News for the bees? A Parliament hostage? And what the heck is "pricking the bodkin"? When a tradition is more than a few centuries old, it's bound to be a little weird... and the British royal family's are no exception.
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00:00News for the bees, a parliament hostage, and what the heck is pricking the bodkin?
00:05When a tradition is more than a few centuries old, it's bound to be a little weird, and
00:09the British royal families are no exception.
00:12The British royal tradition of Trooping the Colour made the news in June 2023, when several
00:17soldiers wearing wool uniforms and those big furry hats they're famous for fainted during
00:21a rehearsal due to high temperatures.
00:24But what is this event, and why is it such a big deal?
00:27Trooping the Colour is an annual celebration of the British monarch's official birthday,
00:31which falls in either May or June, and is usually not the same as their actual birthday.
00:36It's a military parade where some 1,400 uniformed soldiers, accompanied by hundreds of horses
00:41and musicians, carry or troop their flags, or colours, from Buckingham Palace down the
00:46Mall, a road in central London.
00:48It is a moment when the British military, principally the army, pays its tribute to
00:54the British sovereign.
00:55The practice of Trooping the Colour began in the 17th century, during the reign of Charles
00:59II, as a way to make sure soldiers remembered what their regimental flags looked like.
01:04It became an annual event to mark the monarch's birthday in the 18th century.
01:08Edward VII established the two birthdays rule in the first decade of the 20th century, so
01:13that the Trooping could always happen in June when the weather was nicer than his real birthday
01:17in November.
01:18The soldiers who passed out from the June heat might disagree with that assessment.
01:24Can you name who owns all the swans in your home country?
01:27If you're British, you can.
01:28Officially, the British monarch owns all unmarked mute swans living in open waters in the United
01:33Kingdom.
01:34The Queen has the prerogative to own swans in the United Kingdom wherever she so wishes."
01:41Since the 12th century, mute swans have been a symbol of royalty in the UK.
01:46At that time, the waterbird was a delicacy for which people would pay a high price.
01:51Swans purchased from the crown would be marked on their beaks, and each year the swans would
01:54be counted to ensure the monarch had enough swans to satisfy their appetite.
01:58Over time, this procedure evolved into the tradition of swan upping, which occurs each
02:03year in the third week of July, when baby swans are old enough to be handled by people.
02:08These days, the monarch only claims swans on certain parts of the Thames, and the ceremony
02:12is designed for swan conservation rather than for stocking the pantry.
02:16Teams from the traditional trade guilds of the Vintners and the Dyers, who share ownership
02:20of the swans with the crown, row along the Thames in red shirts, rounding up the swans,
02:25tagging and logging them, checking their health, then releasing them back into the river.
02:30The person whose job is to officially record the swan population is known as the Marker
02:34of the Swans.
02:36In the 2021 fictionalized Princess Diana biopic Spencer, the entire family is forced to publicly
02:42weigh themselves before and after dinner on a pair of antique scales.
02:46Ma'am, Her Majesty herself just a second ago sat on these scales, and she was very
02:51insistent that everyone joins in.
02:53According to a 2018 interview with royal expert Ingrid Seward, this embarrassing tradition
02:59is all too real.
03:00The ritual of getting weighed before and after dinner dates back to the 1900s during the
03:05reign of Edward VII, who wanted to make sure his guests were indulging in the spirit of
03:09the holidays.
03:10Allegedly, the ideal weight gain is three pounds.
03:14The rest of the royal holiday routine is highly structured.
03:17Presents are given on Christmas Eve, followed by a black-tie dinner where diners sit boy-girl-boy-girl.
03:23For Christmas Day lunch, the guests enter in order of seniority, eat turkey, and then
03:28do normal British Christmas things that seem weird to Americans, like pulling Christmas
03:32crackers and wearing paper hats.
03:34The coronation of King Charles III in May 2023 drew attention to a number of rituals
03:39and traditions that hadn't been seen since his mother's coronation 70 years before.
