NAME: Jolly Pinder of Wakefield, The [Child 124]
DESCRIPTION: "Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John" trespass on the fields guarded by the Jolly Pinder. The Pinder challenges them; they fight. The Pinder holds off all three. Robin offers the Pinder a place in his band. The Pinder agrees to come once his present job is done
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1663 (Stationer's Register entry from 1558)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 124, "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield" (2 texts)
Bronson 124, "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield" (2 versions)
Leach, pp. 365-366, "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield" (1 text)
BBI, RZN16, "In Wakefield there lives a jolly pinder"
Roud #3981
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Wood 402(42), "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield," F. Coles (London), 1658-1664; also Douce Ballads 3(118a), "Robin Hood and the jolly pinder of Wakefield"; Wood 401(61), "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield: with Robin Hood, Scarlet, and Iohn"
NOTES: A pinder was an official charged with preventing trespassing and gathering strayed/lost/stolen livestock.
For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle.
Bronson notes that his two tunes for this song are both associated with Rimbault, whose handling of other Robin Hood melodies was, at best, cavalier.
There are other mysteries associated with the piece, which survives only in very defective forms. There is a play, noted by Child, seemingly related to this. And Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #816, p. 304, notes a stanza which does not seem to appear in the canonical texts:
The hart he loves the high wood,
The hare she loves the hill;
The knight he loves his bright sword,
The lady loves her will. - RBW
Opie-Oxford2 206, "The hart he loves the high wood" (1 text) dates the song quoted above in Baring-Gould-Mother Goose to "a late-fifteenth century commonplace book from Broome Hall, Norfolk." - BS
File: C124
===
NAME: Jolly Ploughboy, The: see The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy) [Laws M24] (File: LM24)
===
NAME: Jolly Ploughman Lad, The
DESCRIPTION: "The jolly jolly ploughman lad goes whistling o'er the lea." He "whistles a' the day ... And he trysts his bonnie lassie Jean." They marry. He still whistles and "bairnies play at hide and seek." When old they live happily among their grown children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: age love marriage farming children
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan3 414, "The Jolly Ploughman Lad" (1 text)
Roud #5936
File: GrD3414
===
NAME: Jolly Plowboy, The (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy) [Laws M24]
DESCRIPTION: A plowboy and a rich girl fall in love. When the girl's father finds out, he sends a press gang for the boy. The girl dresses in men's clothes and rows out to her lover's ship. She bribes the captain to return her lover
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1808 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 12(155))
KEYWORDS: love pressgang cross-dressing reprieve
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland,England(Lond,South,West)) Ireland
REFERENCES: (16 citations)
Laws M24, "The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy)"
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 284-286, "The Jolly Plowbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #117, pp. 1-2, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text) 
GreigDuncan1 170, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (14 texts, 13 tunes)
Leather, pp. 208-209, "The Pretty Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 103, "Little Plowing Boy" (1 text plus a fragment)
Chappell-FSRA 71, "The Little Plowing Boy" (1 text)
SharpAp 59, "The Simple Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 233-234, "The Jolly Plowboy" (1 text)
SHenry H105, pp. 331-332, "The Jolly Plowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 176-178, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 224-225, "The Pretty Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 46, "The Simple Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 45, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text)
OBB 167, "The Simple Ploughboy" (1 text)
DT 584, JOLLPLOW (BRSKLIVE -- listed as Laws A15, but this is impossible; it appears to be this song with some odd verses about the boy being wounded)
Roud #186
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "The Pretty Ploughboy" (on Voice02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 12(155), "The Pretty Plough Boy," Burbage and Stretton (Nottingham), 1797-1807; also Harding B 11(3164), Firth c.12(288), Harding B 11(1400), 2806 c.17(335)[some words illegible], Firth b.25(108), Harding B 12(135), "The Pretty Plough Boy"; Harding B 25(1506)[almost entirely illegible], "Plough Boy"; Johnson Ballads 1403, Johnson Ballads 1450, "[The] Pretty Ploughboy"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Cawsand Bay" (plot)
cf. "Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser)" [Laws N6]
cf. "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)" [Laws N7]
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Poor Ploughboy
The Hills o' Traquair
NOTES: Bunting (Edward Bunting, _The Ancient Music of Ireland_ (Mineola, 2000 (reprint of 1840 Dublin edition)), #23, "The Jolly Ploughman") only prints a first verse; it shares three lines with many versions of this song. - BS
File: LM24
===
NAME: Jolly Poker: see Johnny Boker (I) (File: Doe009a)
===
NAME: Jolly Raftsman O, The
DESCRIPTION: "I am sixteen, I do confess, I'm sure I am no older O, I place my mind, it never shall move, It's on a jolly raftsman, O." She praises his work and calls him "brave as Alexander," though someone (her mother?) wants her to marry a freeholder
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: love logger courting mother
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Fowke-Lumbering #58, "The Jolly Raftsman O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 51, "The Jolly Raftsman O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2318
NOTES: No particular storyline here, a short (three verses) love song wherein the singer repeatedly states her conviction to wait for and marry her jolly raftsman. [Fowke's source was] Mrs. A. Fraser of Lancaster, Ontario, who said she learned it from her mother. - RBW
File: FowL58
===
NAME: Jolly Roving Tar (II), The: see Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down! (File: Wa071)
===
NAME: Jolly Roving Tar [Laws O27]
DESCRIPTION: Susan fondly recalls her sailor love. She sets out to ensure that her father's ships are well equipped for his sake. Finally she bids farewell to the local ladies and sets out to follow her "jolly roving tar."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 16(119c))
KEYWORDS: sailor parting rambling reunion
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws O27, "Jolly Roving Tar"
SHenry H670, p. 293, "The Jolly Roving Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, p. 178, "Jolly Roving Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 12, "Jolly Roving Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 744, JOLROVTR
Roud #913
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(119c), "The Jolly Roving Tar," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.13(77), 2806 c.16(242), Harding B 11(859), Harding B 11(860), Harding B 26(302), Harding B 11(3444), Firth c.13(78), "The Jolly Roving Tar"
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(302), "The Jolly Roving Tar ("As I roved out one evening in the pleasant month of May"), Haly (Cork), 19C, while undated, dates itself by its last add-on verse: "So now these lines are at an end the truth I will unfold Young Susan she got married to her young sailor bold With him she faced the Russians and feared no wound or scar, But now she lives contented with her jolly roving tar." - BS
[To clarify, the above verse probably implies a Crimean War date. But it could well be a late add-on -- note that there were few battles between British and Russian navies. - RBW]
File: LO27
===
NAME: Jolly Sailors Bold (I)
DESCRIPTION: The singer ridicules farmers on land and compares their easy life with the dangers faced by sailors. But "we'll sail into all parts of the world ... And we'll bring home all prizes ... We spend our money freely, And go to sea for moreÓ
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie)
KEYWORDS: bragging farming sea ship ordeal nonballad sailor
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Mackenzie 95, "Jolly Sailors Bold" (1 text)
Roud #3289
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids of Simcoe (Ontario)" (theme)
cf. "Ye Gentlemen of England (I)" [Laws K2]
cf. "Dixie Brown" [Laws D7] (lyrics)
NOTES: Mackenzie: "The source of this song, and of a great many similar ones, is the famous broadside 'Ye Gentlemen of England, or When the Stormy Winds Do Blow,' composed by Martin Parker, and first issued about 1635."
This is a sailor's version of "Maids of Simcoe" (it has the same Roud number). It is also "Ye Gentlemen of England (I)" [Laws K2], but without a disaster of any kind.
See, for the Mackenzie "source," broadside Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(167b), "Neptune's Raging Fury" or "The Gallant Seaman's Sufferings" ("You gentlemen of England, that live at home at ease"), C. Brown (London), 1695-1707, by Martin Parker. - BS
File: Mack095
===
NAME: Jolly Sailors Bold (II): see Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: R078)
===
NAME: Jolly Shanty Boy, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer boasts of being a jolly (and jauntily dressed, if ragged) shanty boy, to whom women are always attracted. He sings, "For I don't care for rich or poor/I'm not for strife and grief/I'm ragged, fat and lousy, and/As tough as Spanish beef."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: bragging lumbering work logger poverty nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Beck 21, "The Jolly Shanty Boy" (1 text)
Fowke-Lumbering #54, "The Gatineau Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Be021 (Partial)
Roud #4351
File: Be021
===
NAME: Jolly Soldier, The: see The Rambling Soldier (File: ShH43)
===
NAME: Jolly Sportsman, The
DESCRIPTION: A girl seduced by a sportsman names her baby Maidenhead. She puts the baby and some cherries in a hamper. She meets another sportsman who offers to buy her hamper and her maidenhead. She refuses to return his money when all he gets is the hamper.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1828 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(206))
KEYWORDS: sex bargaining trick humorous baby wordplay rake
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan2 306, "The Sportsboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5863
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(206), "The Jolly Sportsman" ("It's of a jolly sportsman was hunting o'er the lawn"), W. Wright (Birmingham), 1820-1827; also Harding B 11(4150), Harding B 25(1003), "The Jolly Sportsman"
File: Gr2306
===
NAME: Jolly Stage Driver, The: see The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen [Laws O13] (File: LO13)
===
NAME: Jolly Tester, The: see I Love Sixpence (File: OO2480)
===
NAME: Jolly Thrasher, The: see Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)
===
NAME: Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man)
DESCRIPTION: The rich man asks the poor man how he can support such a large family with so many young children. The poor man answers, "I make my living by the sweat of my brow." In some texts the rich man gives him some sort of reward for all his hard work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1685 (broadside); 1792 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: dialog work poverty
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Randolph 127, "Poor Man, Poor Man" (1 text)
BrownIII 58, "The Thresherman" (1 text)
JHCoxIIA, #21A-B, pp. 85-88, "Poor Man, O Poor Man," "There Was a Rich Englishman" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Kennedy 253, "The Jolly Thresher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stokoe/Reay, pp.  118-119, "The Nobleman and Thrasher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner 146, "The Jolly Thresher" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 92, "The Jolly Thresher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 156-159, "Poor Man's Song," "The Labourer" (2 texts, the second being the Green Mountain Songster version)
SHenry H622, p. 44, "The Jolly Thresher"; H117, pp. 44-45, "As the King Went A-Hunting" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
GreigDuncan3 437, "The Thresherman" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord, pp. 48-49, "The Hedger" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, POORMAN*
Roud #19
RECORDINGS:
Harry Holman, "There Was a Poor Thresherman" (on Voice20)
Eleazar Tillett, "The Jolly Thresher" (on USWarnerColl01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(311b), "Squire and Thrasher" ("A nobleman liv'd in a village of late"), W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), 1839-1855; also Harding B 15(312a), "The Squire and Thrasher"; Harding B 16(258b), "The Squire and Thrsherman" [sic]
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(040), "The Noble Man's Generous Kindness" or "The Country-Man's Unexpected Happiness," unknown, 1701 
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Thresherman (and the Squire)
File: R127
===
NAME: Jolly Tinker (I), The
DESCRIPTION: The tinker comes to town to mend the pots. He observes that "A tinker never marries, has a girl in every town...." "I've never stored much gold, but I have a lot to spend." "My life is wild and free, and I do not seek renown. I'm just a jolly tinker..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (Warner)
KEYWORDS: work sex rambling
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Warner 72, "The Jolly Tinker" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOLITNK2*
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tinker"
NOTES: Tinkers had a reputation for wantonness, and a large bawdy repertoire built up around them. It is often difficult to decide if the songs are related or not. Since this song is "clean" and "The Tinker" is dirty, I decided to separate them. But I'm not confident about it.
Warner for some reason links this with Laws F24, "The Peddlar and His Wife" -- but that is a song about a murder! - RBW
File: Wa072
===
NAME: Jolly Tinker (II), The: see The Tinker (File: EM029)
===
NAME: Jolly Tinker (III), The
DESCRIPTION: A London lady tells a tinker she has kettles to mend. He asks if there are holes that need blocking; they fall to work. She bangs a pan "to let the servants know that he was hard at work." Refrain: "And I'll be bound she had (he could, they did, etc.)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (recorded from Billy Dickeson)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: A London lady, desiring the company of a tinker, writes and tells him she has kettles to mend. He comes, asking if there are any rusty holes that need blocking; she leads him to the bedroom and they fall to work on the feather-bed. She picks up a pan and he bangs it "to let the servants know that he was hard at work"; she pays him, saying they'll have another round. Refrain: "And I'll be bound she had (he could, they did, etc.)"
KEYWORDS: sex work bawdy tinker
FOUND_IN:  Britain(England(South),Scotland),Ireland(South)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Kennedy 177, "The Jolly Tinker" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOLLTNK4* JOLLTNK3
Roud #863
RECORDINGS:
Thomas Moran, "The Jolly Tinker" (on FSB2)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tinker" (plot)
File: K177
===
NAME: Jolly Union Boys, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come all you jolly Union boys. To you the truth I'll tell, Concerning Governor Jackson Who I know very well." A curious and compressed account of events in Missouri from the beginning of the Civil War to the Battle of Pea Ridge
AUTHOR: B. Locke?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Aug 10, 1861 - Battle of Wilson's Creek
Mar 7-8, 1862 - Battle of Pea Ridge/Elkhorn Tavern
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 242, "The Jolly Union Boys" (1 text)
Roud #3598
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Joe Stiner" (concerning Battle of Wilson's Creek)
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (Confederate Version)" (concerning Battle of Wilson's Creek)
cf. "Sterling Price" (concerning Battle of Wilson's Creek)
cf. "The War in Missouri in '61" (concerning Battle of Wilson's Creek)
NOTES: To try to explain the complicated events which took place in Missouri in the period under discussion is impossible in the space of any reasonable note. Suffice it to say that both Union and Confederacy sought to control Missouri (though Unionists were probably the majority in the state), but that the Union efforts were somewhat more efficient and succeeded in the end.
The key players mentioned in the song are:
Governor (Claiborne) Jackson -- The governor of Missouri in 1861, he tried to seize the Federal arsenal to bring the state into the Confederacy. He was thwarted primarily by the efforts of Captain (later General) Nathaniel Lyon. Jackson did, as noted, manage to walk off with a large part of the state's cash reserves.
Thomas Price -- A Missouri congressmen and Unionist, one of those who helped organize against Jackson.
Harney -- William S. Harney. A regular army Brigadier, he was the Federal officer in charge in St. Louis when the war broke out. Rather sympathetic to the Confederacy, his behavior was so lethargic that Congressman Frank Blair maneuvered his ouster and gave most of his powers to General Lyon.
"Billy" Frost -- Daniel M. Frost. Appointed by Governor Jackson to seize the Federal arsenal, he instead fell into Lyon's hands. He was later exchanged and served in the Confederate armies, but his failure badly hurt the Confederate cause in Missouri.
"A lion" -- Obviously a reference to General Lyon, the bulwark of the Federal forces until his death at Wilson's Creek.
"McCulla brought up artillery" -- refers to General Benjamin McCulloch, who was Confederate commander at Wilson's Creek (sort of; he led the Arkansas troops. The Missouri troops were under Sterling Price. Price actually had a higher rank -- he was a Major General, McCulloch only a Brigadier -- but McCulloch had a commission from Jefferson Davis, and finally Price decided to accept his orders rather than leave their armies to be defeated in detail. But the two never worked together well).
At Wilson's Creek, Lyon (outnumbered two to one) tried an enveloping attack, with Sigel's brigade arriving from a different direction. Sigel's troops fell apart after coming briefly under fire, and Lyon's remaining troops had to face a heavy assault from the Confederates. The Federals held on all morning -- the southerners had almost no training as soldiers -- but retreated when Lyon was killed.
Sigel -- Franz Sigel, who kept getting commands because German immigrants respected him, but who never did much with his troops. At Carthage (July 5, 1861) he fled without a fight; at Wilson's Creek his troops fell apart. Only at Pea Ridge was his performance respectable
"a little old Creek bottom" -- the battlefield at Wilson's Creek. Each side lost about 1200 men (of some 5500 Federals and 11,500 Confederates engaged)
Price #2 -- Sterling Price, Confederate commander of Missouri troops. Leader of half the troops at Wilson's Creek (see under McCulloch)
"It done for old Ben" -- Ben McCulloch was killed at Pea Ridge (Arkansas) in 1862. At this battle, a strong Confederate force under Earl Van Dorn was unable to dislodge a weaker Union force. This finally dashed Confederate hopes in Missouri.
For more on the Battle of Pea Ridge (one of the more important battles of the war, though it doesn't get much ink), see the notes to "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern or The Pea Ridge Battle" [Laws A12]. - RBW
File: R242
===
NAME: Jolly Wagoner, The
DESCRIPTION: "When first I went a-wagonin', a-wagonin' I did go, I filled my parents' hearts full of sorrow, grief and woe." The singer recalls being rained on, seeing birds in summer, driving hard roads in the winter. He rejoices to reach home and wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (recorded from Fred Jordan by Peter Kennedy)
KEYWORDS: home travel wife hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kennedy 230, "The Jolly Waggoner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1088
NOTES: Kennedy lists a number of earlier versions of this song -- but much of his text is floating-type material, and he is known to lump completely unrelated songs. So I have not listed any of the versions in his bibliography; most are probably this piece, but chances are that at least a few are not. And I don't know which. - RBW
File: K230
===
NAME: Jolly Wat
DESCRIPTION: Jolly Wat, a shepherd, sits on a hill and plays his pipes. He is awakened by an angel announcing the birth of Jesus. He finds the baby and offers him all he has. Mary and Joseph send him back to his flocks with their blessing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OBB 103, "Jolly Wat" (1 text)
ST OBB103 (Partial)
NOTES: The tale of the shepherds is found in the Bible in Luke 2:8-20. - RBW
File: OBB103
===
NAME: Jolly Young Sailor and His Beautiful Queen, The: see The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen [Laws O13] (File: LO13)
===
NAME: Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen, The [Laws O13]
DESCRIPTION: A rich girl has turned down many suitors, but becomes entranced when a (sailor) wanders by. She urges him to stay (ashore) and marry a rich girl. He doesn't want to give up his rambling ways, but finally consents when she offers him her hand and wealth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Karpeles-Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage rambling money sailor
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(MA,NW) Ireland
REFERENCES: (13 citations)
Laws O13, "The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen"
Doerflinger, pp. 298-299, "The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 30, "The Jolly Stage Driver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 188-189, "The Journeyman Tailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H620, p. 476, "The Journeyman Tailor" (1 text, 1 tune [text incorrectly states that this is Laws B6, but the notes give the correct Laws number])
Warner 66, "William the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 179-183, "Jovial Young Sailor" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 582-583, "The Sailor and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 33, "The Jolly Young Sailor and His Beautiful Queen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 73, "Bound Down to Derry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 38, "It Is of a Rich Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 53, "Jovial Young Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 476, SAILQUEN
Roud #671
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Brisk Jolly Sailor
File: LO13
===
NAME: Jolly Young Sailor Boy: see The Bonny Sailor Boy [Laws M22] (File: LM22)
===
NAME: Jonah: see Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale) (File: R286)
===
NAME: Jonah and the Whale (II): see Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale) (File: R286)
===
NAME: Jonah and the Whale (III): see Jonah and the Whale (Living Humble) (File: FSWB386B)
===
NAME: Jonah and the Whale (Living Humble)
DESCRIPTION: The story of Jonah in song, recognized by the chorus, "Living humble, humble, humble, Living humble all your days" or "Humble, humble, humble my soul." Unlike most Jonah songs, this appears to be "straight"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible whale
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 346, "Jonah and the Whale" (6 text and/or fragments, but only the "A" and "B" texts, both short, are this piece; "C" is "Hide Away" and "D"-"F" are "Who Did Swallow Jonah?")
