Overview
- The royal couple distributed Maundy gifts to 154 recipients at St Asaph Cathedral in north Wales, with each person receiving a white purse of specially minted silver coins totaling 77 pence and a red purse with a £5 coin for Queen Elizabeth II’s centenary and a 50p marking The King’s Trust at 50.
- Most honorees were selected from Wales and nearby English dioceses for long service to church and community, and the silver coins, which are legal tender, come in unusual 1p, 2p, 3p, and 4p pieces that are struck only for this rite.
- The service used the Cross of Wales, the same processional cross that led the King’s 2023 coronation procession, linking the ceremony to recent national pageantry.
- Crowds lined the route while a small group from the anti-monarchy campaign Republic protested nearby, and workers cleaned “Not our King” graffiti from a cathedral wall before the visit.
- This was only the second time the centuries-old Royal Maundy has been held in Wales, with the last Welsh service in 1982 at St Davids, and the tradition dates to at least 1210 with the number of recipients tied to the monarch’s age.