The Grenadier Guards, formally The 1st or Grenadier Regiment of Foot Guards, is the most senior infantry regiment of the British Army, active since 1656. The unit originated as Lord Wentworth's Regiment, raised to protect the exiled King Charles II of England during the Interregnum, before becoming the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards in 1665. The regiment served in the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War, and the Napoleonic Wars before being made grenadiers by royal proclamation. The regiment wen ton to fight in the Crimean War, Urabi Revolt, Mahdist War, Second Boer War, World War I, World War II, Palestinian Civil War, Malayan Emergency, Cyprus Emergency, the Troubles, the Gulf War, the Afghanistan War, and the Iraq War.