During the Queen’s historic funeral service yesterday (September 19), the latest reiteration of the UK’s national anthem, God Save the King, was sung at Westminster Abbey- marking the beginning of the reign of King Charles III. With the anthem’s origins dating back 300 years ago approximately- it was first publicly performed in 1745 in London as a patriotic song.
It was recognised as the nation’s anthem at the beginning of the 19th century after Prince Charles Edward Stuart, defeated the army of King George II at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh. This elicited a music arrangement of God Save the King to be performed at the Theatre Royal- after news of Prestonpans hit London.
As reported by the Mirror, this created a traditional custom of the song to be played to greet monarchs, or when they entered a place of public entertainment. In actuality, there is no authorised version of the National Anthem as the words as additional verses were included in later years.