Roud #15215
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale)" (subject) and references there
File: Br3346
===
NAME: Jonah Fishing for a Whale
DESCRIPTION: "Cheer up, cheer up, my lively lads, Don't let your spirits fall; For Jonah's down in Sampson pond A-fishin' for a whale." "And when he ain't a-whaling, He's at some other fun, Down in the swamp a-cuttin' reeds To string his whales upon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: fishing
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 184, "Jonah Fishing for a Whale" (1 text)
NOTES: Needless to say, this has nothing to do with the Biblical account of Jonah and the fish. Frankly, it sounds like a bunch of kids making fun of a poor foolish kid who doesn't know what a whale is or how to catch one. - RBW
File: Br3184
===
NAME: Jonathan, Joseph, Jeremiah: see Too Much of a Name (File: GrMa170)
===
NAME: Jones Boys (I), The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh the Jones Boys! They built a mill on the side of a hill, And they worked all night and they worked all say But they couldn't make that gosh-darn sawmill pay."
AUTHOR: Probably Millet Salter
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: technology logger commerce
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Manny/Wilson 27, "The Jones Boys - I" (1 fragment, 1 tune); cf. also the fragment on p. 15
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 183-184, "The Jones Boys" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 24, "The Jones Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4528
RECORDINGS:
Nick Underhill, "The Jones Boys" (on Miramichi1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jones Boys (II)" (lyrics, people)
NOTES: Manny/Wilson: "John Jones, father of the Jones boys, came out from Camborne, Cornwall, in 1840 .... [The] Jones family moved up to a brook flowing into the Nor'West Miramichi, which then took the name of Jones's Brook. There John Jones built a grist mill to serve the community, and raised a family of ten children. John Senior died in 1866, and his sons, James and John Junior took over the business, James managing the grist mill, and John a sawmill near by."
Are Manny/Wilson 27 [this song] and Manny/Wilson 28 [The Jones Boys - II]  the same song? There is no question but that the entire Manny/Wilson 27 text is part of the Manny/Wilson 28 chorus. Wilson's comment on Manny/Wilson 27: "[The tune] slightly resembles the beginning of the chorus of Mr Underhill's complete version [Manny/Wilson 28]. However, this fragment has apparently been in circulation for several generations. The late Lord Beaverbrook knew it as a child in Miramichi. It is unusual to find a fragment assuming its own personality and coexisting with a complete version in the same area." - BS
File: FMB183
===
NAME: Jones Boys (II), The
DESCRIPTION: The two Jones Boys each "owned a mill in the side of a hill.... They worked all night and they worked all day But they couldn't make the gosh-darned saw-mill pay." The song goes through the seasons. The singer hopes to work for them again in the spring.
AUTHOR: probably James Barry of Derby Junction (Manny/Wilson)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: commerce lumbering hardtimes work
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Manny/Wilson 28, "The Jones Boys - II" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi028 (Partial)
RECORDINGS:
Nick Underhill, "The Jones Boys" (on Miramichi1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jones Boys (I)" (lyrics, people)
NOTES: Manny/Wilson: "John Jones, father of the Jones boys, came out from Camborne, Cornwall, in 1840 .... [The] Jones family moved up to a brook flowing into the Nor'West Miramichi, which then took the name of Jones's Brook. There John Jones built a grist mill to serve the community, and raised a family of ten children. John Senior died in 1866, and his sons, James and John Junior took over the business, James managing the grist mill, and John a sawmill near by."
Are Manny/Wilson 27 [The Jones Boys (I)] and Manny/Wilson 28 [this piece] the same song? There is no question but that the entire Manny/Wilson 27 text is part of the Manny/Wilson 28 chorus. Wilson's comment on Manny/Wilson 27: "[The tune] slightly resembles the beginning of the chorus of Mr Underhill's complete version [Manny/Wilson 28]. However, this fragment has apparently been in circulation for several generations. The late Lord Beaverbrook knew it as a child in Miramichi. It is unusual to find a fragment assuming its own personality and coexisting with a complete version in the same area." - BS
File: MaWi028
===
NAME: Jones's Ale: see When Jones's Ale Was New (File: Doe168)
===
NAME: Jones's Ghost
DESCRIPTION: "Come list ye doctors all to me, For Jones's ghost I truly be.... I am that slaughtered, mangled man." Murderer Jones accuses Doctors Thorp and French of violating their promises to care for his body and threatens them with punishment after death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt); reportedly published c. 1880
KEYWORDS: murder execution punishment doctor corpse
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: August 1838 - Joshua Jones murders his wife
May 29, 1839 - Execution of Jones
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 20-21, "Jones's Ghost" (1 text)
NOTES: According to Burt, after Joshua Jones was convicted of murder, he sold his body to Dr. Amos French, adding the stipulation that French care for his child and also try to bring him back to life.
The former condition was fulfilled. French naturally failed to revive Jones, and eventually stripped the flesh from his bones; he wanted a skeleton for his own use. This poem arose out of public protest at what appears, from the records in Burt, to have been a perfectly legal behavior on French's part. (The desire for a skeleton was natural for a doctor; see the notes to "The Black Cook.")
There is no evidence that the poem ever entered tradition; it was printed in a newspaper, and it's really very bad. - RBW
File: Burt020
===
NAME: Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel
DESCRIPTION: About the difficulties of getting to heaven. Chorus: "(So) take off your overcoats and roll up your sleeves; Jordan am a hard road to travel (x2) I believe." The original contains assorted political references to the 1850s.
AUTHOR: Music: Daniel D. Emmett/Words: T. F. Briggs?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1853 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: religious travel nonsense political
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1842 - Webster-Ashburton Treaty settles the boundary between Britain (Canada) and the states of Massachussets and Maine
1846 - Oregon Treaty settles the boundary dispute between the U.S. and Britain (Canada). Minor uncertainties were settled by arbitration in 1872.
1852-1870 - Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) Emperor of France
1853-1857 - Presidency of Franklin Pierce
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 305, "The Other Side of Jordan" (1 text)
DT, JRDNHRD*
Roud #2103
RECORDINGS:
Harry C. Browne, "Jordan Am A Hard Road to Travel" (Columbia A-2255, 1917; rec. 1916)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" (on McClintock01) (on McClintock02)
Riley Puckett, "On the Other Side of Jordan" (Columbia 15374-D, 1929)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Richmond Is a Hard Road to Travel"
cf. "Jordan is a Hard Road To Travel (II)" (words, music)
cf. "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (words)
cf. "Pull Off Your Old Coat" (lyrics)
SAME_TUNE:
Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel (File: RcRIHRTT)
Jordan Is a Hard Road to Travel (II) (File: CSW188)
Rail-road Song (by Jacob P. Weaver) (Cohen-LSRail, p. 43)
NOTES: Napoleon III (1808-1873), the son of Napoleon Bonaparte's brother Louis, was chosen President of France in 1848, then in 1852 (the same year Franklin Pierce was elected President) upgraded himself to Emperor.
The "fish question" is slightly less clear; the settlement which ended the War of 1812 and the diplomacy which followed did not provide American fishermen with all the rights they wanted in Canadian waters -- but this was a perennial problem which was not solved until 1910. In addition, there were some disputes over the Columbia River (which in the complex logic of diplomacy gave the U.S. its claim to Oregon), and hence presumably its salmon. - RBW
File: R305
===
NAME: Jordan Is a Hard Road to Travel: see Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel (I) (File: R305)
===
NAME: Jordan Is a Hard Road to Travel (II)
DESCRIPTION: Uncle Dave Macon gives his opinions about automobiles, evangelists, Henry Ford, and other matters. Chorus is "Haul [take] off your overcoat, roll up your sleeves/Jordan is a hard road to travel I believe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: technology humorous nonballad derivative
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 188-189, "Other Side of Jordan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 55, "The Other Side of Jordan" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel" (Vocalion 5153, 1927)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. ""Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" (words, music)
cf. "Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel"
NOTES: Uncle Dave Macon, who had little good to say about automobiles, ran a horse-and-wagon drayage business.
Although this song derives its chorus and structure from "Jordan am a Hard Road to Travel," in Uncle Dave's hands it becomes a completely different song from Dan Emmett's. - PJS
File: CSW188
===
NAME: Jordan's Mills
DESCRIPTION: "Jordan's (Jerdan's) mills a-grinding, Jordan's a-hay; Jordan's mills a-griding, Jordan's a-hay." "Built without nail or hammer." "Runs without water or wind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 68, "Jordan's Mills" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12026
NOTES: There are no explicit religious references in this, except to Jordan (and even that might be to a town in the south named Jordan, or a miller named Jordan), but the fact that the mills were not built by hand, and don't need water or wind, imply a religious song. I've no idea what it's supposed to mean, though. - RBW
File: AWG068B
===
NAME: Joseph Looney
DESCRIPTION: Joseph Looney, dying, tells his family not to grieve, for God has called him and he is prepared to go. He tells them to trust in and follow Jesus, so that they will meet him in heaven
AUTHOR: Elihu Gray
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (recording, Ollie Gilbert)
KEYWORDS: death dying religious family
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #12366
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Gilbert, "Joseph Looney" (on LomaxCD1704)
NOTES: This song was said to have been made by Elihu Gray from the deathbed speech of his neighbor. - PJS
And the result is actually traditional? Yikes. - RBW
File: RcJLoon
===
NAME: Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16]
DESCRIPTION: Engineer Joseph Mikel is determined to remain on schedule. As a result, he runs too fast to avoid a collision with another train. The result was disastrous: "Some were crippled and some were lame, But the six-wheel driver had to bear the blame"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: train wreck disaster crash
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1836-1892 - Life of Jay Gould. He made his fortune in railroads, largely by stock manipulation, and was worth an estimated $100,000,000 when he died
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Laws I16, "Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16]"
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 385-389, "Milwaukee Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 317, "Joseph Mica" (1 text)
Sandburg, pp. 364-365, "Jay Gould's Daughter and On the Charlie So Long" (2 texts, 1 tune); 368-369, "Mama, Have You Heard the News" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 36-42, "Casey Jones," "The Wreck of the Six Wheel Driver," "Ol' John Brown," "Charley Snyder" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 238, (no title) (1 fragment, beginning "Jay Gooze said befo' he died); p. 247, (no title) (a fragment beginning "Great big tie an' little bitty man, Lay it on if it breaks him down"; the form appears to be a member of this family); p. 250, (no title) (1 short text, about "Joseph Mica")
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 64, "Kassie Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, pp. 114-115, "Jay Gould's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-RailFolklr, p. 456, "Been on the Cholly So Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 209-213, "Casey Jones"; "Casey Jones"; "Kassie Jones" (3 text, with the first two belonging here and the third being the full "Kassie Jones" text of Furry Lewis)
Silber-FSWB, p. 103 "Jay Gould's Daughter" (1 text)
DT 791, JOEMICA JGOULD1
Roud #3247
RECORDINGS:
Furry Lewis, "Kassie Jones, Parts 1 & 2" (Victor 21664A&B, 1928; on AAFM1; Part 1 is on BefBlues3)
Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers, "Milwaukee Blues" (Supertone 2626, early 1930s)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Milwaukee Blues" (on NLCREP1)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Milwaukee Blues" (Columbia 15688-D, 1931, rec. 1930; on CPoole03, GoingDown)
Pete Seeger, "Jay Gould's Daughter" (on PeteSeeger16)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] (plot)
cf. "Ben Dewberry's Final Run" (lyrics)
cf. "Little John Henry"
cf. "On the Road Again" (floating verses)
cf. "Crow Wing Drive" (lyrics)
NOTES: Laws says of this piece, "I have included 'Joseph Mica' not so much to establish its identity as a distinct ballad [as opposed to being a relative of 'Casey Jones'] as to emphasize the extreme instability and confusion which are characteristic of Negro balladry."
To put this in simpler terms, Laws has broken "Casey Jones" up into two ballads. The full forms are filed with G1; the fragments file here. How one establishes the dividing line is not clear; the "hero" of "Joseph Mica" may well be Casey Jones.
To make matters worse, Laws has garbled the entry and the information about Lomax and Sandburg. I did the best I could, but one should check "Casey Jones (I)" for additional versions.
To top it all off, Laws distinguishes "Jay Gould's Daughter" as a separate song (dI25), but ALSO files it here; given the things Laws files under "Joseph Mica" and their fragmentary state, I consider his distinction hopeless, or at least incomprehensible, and file those texts here. - RBW
I don't think it's hopeless at all to separate out "Jay Gould's Daughter/Milwaukee Blues" from "Joseph Mica". If it has a wreck in it, it's Mica; if it doesn't, it's Gould. - PJS
It should be noted that Furry Lewis' "Kassie Jones" is a fragmentary stream-of-consciousness incorporating a single verse from "Casey Jones" and many floating verses, including a couple from "On the Road Again." (Which is why I filed it here - RBW.) - PJS
Note: I *still* think we should split off, "Jay Gould's Daughter" from the other songs. - PJS
The correct answer, ultimately, is to have some system for filing floating fragments -- somehow there needs to be a way to track everything with the "Pretty Little Foot" verses, and the "Jay Gould" fragment, and so forth. A suggestion for the next generation Ballad Index, I suppose. - RBW
File: LI16
===
NAME: Joseph Was an Old Man: see The Cherry-Tree Carol [Child #54] (File: C054)
===
NAME: Josephus and Bohunkus: see Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)
===
NAME: Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho
DESCRIPTION: Joshua comes to Jericho, orders the horns to blow, and sacks it after the walls fall down. Chorus: "Joshua (fit/fought) the battle of Jericho... And the walls came a-tumbling down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (recording, Paul Robeson)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious battle
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Lomax-FSUSA 110, "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 45-46, "(Joshua)" (partial text)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 37, "Joshua Fought The Battle Of Jericho" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 303, "Joshua Fought The Battle Of Jericho" (1 text)
DT, BATJERCO
Roud #10074
RECORDINGS:
Cotton Pickers Quartet, "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho" (OKeh 8878, 1931)
Delta Rhythm Boys, "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho" (Decca 25019, c. 1950)
Dixie Jubilee Singers, "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" (Columbia 14329-D, 1928)
Eureka Jubilee Singers, "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho" (Sharon X-507, n.d.)
Hall Johnson Choir, "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho" [medley with "Walk Together Chillun"] (Victor 4460, 1940)
Nazarene Congregational Church Choir, "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho" (Herschel Gold Seal 2016, c. 1927)
Paul Robeson w. Lawrence Brown, "Joshua Fit de Battle ob Jericho" (Victor 19743, 1925)
Pete Seeger, "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" (on PeteSeeger04) (on PeteSeeger23)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Slavery Chain Done Broke at Last" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Slavery Chain Done Broke at Last (File: SCW41)
NOTES: The siege of Jericho takes up most of the sixth chapter of Joshua, with the fall of the city's walls, and the city itself, being detailed in 6:15f. - RBW
File: LxU110
===
NAME: Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho: see Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho (File: LxU110)
===
NAME: Joshua Stevens
DESCRIPTION: "From Squawky Hill two Indians came, To Bennett's Creek to hunt for game...." "Come, solemn muse, assist my song... To sing of Stephens, lately fell...." "The Indian shot him in the side." After his body is found, wife, children, neighbors mourn
AUTHOR: M. Tymeson?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: murder family mourning Indians(Am.)
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 131-133, "(Joshua Stevens)" (1 text)
File: Burt131
===
NAME: Josie: see Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)
===
NAME: Journeyman Tailor, The: see The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen [Laws O13] (File: LO13)
===
NAME: Journeyman, The: see The Roving Gambler [Laws H4] (File: LH04)
===
NAME: Jovial Beggar, The: see A-Begging I Will Go (File: K217)
===
NAME: Jovial Hunter of Bromsgrove, The: see Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)
===
NAME: Jovial Tinker, The: see When Jones's Ale Was New (File: Doe168)
===
NAME: Jovial Young Sailor: see The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen [Laws O13] (File: LO13)
===
NAME: Joy to the World
DESCRIPTION: "Joy to the world, the Lord is come; Let earth receive her king...." The world is told to hymn to God to rejoice in the arrival of Jesus, who brings love, joy, wonder
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts(1674-1748). Music: Lowell Mason (based partly on phrases from Handel's "Messiah")
EARLIEST_DATE: 1719 (Watts, "The Psalms of David"; music published 1837)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Christmas
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 375, "Joy To The World" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 314, "Joy to the World"
DT, JOYWORLD
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 37 (cf. also pp. 34-36), "Joy to the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #43, "Joy to the World" (1 text)
NOTES: Alleged to be derived loosely from the final verses of Psalm 98. If so, it is a *very* free adaption. - RBW
File: FSWB375A
===
NAME: Joys of Mary, The: see The Seven Joys of Mary (File: FO211)
===
NAME: Joys Seven: see The Seven Joys of Mary (File: FO211)
===
NAME: Ju Tang Ju (Utang)
DESCRIPTION: "Ring up four , ju tang ju (or "Jew string jew," etc.), Ring up four in a ju tang ju." "Right and left...." "Do se do...." "Once and a half...." "Swing that gal...." "Back to your partner..." "Circle four...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1911 (Texas Folklore Society)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 576, "Ju Tang Ju" (2 texts)
Roud #7665
File: R576
===
NAME: Juanita
DESCRIPTION: "Juanita, I must leave you, I have come to say farewell." She says that, if he loves her, he will never leave her. He claims he didn't think she would get so involved. The next morning, he is found dead with her dagger in his heart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: love betrayal murder abandonment corpse
FOUND_IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Fife-Cowboy/West 51, "Juanita" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon 35, pp. 195-199, "Juanita" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11210
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "She Said She Was Only Flirting" (theme)
NOTES: "What we have here is a failure to communicate." - PJS
The middle stanzas of this piece are almost identical in meaning (except with genders reversed) to "She Said She Was Only Flirting," though the wording is somewhat different. The endings, however, are completely different.
Logsdon mentions the minor but interesting fact that Juanita Brooks, the great historian of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, was named after the heroine of this song. - RBW
File: FCW051
===
NAME: Juba
DESCRIPTION: A dance and patting song: "Juba, Juba, Juba up 'n' Juba down, Juba all aroun' the town." "Juba jump, Juba sing, Juba cut that pigeon wing. Juba kick off this old shoe, Juba dance that Jubilo." Variations, as one might expect, are extreme
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1855
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad food
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Randolph 263, "Dinky" (1 short text, 1 tune, which Randolph believes to be this piece; in any case, it's too short to really deserve a separate entry)
BrownIII 201, "Round It Up a Heap It Up" (a "Juba" fragment follows the main text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 98-99, "Juba" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 708, "Juba" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 192, "(Juba)" (1 text)
Handy/Silverman-Blues, p. 53, "Juba" (1 text, 1 tune; notes on p. 204)
MWheeler, p. 96, [no title] (1 fragment, filed under "Uncle Bud")
Roud #5748
RECORDINGS:
Lee Wallin, "Juba" (on OldLove)
NOTES: Described in Frederick Douglass,  _My Bondage and My  Freedom_, 1855.  (Pp.252-253 in the Dover Reprint edition of 1936). Also fully described in _Step It Down_ (Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax  Hawes,1971: Harper & Row. pp. 27-30.)
