article_snippet.sent: Monarchs have been presenting Maundy Money since 1210 and King John .
article_snippet.sent: The Royal Maundy Service is one of the UK's oldest royal customs and sees the monarch distribute alms in the shape of two purses of specially minted coins.
article_snippet.sent: The Royal Maundy is an ancient ceremony which has The Royal Maundy origin in the commandment Christ gave after washing the feet of Christ disciples the day before Good Friday.
article_snippet.sent: In an echo of the Last Supper, mediaeval and Tudor Monarchs also washed the feet of beggars during The Royal Maundy Service.
article_snippet.sent: The first monarch to take part in a Maundy Thursday service was King John, of Magna Carta and Robin Hood fame, who distributed gifts of clothes and money to the poor in Knaresborough in 1210.
article_snippet.sent: King John was also the first to present the poor with silver coins and is recorded as having done so in Rochester in 1213.
article_snippet.sent: John's grandson Edward I, the king known to posterity as 'the Hammer of the Scots', was the first to confine the tradition to The Royal Maundy Thursday alone, which, until The Royal Maundy , could be conducted on any day of the year.
article_snippet.sent: The 800-year-old tradition used to involve washing beggars' feet - hence the nosegay .