Maundy Thursday,” says a writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine for July 1779, “is the poor people’s Thursday, from the Fr. Maundier [modern French: Mendier], to beg. The King’s liberality to the poor on that Thursday in Lent [is at] a season when they are supposed to have lived very low. Maundiant [modern French: Mendiant] is at this day in French a beggar.”
Other authors have suggested that the name of the day comes from an Old English word for the basket in which the gifts of the day were received.
An earlier name for the day was “Shere Thursday”. Folk derivations range widely often returning to the shearing of hair: laymen to prepare for Easter and new monks to be tonsured. To this we add our own version that the time of the year is just right to begin shearing sheep of their winter wool. Pre-modern England was about nothing so much as sheep and their wool.
In [Sir Thomas] More’s answer to Tyndal, on the Supper of our Lord, is the following passage : “He treateth, in his sec[o]nde parte, the Maundye of Chryste wyth hys Apostles upon Shere Thursday.” Among the Receipts and Disbursements of the Canons of the Priory of St Mary in Huntingdon, in Nichol’s Illustrations of the Manners and Expences of antient Times in England (1797), we have : “Item, gyven to 12 pore men upon Shere Thorsday, 2s. In an Account of Barking Abbey in Select Views of London and its Environs (1804), we read inter alia, in transcripts from the Cottonian Manuscripts and the Monasticon, “ Deliveryd to the Co’vent co[o]ke, for rushefals for Palme Sundaye, xxi pounde [of] fygges. Item, delyveryd to the seyd co[o]ke on Sher[e] Thursday viii pounde r[ic]e. Item, delyveryd to the said co[o]ke for Shere Thursday xviii pounde [almonds].” It was also called Maunday Thursday; and is thus described by the translator of Naogeorgus in the Popish Kingdom —
And here the monkes their Maundie make, with sundrie solemne rights
And signes of great humilitie, and wondrous pleasaunt sights.
E[a]ch one the others feete doth wash, and wipe them cleane and drie.
With hatefull minde, and secret fra[u]de, that in their heartes doth lye:
As if that Christ, with his examples, did these things require,
And not to helpe our brethren here, with zeale and free desire;
E[a]ch one supplying others want, in all things that they may,
As he himselfe a servaunt made, to serve us every way.
Then strait the loaves doe walke, and pottes in every place they skinke,
Wherewith the holy fathers oft to pleasaunt damsels drinke.
The German Protestant Latinist Naogeorgus's The popish kingdome, or reigne of Antichrist, written in Latine verse by Thomas Naogeorgus, and englyshed by Barnabe Googe (1570). is a wonderful resource for information about the Catholic rituals that were being abandoned or transformed in Protestant regions of Europe.
In Langley’s Polydore Vergill we read;
The kynges and que[e]nes of England on that day washe the feete of so many poore menne and women as they be [years] olde, and g[i]ve to every of them so many pence, with a gowne, and another ordinary almes of meate, and kysse their feete; and afterward g[i]ve their gownes of [f] their backes to them that they se[e] most ne[e]dy of al[l] the nomber.
Nor was this custom entirely confined to royalty. In the Earl of Northumberland’s Household Book, begun anno Domini 1512, fol. 354, we have an enumeration of
Al manner of things yerly geven by my Lorde of his maundy, ande my [Lady's] and his Lordshippis Childeren, as the consideracion WHY more playnly hereafter folowith.
Furst, my Lorde useth ande accustomyth yerely uppon Mawndy Thursday, when his Lordship is at home, to g[ive] ye[a]rly as manny gownnes to as manny poor men as my Lorde is ye[a]res of [age], with hoodes to them, and one for the ye[a]re of my Lordes [age] to come, of russet cloth, after iii y[a]rddes of bro[a]de cloth in every gowne and hoode, ande after xiid. the brod y[a]rde of clothe.
Item, my Lorde useth ande accustomyth ye[a]rly uppon Mawndy Thursday, when his Lordship is at home, to g[ive] ye[a]rly as manny sherts of lynnon cloth to as manny poure men as his Lordshipe is ye[a]rs of [age], and one for the ye[a]re of my Lord’s [age] to come, after ii y[a]rdis [and one half] in every sh[i]rt, ande after . . . the yerde.