"Juba" often refers to the patting pattern rather than the words. The  words may contain disguised complaints about the treatment of Black people. 
Some of the words -- without the "patting" -- were used as a "dandling rhyme" in my family, in Oklahoma, at least as early as 1909. - SHi
According to _SIng Out!_, Volume 40, #3 (1995/1996), pp. 80-81, "juba" was slave food (apparently a corruption of "giblets"). A "yellow cat" is said to be a white. Bessie Smith's version, transcribed in that issue, was mostly about the bad food given to the slaves. The issue includes a detailed analysis of how Smith patted out the song. - RBW
File: BSoF708
===
NAME: Juberlane
DESCRIPTION: The singing of the birds reminds the singer of the days (s)he spent listening to the birds in Juberlane. She wishes she were home, "But miles and miles divide me, and duty here hath tied me/" She wishes she had wings to fly home
AUTHOR: Nellie Crowley (Corrigan)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: bird homesickness
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H507, pp. 213-214, "Juberlane" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH507
===
NAME: Jubilee
DESCRIPTION: "It's all out on the old railroad, All out on the sea... Swing and turn, jubilee, Live and learn, Jubilee." Unrelated stanzas about courting: "Hardest work I ever done was working on a farm, Easiest work I ever done was in my true love's arms." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1949
KEYWORDS: love courting work nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 11, "Jubilee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 231, (no title) (1 fragment, possibly of this)
Lomax-FSNA 122, "Jubilee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 40, "Jubilee" (1 text)
DT, JUBLEE
Roud #7403
RECORDINGS:
Jean Ritchie, Doc Watson & Roger Sprung, "Jubilee" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchiteWatsonCD1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Up and Down the Railroad Track" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Crow, Black Chicken" (words)
File: LoF122
===
NAME: Jubilee Guild, The
DESCRIPTION: Canadian McLellan and two other "girls from St John's ... go out to Burnt Islands and start our Jubilee Guild." They have elections, find a place "old felt hats, house slippers we will make."
AUTHOR: Arthur Keeping
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: work clothes
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 66-67, "The Jubilee Guild" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9947
NOTES: [According to Peacock,] "The Jubilee Guild is a women's organization in St John's, formed in 1935 as a service club to give instruction in handicrafts, domestic science, home nursing, and so forth, to women of the outports."
Burnt Islands is about 12 miles east of Port aux Basques, at the southwest corner of Newfoundland. - BS
File: Pea066
===
NAME: Judas [Child 23]
DESCRIPTION: Judas is sent on an errand by Jesus. As he does so, he is cheated (by his sister!) of thirty pieces of silver. He therefore betrays Jesus to get his money back.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1300 (ms. Trinity College B 14.39, f. 34a)
KEYWORDS: Jesus betrayal
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: April 6, 30 C.E. - most likely date for the arrest of Jesus (the crucifixion took place the following day)
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Child 23, "Judas" (1 text)
Leach, pp. ,108-109 "Judas" ( text)
Friedman, p. 56, "Judas" (1 text plus interlinear modern English translation)
OBB 97, "Judas" (1 text)
Niles 16, "Judas" (3 texts, 2 tunes, of which only the first could possibly be this ballad, and even it looks suspicious)
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth Sisam, editor, Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose (1925), pp. 168-169, "Judas" (with notes on pp. 256-258). This is now considered the best transcription of the original manuscript, replacing Skeat's transcription quoted by Child.
Brown/Robbins, _Index of Middle English Verse_, #1649
DT 23, JUDAS
Roud #3964
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Judas and Jesus" (listed by Niles as a version of this ballad)
cf. "Oh, Judy, My Judy" (listed by Niles as a version of this ballad)
NOTES: The betrayal of Jesus by Judas is told in Matt. 26:14-16, 47f.; Mark 14:10-11, 43f.; Luke 22:3-6, 47f.; compare also John 13:2, 27, 18:2f. The story of the thirty pieces of silver is found only in Matt. 26:15 and the sequel in 27:3-10 (it is based on Zech. 11:12-13). The notion of Judas as treasurer and thief occurs only in John 12:4-6, (13:29)
Even though this piece exists only in the Trinity College manuscript, it should not be assumed that Child's transcription is authoritative. The text in volume 1 was printed without reference to the manuscript (which had been temporarily lost). As a result it contains many orthographic innaccuracies (e.g. concerning u/v, i/j, and the use of th rather than the runic thorn |> -- as well as seven conjectural emendations replacing s with h). It also omitted the duplicated lines at lines 8, 25, 30. Also, the manuscript was written without stanza divisions and with (at best) imperfect word divisions, all of which are editorial. In addition, the script is sometimes unclear. And finally, the copyist may not have been perfectly familiar with the dialect of the original.
Child later printed a corrected version, giving the readings of the manuscript verbatim (as read by Skeat). However, modern ballad scholars have almost always followed at least one of the imperfections of Child's original text (omitting duplicated lines, modifying the thorns, exchanging u and v, using Child's h instead of s, etc.)
Scholars should keep in mind that even Child's corrected text, so badly reproduced by later scholars, is open to reinterpretation. Kenneth Sisam, in _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_, prints a text which differs in hundreds of particulars from Child's original version. It shows several differences even from Child and Skeat's manuscript collation:
* five places where the editors break words differently,
* two major variants (in line 6 Sisam reads "cunesman" for "tunesman"; in line 16, "top" for "cop")
* Sisam also notes that in line 22 omits "Crist" was originally written by the scribe but then marked for erasure. This MAY indicate comparison of two texts of the ballad.
* Sisam also considers line 27 to be intact ; Child implies it is defective.
Sisam's notes are twice as long as the ballad itself; they are well worth consulting.
Niles claims that his informant ("Mayberry Thomas," of Tennessee) had seen this piece in broadsheets, but there is no evidence of this, and many scholars hold that Niles made up his text 16A based on the old British text. - RBW
File: C023
===
NAME: Judas and Jesus
DESCRIPTION: "Judas 'trayed Jesus, and Jesus hung the cross, Yes, Judas 'trayed Jesus, what a loss, what a loss!" On the night of the last supper, Jesus tells Judas he will betray him for money; Peter will betray him, but not for money
AUTHOR: unknown ("collected" by John Jacob Niles)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961
KEYWORDS: Jesus betrayal death money
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Niles 16B, "Judas and Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune, which Niles considers part of Child 23, but this is clearly not the case)
NOTES: All the gospels agree that Judas betrayed Jesus, but only Matthew (16:14f.) states directly that money was the reason (although John 12:6 calls Judas a thief, and implies that this was the motive for his treachery).
All four gospels agree that Peter betrayed Jesus out of fear (cf. Mark 14:66-72, etc.). They also agree that Jesus foretold his death repeatedly, although only in John do we find Jesus implicating his betrayer (John 13:21-30) - RBW
File: Niles16B
===
NAME: Judge and Jury, The: see The Prisoner at the Bar (The Judge and Jury) (File: R828)
===
NAME: Judgment Day Is Comin'
DESCRIPTION: "Judgment day is comin', Time is drawin' near. Don't you  hear God callin' you?" God calls with thunder and lightning. The singer is on his way to heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII Judgment Day Is Comin', "" (1 text)
Roud #11916
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Judgment Day is Rolling Around" (theme)
File: Br3606
===
NAME: Judgment Day is Rolling Around
DESCRIPTION: "Got a good old mother in the heaven, my Lord, how I long to go there too (x2)." "King Jesus a-settin' in the heaven, my Lord." "Big camp meetin' in the heaven, my Lord." Chorus: "Judgment, judgment, judgment day is rollin' around... How I long to go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 598, "Judgment Day is Rolling Around" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7551
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Judgment Day Is Comin'" (theme)
File: R598
===
NAME: Judgment, The (Invitation Song)
DESCRIPTION: Dialog: "Come. think on death and judgment; Your time is almost spent; You've been a sinner; 'Tis time that you repent." The other answers that he'll repent when he's old. The first singer points out that death might come tonight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Henry, from John Oliver)
KEYWORDS: dialog warning Hell death sin
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 206-209, "The Judgment" (1 text)
Roud #17091
NOTES: This song seems to be inspired by the parable of the Rich Fool (Luke12:16-20), though the only words that are actually Biblical seem to be "Remember thy Creator while in the bloom of youth" (Ecclesiastes 12:1), and even that is slightly paraphrased. There might be a little of "Wicked Polly" in there, too. - RBW
File: MHAp206
===
NAME: Judie My Whiskey Tickler
DESCRIPTION: "Judie, my whiskey tickler, Judie, you debbil, you bother me so. Woe! Woe! Woe! Like a red-hot potato you are all aglow." "By faith, you are elegant in form and face, You walk with such stately magnificent grace...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 35, "Judie My Whiskey Tickler" (1 text)
Roud #7857
NOTES: Described in the notes to Brown as a college drinking song from the 1830s. Which just shows that some things don't change. - RBW
File: Br3035
===
NAME: Judy MacCarthy of Fishamble Lane
DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to Fishamble Lane in search of sausages when he is stopped by the sight of "a fair one ... Judy MacCarthy ... "one eye was a swivel, Her nose it was smutty, her hands not too clean." She is broiling a devil which he detests. He leaves.
AUTHOR: Toleken (source: Croker-PopularSongs)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: food humorous parody cook
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 159-160, "Judy MacCarthy of Fishamble Lane" (1 text)
NOTES: Fishamble Lane (Liberty Street) is in Cork "where salmon, drisheens, and beefsteaks are cooked best" (quoted from "Cork's Own Town" by Croker-PopularSongs). In this case, I assume a "devil" to be some highly seasoned meat. - BS
Partridge's _A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English_ (fifth edition, 1961) offers as the #5 meaning of "devil" "A grilled chop or steak seasoned with mustard and occ. with cayenne.... Grose, 2nd ed., defines it as a broiled turkey-gizzard duly seasoned and adds, ÔFrom being hot in the mouth'."
Mr. Toleken (which seems to be the only name recorded for him) is also co-author of the somewhat better-known "Saint Patrick Was a Gentleman."
I must say that it sounds as if the singer here might be intended to be English: he evidently looks down on the Irish and doesn't like spicy food. If that isn't a nineteenth century Englishman, what is? - RBW
File: CrPS159
===
NAME: Judy McCarty
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Judy McCarty at Donnybrook fair , asks her to dance, falls in love and she agrees to marry. They go to a party that night, sleep together, marry next day; 12 months later have "a pair of twins as like their dad As ever soup's like broth"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1884 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1696))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage sex childbirth humorous twins
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 18, "Judy McCarty" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1696), "Judy M'Carty", H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Harding B 11(1946), 2806 b.11(34), Firth c.26(37), Firth c.14(219), "Judy Mc.Carty"
File: OCon018
===
NAME: Jug of Punch, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer (hears a thrush singing "A jug of punch"; he too) describes the pleasures of drink: "What more pleasure could a boy desire Than to sit him down by a roaring fire, And on his knee a tidy wench And in his hand a jug of punch."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1897
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Kennedy 278, "The Jug of Punch" (1 text+ 1 in appendix, 1 tune)
SHenry H490, p. 48, "The Jug of Punch" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 154, "Jug of Punch" (1 text)
Creighton-NovaScotia 95, "Mush a Doody" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 230, "The Jug Of Punch" (1 text)
DT, JUGPUNCH* JUGPUN2
Roud #1808
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "A Jug of Punch" (on IRClancyMakem01); "The Jug of Punch" (on IRClancyMakem02)
Margaret Loughram & Edward Quinn, "The Jug of Punch" (on FSB3)
Pete Seeger, "Jug of Punch" (on PeteSeeger27)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.27(162), "The Jug of Punch" ("As I was sated in my room"), unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(1949), Harding B 25(1013), "Jug of Punch" ("'Twas on the 24th of June")
NOTES: Creighton-NovaScotia['s] first verse seems like a floater but I know no other source
There was an old woman, she had na bairns,
She took the punch jug in her arms,
And she sang, "Mush-a-lula boo,
Will you ne'er be empty till I be fu'. - BS
I don't recognize it earlier, but I wonder if it might not be a separate song which has picked up a single "Jug of Punch" verse. Unless another version surfaces, we probably will never know. - RBW
File: K278
===
NAME: Jug of This, A: see Ye Mariners All (File: VWL103)
===
NAME: Juice of the Forbidden Fruit, The
DESCRIPTION: A story of all the people who drank: "And ever since then all manner of men... Will drink the juice of the forbidden fruit." Henry Ward Beecher  is among those accused of tippling, and the drinking habits of many notorious figures are outlined 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: drink political
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Belden, p. 441, "The Juice of the Forbidden Fruit" (1 text)
Randolph 403, "The Juice of the Forbidden Fruit" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 340-342, "The Juice of the Forbidden Fruit" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 403B)
Roud #3533
RECORDINGS:
Neil Morris, "The Juice of the Forbidden Fruit" (on LomaxCD1706)
NOTES: Among the various figures accused in this song of drinking are:
* Henry Ward Beecher - Congregational minister who campaigned against slavery
* Cleveland and Blaine - The Democratic and Republican presidential candidates of 1884. It was not an attractive campaign; Blaine was (regarded as) corrupt and Cleveland had an illegitimate child
* Ben Butler - Politician turned Civil War general turned politician again. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives for most of the period 1866-1879, and became Governor of Massachusetts in 1883. In 1884 he ran, unsuccessfully, for a presidential nomination
* Frank James - The brother of Jesse
* Charles and Bob Ford - Friends, relatives, and betrayers of Jesse James
* Oscar Wilde - the author/playwright
* Grant - Ulysses S. Grant, widely accused of being a drunkard although he apparently did not drink during the Civil War itself or during his presidency.
On the evidence, it would appear that Randolph's "B" version, at least, was crafted during the 1884 Presidential election. - RBW
File: R403
===
NAME: Juley: see Walkalong, Miss Susiana Brown (File: Hugi391)
===
NAME: Julia
DESCRIPTION: Norwegian shanty. Chorus: "Julia! Julia! hop-ra-sa!" Hugill gives only one verse, which translates "A sailor's greatest pleasure, is Julia! Julia! Beloved of girls so dear..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1888 (L. A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage love
FOUND_IN: Norway
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 392-393, "Julia" (2 texts-Norwegian & English, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Upidee, Upidah" (similar tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Julia Hopsasa
File: Hugi392
===
NAME: Julia Grover (Miss Julie Ann Glover)
DESCRIPTION: "As I was goin' to the mill one day, I met Miss Julia on the way, She 'spressed a wish that she might ride.... Sit down there, Miss Julia Grover, Play on your banjo, I'm your lover....." She gets in; the oxen start; the cart tips; she attacks him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Linscott)
KEYWORDS: courting travel
FOUND_IN: US(NE,SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 410, "Miss Julie Ann Glover" (1 short text)
Linscott, pp. 224-225, "Julia Grover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3734
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Julie Ann Grover
File: Lins224
===
NAME: Julian's Death
DESCRIPTION: Julian, an Indian slave who ran away and killed John Rogers when Rogers tried to stop him, makes his confession: "The prisoner owns his bloody act, And saith the sentence... Was passed on him impartially." He narrates his sins
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) slave escape murder punishment gallows-confession
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1732 - "Julian" tries to escape from his owner, Major Quincy of Brigewater, Massachusetts. Tracked by John Rogers, Julian finally killed his pursuer, but was captured and executed
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 150-152, (no titles) (excerpts from two pieces about Julian)
NOTES: Reading this account, I find my sympathies all with Julian. I have to think this is even more removed from the slave's last words than the usual goodnight. - RBW
File: Burt150
===
NAME: Julie
DESCRIPTION: "Julie, hear me whan I call you, Julie won't hear me." "B'lieve I'll go to Dallas, Got to see my Julie, Oh my Lordy." " Raise 'em up together." "Better get the sergeant." "My feet is gettin' itchy." "Child's gettin' hungry." "Rattler can't hold me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (collected from W. D. Alexander by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison love separation
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Jackson-DeadMan, pp. 231-233, "Julie" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Jackson believes that singer W. D. Alexander adapted this to his own situation, and it seems likely enough. However, most of the verses here are singles lines repeated three times, with no need for a rhyme, so any convict could have made it his own. We thus cannot really say whether Alexander originated the song. - RBW
File: JDM231
===
NAME: Julie Ann Grover: see Julia Grover (Miss Julie Ann Glover) (File: Lins224)
===
NAME: Julie Ann Johnson
DESCRIPTION: "O Julie Ann Johnson, oho! (x2)." "Gwineter catch dat train, boys, oho! (x2)" "Gwineter fin' Julie, oho! (x2)" "She gone to Dallas, oho! (x2)" "Gwineter hug my Julie, oho! (x2)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: love separation courting travel
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 244-245, "Julie Ann Johnson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 9, "July Ann Johnson" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ST LxA244 (Full)
Roud #11604
NOTES: The Lomaxes note that "Lead Belly... made it doubtful whether this was a dance tune or a work chant." Whether and to what extent Leadbelly reworked this is unclear.
Knowing the Lomaxes, I initially lumped this with "Julia Grover (Miss Julie Ann Glover)." I still wonder if there isn't some cross-fertilization. But that has rather more narrative than this. - RBW
File: LxA244
===
NAME: Julie Plante, The: see The Wreck of the Julie Plante (File: FJ174)
===
NAME: July Ann Johnson: see Julie Ann Johnson (File: LxA244)
===
NAME: Jumbo (Mama Sent Me to the Spring)
DESCRIPTION: "Mama sent me to the spring, Told me not to stay. I fell in love with a pretty little boy And stayed till Christmas day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting nonsense
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 142, "Mama Sent Me to the Spring" (1 text)
Roud #4245
NOTES: The notes in Brown say that the fragment cited is part of a Kentucky song called "Jumbo." I suspect it's part of a singing game -- but since "Jumbo" apparently is not in any accessible collection, I can't do anything with my suspicions except complain that the editors should have given more details.
