The tart is said to date back to
King Henry VIII when he witnessed some of the Queen's Maids of honour eating some cakes and demanded to taste one. He found them delicious and named them after the maids. Some even claim that the maid who made the tarts was imprisoned and had to produce them solely for the King. However, there is another theory that they were named after
Anne Boleyn, a maid of honour at the time, who made the cakes for
Henry VIII. A tea room in
Kew, south-west London, "The Original Maids of Honour", dates back to the 18th century and was set up specifically to sell these tarts. ==See also==