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
The Yeomen of the Guard have a purely ceremonial role. They accompany the Sovereign at the annual Royal Maundy Service, the State Opening of Parliament, 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.
The term Yeomen of the Guard is frequently misapplied to the Yeomen Warders of the Tower of London, a distinct but similarly ancient, and similarly dressed, body. Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta called The Yeomen of the Guard appears to share in this confusion.