The Carter Family text of "Fond of Chewing Gum" contains a stanza very like this one, but that text is full of other intrusions, so it's not clear that they should be identified; none of the other texts of "Chewing Gum" (e.g. those in Randolph) include the stanza. - RBW
File: BrII142
===
NAME: Jump Her, Juberju: see The Bigler's Crew [Laws D8] (File: LD08)
===
NAME: Jump Jim Crow
DESCRIPTION: Disconnected verses about a rambler's exploits, held together by the chorus "I wheel about I twist about I do just so, Every time I turn about I jump Jim Crow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1835 (pubished by E. Riley)
KEYWORDS: nonballad dancing dancetune floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 126-127, "Jim Crow", (no title), "Jump Jim Crow" (1 text plus two fragments, 1 tune; the full text lacks the chorus, while the fragments consist mostly of the chorus)
Gilbert, p. 18, "Jim Crow" (1 text)
Opie-Oxford2 274, "Twist about, turn about, jump Jim Crow" (2 texts)
ST Gilb018 (Partial)
Roud #12442
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 115, "Jim Crow," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 15(149a), Firth b.34(154), Harding B 11(1472), Harding B 11(1877), "Jim Crow"
LOCSinging, as106690, "Jim Crow," L. Deming (Boston), 19C; also as106700, "Jim Crow complete in 150 verses"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Hop High Ladies (Uncle Joe)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Said to have been originated by Thomas D. Rice, who allegedly watched a negro sing and dance the refrain and imitated it. This proved so successful that Rice spent the rest of his life as "Jim Crow" Rice, using the song as his primary attraction. - RBW
File: Gilb018
===
NAME: Jump Jim Crow (II): see Hop High Ladies (Uncle Joe) (File: R252)
===
NAME: Jumpin' Judy
DESCRIPTION: "Jumpin Judy, Jumpin Judy (x3) Was a mighty fine gal (or: All over this world)" The singer describes prison life, and the hope for escape. He hopes the guards will stop abusing him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 289, "Jumpin' Judy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 82-84, "Jumpin' Judy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JUMPJUDY*
Roud #6712
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Midnight Special"
cf. "Take This Hammer"
NOTES: The version of this song in _Folk Songs of North America_ looks like a version of "The Midnight Special"; that in _American Ballads and Folk Songs_ rather resembles "Take This Hammer." Lead Belly sang a version which seems unrelated to either. I leave it to the reader to draw conclusions about the Lomax texts. - RBW
File: LoF289
===
NAME: Jungle Mammy Song
DESCRIPTION: "Ah yah, tair um bam, boo wah, Kee lay zee day, Nic o lay, mah lun dee. Nic o lay ah poot a way, Nic o lay ah wah mee-- Ah yah, tair um bam, boo wah, Kee lay zee day, Nic o lay, mah lun dee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad lullaby
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, p. 455, "Jungle Mammy Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: San455
===
NAME: Juniper Tree, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh sister Phoebe, how merry we were The night we sat under the juniper tree...." "So put this hat on, it will keep your head warm, And take a sweet kiss, it will do you no harm." Phoebe and/or the boy are encouraged to get married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Newell)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting clothes
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 540, "The Juniper Tree" (5 texts, 1 tune; the "D" text may be a parody)
Hudson 151, pp. 298-299, "Under the Juniper Tree" (1 text)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 9, "Sister Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4507
NOTES: A kising game, according to Ritchie, though a few texts are slightly fuller. - RBW
File: R540
===
NAME: Juniper Tree, The (The Wicked Stepmother, The Rose Tree)
DESCRIPTION: A boy is murdered by his stepmother. She feeds the body to his father and (half-)sister. The boy comes back to life as a bird, and gains revenge on his stepmother (giving gifts to his family in the process). He is restored to humanity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1956
KEYWORDS: stepmother murder death bird revenge recitation
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Chase, pp. 47-50, "The Wicked Stepmother" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: This tale is widely known -- reported by Chase to be known in England, Ireland, Australia, northwestern Europe, and the southern U.S. As "Von dem Machandelboom" it is #47 in the Grimm collection (from Philipp Otto Runge, printed 1812; it is in Pomeranian dialect). As, however, the bird's accusation against his stepmother is generally sung, it perhaps deserves a place in this Index. - RBW
File: Cha047
===
NAME: Just a Closer Walk with Thee
DESCRIPTION: "Just a closer walk with thee, Grant it, Jesus, if you please." The singer prays to be closer to Jesus, to be strengthened in the face of work and trouble, and to be taken home upon dying
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (recording, Selah Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 357, "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" (1 text)
DT, CLOSEWLK*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 167, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15986
RECORDINGS:
Eureka Brass Band, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" [instrumental version] (on MuSouth10)
Red Foley, "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" (Decca 14505, 1949)
Lacy Colored Gospel Singers, "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" (Sacred 296, n.d.)
Selah Jubilee Quartet, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" (Decca 7872, 1941)
Smith's Jubilee Singers, "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" (Sterling 1503, n.d.)
File: FSWB357A
===
NAME: Just a Poor Lumberjack
DESCRIPTION: Recitation. A youth pushes a drunken lumberjack into the gutter. Another lumberjack saves a child from a fire, but dies in the process. A third dies in the woods. All are mourned with the chorus, "'Twas only a poor old lumberjack"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Recitation. A drunken lumberjack is pushed into the gutter by a posh youth; a stranger warns the youth not to make wisecracks, or he'll get the same treatment. Another lumberjack saves a child from a fire, but dies in the process. A third, unknown, dies in the woods. All are mourned with the chorus, "'Twas only a poor old lumberjack."
KEYWORDS: lumbering logger warning fight rescue death work recitation
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 64, "Just a Poor Lumberjack" (1 text)
Roud #8846
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Only a Miner (The Hard-Working Miner)" [Laws G33] (theme)
NOTES: Pieces like this are easy to deride as mawkish melodrama, but they contain a spine of self-respect among men who were often ill-treated by the "respectable" society whose needs they supplied. - PJS
File: Be064
===
NAME: Just As I Was Going Away: see Braes of Strathblane (File: McCST053)
===
NAME: Just As the Tide Was Flowing
DESCRIPTION: A sailor and girl stop "Beneath the shade and branches round, What they done there will never be known So long as the tides are flowing." She gives him gold. He goes to the alehouse and drinks "to the girl that never said no" or spent it on other girls.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3634))
KEYWORDS: courting lover sailor gold
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 66, "Down Where the Tide Was Flowing" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #1105
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "Just As the Tide Was A-Flowing" (on Voice12)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3634), "Just As the Tide Was Flowing," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(1951), Harding B 11(1952), "Just As the Tide Was Flowing"; Johnson Ballads 1837, "Tide is Flowing"; Firth c.12(274), "Just As the Tide is Flowing"
File: GrMa066
===
NAME: Just Before the Battle, Mother
DESCRIPTION: "Just before the battle, Mother, I am thinking most of you.... Farewell, mother, you may never Press me to your heart again But O, you'll not forget me, Mother, If I'm numbered with the slain." The singer will be true to the cause despite missing Mother
AUTHOR: George F. Root
EARLIEST_DATE: 1862 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: war battle Civilwar mother nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 102-105, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, pp. 12-13, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-CivWar, pp. 230-231, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (1 text)
JHCox 74, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (1 text)
JHJohnson, p. 118, "Just Behind the Battle, Mother" (1 text, a parody)
Silber-FSWB, p. 280, "Just Before The Battle, Mother" (1 text)
DT, JSTBATTL* (JSTBATT2)
ST RJ19102 (Full)
Roud #4263
RECORDINGS:
James Doherty, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (Edison 51109, 1923)
Liberty Quartet, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (Emerson 943, 1912)
Monroe Quartet, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (OKeh 45133, 1927)
J. W. Myers, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (CYL: Columbia 32433, c. 1904)
Will Oakland, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (CYL: Edison 297, c. 1897) (CYL: Edison [BA] 1516, 1912)
Charlie Oaks, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (Vocalion 15345, 1926) (Vocalion 5112, 1927)
Unidentified tenor, "Just Before the Battle Mother" (Busy Bee A-55, c. 1906)
Wheeler & Ballard "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (Resona 75074, 1920)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell, Mother" (tune)
File: RJ19102
===
NAME: Just from Dawson (Deadwood on the Hills)
DESCRIPTION: "A Dawson City miner lay dying in the ice." The miner tells his comrade to send him back to "Deadwood in the hills" (of South Dakota), where there is as much gold (i.e. not much) and it is warmer. He dies and freezes solid; they send his body home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: death mining gold humorous
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1898 - Yukon gold rush
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Dean, pp. 132-133, "The Klondike Miner" (1 text)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 440-441, "Just from Dawson" (1 text)
Roud #9585
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cremation of Sam McGee" (theme)
cf. "Bingen on the Rhine" (tune)
NOTES: As usual, the Lomax version of this presents problems. They actually attribute it (to F. A. and Edith H. Brewer), but there is no information about these two. And the Lomaxes did not scruple to rewrite pieces in this book. So we can hardly know the relationship between the Lomax text (set in Dawson and with the miner coming from Deadwood) and the Dean text (set in the Klondike and with the miner wishing to go to Gibbons on the Platte). There seem to be no other traditional texts. All we can say with certainty is that Dean's text is older. Plus it mentions a less-famous place. (Gibbon, Nebraska is indeed near the Platte, about halfway between Kearney and Grand Isle, but its population is numbered in the low thousands even today; Deadwood, though only slightly more populous, was famous as the site of an 1870s gold rush). - RBW
File: LxA440
===
NAME: Just Kick the Dust over my Coffin
DESCRIPTION: "Just kick the dust over my coffin, Say, 'There lies a jovial young lad'; Pile the earth upon my carcass, Then carve on the stone at my head, Oh ain't it a wonderful story That love will kill a man dead." Singer says not to bawl; tell his love he is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death burial love humorous
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 40, "Just Kick the Dust over my Coffin" (1 text)
Roud #7861
NOTES: I can't recall many humorous first-person died-for-live songs -- but this, if the two-stanza fragment in Brown is an indication, is one. - RBW
File: Br3040
===
NAME: Just Now
DESCRIPTION: "Sanctify me (x5), Just now (x3), Sanctify me." "Good religion...." "Come to Jesus...." Presumably any reigious sentiment that is four syllables long can be used.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison), where it is said to have been recorded 25 years earlier
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 67, "Just Now" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12023
File: AWG067A
===
NAME: Just One Girl
DESCRIPTION: "I'm in love with a sweet little girlie, only one, only one...." "Just one girl (x2), There are others, I know, but they're not my Pearl... I'll be happy forever with just one girl." He says that, though poor, they are of age to marry and will be happy
AUTHOR: Words: Karl Kennett / Music: Lyn Udall
EARLIEST_DATE: 1898 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: love marriage
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Randolph 789, "Just One Girl" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 146-147, "Just One Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 256-257, "Just One Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, p. 252, "Just One Girl Waltz" (1 tune)
Roud #7419
File: R789
===
NAME: Just Plain Folks
DESCRIPTION: "To a mansion in the city came a couple old and gray To meet their son who left them long ago." The son, now rich, greets them coldly; the father says, "We're just plain folks, your mother and me." They leave him to his life; they are too ordinary for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (recording, Arkansas Woodchopper)
KEYWORDS: family age separation reunion
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 862, "Just Plain Folks" (1 text)
Roud #7533
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Just Plain Folks" (Conqueror 7881, 1931)
File: R862
===
NAME: Just Remember Pearl Harbor
DESCRIPTION: "Wasn't that an awful time at Pearl Harbor? What a time, what a time... When the Japs came passing by, Three thousand lost their lives." The bombings of the ships are mentioned, and the singer says, like Moses, the Americans won't give up
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1944 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: battle war death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: December 7, 1941 - Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor damages most of the battleships of the U. S. Pacific Fleet
December 8, 1941 - Japanese attack the Philippines and other Pacific targets
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 241, "Just Remember Pearl Harbor" (1 text)
Roud #6624
NOTES: This is a very strange piece, in that nearly every line is reminiscent of some traditional song or other (notably "Wasn't That a Mighty Time," but also "The Titanic (I - It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down)" [Laws D24] and "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" and others). But it doesn't seem to scan to any of them, or much of anything else for that matter.
The song was collected from schoolchildren apparently in 1943; is it possible that they or one of their teachers assembled it? It might explain the style of the piece.
It's hard to say how much after Pearl Harbor this song was written; there are no real dated items except the attack itself. The only person mentioned is MacArthur, and this is confusing. It does not mention his successful Pacific campaign. But neither does it mention his badly mismanaged defense of the Philippines, in which he let his entire air force be destroyed on the ground, and instead of retiring his inadequate garrison to Bataan at first opportunity, at first tried to slug it out with the Japanese, leaving him with neither the troops nor the supplies to defend himself. - RBW
File: BrII241
===
NAME: Just Tell Them That You Saw Me
DESCRIPTION: "While strolling down the street one even, alone on pleasure bent," the singer sees a girl he knew at home. He offers to take a message home. She begs him to merely "tell them that you saw me"; she hopes to improve her pitiful condition before going home
AUTHOR: Paul Dresser (1857-1906)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1895 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: home hardtimes
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Dean, p, 124, "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 201-202, "Just Tell Them You Saw Me" (1 tune, partial text)
Roud #3528
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I Told Them That I Saw You" (characters)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Madge
The Wayward Girl
NOTES: For the story of Paul Dresser, see the notes to "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away." - RBW
File: Dean124
===
NAME: Just Tread on the Tail of Me Coat
DESCRIPTION: "I've licked all the Murphys an' Finnegans, And all the McCarthys afloat, If you're wanting a fight and a fraction, Just tread on the tail of me coat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: fight
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 474, "Just Tread on the Tail of Me Coat" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Roud #4879
NOTES: The tune given by Randolph is quite close to (the verse of) "Rosin the Beau"; one suspects this is a fragment of one of the myriad parodies based on that song. - RBW
File: R474
===
NAME: Jut Gannon
DESCRIPTION: Jut Gannon is told to drive a mule team, so he does. The rest of the song consists of descriptions of other lumber-woods characters and short anecdotes about them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work animal moniker humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 71, "Jut Gannon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6497
NOTES: The "moniker song" consists mostly of listing the names of one's compatriots, and perhaps telling humorous vignettes about each; it's common among lumberjacks, hoboes, and probably other groups. - PJS
File: Be071
===
NAME: K.C. Moan
DESCRIPTION: Song fragment, with two floating verses: "I thought I heard that K.C. when she blowed/She blowed like my woman's on board" and "When I get back on that K.C. road/Gonna love my baby like I never loved before"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Andrew and Jim Baxter)
KEYWORDS: separation railroading nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 406-412, "KC Railroad/KC Moan" (3 texts plus a mass of fragments, 1 tune)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 102, "K.C. Moan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 242, (no title) (1 short text)
Roud #4958
RECORDINGS:
Andrew and Jim Baxter, "Kansas City Railroad Blues" (Victor 20962, 1927)
Memphis Jug Band, "K. C. Moan" (Victor 38558A, 1929; on AAFM3, BefBlues2)
Riley Puckett, "Kansas City Railroad" (Bluebird B5471, 1934/Montgomery Ward M-7042 [probably as "K. C. Railroad"]
George Walburn and Emmett Hethcox, "K.C. Railroad" (OKeh 45004); probably also "Kansas City Railroad Blues" (OKeh 45178)
[Jess] Young's Tenesee Band, "The Old K.C." (Columbia 15431-D, 1929)
NOTES: The verses are vocal interludes in what is basically a slow dance tune, although they sound like they might well have originated in a work song. And, although it's located in Tennessee, Memphis is hardly part of Appalachia. Its music is more closely connected with the Mississippi delta region. - PJS
This sng shows, better than almost anything, the loose form of blues songs. Cohen's three versions all have roughly the same first verse: "Thought I/ought to hear that (old/lovin') KC blow... Blowed like she never blowed before/no more." But one of his versions goes on to include much of "Goin' down this road feelin' bad," plus the "Chilly winds" verse, a second is about a man rejected by a woman, and the third has verses about the KC train straining every nerve. It's one of those cases where there simply is no way to tell just where one song stops and another starts.
Cohen's three texts are at least held together by a common melody, but he notes that the Walburn/Hethcox recording has a different tune. - RBW
File: ADR102
===
NAME: Kafoozalem (I)
DESCRIPTION: Kafoozalem is the daughter of a Turk "who did the Prophet's holy work." A westerner, Sam, loves her and tries to steal her away. The father discovers the plot and has them strangled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945
KEYWORDS: love foreigner death murder
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 131-132, "Kafoozalem" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SRW131 (Full)
Roud #10135
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Kathusalem (Kafoozelum) (I)"
cf. "Laidy Maisry' [Child 65] (plot)
File: SRW131
===
NAME: Kafoozelum (I): see Kathusalem (Kafoozelum) (II) (File: EM204)
===
NAME: Kangaroo, The: see Carrion Crow (File: LoF072)
===
NAME: Kansas: see In Kansas (File: EM049)
===
NAME: Kansas Boys: see Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)
===
NAME: Kansas City Blues
DESCRIPTION: "River is deep and the river is wide, Gal I love is on the other side. I'm gonna move to Kansas City... Move, honey babe, where they don't 'low you." Miscellaneous verses about women, prostitution (?), drugs, loneliness, the girl the singer loves....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (recording, "Red" Willie Smith)
KEYWORDS: drugs love whore travel home
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 77, "Kansas City Blues" (1 text)
DT, KCBLES*
RECORDINGS:
"Red" Willie Smith, "Kansas City Blues" (on NFMAla1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Ohio River, She's So Deep and Wide" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This song also became popular in jazz circles, after being popularized by Joe Turner and others. - PJS
File: FSWB077C
===
NAME: Kansas City Railroad: see K.C. Moan (File: ADR102)
===
NAME: Kansas Cyclone
DESCRIPTION: Singer used to own a ranch but he's now working as a cowboy; a "twisting cyclone" (tornado) has destroyed his farm and killed his family and herd. He's now punching cows to pay off the mortgage and "payin' for the cattle that the cyclone blew away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Henry, from Grif Crawford)
KEYWORDS: home death farming work disaster storm animal children wife family cowboy worker
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 90, "Cyclone Blues" (1 short text, with no mention of Kansas but the same plot)
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "The Kansas Cyclone" (on Thieme02)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Shady Grove" (tune)
File: RcKansCy
===
NAME: Kansas Line, The: see A Soldier from Missouri [Laws A16] (File: LA16)
===
NAME: Karo Song
DESCRIPTION: Floating-verse song, with chorus "Oh, hear my true love weeping, Oh, hear my true love sigh, I was gwinging down to Karo town, Down there to live and die." Verses about Old Master's habits, the possum up the 'simmon tree, and courting Miss Sallie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting floatingverses love
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 170-171, "Karo Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3444
NOTES: Roud lumps this with the "Lynchburg Town" family, based on little more that I can see than a line in the chorus. There is hardly a word in the piece that isn't paralleled elsewhere, but the chorus seems relatively unique.
