Men were given 45 shillings (decimalised as £2.25) in lieu of the cloth, an amount increased in 1973 to £3 for both men and women.
There is a record of the 1802 Royal Maundy; it notes that the recipients were given 4 pounds (1.8 kg) of beef and four threepenny loaves. After the 1837 Maundy, King William IV ordered that as the recipients were selling the food gift for less than its full value—they were to be given 30 shillings in food which was sometimes sold by the recipients for as little as five shillings—it was to be replaced by a money gift of 30 shillings. This amount (decimalised into £1.50), is still given. The same year, a report on the Civil List written for the House of Commons proposed eliminating the Royal Maundy: "Considering that the sum distributed annually as alms and charity is applied in a manner suited rather to ancient than modern times and is attended with some expense, it may not be inexpedient to consider whether the purpose of the Royal benevolence might not be more fully attained if some other and better mode of distribution were adopted." King William's death at the age of 71 that year and the accession of 18-year-old Queen Victoria resulted in a dramatic drop in the number of Maundy recipients. As at that time, a Maundy recipient continued in that status for life, the surplus recipients were placed on waiting lists, and given royal charity through other means. One vacancy occurred a week before the 1838 Maundy when Maundy recipient Elizabeth Love died at the age of 110.
In 1843, The Illustrated London News described a Maundy ceremony:
On the day alluded to a certain number of poor men and women, of each the exact number of our sovereign's age, attends divine worship in the Royal Chapel, Whitehall in the morning and afternoon. Bread, meat and fish is distributed to them in large wooden bowls, and a procession formed of the royal almoner or sub-almoner, with other officers, who are decorated with white scarfs and sashes, and each carrying a bouquet of flowers; one of the officers supports a large gold dish or salver, on which are placed small red and white leather bags, the red containing a sovereign, the white the pieces ... termed Maundy Money. One of each of these bags is given to the persons selected to receive the royal bounty; they have likewise given to them cloth, linen, shoes &c., as well as a small maple cup, out of which previous to the termination of the ceremony they drink the Queen's health ... These small pieces are, by an order of Government declared current coins of the realm, therefore no one dare refuse to take them if offered in payment, still they are not in reality intended for that purpose.
The drinking of the monarch's health, which is believed to have originated with the custom of the loving cup, was abolished in the 19th century, though the exact date is uncertain. In the early 20th century, members of the Royal Family sometimes attended the Royal Maundy service—Queen Alexandra twice was present. Most Royal Maundy ceremonies in the first part of the century were attended by Princess Helena or by her daughter Princess Marie Louise. In 1931, Marie Louise was present at Royal Maundy and suggested, after the service, that her cousin King George V make the distributions the following year. King George did so in 1932, the only time he was at the service during his reign. In 1936, the year of King George's death, the new king, Edward VIII made the distribution. George VI (who succeeded King Edward on his abdication late in 1936) did not attend until 1940, and then not again until 1944, his place being taken in most years by the Lord High Almoner, Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury. Queen Elizabeth II has been present for all but four Royal Maundy services of her long reign. She was absent twice following childbirth, and twice because she was visiting other parts of the Commonwealth. She first attended Royal Maundy as Princess Elizabeth of York in 1935.
Until 1956 a recipient once chosen for the Maundy service had the right to continue to be a recipient for life. In 1957, with the service leaving London for the first time in over two centuries (it was held in 1957 at St. Albans), this became impractical and it was decided that, in future years, recipients would attend once only. To honour the promise to the surviving lifetime appointees, they were given the opportunity to attend whenever the service was held in London, and were sent an equivalent sum by post in years when it was not.
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