03:44One example of that was the bringing down of the Stone of Scone, also known as the Stone
03:49of Destiny, from Scotland.
03:51This stone is a 335-pound rock that slots into a hole in a centuries-old chair used
03:56for coronations since the 14th century.
03:59Prior to that, the stone was used in the coronation of Scottish kings going back to time immemorial.
04:05When Edward I conquered Scotland in 1296, he took the stone from Scotland to represent
04:10his dominion over it.
04:12Its use in coronations of the monarchs of the United Kingdom serves as a reminder to
04:16Scotland that they are literally under the English king's heel.
04:20England returned the stone to Scotland in 1996, and it's been on display at Edinburgh
04:24Castle ever since, though it was temporarily returned to Westminster Abbey for Charles'
04:29coronation in 2023.
04:31When Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022, the news dominated headlines for weeks,
04:37but there was one group that didn't get the news from TV — the royal bees.
04:41In the days following the queen's death, the royal beekeeper John Chappell tied black ribbons
04:47on the royal hives, quietly knocked on them, and whispered to the bees that the queen had
04:51passed and that someone new would be their master.
04:54This, as strange as it may seem, is a centuries-old tradition known as telling the bees.
05:00Hello, everyone!
05:01Hello!
05:02I'm afraid I have some difficult news.
05:04The queen is dead.
05:07This practice isn't strictly royal or even British.
05:10It was once common in other parts of Europe and even the United States.
05:13In the days before honey and refined sugar could be picked up at the store, locally made
05:18honey was almost as important as milk or eggs.
05:21As a result, bees were essentially members of the family, and all effort was made not
05:26to upset or offend them.
05:28And as important members of the family, they'd be told important family news, including births,
05:33marriages, and deaths.
05:35With the British royal family as dedicated as they are to ritual and tradition, it's
05:39no real surprise that they kept this one, too.
05:42The UK monarch is also the head of the Church of England, and every member of the royal
05:46family gets baptized into the church when they're babies.
05:50That's not unusual.
05:51But royal babies get christened with water imported from the River Jordan, specifically
05:56the spot where it's believed that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
06:01There are a number of other long-standing christening traditions, including the fact
06:05that every royal baby has worn the same gown since 1841...sort of.
06:10Granny was christened in this.
06:12Great Granny.
06:13Great Granny.
06:16And I was.
06:17Since 2008, they've been using a replica because the original became too fragile.
06:22They do use the baptismal font commissioned by Queen Victoria in 1841.
06:27She didn't like that the previous royal font was made for Charles II, all of whose children
06:31were illegitimate.
06:33The font is a 21-pound gilded silver bowl decorated with lilies, ivy, and cherubs, meant
06:39to represent the purity of the baptized child.
06:42Even though the royal family no longer lives there, the Tower of London is still home to
06:46numerous valuable artifacts, including the crown jewels.
06:50As a result, a ceremony has been performed there every night for over 700 years, called
06:55the Ceremony of the Keys.
06:57Every night just before 10pm, the Chief of the Yeomen Warders, accompanied by a group
07:01of royal guardsmen, goes around the tower and locks every gate.
07:05We've looked after crown jewels for hundreds of years, and it's a massive part of the job.
07:13When he arrives at the bloody tower, so-called because a pair of young princes were murdered
07:17there in the 15th century, a sentry at the gate calls out,
07:21"'Who comes there?'
07:23"'The King!'
07:24"'Who's King?'
07:25"'Queen Elizabeth!'
07:26"'King!''
07:27The sentry then replies that he can pass and that all is well.
07:31The Ceremony of the Keys is believed to be the oldest continuous military ceremony in
07:35the world.
07:36The only time the ceremony has even been delayed was during World War II, when a bomb landed
07:41near the tower during an airstrike and the warder fell over.
07:45He wrote a letter of apology to the King for being late.
07:48Each year, the UK Parliament opens its legislative session with a ceremony known as the State
07:53Opening.
07:55The monarch processes from Buckingham Palace to Westminster with a royal cavalry escort.