Scarborough thinks the Karo of the title is Cuero ("Cwaro"), Texas, but given the composite nature of the piece, I think the reference -- as in most folk songs -- is to Cairo, Illinois. - RBW
File: ScaNF170
===
NAME: Kassie Jones: see Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)
===
NAME: Kate Adams, The: see notes under I'm Going Down the River (File: MWhee050)
===
NAME: Kate and Her Horns [Laws N22]
DESCRIPTION: Kate's intended husband suddenly jilts her for a rich girl. Kate obtains a cow's hide and horns, and meets her lover disguised as the devil. This "devil" threatens him if he does not return to Kate. He does; she reveals the truth as their child is born
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Belden; a broadside exists from c. 1690)
KEYWORDS: courting trick marriage Devil childbirth
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Laws N22, "Kate and Her Horns"
Belden, pp. 231-232, "Kate and her Horns" (1 text)
FSCatskills 125, "Kate and Her Horns" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 70, "The Clothier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 159, "Kate and the Cowhide" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus 101, pp. 137-138, "Kate and the Clothier" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 184-186, "Kate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 132, "Kate and Her Horns" (1 text)
BBI, ZN3130, "You that in merriment delight"
DT 452, KATEHORN* KATEHRN2*
Roud #555
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(15b), "Crafty Kate of Colchester" or "The False-Hearted Clothier Frighted into Good Manners" ("You that in merriment delight") [almost entirely illegible], J. White (Newcastle), 1711-1769
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jealous Husband Outwitted" (plot)
cf. "The Lawyer and Nell" (plot) 
cf. "Maurice Kelly" (gimmick)
File: LN22
===
NAME: Kate and the Clothier: see Kate and Her Horns [Laws N22] (File: LN22)
===
NAME: Kate and the Cowhide: see Kate and Her Horns [Laws N22] (File: LN22)
===
NAME: Kate from Branch, The
DESCRIPTION: Kate out of Branch, at anchor five miles out, is run down at night by Royalist, "an English man-o'-war that's bound for St John's town"  The crew is lost and one body is found drifting, and the news and body taken to his parents at Salmonier
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: burial death sea ship crash
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 64, "The Kate from Branch" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The outports named, Branch, St Mary's, and Salmonier, are around St Mary's Bay on the south shore of the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland. I cannot find any record of the sinking.
The following information is quoted by permission from Michael Phillips (see the Maritime History site by Michael Phillips and Jane Phillips): "I include the career and list of captains for the first three Royalists in my sailing ship history and none of them visited Canada. The most likely candidate is number four which was a wooden, single screw, steam sloop, with sails, which was launched in December 1861 and broken up in 1875. She spent 1863-67 and 1868-72 on the North American and West Indies station with Cdr. Nelson '65-'66 and Cdr. Jones '68-'69.... [According to the Navy Lists] no officer named Butler ever served in Royalist, the only name that could sound vaguely similar is Cdr. Bateman who commanded her in the 1870s after Jones.... The fifth Royalist, 1883-1923, served in Africa and Australia." - BS
File: LeBe064
===
NAME: Kate Kearney
DESCRIPTION: Kate Kearney lives on the banks of Killarney. "Fatal's the glance of Kate Kearney; For that eye is so modestly beaming... Beware of her smile... And who dares inhale her sigh's spicy gale, must die by the breath of Kate Kearney"
AUTHOR: Charles Lever (1806-1872)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1843 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(431))
KEYWORDS: courting beauty nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 17, "Kate Kearney" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(431), "Kate Kearney", W. & T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; also Harding B 11(1960), Harding B 11(1966), 2806 b.11(173), Harding B 28(150), Harding B 11(2067), Harding B 11(430), Firth b.25(142), Harding B 11(1961), Harding B 11(1963) [torn], Harding B 11(1958), Johnson Ballads fol. 113, "Kate Kearney"
NOTES: O'Conor makes the attribution [to Charles Lever]. Kate Kearney is a character in Lever's _Lord Kilgobbin_ published as a serial in 1870-1872 (source: The University of Adelaide ebooks site). That would mean he created the character in song no later than 1842, 28 years before the serial was published. - BS
Hazel Felleman's _The Best Loved Poems of the American People_, p. 12, attributes this to Sady Morgan. I have found no other references to this author. The Amsco publication _The Library of Irish Music_ lists the words as by "Lady Morgan" (which obviously is a variant of the same thing), with "The Beardless Boy" as tune. Still, the attribution to Lever seems much stronger.
There is another broadside heroine named Kate Kearney (see broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:156, "Kate Kearney with the Silver Eye," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C); the song is not the same, but whether it inspired Lever, or was inspired by him, I cannot tell. Maybe *that* was written by Lady Sady Morgan? - RBW
File: OCon017
===
NAME: Kate Murray
DESCRIPTION: The singer is in love with Kate Murray, "a warm lively girl with the love in her eye." He describes her as beautiful with a heart "as pure as the heart of a saint; Oh, you'll not find a colyeen so lovely as she From Ballinacargy to Donaghadee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Hayward-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hayward-Ulster, p. 79, "Kate Murray" (1 text)
Roud #6539
NOTES: Ballinacargy is in County Westmeath, Leinster. Donaghadee is in County Down, Ulster. - BS.
File: HayU079
===
NAME: Kate O'Donahue: see Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down (File: RcLMMSD)
===
NAME: Kate of Ballinamore
DESCRIPTION: Kate's father threatens to kill the singer rather than have him marry Kate. Kate recommends he enlist to escape; besides, "I'd like to be a brave young soldier's bride." He joins the Ninety-Eights and gets a letter that she has married a farmer's son.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1977 (recording, Geordie Hanna)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity soldier father
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #5172
RECORDINGS:
Geordie Hanna, "Kate of Ballinamore" (on Voice06)
File: RcKOBall
===
NAME: Kate of Glenkeen
DESCRIPTION: "By the banks of the Barrow residing Are girls of dark raven hair," but the queen of them all is Kate of Glenkeen. The singer describes her purity, her beauty, her fleetness of foot. He will meet her by the light of the starts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H41, pp. 231-232, "Kate of Glenkeen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7984
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27] (tune)
NOTES: Sam Henry had no tune for this piece, so he set it to a traditional item he calls "Captain Black." This is equated with "She's a Daughter of Daniel O'Connell," i.e. presumably "Erin's Green Shore."
The tune, however, is curious, ending on the second rather than the tonic (or else it is in Dorian, and starts on the minor seventh, but it sounds as major to me). I've encountered three tunes for "Erin's Green Shore," only one of which (Connie Dover's; she doesn't list her source) has any real similarity to Henry's tune -- and they are by no means identical. - RBW
File: HHH041
===
NAME: Kate's Big Shirt
DESCRIPTION: Saturday night "Kate stopped up to iron her clothes" and "Tom stopped up for company." He asks "Kate does that big shirt belong to you?" It does. They strip and climb in the shirt together, but can't get out when they try.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: clothes bawdy humorous wordplay
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
GreigDuncan2 313, "The Shirt" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 69-70, "Kate's Big Shirt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5866 and 9948
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "A Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach" (tune)
NOTES: Perhaps GreigDuncan2 and Peacock should be split. Peacock's informant said his song, recorded in 1959, was local to Fortune (Newfoundland) and the tune makes that plausible. Given the GreigDuncan2 text, which shares a story but few lines with Peacock, it seems to me more likely that Peacock is a badly remembered version recast into a familiar musical format. GreigDuncan2 records no tune but the format would not fit "A Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach." - BS
File: Pea069
===
NAME: Katey of Lochgoil
DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on the year Eleventy-nine, And March the fortieth day, That Katey of Lochgoil, my boys, To sea she'll bore away." The singer vows he will not sail again after  strange voyage with "Tonald More an' Tugald More, Shon Tamson an' Shon Roy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship talltale humorous
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 241-243, "Katey of Lochgoil" (1 text)
Roud #13088
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Rover" (theme)
NOTES: Sort of a Scottish version of "The Irish Rover." There are no lyrics in common, but the feeling is identical. - RBW
File: FVS241
===
NAME: Kathaleen Ny-Houlahan: see Caitilin Ni Uallachain (Cathaleen Ni Houlihan) (File: SBoA094)
===
NAME: Katharine Jaffray [Child 221]
DESCRIPTION: Squire courts farmer's daughter; father forbids her to see him. She is to be wed to another. He invades the wedding. The bride's brother challenges him; he says he comes in friendship and asks to kiss the bride. He takes her away from the hall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1802
KEYWORDS: wedding nobility trick elopement disguise clothes
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland  US(SE)
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Child 221, "Katharine Jaffray" (12 texts)
Bronson 221, "Katharine Jaffray" (11 versions)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 400-406, "The Squire of Edinburgh Town" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 261-268, "The Squire of Eninboroughtown" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
BrownII 39, "Katharine Jaffray" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 79-83, "Katharine Jaffray" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Creighton-NovaScotia 11, "Katharine Jaffray" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Peacock, pp. 200-201, "Hembrick Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 20, "The Green Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 578-579, "Katherine Jaffray" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 271, "Katharine Jaffray" (2 texts)
OBB 88, "Katharine Johnstone" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 16, "The Green Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Gummere, pp. 263-264+357-358, "Katharine Jaffray" (1 text)
DT 221, LOCHNGAR* LOCHNGR2* (the latter listed in some versions as Child 211)
ST C221 (Full)
Roud #93
RECORDINGS:
Nora Cleary, "The Green Wedding" (on Voice06)
Cecilia Costello, "The Green Wedding (Catharine Jaffray)" (on FSBBAL2)
Thomas Moran, "The Green Wedding (Catharine Jaffray)" (on FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #11}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2364), "The Squire of Edinburgh!," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also 2806 c.11(72), "The Squire of Edinburgh!"; 2806 c.15(151), 2806 b.9(233), "The Squire of Edinburgh Town" 
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lochingar
Lochnagar
Katherine Jeffreys
NOTES: This is the inspiration for Walter Scott's poem "Young Lochinvar." - PJS, RBW
For the latter poem widely-reprinted poem (24 citations in _Granger's Index to Poetry_ -- though most of the anthologies are the type which never contain anything else with folklowing roots), see e.g. Iona & Peter Opie, The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse, pp. 160-161. The poem, according to the Opies, was rewritten to fit into the book _Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field_, where he needed the hero to carry his bride north.
Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth place "The Squire of Edinburgh Town" among the secondary ballads -- those derived from but not identical to the Child Ballads. Child himself seems to have thought that "Squire" was a rewrite of "Katherine Jaffray." But Bronson (and Roud) lump them, and given the amount of common material and the lack of individual identity in "Squire," it seems to me proper to do the same. - RBW
File: C221
===
NAME: Katharine Johns(t)on(e): see Katharine Jaffray [Child 221] (File: C221)
===
NAME: Kathleen Casey
DESCRIPTION: Kathleen Casey is buried in county Clare. Her lover had promised to be true but did not go to the wedding. No one knows where he went. She died before six months passed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1988 (McBride)
KEYWORDS: wedding betrayal death Ireland
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
McBride 45, "Kathleen Casey" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: McB1045
===
NAME: Kathleen Mavourneen
DESCRIPTION: "Kathleen Mavourneen! The gray dawn is breaking, The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill." The singer bids Kathleen to awake, as they must soon part. "It may be for years and it may be forever" before he can return to her and Ireland
AUTHOR: Words: Anne Barry Crawford / Music: Frederick William Nicholls Crouch
EARLIEST_DATE: 1840 (original publication)
KEYWORDS: love separation parting exile
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 253, "Kathleen Mavourneen" (1 text)
DSB2, p. 26, "Kathleen Mavourneen" (1 text)
DT, KMAVOURN*
ST FSWB253C (Full)
Roud #13858
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:069, "Kathleen Mavourneen," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1269(178a), "Kathleen Mavourneen," Robert M'Intosh (Glasgow), 1849
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Dermot Astore" (characters)
SAME_TUNE:
The birth-place of wit, and the home of hospitality, Ireland (per broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:069)
File: FSWB253C
===
NAME: Kathusalem (Kafoozelum) (II)
DESCRIPTION: Kathusalem, the harlot of Jerusalem, has anal sex with a priest, and expels him in explosive fashion.
AUTHOR: "S. Oxon"
EARLIEST_DATE: 1866, when it was published by Frederick Blume in New York City as the satirical "Kafoozelum," and credited to "S. Oxon."
KEYWORDS: bawdy parody clergy sex whore
FOUND_IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(MA,SW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cray, pp. 204-210, "Kathusalem" (3 texts, 1 tune)
DT, KAFOOZLM*
Roud #10135
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Kafoozelum (I)"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Daughter of the Rabbi
NOTES: This approximate plot also shows up in a "Strawberry Roam" variant, but I'm not sure it is traditional; see the notes to "The Castration of the Strawberry Roan." - RBW
File: EM204
===
NAME: Kathy Fiscus
DESCRIPTION: "On April the eighth, the year forty-nine, Death claimed a little child so pure and so kind." Kathy Fiscus falls down a dry well. Workers try to dig her out, but she is dead when found. The singer "know[s] Kathy is happy up there with God now."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1956 (collected by Paul Clayton)
KEYWORDS: death children
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1949 - Death of Kathy Fiscus
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Darling-NAS, pp. 224-225, "Kathy Fiscus" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Possibly related recordings:
Jimmie Osborne, "The Death of Little Kathy Fiscus" (King 788, 1949)
NOTES: This is a case where tradition is muddy. Kathy Fiscus died in 1949, and several songs were recorded about the event. This one, well-known in bluegrass circles, seems to have been the most popular. It seems likely that Paul Clayton's informant, Lily Maggard,  learned the song from radio play or a phonograph recording. Does that qualify as traditional? - RBW
File: DarNS224
===
NAME: Katie an' the Jim Lee Had a Little Race: see Katie and the Jim Lee Had a Race (File: MWhee018)
===
NAME: Katie and the Jim Lee Had a Race
DESCRIPTION: "Katie and the Jim Lee had a little race, Katie throwed water in the Jim Lee's face, (Oh babe)." The singer describes boats on the river and wishes he had a better life (or income, or woman, or whatever else seems worth complaining about)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: racing ship river gambling floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MWheeler, pp. 19-20, "Katie an' the Jim Lee Had a Little Race" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 55-56, "Katie an' the Jim Lee Had a Race" (1 text, 1 tune); also perhaps p. 22, "Vicksburg Round the Bend" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9996 and 10018
NOTES: Wheeler does not give an exact date for this race, but most of the boats involved were active around 1890. The "Katie" is probably the Kate Adams (second of that name), built in 1873. The Kate Adams set a record for the trip from Helena, Arkansas to Memphis, so it is reasonable to see her taking part in (and winning) a race.
The key verse about their race seems to float (though I've only seen it in Wheeler); her "Vicksburg Round the Bend" is a mish-mash: The first stanza is generic, with different cities being used; the second is standard blues, the third is found also in "What Does the Deep Sea Say,"  the fourth is from "Captain Jim Rees and the Katie," and the fifth is from this song. - RBW
File: MWhee018
===
NAME: Katie Bairdie
DESCRIPTION: "Katie Bairdie had a coo, Black and white about the mou, Wasna that a dainty coo, Dance, Katie Bairdie." "Katie Bairdie had a hen, cackled but and cakled ben...." "Katie Bairdie had a cock...." "Katie Bairdie had a grice...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1847 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: animal dancing nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 92, "(Katie Beardie had a cow)" (1 text)
DT, KITBEARD
Roud #8945
File: MSNR092
===
NAME: Katie Beardie Had a Coo: see Katie Bairdie (File: MSNR092)
===
NAME: Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going)
DESCRIPTION: "When first I came to the town, They called me the roving jewel; Now they've changed my name; They call me Katie Cruel." The ending varies; the girl sets her heart on someone, but she may or may not get him and he may or may not rule over her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1611 (quoted by Beaumont & Fletcher)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND_IN: US(NE) Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 123-124, "Regimental Song," "Katie Cruel" (2 short texts, the first one having lost all references to Katie, the Leeboy, or any other proper noun)
Linscott, pp. 225-227, "Katy Cruel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 50-52, "Katie Cruel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 153, "I Know Where I'm Going" (1 text); p. 194 ,"Katy Cruel" (1 text)
DT, KATYCRUL KNOWHERE* LEABOYSL* LICHTBOB
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 267, "I Know Where I'm Going"  (1 text)
Roud #5701
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hexhamshire Lass" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Lichtbob's Lassie
NOTES: The forms and endings of this song are extremely diverse, although I've only heard three tunes, two of them clearly related. I might be tempted to break the piece up into separate entries, except that there is simply no way to draw the boundaries.
Paul Stamler observes, "I think ['I Know Where I'm Going'] may need its own entry, being as how it's only overlap with 'Katie Cruel' is the 'I know where I'm going' verse. On the other hand, it's a distinct nonballad, so maybe not." As usual, there is truth in this; the two basic families are "Katie Cruel" and "Leaboy's Lassie" (the latter clearly the forerunner of "I Know Where I'm Going"). However, there is much more in common between these two than just the "I know where...." verse.
My guess is that the original is Scottish, but I could well be wrong. Don Duncan points out a broadside, "A New Song, Called Harry Newell," which is clearly a form of the same thing and printed probably in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century. It is English or Irish, not Scottish.
Child alluded to this piece in his appendix of fragments, quoting a stanza from Beaumont and Fletcher's "Knight of the Burning Pestle," Act II, Scene viiii:
She cares not for her daddy,
Nor she cares not for her mammy;
For she is, she is, she is, she is
My lord of Lowgrave's lassy.
(This, incidentally, is the part of the play densest in traditional song; in my edition -- p. 335 of M. L. Wine's _Drama of the English Renaissance_ -- five songs are quoted in the space of thirty lines.)
Based on the date, this may well be very close to the original of this piece.
Linscott claims it "is a marching song used by the American troops in the Revolutionary War" (compare the Flanders/Brown title). But she was ignorant of most of the other versions.
Ritson printed the chorus, "O that I was where I would be, Then would I be where I am not, But where I am I must be, And where I would be I cannot," in _Gammer Gurton's Garland_, 1784 (see Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #80, p. 82; see also Ben Schwartz's note below) .
