>Since William the Conqueror in 1066, there had been a tradition that monarchs would spend the night at the Palace of Westminster before they ascended to the throne.

Now this bed isn't quite that old. It dates to 1859, yet somehow after WWII ended up at an antique auction.

I love that this is a "tradition". I figure the first few kings were probably going, early morning tomorrow i should save some time and kip near westminster abbey, and a few monarchs down the line everyone has to do it.

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Regardless of the Pound symbol is the price, I still thought this article was going to be about Elvis Presley.

I was very firmly under the impression that it was traditional that the monarch spent the night before at the Tower.

That's pretty much how traditions work?

You invite the family over for Christmas because it's your turn, you go for a walk to the woods because you know it's nice and want to show the family.

Next year, the people whose turn it is have to drop out for work, mum and dad are having building work done, so you offer to do it at yours again. It snows this year so you guys do the walk again because it'll be special to see the nice walk in the snow.

By year 3, if you do it again then "it wouldn't be Christmas if we didn't do the special Christmas walk at Jane and John's" until you moved

Lol I've been to Graceland. This bed would not be out of place.

That's what I thought until I worked out that no, the BBC was unlikely to be writing about that ha ha. Didn't spot the pound note immediately.

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Well yeah but thats become a tradition because its a nice thing to do. It wasn't like at christmas you went for a walk in the woods because you needed to go post your credit card bill off and it was the quickest way and eventually everyone was like oh we have to go post johns credit card cheque. its a Christmas tradition, and you're like its 2022! Who pays credit card ls by cheque anymore. But somehow you're still walking.

So was I. Looks like I have some reading to do.

So is this the picture of the bed in question? Or is this another useless article with no picture as the internet tends to do?

Of course there's still the one real question that everyone wants to know: Is it in fact a king-sized bed, or have we just been lied to by mattress companies for years?

That’s a funny story. Thanks for posting. Man I wish I lived somewhere where there was a lot of history

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Yea but there is a little bit of a difference here. One is talking about regular people falling into a tradition with family, the other is someone taking over as an autocratic ruler of a country and scraping the barrel for every shred of legitimacy they can muster to convince everyone they're ordained by god to be their authority. If your predecessor or several of them did a thing, well just in case you might as well too.

Well thats no way to talk about William the conqueror!

Oh wait, you mean Charles....

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No King has ever slept in this bed:

The state bed later suffered damage in a fire and a new one was built in 1859 measuring 6ft long and 12ft high, made of walnut with gilt inlay.

As grand as the bed is, none of the subsequent monarchs chose to take up the offer of a sleepover in Parliament.