King Charles & Camilla were protested at the Royal Maundy service in York

A year ago, Queen Elizabeth tasked then-Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall to attend the Royal Maundy service in her place. What Charles and Camilla didn’t know was that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were in Windsor and about to make a surprise visit to QEII. QEII wasn’t surprised – she clearly invited them, and she asked Harry to speak to his father before he and Meghan left Windsor. That’s why Charles and Camilla hauled ass out of the church service and booked it to the castle, to catch the Sussexes before they left. Whenever anyone mentions “the Royal Maundy service,” I now think of that – the Sussexes managing to slip into Windsor without anyone knowing.

Well, now that Charles is king, he’s still doing the Maundy service. Camilla was with him today and they did the whole thing in York this year. The service was presided over by the Dean of York and the Archbishop of York. Charles handed out two special purses of “Maundy money” to 74 men and 74 women. Within the purses were commemorative coins marking Charles’s upcoming 75th birthday and the 75th anniversary of the Windrush generation. The Maundy money tradition dates back to 1210.

Interestingly enough, the king and queen were protested at the cathedral. There were Republic-organized protesters just across the street, holding signs and yelling. Those bells were trying to compete with the protesters!

Charles turned up – we let him know that he’s not our king. #NotMyKing #AbolishTheMonarchy pic.twitter.com/bL9w0dAfcl

— Republic (@RepublicStaff) April 6, 2023

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.