One chorus is the same as Opie-Oxford2 246, "Oh that I were I would be" (earliest date in Opie-Oxford2 is 1784). - BS
File: SBoA050
===
NAME: Katie Dear: see The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)
===
NAME: Katie Dorey: see Katie Morey [Laws N24] (File: LN24)
===
NAME: Katie Lee and Willie Gray
DESCRIPTION: "Two brown heads with glossy curls... Little boy and girl were they, Katie Lee and Willie Gray." The pretty boy and girl are described. As they grew up, they fell/stayed in love and married; now she rocks a cradle where once she carried a basket
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love marriage family
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 773, "Katie Lee and Willie Gray" (1 text)
ST R773 (Partial)
Roud #5255
NOTES: Randolph's informant reported that this comes from the Hutchinson family. Felleman's _The Best Loved Poems of the American People_ lists attributions to Josie R. Hunt and J. H. Pixley. - RBW
File: R773
===
NAME: Katie Morey [Laws N24]
DESCRIPTION: The singer tries to seduce Katie. He lures her into the woods and threatens to kill her if she will not submit. She seems to consent, but warns the youth to climb a tree until her father passes. She then insults him and runs away, leaving him far behind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: seduction bargaining trick escape rape
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Laws N24, "Katie Morey"
Bronson 112, "The Baffled Knight" (40 versions) -- but #26-33 (his Appendix A) are "The New-Mown Hay," which may be separate, and #34-#39 (his Appendix B) are "Katie Morey" [Laws N24] which is certainly separate
Eddy 19, "The Baffled Knight" (1 text, 1 tune, listed as Child #112 but clearly this piece) {Bronson's #39}
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 89-99, "The Baffled Knight" (5 texts, but the "A" text is from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition and "B-I" through "B-IV" are "Katie Morey" rather than "The Baffled Knight" [Child 112])
SharpAp 115, "Katie Morey" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #34, #37, #35}
Gardner/Chickering 161, "Kitty O'Noory" (1expurgated  text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #36}
Randolph-Legman II, pp. 594-597, "Katey Morey" (5 texts)
FSCatskills 129, "Katey Morey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 52, "Katie Morey" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #34}
DT (112), KATYMORY*
Roud #674
RECORDINGS:
Betty Garland, "Katy Dory" (on BGarland01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Baffled Knight" [Child 112]
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Katie Dorie
Miss Kitty O'Horey
The Shrewd Maiden
NOTES: Authorities differ on whether this ballad, in either its polite or bawdy versions, is related to "The Baffled Knight" (Child 112). - EC
As the notes to Bronson show, though, it is sometimes lumped with that ballad (e.g. by Eddy). As always, readers are advised to check entries under Child #112 for completeness. I unhesitatingly agree with Laws in considering them separate. - RBW
File: LN24
===
NAME: Katie's Secret
DESCRIPTION: "Last night I was weeping along, mother...." "Then Willie came down to the gate." "So out in the moonlight we wandered." Willie "called me his darling, his bride." Now she rejoices, gathering sweet roses and wondering "if ever Any were so happy as we."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: love courting family
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Belden, p. 215, "Katie's Secret" (1 text plus reference to 1 more)
Randolph 778, "Katie's Secret" (2 texts, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 92, pp. 198-199, "Katie's Secret"; pp. 199-200, "The Hawthorne Tree" (2 texts)
BrownII 174, "Katie's Secret" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Katie's Secret" (source notes only)
Roud #4381
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Weeping Katie
File: R778
===
NAME: Katty Avourneen: see Barney and Katie (File: LO21)
===
NAME: Katy Cline
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, who has not seen (Katy Cline/Kitty Clyde)? She lives at the foot of the hill In a shy little nook by the babbling brook That carries her father's old mill."  He wishes he were a fish to be caught on her hook, a bee who could take honey from her, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting bird floatingverses fishing
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownII 198, "Kitty Clyde" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB 149, "Katy Cline" (1 text)
Roud #3768
RECORDINGS:
Cranford & Thompson, "Katy Cline" (Champion 45061/Supertone 2594, c. 1935)
R. C. Hedrich, "Kitty Kline" (AAFS 3763 B2)
Horace Helms, "Katy Kline (Katie Kline)" (on HandMeDown1)
Grandpa Jones, "Kitty Clyde" (King 772, 1949)
Vester Jones, "Katy Cline" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Monroe Brothers, "Katy Cline" (Bluebird B-6960, 1937)
Piper's Gap Ramblers, "Katie Kline" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
Skyland Scotty, "Sweet Kitty Clyde" (Conqueror 8307, 1934)
Ernest Stoneman, "Katy Cline" (Gennett 3381, 1926/Challenge 151, 1927/Herwin 75528), "Katie Kline" (OKeh 45065, 1926)
Fields Ward & Bogtrotter Band, "Katy Kline" (AAFS 1360 B1)
Alice Williams, "Kitty Kline" (AAFS 1012 A3)
Ganos Williams & Ben Platt, "Kitty Kline" (AAFS 1014 B1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Free Little Bird" (floating verses)
cf. "Take Me Home, Poor Julia" (floating verses)
NOTES: Silber's version of this song is mysterious: Is it a collection of floating verses (from "Free Little Bird" and other courting songs), or is it a love ballad that has been so chopped down as to lose all meaning? I can't tell. Some of the verses remind me of some vague memories, so I suspect the latter -- but until I can remember details, I can't really say. - RBW
File: FSWB149
===
NAME: Katy Cruel: see Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)
===
NAME: Katy Wells: see Kitty Wells (File: MN2166)
===
NAME: KC Moan: see K.C. Moan (File: ADR102)
===
NAME: KC Railroad: see K.C. Moan (File: ADR102)
===
NAME: Keach i the Creel, The [Child 281]
DESCRIPTION: A clerk and a girl wish to keep company, but she cannot escape her parents' home. He plans to to meet her by going down the chimney in a creel The suspicious mother enters the room and is pulled up in the creel, then dropped by the startled rope-puller
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: courting father mother elopement nightvisit humorous
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Ireland US(MA,NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Child 281, "The Keach i the Creel" (4 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Bronson 281, "The Keach i the Creel" (38 versions)
GreigDuncan2 317, "The Wee Toon Clerk" (20 texts, 15 tunes) {C=Bronson's #7, E=#38, F=#11, G=#10, H=#9, I=#18, J=#32, M=#2, N=#3, O=#31, P=#33}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 336-339, "The Keach i' the Creel" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #5, #6}
Flanders-Ancient4, pp. 136-138, "The Keach i' the Creel" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 277-280, "The Wee Toun Clerk" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Stokoe/Reay, pp.  22-23, "The Keach i' the Creel" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #4}
FSCatskills 133, "The Little Scotch Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H201, pp. 265-266, "The Ride in the Creel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 92-93, "The Cetch in the Creel" (1 text)
Kinloch-BBook XVII, pp. 61-63, "The Covering Blue" (1 text)
DT 281, KEACHCRL*
Roud #120
RECORDINGS:
Michael Gallagher, "The Keach in the Creel" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2)  {Bronson's #36, with the title "Hurroo-Ri-Ah"}
Jamsie McCarthy, "Coochie Coochie Coo Go Way" (on Voice15)
SAME_TUNE:
Moody to the Rescue (File: FowM005)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Cunning Clerk
The Wife and the Creel
The Rock in the Same Auld Creel
NOTES: Kinloch's "The Covering Blue" omit the ride in the creel, but is obviously the same song (and Child included it as his "D" text). Thus, though most of the humor of the piece comes when the clerk hauls the auld woman up the chimney, the key point is the nightvisiting theme. - RBW
File: C281
===
NAME: Kearney's Glen
DESCRIPTION: The singer alludes to poets who have praised other places; he will praise Kearney's Glen. He urges visitors to come in spring, to see the flowers, hear the birds, watch the young people. There is also a holy old altar. The singer asks God's blessing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H715, pp. 166-167, "Kearney's Glen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13478
File: HHH715
===
NAME: Keel Row, The
DESCRIPTION: "As I came through Sandgate, through Sandgate, through Sandgate, As I came through Sandgate... I heard a lassie sing, 'Weel may the keel row... That my laddi'es in.'" The singer wishes good luck to the boat and success to handsome Johnnie aboard it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1810 (R.H. Cromek, _Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song_, according to Hogg2)
KEYWORDS: love ship sailor
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Hogg2 29, "Merry May the Keel Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stokoe/Reay, pp.  41-42, "The Keel Row" (1 short text plus a modern rewrite, 1 tune)
DT, KEELROW*
Roud #3059
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(878), Harding B 11(1978), "The Keel Row" ("As I came through the Cannon-gate"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(1355), Johnson Ballads 1093, Johnson Ballads fol. 12 [some illegible words], 2806 c.14(42), "The Keel Row"; Firth b.27(10), "Weel May the Keel Row"
LOCSheet, sm1882 03470, "Weel May the Keel Row," Carl Prufer (Boston), 1882; also sm1883 19633, "The Keel Row" (tune)
NOTES: The Bodleian note to most of the broadsides states "Subject: Newcastle (England)." 
Hogg2: "It is a well known song and air. The verses given here are copied from Cromek's Remains." The first line is "As I came down the Cano'gate" which agrees substantially with the Bodleian broadsides (though the broadsides vary somewhat from both Hogg2 and the description above in the rest of their lines).
The LOCSheet references refer to Sandgate rather than Cannon-gate. - BS
File: StoR041
===
NAME: Keemo Kimo: see Kemo Kimo (File: R282)
===
NAME: Keemo-Kimo: see Kemo Kimo (File: R282)
===
NAME: Keep A-Inchin' Along
DESCRIPTION: "Keep a-inchin' along... Jesus will come by 'n by." "'Twas inch by inch I saved my soul." The singer makes plans for heaven, and for the festivities that will attend the arrival. "Ever since my Lord set me free, This old world's been a hell to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: religious freedom nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-FSNA 239, "Keep A-Inchin' Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11947
File: LoF239
===
NAME: Keep in de Middle Ob de Road
DESCRIPTION: "I hear the angels calling .... the road is rough and it's hard to walk.... Keep in de middle ob de road, den, chil'ren.... Don't you look to de right, Don't you look to de left, But keep in de middle ob de road"
AUTHOR: William S. Hays (1837-1907)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1878 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1878 11057)
KEYWORDS: religious worksong nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Smith/Hatt, p. 32, "Walking in de Middle of de Road" (1 text)
Roud #9413
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1878 11057, "Keep in de Middle ob de Road," Geo. D. Newhall & Co. (Cincinnati), 1878 (tune)
NOTES: Smith/Hatt: The fragment is part of the chorus and part of a verse. "'Heard this song sung by darkies at Philadelphia, digging pitch ... from the Brigintine Hamelin.' ... It is hardly a shanty but still a work song heard on ships." - BS
File: SmHa032
===
NAME: Keep It Dark
DESCRIPTION: "I am gwine to tell you some very queer news, But keep it dark, keep it dark." The singer describes various things which happened secretly: A fight between him and his wife, a fight with the Indians, the illumination supplied by the electric light
AUTHOR: Words: Fred Wilson / Music: E. M. Hall ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) technology
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 504, "Keep It Dark" (1 text)
Roud #7590
NOTES: Randolph says this is printed in "Sam MacFlinn's Great Clown Songster." I suspect the version there must make more sense than Randolph's version. Anyone have a copy? - RBW
File: R504
===
NAME: Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy
DESCRIPTION: Non-ballad, in which the singer displays his interest in food and drink and his lack of interest in work. Verses vary widely; the song is recognized primarily by the line "(Gonna) keep my skillet (good and) greasy all the time."
AUTHOR: (Credited to Uncle Dave Macon on the Henry Whitter recording)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drink food
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Warner 122, "Gonna Keep My Skillet Greasy" (1 text, 1 tune, plus assorted excerpts not collected by the Warners)
Silber-FSWB, p. 157 "Keep My Skillet Good And Greasy" (1 text)
DT, SKILLTGR SKILLTG2*
Roud #7479
RECORDINGS:
Doc Watson & Ralph Rinzler, "Skillet Good and Greasy" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
John Henry Howard, "Gonna Keep My Skillet Good & Greasy" (Gennett 3124, 1925)
Uncle Dave Macon "I'll Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy" (Vocalion 14848, 1924) (Bluebird B-5873, 1935)
Pete Seeger, "Skillet Good and Greasy" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01)
Henry Whitter, "Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy" (OKeh 40296, 1925; rec. 1924)
File: Wa122
===
NAME: Keep On a-Walking (Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round)
DESCRIPTION: "Ain't gonna let nobody, Lordy, Turn me 'round (x3)... Keep on a-walking, Keep on a-talking, Marchin' on to freedom land." Similarly "Ain't gonna let no jailhouse... Turn me round," etc. Versions may refer to local events
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (source tune recorded by Jimmy Davis in 1936)
KEYWORDS: discrimination political nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Scott-BoA, pp. 374-375, "Keep On a-Walkin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 303, "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round" (1 text)
cf. Greenway-AFP, p. 234, "Don't Turn Around" (1 text, probably a union adaption of this song)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round" (on Selma)
SAME_TUNE:
Jimmie Davis "I Ain't Gonna Let Ol' Satan Turn Me Round" (Decca 5235, 1936) 
NOTES: This song, an activist hymn from the civil rights and labor movements, was clearly adapted from "I Ain't Gonna Let Ol' Satan Turn Me Round." Jimmie Davis recorded that song; in view of the later adaptation, it's ironic that his second successful run for governor was on a racist platform, pledging resistance to integration. - PJS
File: SBoA374
===
NAME: Keep Your Garden Clean (I): see In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme (File: R090)
===
NAME: Keep Your Garden Clean (II)
DESCRIPTION: 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: 
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme)
File: FSWB163
===
NAME: Keep Your Hand on the Plow
DESCRIPTION: Various events from scripture intended to encourage the troubled: Paul and Silas in jail, Jesus washing the disciples feet, Mary's chain. Chorus: "Hold on, hold on, Keep your hand on the plow, hold on."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious prison
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Lomax-FSUSA 111, "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" (1 text, 1 tune, plus the modern parody "United Nations Make a Chain")
SharpAp 209, "Hold On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 362, "Hold On" (1 text)
DT, HANDPLOW*
Roud #10075
RECORDINGS:
Hall Johnson Negro Choir, "Keep Yo' Hand on the Plow, Hold On" (Victor 36020, 1930)
Pete Seeger with Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Big Bill Broonzy, Bill McAdoo, "Hold On" (on PeteSeeger15) 
Pete Seeger, "Hold On" (on Selma) (on PeteSeeger44) (on PeteSeeger48) (on PeteSeeger27)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Keep Your Hand upon the Chariot"
cf. "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" (song from the civil rights movement, adapted from "Keep Your Hand on the Plow")
NOTES: Paul and Silas's stay in prison is related in Acts 16:19-40. The footwashing is described in John 13:1-11. Mary's chain is apocryphal, perhaps a free extrapolation on Luke 2:35. - RBW
File: LxU111
===
NAME: Keep Your Hand upon the Chariot
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, you better run (x3), 'for the train done gone, Oh, keep your hand upon the chariot And your eyes upon the prize." "For the preacher's comin' an' he preach so bold, For her preach salvation from out of his soul, Oh, keep your hand upon the chariot"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious train nonballad clergy
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 256, "Keep Yore Hand upon the Chariot" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Keep Your Hand on the Plow"
File: ScNF256A
===
NAME: Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning
DESCRIPTION: "Keep your lamp trimmed and burning (x3) For this world is almost gone" "Brother, don't you get (a-)worried (x3) For this world is almost gone." "Sister, don't stop prayin'..." "Preacher, don't stop preachin'..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: Late 1928 (recording, Blind Willie Johnson & Angeline Johnson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Silber-FSWB, p. 361, "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning" (1 text)
Roud #10433
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie Johnson & Angeline Johnson, "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning" (Columbia 14425-D, 1929; rec. 1928; on BWJ01, BWJ02)
Fred McDowell, "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning" (on LomaxCD1703)
NOTES: A reference to the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, Matt. 25:1-13. - RBW
File: FSWB361
===
NAME: Keep Your Saddle Tight
DESCRIPTION: The singer advises the mustang rider, "Don't step into that saddle Till you know that it's good and tight." He also notes, "Of all the crazy critters... A woman is the worst one." He therefore gives the same advice about women....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (recording, Carl T. Sprague)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 88, "Keep Your Saddle Tight" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Ohr088
===
NAME: Keeper of the Eddystone Light, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer's father, the keeper of the Eddystone Light, had three children by a mermaid. Now he is gone (deserted? eaten by cannibals?). The boy meets his mother, who asks of her children; they live the troubled lives of half-humans
AUTHOR: J. London (source: 1866 sheet music)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1866 (sheet music; said to have been performed by Arthur Lloyd)
KEYWORDS: humorous father mother mermaid/man animal reunion
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
PBB 120, "The Keeper of the Eddystone Light" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 27, "Eddystone Light" (1 text)
DT, EDDYSTON* EDDYNORE* (ASTERLT*)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Caviar Comes from Virgin Sturgeon" (theme)
NOTES: The Eddystone Light is famous for representing a revolutionary design. It was the first lighthouse designed as a smooth cylinder -- important because it would help the lighthouse survive heavy seas and storms. Most later lighthouses, of course, have followed this design.
The song seems to have had a curious history. The earliest version I know apart from the sheet music is in a Harvard songbook from 1889, and it closely resembles "The Man at the Nore" as learned by Cyril Tawney from fellow sailors (the chorus runs "A jolly story lightly told, How the winds they blew and the waves they rolled, Down at the bottom of the deep blue sea You'll find the proof of my veracity." This fits the "Man at the Nore" tune but cannot be sung to the "Yo Ho Ho" melody. The verses also match "The Man at the Nore").
[Credit to Malcolm Douglas and John Patrick for digging up the sheet music and Harvard songster.]
But "The Man at the Nore" is now very rare, despite an excellent tune. Most people know the "Yo ho ho!" version, perhaps because it was popularized by Burl Ives. This version is among the most-parodied songs of all time. I know of "The Keeper of the London Zoo," "The Keeper of the Asteroid Light," and I've heard hints of others.
Is it possible that one of these is a deliberate rewrite of the other? Collections in tradition are few (apart from Tawney's), making it a bit unlikely that such drastic changes came about due simply to oral transmission.
Richard Dyer-Bennet has been credited with creating the final verse of the common version ("The phosphorus flashed in her seaweed hair..." -- bad science, incidentally, since there is almost no free phosphorus in the ocean; it's a necessary chemical for life, but not very common; every atom finds a home in some creature's DNA. Many ocean creatures are, of course, phosphorescent -- but not due to phosphorus). - RBW
File: PBB120
===
NAME: Keeper of the Game, The: see Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)
===
NAME: Keeper Would A-Hunting Go, The: see The Keeper (File: ShH79)
===
NAME: Keeper, The
DESCRIPTION: Keeper goes hunting for a doe. In some versions he chases several unsuccessfully.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916
KEYWORDS: hunting animal dialog
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Sharp-100E 79, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 59, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 338, "The Keeper" (1 text)
DT, KEEPERGO*
Roud #1519
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "The Keeper and the Doe" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02)  (on PeteSeeger18)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "En Jaeger Gik At Jage (A Hunter Went Out Hunting)" (general feeling)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Keeper Would A-Hunting Go
NOTES: Most of the song consists of back-and-forth singing of the chorus between two singers. B.J. Orton thinks there is a sexual or magical subtext to this song. I doubt it, myself. -PJS
I have to disagree with Paul; at least one text refers to the Keeper kissing a doe, and another doe "[running] away in a young man's heart." There is surely some sort of hidden meaning. The real question is, how far did Sharp bowdlerize what he found?- RBW
File: ShH79
===
NAME: Keepers and Poachers
DESCRIPTION: Singer and others are poaching when 12 keepers are seen. They decide to fight; in the course of battle, young William Taylor is taken. In court, he's told his life will be spared if he names his companions; he refuses, vowing to "die for them all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (collected by Cecil Sharp)
KEYWORDS: fight bargaining crime execution poaching punishment trial hunting bird
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kennedy 254, "Keepers and Poachers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #851
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "William Taylor" (on Maynard1, Voice18)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Poacher's Fate" [Laws L14] (subject)
cf. "The Bold Poachers" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Bold William Taylor
NOTES: This should not be confused with the "Bold William Taylor" whose girlfriend dresses as a man and shoots him (in "William Taylor" [Laws N11]). - PJS
File: K254
===
NAME: Kelley's Irish Brigade
DESCRIPTION: "Come all you that hold communion With southern Confederates bold." The singer tells how Union soldiers came to Missouri, but were routed by Kelley's brigade. He recalls their troubles in Ireland, and hopes for states rights
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1912 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Belden, pp. 355-356, "Kelley's Irish Brigade" (1 text)
DT, KELLBRIG (Belden's text, mistakenly said to come from Randolph)
Roud #7768
NOTES: This is a really, really strange piece. Belden notes that there are Union broadsides of Kelley's Irish Brigade. And the Union *did* have an Irish Brigade commanded by Col. Patrick Kelly; this unit, organized by General Meagher, was in fact, one of the most famous units in the Army of the Potomac. (For some background on this unit, see the notes to "By the Hush.")