Ite, my Lorde useth ande accustomyth ye[a]rly uppon the said Mawndy Thursday, when his Lordship is at home, to g[ive] ye[a]rly as manny tren plat[t]ers, after ob. the p[i]ece, with a cast of brede and a certen meat in it, to as manny po[o]re men as his Lordship is ye[a]res of [age], and one for the ye[a]re of my Lordis [age] to come.
Item, my Lorde used and accustomyth ye[a]rly, uppon the said Maundy Thursday, when his Lordship is at home, to g[ive] ye[a]rely as many [a]shen cuppis, after ob. the p[i]ece, with wyne in them, to as many po[o]re men as his Lordeship is ye[a]res of [age], and one for the ye[a]re of my Lordis [age] to come.
Item, my Lorde useth and accustomyth ye[a]rly uppon the said Mawndy Thursday, when his Lordshipe is at home, to g[ive] ye[a]rly as manny purses of le[a]ther, after ob. the p[i]ece, with as many pennys in every purse, to as many poore men as his Lordship is ye[a]res of [age], and one for the ye[a]re of my Lord’s [age] to come.
Item, my Lorde useth ande accustomyth yerly, uppon Mawndy Thursday, to cause to be bought iii yerdis and iii quarters of brode violett cloth, for a gowne for his Lordshipe to doo service in, or for them that schall doo service in his Lordshypes absence, after iiis. viiid. the y[a]rde, and to be furrede with bla[c]ke lamb, contenynge ii keippe and a half, after xxx skynnes in a kepe, and after vij. iiid. the kepe, and after iid. ob. the skynne, and after Ixxv skynnys for furringe of the said gowne, which gowne my Lord we[a]rith all the tyme his Lordship doith service; and after his Lordship hath done service at his said Maundy, doith g[ive] to the po[o]rest man that he fyndyth, as he thynkyth, [a]mongs[t] them all the said gowne.
Item, my Lorde useth and accustomyth yerly, upon the said Mawnday Thursday, to caus to be delyvered to one of my Lordis chaplayns, for my [Lady], if she be at my Lordis fyndynge, and not at hur owen, to comaunde hym to g[ive] for her as many groits to as many poure men as hir Ladyshipis ye[a]res of [age], and one for the ye[a]re of hir age to come, owte of my Lordis cofiueres, if sche be not at hir owen fyndynge.
Item, my Lorde useth and accustomyth yerly, uppon the said Maundy Thursday, to caus to be delyvered to one of my Lordis chaplayns, for my Lordis eldest sone the Lord Percy, for hym to comaunde to gyf for hym as manny pens of ii pens to as many poure men as his Lordship is ye[a]res of [age], and one for the ye[a]re of his Lordshipis age to come.
Item, my Lorde useth and accustomyth ye[a]rly, uppon Ma[u]ndy Thursday, to caus[e] to be [delivered] to one of my Lordis chaplayns, for every of my yonge maisters, my Lordis yonger sonnes, to [give] for every of them as manny [pence] to as manny poore men as every of my said maisters is ye[a]res of [age], and for the ye[a]re to come.
The royal ritual is remarkable and each monarch seems to have performed it with genuine humility until the reign of James II. As can be seen above, many of the high nobility of England joined their monarch in honoring the day so.
Source: Brand, John. Observations on Popular Antiquities Chiefly Illustrating the Origin of Our Vulgar Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions (1900). 56,
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
Paul Hentzner in the Presence of Queen Elizabeth I: September 1598. January 3, 2024. “ Hentzner kept a now famous dairy...”
- Rocco Bonetti's Blackfriars Fencing School and Lord Hunsdon's Water Pipe. August 12, 2023. “... the tenement late in the tenure of John Lyllie gentleman & nowe in the tenure of the said Rocho Bonetti...”
On Shakespeare's lameness and historical-fiction biography, etc. August 5, 2023. “Those who support Sogliardo of Stratford and other authorship candidates generally stop by from time to time to remark...”
- Shakespeare CSI: Sir Thomas More, Hand-D. April 22, 2023. “What a glory to have an actual hand-written manuscript from the greatest English writer of all time!”
- Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the Queen Elizabeth I Biography Page for many other articles.
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