Editing Yeomen of the Guard (section)

=== Sources ===
Reconstructing the history of the Guard is difficult. An 1809 fire in [[St James's Palace]], the headquarters of the Guard, destroyed whatever records may have remained from the 15th-18th centuries.{{r|1904_HennellIA|p=vii}} The earliest mentions of the Guard are in histories from the 16th century: (a) [[Robert Fabian|Robert Fabian's]] ''The New Chronicles of England and France'' (1516); (b) [[Polydore Vergil#Anglica Historia|Polydore Vergil's]] ''Angelica Historia'' (1534); and (c) [[Edward Hall|Edward Hall's]] ''Chronicle'' (1547). [[Francis Bacon]] mentioned them in his ''History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh'' (1622). A short history of the Guard was written by [[Samuel Pegge (the younger)|Samuel Pegge]] as part of his ''Curialia'' (1782).{{r|1998_Hewerdine|p=2-3}}

A 50-page history of the Guard appeared in 1852, with Thomas Smith's ''Some Account of the Royal Body-Guard entitled the ancient corps of the Yeomen of the Guard, instituted 1485. With a brief notice of the Warders of the Tower''. Smith acknowledged he used Pegge's ''Curialia'' and records of the Guard as his sources. This was followed in 1904 with Sir Reginald Hennell's 350-page ''The History of the King's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard''. Hennell was a lieutenant in the Guard at the time, who discovered that there were no records save for one old order book and miscellaneous papers.{{r|1904_HennellIA|p=vii}} Extensive modern research{{r|1998_Hewerdine|p=vii-viii}} has been done by Anita Hewerdine for her 1998 doctoral thesis ''The Yeomen of the King’s Guard 1485-1547''.{{r|1998_Hewerdine}} Results of her subsequent research are found in her 2012 book ''The Yeomen of the Guard and the Early Tudors: The Formation of a Royal Bodyguard'' (See [[#Further reading|Further Reading]]). Hewerdine's thesis is referenced in this article for the Tudor period, whilst Hennell's book is referenced for the 17th-19th centuries.