If the spelling "Kelley" be accepted, there was also a union general Benjamin Franklin Kelley, who commanded troops (though seemingly not an Irish Brigade) in West Virginia.
But why adapt it to the Confederacy (which is what Belden suggests happened, and I can see no grounds for argument)? And why to Missouri?
The only general officer in the Confederacy named Kelly was John Herbert Kelly (1840-1864), and he *did* serve in Missouri in 1861 -- but he was only a captain at the time. By the time he achieved a brigadier's star in late 1863, he was in Braxton Bragg's army, and he commanded cavalry, not infantry, so he couldn't have led an Irish brigade. The song simply doesn't make sense. - RBW
File: Beld355A
===
NAME: Kelligrews Soiree, The
DESCRIPTION: "You may talk of... anything you choose, But it couldn't hold a snuff-box to the spree at Kelligrews." A thoroughly exaggerated account: "There was birch rine, tar twine, cherry wine, and turpentine," and so forth, ad nauseum.
AUTHOR: John Burke
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad party dancing
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 110-112, "The Kelligrews Soiree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 35, "The Kelligrews Soiree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, pp. 25-26, "The Kelligrews Soiree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle2, pp. 16-17, "The Kelligrew's Soiree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle3, pp. 36-37, "The Kelligrew's Soiree" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KSOIREE
Roud #4430
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Kelligrews Soiree" (on NFOBlondahl01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Jubilee"
cf. "Finnegan's Wake" [Laws Q17]
SAME_TUNE:
The Teapots at the Fire (File: Blon027)
NOTES: Kelligrews is a small village southwest of St. John's, Newfoundland. - RBW
Is this a cleaned-up version of "The Ball at Kerrimuir"? -PJS
Based on form, it is not. (It's not all that cleaned up, either; while there are no explicit sexual references, there are all sorts of hints, plus references to drunkenness, sodden clergy, and the like.) Fowke and Johnston believe it to be based on "The Irish Jubilee," and the stanzaic form implies they are right. Of course, there are all sorts of songs on the theme of the Ultimate Uproarious Party. - RBW
While Doyle3 reports the song was sung in New York in 1938, GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site shows that the author died in 1930. - BS
File: FJ110
===
NAME: Kellswater: see The Lover's Curse (Kellswater) (File: HHH442)
===
NAME: Kelly and the Ghost: see Maurice Kelly (File: GrMa078)
===
NAME: Kelly Gang Were Strong, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the Kelly gang were strong, And bent on doing wrong, In spite of Captain Standish and his men... And when they cross the border, They'll find bobbies all in order To beat them at the same old game."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: outlaw Australia police
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, p. 28, "The Kelly Gang Were Strong" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Ye Sons of Australia" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Song (Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly)" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject)
cf. "Ballad of the Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Stringybark Creek" (subject)
cf. "My Name is Edward Kelly" (subject)
NOTES: This uses a tune reportedly similar to the music hall piece, "Strolling Down the Old Kent Road." - RBW
File: MCH028
===
NAME: Kelly Gang, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come, all young men with feeling! With regret I must unfold, I have a tale to tell of men Whose hearts are stout and bold." The song praises the Kelly gang for their stand against odds of fifty to one. Kate Kelly is praised for warning the gang
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: outlaw Australia
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1855 - Birth of Ned Kelly
1880 - Execution of Kelly. His last words are reported to have been "Such is life."
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 248-249, "The Kelly Gang" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Kelly Gang" (on Lloyd2, Lloyd4)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Sons of Australia" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Song (Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly)" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject)
cf. "My Name is Edward Kelly" (subject)
cf. "Ballad of the Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Stringybark Creek" (subject)
cf. "The Kelly Gang Were Strong" (subject)
File: MA248
===
NAME: Kelly of Killann: see Kelly, the Boy from Killane (File: PGa033)
===
NAME: Kelly Song (Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly)
DESCRIPTION: Fragment of a ballad about the Kelly gang: "Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly, Farewell Hart and Steve Byrne too, With the poor your memory liveth; Those who blame you are but few."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1953
KEYWORDS: outlaw Australia
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1855 - Birth of Ned Kelly
1880 - Execution of Kelly. His last words are reported to have been "Such is life."
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 28, "Kelly Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 93-94, "(Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly" (1 text, apparently collected as a sort of appendix to "My Name is Edward Kelly")
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Ye Sons of Australia" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject)
cf. "My Name is Edward Kelly" (subject)
cf. "Ballad of the Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Stringybark Creek" (subject)
cf. "The Kelly Gang Were Strong" (subject)
NOTES: Edward "Ned" Kelly and his gang are perhaps the most famous of all Australian bushrangers. - RBW
File: MA028
===
NAME: Kelly the Pirate (I) [Laws K31]
DESCRIPTION: (Captain Cooper's ship Stag) meets Kelly's pirate ship. Kelly reminds the pirates that defeat means hanging, but this is not enough. The British ship sinks the pirate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1825 (broadsides, Bodleian Harding B 28(162), Harding B 25(1022))
KEYWORDS: pirate fight death
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws K31, "Kelly the Pirate I"
Greenleaf/Mansfield 43, "Kelly the Pirate" (1 text)
Mackenzie 81A, "Kelly the Pirate" (1 text)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 151, "Kelly the Pirate" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 565, KELLPIR
Roud #529
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "Kelly the Pirate" (on Abbott1)
David Slaunwhite, "Kelly the Pirate" (on MRHCreighton)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(162), "Kelly the Pirate," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(1022), "Kelly the Pirate" ("Come listen awhile and give ear to my song"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool) , 1820-1824
NOTES: Several pirates named Kelly/Kelley are known from the late seventeenth century, notably James Kelley, an associate of Captain Kidd hanged in 1701. But their circumstances do not seem to match this song.
There is also a significant problem in the form of the "Kelly the Pirate" version sung by David Slaunwhite and printed in Creighton-Maritime. It is an open question whether it is the same as Laws K31.
Bennett Schwartz writes,"Creighton-Maritime: 'Novia Scotia place names have been substituted for those in the old English song.... it has undergone many changes in the course of oral transmission.' It is barely recognizable as the same ballad as Greenleaf/Mansfield 43."
But Paul Stamler writes independently, "The plot of this song [the Slaunwhite version] is extremely confused, and the point of view seems to shift in the last verse, but it's clear enough that I'm pretty sure it isn't one of the two 'Kelly the Pirate' songs listed elsewhere in the Index."
Laws does not seem to have known of Slaunwhite's recording. Roud lumps them. It may well be that Slaunwhite's version is composite, mixing "Kelly the Pirate (I)" with something else. I'm sticking it here, for now, since it seems to be a one-shot. That could easily change if more versions show up. - RBW
File: LK31
===
NAME: Kelly the Pirate (II) [Laws K32]
DESCRIPTION: A British warship is commanded to guard merchant vessels. The warship meets Bold Kelly, who refuses to surrender. The pirate ship is taken and Kelly sent to prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: pirate sea battle prison
FOUND_IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws K32, "Kelly the Pirate II"
GreigDuncan1 46, "Kelly the Pirate" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 846-847, "Kelly the Pirate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 81B, 81C, "Kelly the Pirate" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT 566, KELPIR2 KELPIR3
Roud #1625
NOTES: Several pirates named Kelly/Kelley are known from the late seventeenth century, notably James Kelley, an associate of Captain Kidd hanged in 1701. But their circumstances do not seem to match this song. - RBW
File: LK32
===
NAME: Kelly Was Their Captain
DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of the "famous outlaw band that roamed this country round. Ned Kelly was their captain...." Ordered arrested by the governor of Victoria, Kelly took to the bush. After long eluding the police, he was betrayed by Aaron Sherritt and taken
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: outlaw Australia betrayal
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1855 - Birth of Ned Kelly
1880 - Execution of Kelly. His last words are reported to have been "Such is life."
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 203-204, "Kelly Was Their Captain" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Ye Sons of Australia" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Song (Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly)" (subject)
cf. "My Name is Edward Kelly" (subject)
cf. "Ballad of the Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Stringybark Creek" (subject)
cf. "The Kelly Gang Were Strong" (subject)
NOTES: Edward "Ned" Kelly and his gang are perhaps the most famous of all Australian bushrangers. - RBW
File: MA203
===
NAME: Kelly, the Boy from Killane
DESCRIPTION: "What's the news? What's the news? O my bold Shelmalier...." The singer is told how the rebels of Wexford, led by Kelly and others, at first triumphed over the British -- but at last were defeated and Wexford "stript naked, hung high on a cross."
AUTHOR: Words: P. J. McCall
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (IRClancyMakem03)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 5, 1798 - Battle of New Ross, in which a large force of United Irishmen overwhelm General Johnson's defenders but abandon the burning town, converting victory to defeat
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
PGalvin, pp. 33-34, "Kelly, the Boy from Killane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 72, "Kelly of Killann" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KELLYKIL*
Roud #16908
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Kelly the Boy from Killane" (on IRClancyMakem03)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Father Murphy (I)" (subject of Father Murphy) and references there
cf. "Bagenal Harvey's Farewell" (subject of Bagenal Harvey) and references there
NOTES: This is one of those songs that sadly ignores the inept handling of the Wexford rebel army.
By early June, with Enniscorthy and Wexford in Rebel hands (the former captured by Father John Murphy's forces on May 28, the latter abandoned by loyalists on May 30 after the Battle of Three Rocks, for which see "Sweet County Wexford"), the rebels were moving generally from Wexford north toward County Wicklow; could they capture Arklow and Wicklow in that county, the road to Dublin would be wide open (hence the line that they marched "from the south toward the north").
Other rebel forces, though, were trying to expand from Wexford into Kilkenny to the west and Waterford to the southwest.
The thing stopping them was the garrison of Major General Henry Johnson at New Ross. The Irish commander, Bagenal Harvey -- who was Protestant despite being a United Irishman -- determined to clear out the garrison.
Unfortunately, Harvey -- called "Brave Harvey" in the song -- had no military training, and it showed. He ordered an ill-coordinated attach, exercised no control over the battle, made no real use of his captured artillery, and was unable to rally his troops when they fled.
John Kelly's part in the battle was brief. Harvey ordered him and his 800 men from Bantry to clear some loyalist outposts. They instead went straight for the Three Bullet Gate to New Ross. (The gate came to be known as "The Grim Gap of Death.") They broke in, but Kelly was wounded in the thigh and disabled. His troops continued on against orders, ran into the defenders and their artillery, were routed -- and fled the town, dragging undefeated soldiers with them. The notes on the Clancy Brothers "Irish Songs of Rebellion" record say Kelly was executed after the battle, though of course they don't cite a source.
Robert Kee, in _The Most Distressful Country_ (being Volume I of _The Green Flag_), p. 118, doesn't mention Kelly's death either. According to him, "a young United Irish colonel, who led the first rebel assault, was John Kelly, a blacksmith from Killan. He was to become the hero of a popular ballad... when these bloody events acquired the rather fusty veneer appropriate to the drawing-room heroics of purely political warfare."
Robert Gogan,  _130 Great Irish Ballads_ (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 114, says that Kelly was recovering from his wounds in Wexford when the British caught him and hanged him on Wexford bridge. No source for that statement either.
Despite Kelly's mismanaged thrust, the United Irish might still have won the battle (indeed, they almost did), but when their last push petered out, there was no reserve, which cost them the battle; the flight of Kelly's forces thus contributed greatly to the defeat.
As the song implies, wounded and defeated United men were killed on the field; this was sadly not unusual for the period. Harvey himself, who apparently had not wanted his command, gave it up and headed back into Wexford. He was eventually caught and executed.
Let no one say that the atrocities were one-sided, however. The United men burned much of New Ross deliberately. What is more, while the battle was shaping up, a force of United guards burned alive an estimated 90 loyalists, including women and children, in Scullabogue. This was in response to an unsubstantiated (and false) report of loyalist atrocities at New Ross. (For more information on this, see the notes to "Father Murphy (II) (The Wexford Men of '98).")
East and West Shelmalier were holdings in County Wexford. - RBW
File: PGa033
===
NAME: Kelly's Lamentation (The Deserter)
DESCRIPTION: Kelly quarrels with his parents and leaves home. On his way to a hiring fair, he meets a sergeant, who buys his drinks and tells him he has enlisted. His parents cannot buy his freedom. Kelly deserts and returns home, but soon takes sick and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (JIFSS)
KEYWORDS: home family soldier money drink desertion escape disease death
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H223, pp. 83-84, "The Deserter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2405
File: HHH223
===
NAME: Kellyburn Braes: see The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)
===
NAME: Kelvin's Purling Stream
DESCRIPTION: "The summer time being in tis prime, The weather calm and clear, I left that town called Portadown." The singer travels to Glasgow, telling Kelvin's stream of his troubles. He promises never to "forget the girl I love Who lives near Lurgan Braes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: home travel love separation river
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 345-346, "Kelvin's Purling Stream" (1 text)
Roud #3947
File: Ord345
===
NAME: Kemo Kimo
DESCRIPTION: Non-ballad. Some texts have brief stories (e.g. about "darkies" ten feet tall and too big for their beds), but the basic characteristic is the nonsense refrain pattern: sing song kitty kitchie kimeo / kemo kimo, Delaware, me hi me ho and in comes Sally...
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1854 (Christy & Wood, _New Song Book_)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense animal
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (19 citations)
Randolph 282, "There Was an Old Frog" (2 texts plus an excerpt and a fragment, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 239-241, "There Was an Old Frog" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 282A)
Belden, pp. 494-499, "The Frog's Courtship" (7 texts in 3 groups, 2 tunes; several of the texts are short, and IB at least appears to be "Kemo Kimo")
BrownIII 120, "The Frog's Courtship" (3 texts in the appendix to this song)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 244-248, "The Frog He Went A-Courting" (3 texts; the third, with local title "The Gentleman Frog" and tune on pp. 420-421, is probably this piece the first two texts are "Frog Went A-Courting")
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 156-157, "Cree-Mo-Cri-Mo-Dorro-Wah" (1 text plus a fragent, 1 tune); also p. 201 (no title) (1 fragment); also p. 285, "Keemo Kimo" (1 text, the Christy/Wood version)
SharpAp 221, "The Frog in the Well" (4 texts, 4 tunes); 242, "The Opossum" (1 text, 1 tune)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 1, "Farm Life Song" (1 text); p. 230, "The Frog and the Mouse" (1 fragment, probably this)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 67, "Bandyrowe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster 78, "Keemo-Kimo" (3 fragments)
Eddy 45, "The Opossum" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Linscott, pp. 204-206, "Frog in the Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 132-133, "Frog in the Well"; p. 135, "Get to Bed" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 84, "Kitty Alone and I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner 68, "The Bull Frog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #69, pp. 77-79, "(There was a frog liv'd in a well)" (a complex composite with a short version of "Frog Went A-Courting" plus enough auxiliary verses to make an almost complete "Kemo Kimo" text)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 193, "(There dwelt a puddy in a well)" (1 text, very long, containing a full "Frog Went A-Courting" version plus sundry "Kemo Kimo" type verses)
Gilbert, p. 42, "Polly Won't You Try Me O" (1 fragmentary text)
DT, FRGCORT3* KEMOKIMO PUDDYWL2
Roud #16
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence Older,  "Frog in the Spring" (on LOlder01)
Prairie Ramblers, "Beaver Creek" (c. 1935; on CrowTold02)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Carrion Crow/A Kangaroo Sat on an Oak"
cf. "Raccoon" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Frog Went A-Courting" (floating lyrics, theme)
cf. "One Fine Day" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Sing Song Kitty
NOTES: There is a songsheeet on the American Memory website which credits authorship to Charles White and states that the song was regularly sung by Dan Emmett; unfortunately, it is undated. - PJS
Several of these texts, such as Lawrence Older's "Frog in the Spring," have lyrics reminiscent of "Frog Went A-Courting," raising the possibility that this is a sort of a by-blow of that song, and some including Roud lump them.
The notes in Brown, in fact, state that this piece is a minstrel adaption created by Sam Cowell some time around 1850. (On this topic, see the notes to "Billy Barlow (II)"). Cohen accepts this attribution, though Christy and Wood claim that theirs is "the only authentic version." It mentions the frog only briefly in the third stanza, and in a way not at all reminiscent of "Frog Went A-Courting."
These sundry minstrel songs, however, have little plot and are really just thematic verses about animals. It appears that the two combined by mixture, rather than separated as a result of pieces breaking off. As a result, I classify them separately from "Frog...," with the understanding that this is a classification of the extremes. One should check the cross-references for related songs.
Lena Bourne Fish's version, collected by the Warners in 1941, has the extraordinary property of using only three notes of the major scale: Do re mi.
Roud separates the Ritchie "Bandyrowe" texts into its own number (#7402). The difference, though, is only one of name (apart from the two verses Jean Ritchie made up); her version is a fairly pure example of the "Kitty Alone" type, and I classify it here accordingly. - RBW
File: R282
===
NAME: Kemp Owyne [Child 34]
DESCRIPTION: When her mother dies, Isabel's father marries a vile woman who abuses and enchants her till Kemp Owyne shall rescue her. Owyne comes and sees a hideous beast. Despite her appearance, despite threats, he kisses her three times and restores her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: shape-changing magic separation love rescue stepmother
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Child 34, "Kemp Owyne" (3 texts)
Bronson 34, "Kemp Owyne" (1 version)
Leach, pp. 126-128, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
OBB 13, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 21, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
PBB 26, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
Gummere, pp. 280-282+359, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
DBuchan 26, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
TBB 33, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
DT 34, KEMPOWYN KEMPOWN2*
Roud #3912
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Kempion
NOTES: "Kemp Owyne" means "Owen the Champion"; he appears in some of the medieval grail romances.