08:00Once there, the monarch enters the robing room, where they put on the crown and robe.
08:05So far, it's relatively normal, but then, after the House of Lords enters, a member
08:10known as the Black Rod is sent to summon the House of Commons.
08:13The members of the House of Commons then slam the door in their face.
08:17This is a symbolic gesture meant to represent the House of Commons' independence from the
08:21throne.
08:22But there's one element of the State Opening never seen by the public.
08:27Every year before the Opening, the royal family takes a member of Parliament hostage until
08:31the Opening is over.
08:33Strange as it may seem, this tradition stems from a time when relations between the monarch
08:37and Parliament were a little more fraught.
08:40Like when Parliament overthrew and beheaded Charles I in the 17th century.
08:44As a result, this now-symbolic hostage-taking is meant to ensure the monarch's safety.
08:50On June 18, 1815, the Duke of Wellington led the British Army and an alliance of European
08:55forces in battle against Napoleon at Waterloo, in what is now Belgium.
08:59Why don't people do what I say?
09:01Why can't I count on anyone?
09:04Napoleon lost, and the Duke of Wellington became one of the most famous humans in British
09:08history, getting all sorts of things named after him, like boots and beef dishes.
09:13To show gratitude to the Duke, the British people gave him a mansion called Stratfield
09:17Say House.
09:18Eh, sort of.
09:20Every year on the anniversary of the first Duke's victory at Waterloo, the current Duke
09:24of Wellington travels to Windsor Castle to pay rent to the monarch in the form of a silk
09:29French flag with that year embroidered in gold.
09:32The monarch accepts the flag and gives it to the castle's superintendent, who takes
09:36it to a special chamber where the flag is hung over a marble bust of the first Duke
09:40of Wellington.
09:41So somewhere in Windsor Castle, there's a dusty stack of old French flags.
09:47The longest-running office in England not related to the church is that of the High
09:50Sheriff, whose job is to keep the peace in the counties of England and Wales on behalf
09:55of the monarch.
09:56The office of High Sheriff has existed since the 10th century, predating even the invasion
10:01by the Normans in 1066.
10:04Back in the day, High Sheriffs had the power to act as judges or militia leaders on behalf
10:08of the crown, but today, it's strictly a ceremonial title.
10:12That said, tradition demands that there be High Sheriffs, and there are over 60 of them,
10:17so the monarch has to fill the positions.
10:20The current officeholder presents the monarch with a list of three candidates, and the monarch
10:24marks their choice by poking a hole in the list with a silver needle called a bodkin.
10:29Legend says this tradition dates back to Queen Elizabeth I, who was asked to pick sheriffs
10:34while she was sewing, and she pricked the parchment with a needle rather than find
10:37a pen.
10:38The more likely reason, however, is that a paper that has been pricked through is harder
10:42to tamper with than one that's just been written on.
10:46The most sacred part of the coronation of a new British monarch is the anointing of
10:50the new king or queen with oil.
10:52This is a practice modeled after the anointing of King Solomon by Zadok the Priest and Nathan
10:57the Prophet in the Biblical Book of Kings.
10:59For many centuries, it was believed that the British monarch was handpicked by God
11:04just like Solomon was, so this ritual is meant to represent the monarch's connection to God
11:09and divine right.
11:10The oil used is made to a special recipe and consecrated on the day of the coronation.
11:15This part of the coronation ceremony is done behind a golden canopy and has never been
11:19filmed or photographed.
11:21During the ritual, the Archbishop of Canterbury pours oil out of a golden bottle shaped like
11:26an eagle onto a golden spoon, then smears that oil on the head, hands, and heart of
11:32the new monarch in the shape of a cross.
11:35This spoon is actually the oldest surviving object among the crown jewels, dating back
11:39at least to 1349, and it's been used in coronations since at least King James in 1603.
11:46For some reason, the spoon was the only piece of the crown jewels not destroyed by Oliver
11:50Cromwell after the English Civil War.