They have served the monarch continuously since then, even during The Commonwealth (1649 – 1659) when they guarded King Charles II in exile in France. The Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard, to give them their full title, was created by Henry VII in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth and is the oldest military corps in existence in Britain. This harks back to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 when Guy Fawkes was discovered, with gunpowder, hiding in the cellars in an attempt to blow up both king and parliament. The first part of the ceremony of the State Opening of Parliament takes place out of public sight, when the cellars beneath the Palace of Westminster are searched by the Yeomen of the Guard, resplendent in their Tudor-style uniforms, in a tradition that dates back to 1679.
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