Child prints "The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs" as an appendix to this ballad, and later added a second version in his addenda. - RBW
File: C034
===
NAME: Kempy Kay [Child 33]
DESCRIPTION: A hideous maiden is courted by a deformed suitor. The grotesqueness of each is described in Rabelaisian detail. They exchange disgusting gifts, and the match is made.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous marriage gift
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Child 33, "Kempy Kay" (7 texts)
Bronson 33, "Kempy Kay" (2 versions)
Kinloch-BBook XI, pp. 40-44, "Kempy Kaye" (1 text)
DBuchan 46, "Kempy Kay" (1 text)
DT 33, KEMPYKAY
Roud #32
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
King Knapperty
File: C033
===
NAME: Kenneth Cameron
DESCRIPTION: Reading and McRae are breaking a logjam when their boat washes away and they are left on the logs. Kenneth Cameron volunteers to go to their assistance. After strenuous efforts, all drown
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning ship river
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Rickaby 34-III, (third of three "Fragments of Shanty Songs") (1 fragment)
ST Rick131 (Partial)
File: Rick131
===
NAME: Kenny Madland
DESCRIPTION: "The great master has called From heaven above To take Kenny Madland, A cowboy we all loved." The poet recalls Madland's "fun-loving ways and quick little smiles," expects him to ride well in Heaven, and regards his death as "Heaven's own gain"
AUTHOR: Lois Green
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 ("Buckboard" magazine)
KEYWORDS: death cowboy recitation
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1950 - Death of Kenny Madland when his horse fell on him
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 37, "Kenny Madland" (1 text)
File: Ohr037
===
NAME: Kenny Wagner [Laws E7]
DESCRIPTION: Kenny Wagner kills a sheriff in Mississippi and heads for Tennessee, where he is captured. He escapes, but is again taken (this time by a female sheriff). He is imprisoned for life, and is offered as an example to potential lawbreakers
AUTHOR: Andrew Jenkins
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (recording, "Al Craver")
KEYWORDS: murder escape prison punishment
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws E7, "Kenny Wagner"
Hudson 105, pp. 243-244, "Kenny Wagner" (1 text)
DT 778, KENWAGNR
Roud #978
RECORDINGS:
Al Craver [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart], "Kinnie Wagner" (Columbia 15065-D, 1926)
Warde Ford, "Texas Canyon" (AFS 4206 A3, 1938; tr. in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Kenny Wagner's Surrender" [Laws E8] (plot)
NOTES: Evidently [this song] entered oral tradition quickly -- only a few years after Jenkins's recording, the name of the song has changed and so has the locale. The female sheriff, however, remains constant. - PJS
Hudson, who is the primary source for printed texts of both Kenny Wagner ballads, gives some details about his career but no dates. The notes in Brown (presumably from Hudson) calls Wagner simply a bad man of the 1920s. He notes that both songs were in circulation c. 1928; Wagner was apparently still alive at the time Hudson published in 1936.
Hudson was not aware that Andrew Jenkins composed these ballads; that information comes from D. K. Wilgus. - RBW
File: LE07
===
NAME: Kenny Wagner's Surrender [Laws E8]
DESCRIPTION: Kenny Wagner has killed three men, including a Mississippi sheriff. Captured in Tennessee, he escapes but is retaken and sentenced to life
AUTHOR: Andrew Jenkins
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recordings, Vernon Dalhart, Ernest Stoneman)
KEYWORDS: murder escape prison punishment
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws E8, "Kenny Wagner's Surrender"
BrownII 245, "Kenny Wagner's Surrender" (1 text)
Hudson 106, pp. 245-246, "Kenny Wagner's Surrender" (1 text)
Burt, p. 216-217, "(Kenny Wagner's Surrender)" (1 text)
DT 779, KENWAGSR
Roud #979
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Kennie Wagner's Surrender" (Columbia 15098-D [as Al Craver] [as "Kinnie Wagner's Surrender"], 1926) (Edison 52020, 1927)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Kenny Wagner's Surrender" (matrix # GEX 495-A recorded 1927 and issued 1927-1928 as: Herwin 75535, Gennett 6044 [as by Ernest V. Stoneman and his Graysen County Boys], Champion 1522 [as by Uncle Jim Seany], Silvertone 5004/Silvertone 25004 [as by Uncle Ben Hawkins])
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Kenny Wagner" [Laws E7] (plot)
NOTES: For the minimal background Hudson supplies for this song, see the notes to "Kenny Wagner" [Laws E7]. This is evidently a semi-sequel to "Kenny Wagner"; it refers to that song and adds more details but is told in the first person. - RBW
File: LE08
===
NAME: Kentucky Bootlegger: see Moonshine (File: Wa131)
===
NAME: Kentucky Moonshiner: see Moonshiner (File: San142)
===
NAME: Kerry Dance
DESCRIPTION: "Oh! the days of the Kerry dancing, oh! the ring of the piper's tune." The singer recalls the days of his youth, the summer night dances in the glen, old friends and Peggy, left behind. If he returns and "she has not resigned me" he'll stay with Peggy.
AUTHOR: Words: James Lyman Molloy (1837-1909)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1879 (copyright); printed 1880 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1880 07527)
KEYWORDS: courting separation dancing music lyric nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
O'Conor, p. 46, "Kerry Dance" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 532-533, "The Kerry Dance" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1880 07527, "Kerry Dance", Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1880; also sm1880 19158, sm1881 09435, sm1882 09656, sm1882 22365, sm1883 19631,s m1884 10781, sm1885 23600, "[The] Kerry Dance" (tune) 
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Dancing in Glenroan (Rinnceoiri Ghleann Ruain)" (theme)
NOTES: Copyright date 1879 (source: Santa Cruz Public Libraries site sheet music collection); source for Molloy's birth date and date of death: Public Domain Music site [same dates found in Hoagland - RBW]). - BS
According to [no author listed], _The Library of Irish Music_, Amsco, 1998, the music for this is "based on 'The Cuckoo' by Margaret Casson." - RBW
File: OCon046
===
NAME: Kerry Eagle
DESCRIPTION: O'Connell is the Kerry Eagle. His career is reviewed: elected MP for Clare, united Ireland for Emancipation, pursued Repeal until his death, killed D'Esterre, and died far from home. His heart remains in Rome but his body is buried in Glasnevin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1847 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: death Ireland memorial patriotic political
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann 55, "Kerry Eagle" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(429), "The Kerry Eagle," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also 2806 b.10(30), 2806 b.10(21), Harding B 40(3), Harding B 11(1986), 2806 c.15(28)[barely legible], Firth c.26(288), Harding B 19(63), Firth b.27(279)[last two lines missing], Harding B 11(1984), Harding B 11(1985), Firth b.27(278)[some words illegible], Harding B 26(308)[some words illegible], "[The] Kerry Eagle"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Green Linnet" (subject: O'Connell's death)
cf. "Erin's King (Daniel Is No More)" (subject: O'Connell's death)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)"  (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
NOTES: O'Connell (1775-1847) was born in County Kerry. O'Connell was elected MP from County Clare in 1828 (cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1828)) (- BS)."1829 saw Catholic 'emancipation,' allowing them every political right open to Protestants of equivalent position" (- RBW). O'Connell led the movement of 1840-1843 to repeal the act that joined Ireland and Great Britain as the United Kingdom (cf. "Glorious Repeal Meeting Held at Tara Hill" and "The Meeting of Tara"). Zimmermann: "D'Esterre, an Alderman of the Dublin Corporation, challenged O'Connell to a duel, and was killed, 1st February, 1815" (p. 235); "O'Connell died at Genoa, on his way to Rome, 15th May, 1847." (p. 233) "In accordance with his wish his heart was brought to Rome and his body to Ireland. His funeral was of enormous dimensions, and since his death a splendid statue has been erected to his memory in Dublin and a round tower placed over his remains in Glasnevin" (source: "Daniel O'Connell" by E.A. D'Alton in _The Catholic Encyclopedia_ on the New Advent site. - BS
For additional notes on O'Connell's last months, see the notes to "Erin's King (Daniel Is No More)." - RBW
File: Zimm055
===
NAME: Kerry Eviction, The
DESCRIPTION: Old McMahon in Kerry can't pay the rent and the agent, with soldiers and police, comes to evict him. To no avail, he asks that the children not be turned out in the snow and that he be given a week or two to pay. McMahon, evicted, dies in the snow. 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1880's? (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness greed poverty death farming storm Ireland hardtimes children police soldier
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann 87, "A New Song Entitled the Kerry Eviction" (1 text)
NOTES: This bit of brutality is a little extreme, in that evictions rarely happened in such unfortunate circumstances. But "rarely" is not the same as "never"; for about a century, English landlords had near-complete control over their Irish tenants, and did evict them for little reason or none. It was not until the nineteenth century that the English started supplying tenants' rights -- and the Land League (for which see "The Bold Tenant Farmer") helped support them. - RBW
File: Zimm087
===
NAME: Kerry Recruit, The [Laws J8]
DESCRIPTION: A Kerry lad enlists in the army and is introduced to the wonders of coats, guns, and horses. In some accounts he spends a quiet term in the service; in others, he loses a leg in the Crimea and returns home to live off his pension
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1849 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1454))
KEYWORDS: war soldier humorous
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1853-1856 - Crimean War (Britain and France actively at war with Russia 1854-1855)
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW) Canada(Mar,Ont) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
Laws J8, "The True Paddy's Song (The Kerry Recruit)"
GreigDuncan1 79, "The Irish Recruit" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
FSCatskills 11, "[The Kerry Recruit]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 477, "'Twas Nine Years Ago" (1 text, rather eroded with time -- e.g. the soldier runs without losing a leg)
Fowke/MacMillan 73, "Nine Years a Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 162, "Pat and the War"; p. 163, "Paddy Enlisted" (2 texts, 1 tune)
O'Conor, pp. 95-96, "The Kerry Recruit" (1 text)
OLochlainn 1, "The Kerry Recruit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 42, "The Kerry Recruit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 274, "The Kerry Recruit" (1 text)
DT 393, KERRYRCT
Roud #520
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1454), "Paddy's Ramble" ("About nine years ago, I was digging of land"), J. Kendrew (York), 1803-1848; also Harding B 25(1456), Harding B 28(218), "Paddy's Ramble"; Harding B 19(83), 2806 b.9(240), Firth c.14(115), "The Kerry Recruit"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Felix the Soldier" (theme)
cf. "Mrs. McGrath" (theme)
cf. "The Boy on the Land" (hints of plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Listing of the Spademan
Paddy Turned Soldier
NOTES: The fullest version of this song I have seen includes explicit references to several events in the Crimean War:
"Balaclave" - The city of Balaclava, which gave its name to the battle of October 25, 1854
Alma - The river by which the British and French landed, and where the first battle of the Allied war with the Russians was fought on September 20, 1854
"Innerman" = Inkerman, a town on the Chernaya River which gave its name to the final field battle of the war (November 5, 1854)
Redan - One of the major defensive works around Sevastopol, assaulted by the British on June 18, 1855. The British suffered 25% casualties in the attack, and their French allies to the north did no better. From that time onward, the Allies settled down to besiege Sevastopol rather than trying to take it by storm. - RBW
O'Conor's version refers to "Vinegar Hill" (Irish convicts break out of Castle Hill Barracks in New South Wales, trying to reach Sydney harbor to seize ships and escape to Ireland, March 5, 1804. Source: Holyrood NSW site re 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Vinegar Hill) and "Ballinamuck" (Humbert with the French and Irish are defeated on September 8, 1798. Source: Irish Cultural Society of the Garden City Area site re The Battle of Ballinamuck). So, Kerry Recruit, whose "father and mother were two Kerry men," has been fighting the Irish around the world. "Now war is all over and peace is come in, I'm paid all my wages, and God save the King! I'm nine years in glory, and glad it's not ten, And now I'm back diggin' praties agin."
Of the Bodleian broadsides the "Paddy's Rambles" versions are pre-Crimean war and are in line with O'Conor; the "Kerry's Recruit" versions refer to the Crimean War.
For a study of the history of this and related songs see Roly Brown, _Glimpses into the 19th Century Broadside Ballad Trade No. 5: The Kerry Recruit_, 2003 at the Musical Traditions site among the articles. - BS
File: LJ08
===
NAME: Kevin Barry
DESCRIPTION: Eighteen year old Kevin Barry is hung, "another martyr for old Ireland, another murder for the crown." Despite torture, he will not betray his comrades. (Family and friends bid farewell.) (Barry asks to be shot as a soldier, but is hanged as a rebel)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution Ireland
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 1, 1920 - Execution of Kevin Barry
FOUND_IN: Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Sandburg, pp. 42-43, "Kevin Barry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 218, "Kevin Barry" (1 text)
PGalvin, pp. 67-68, "Kevin Barry" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 49, "Kevin Barry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 324, "Kevin Barry" (1 text)
DT, KEVBARRY*
Roud #3014
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Kevin Barry" (on IRClancyMakem03)
Pete Seeger, "Kevin Barry" (on PeteSeeger11) (on HootenannyCarnegie)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Shall My Soul Pass Through Ireland" (tune)
cf. "Rolling Home" (tune)
NOTES: Patrick Galvin reports that "Kevin Barry, an eighteen-year-old student, [was] the first Irish patriot to be hanged in Ireland since Robert Emmet 117 years before. His death precipitated scores of his fellow-students into the I.R.A...."
Robert Kee's statement (in _Ourselves Alone_, being volume III of _The Green Flag_, pp. 122-123) gives him a slightly different distinction: Òthe first British execution of an Irishman in the post-war period.Ó
Terry Golway, _For the Cause of Liberty_, has a photo of Barry (who looks like any other schoolkid) on page 258, and gives a less biased report than Galvin. Given a good education, he still tried to join a nationalist organization at the age of 13. At 17, he could no longer be restrained from joining the Voluneers.
On September 20, 1920, Barry -- now 18 and in his first year of studying medicine -- was called upon to take part in a hijacking. The rebels desperately needed weapons (a perennial problem in Ireland, dating back to the rebellions against the Tudors; G. A. Hayes-McCoy, _Irish Battles_, p. 111, reports that it then took six head of cattle to buy a single musket! Rifles were cheaper in the twentieth century, but they were also, according to Charles Townshend, _Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion_, p. 45, a fetish item for Irish volunteers of the time). To gain arms, a band of Volunteers set out to stop a British army truck. The Irish had only one gun, but somehow one of the British soldiers ended up being shot and killed. Barry's comrades fled; he was captured.
Threatened with death, though apparently suffering nothing worse than arm-twisting, Barry refused to give any information about his comrades. He was subjected to a military trial on October 20, and executed November 1.  We observe that, though Barry died as a rebel, he was, by modern legal standards, guilty of murder (though not premeditated murder).
Of course, if they'd hung everyone guilty of that sort of murder in 1920 Ireland, the country would have been depopulated.
Tim Pat Coogan, in _Michael Collins_, p. 154, notes that the British cabinet actually considered clemency but could find no grounds. There are said to have been five thousand people praying outside his prison at the end.
Kee makes the interesting point that Barry's death Òmade a considerable impact on public opinion. By contrast the fact the the soldier he had shot was as young as himself made virtually none" (p. 123)
There is at least one other Barry poem, "Kevin Barry" (by Terence Ward), for which see  Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 751-752.
There is also a 1989 biography, _Kevin Barry_, by Donal O'Donovan. Which mostly shows the power of songs like this; if Barry had lived in America a century later, he would probably be considered a "gang member." - RBW
File: San042
===
NAME: Keyhole in the Door, The
DESCRIPTION: Through a keyhole, the narrator spies upon a woman preparing for bed until the light is extinguished and "I knew the show was over."
AUTHOR: Attributed to Eugene Field
EARLIEST_DATE: 1879
KEYWORDS: hiding clothes
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) US(MW,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Cray, pp. 116-119, "The Keyhole in the Door" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 538-544, "The Keyhole in the Door" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 315-317, "The Keyhole in the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KEYDOOR KEYDOOR2*
Roud #2099
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Davis, "The Keyhole in the Door" (Bluebird B-5156, 1933)
Holland Puckett, "The Keyhole in the Door" (Challenge 328 [as by Harvey Watson]/Gennett 6271/Silvertone 5064, 25064, 8153, 1927/Supertone 9254 [as by Si Puckett; issued 1928])
Jim Wilson, "The Keyhole in the Door" (on Voice07)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Whummil Bore" [Child 27] (plot)
NOTES: In Randolph-Legman I, Legman offers substantial notes on the relationship or lack of relationship of this song to "The Whummil Bore" (Child 27). - EC
File: EM116
===
NAME: Keys of Canterbury, The
DESCRIPTION: The young man comes to the girl and offers her his love or other gifts if she will marry him. She scornfully refuses. After several similar exchanges, he typically offers his MONEY. She accepts. He withdraws the offer: "You love my money but... not me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1849 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: bargaining courting rejection money dialog
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(All),Scotland) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (24 citations)
Belden, pp. 507-509, "A Paper of Pins" (3 texts)
Randolph 354, "The Paper of Pins" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 293-295, "The Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 354A)
Eddy 39, "The Keys of Heaven" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 177, "A Paper of Pins" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 160-161, "Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott, pp. 20-23, "I'll Give to You a Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 1, "A Paper of Pins" (1 text plus 5 excerpts and mention of 7 more); 2, "Madam, Will You Walk" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Hudson 131, pp. 276-277, ""Paper of Pins (1 text plus mention of 11 more)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 299-304, "A Paper of Pins" (4 texts, 2 tunes on pp. 435-436)
Fuson, pp. 82-83, "The Lovers' Quarrel" (1 text); pp. 152-153, "I Will Give You a Red Dress" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 22-23, "A Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 92, "The Keys of Heaven" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Sharp-100E 66, "The Keys of Canterbury";  67, "My Man John" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #286, pp. 166-167, "(Oh, madam, I will give you the keys of Canterbury)"
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 88, "(I'll gie you a pennyworth o preens)" (1 text)
Scott-BoA, pp. 11-13, "The Keys of Canterbury" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 262-263, "The Silver Pin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 323-324, "Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 135, "Madam, Will You Walk" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 111, pp. 226-228, "Paper of Pins" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 346, "Paper of Pins" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 294, "I'll Give to You a Paper of Pins"
DT, PAPERPIN*
ST R354 (Full)
Roud #573
RECORDINGS:
Linda Brown & Donnie Stewart, "Paper of Pins" (on JThomas01)
Johnny Doughty, "Will You Marry Me?" (on Voice12)
Bradley Kincaid, "A Paper of Pins" (Gennett 6856/Supertone 9402, 1929; on CrowTold02)
Ray Napier & Margaret Winters, "Keys of Canterbury" (on JThomas01)
Vass Family, "Paper of Pins" (Decca 5425, 1937)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "No, John, No" (plot)
cf. "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)"
cf. "The Courting Case" (theme)
cf. "The Lover's Quarrel" (plot, lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Madam I Present You With Six Rows of Pins
Blue Muslin
I Will Give You The Keys of Heaven
If You Will Walk With Me
O Madam I Will Give to Thee
The Little Row of Pins
NOTES: Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 12" - 11.9.02: "Although versions of 'Will You Marry Me?' only appeared at the beginning of the 19th century ... it would seem certain that the song is based on an earlier pattern, namely the Elizabethan Stage Jig, a short dialogue song and dance performed by two or three characters." - BS
[In both of Sharp's versions], the lady accepts something and that's that. In "Keys of Canterbury" after rejecting various riches, she accepts a "broidered silken gownd," presumably a wedding gown, and the song ends there. In "My Man John", which also includes a servant who advises his master on how best to court the lady, she rejects all material things but accepts "the keys of my heart." - PJS
Although this certainly began as a true song, Linscott reports it as a singing game, adding "It was usually played by the girls alone, as it did not contain enough action for the boys." - RBW
File: R354
===
NAME: Keys of Heaven, The: see The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)
===
NAME: Kicker, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, here's to the kicker whose liver is wrong, Whose bile has leaked into his veins...." The "kicker's" myriad ailments are described, but we are assured that he could be "in good health, who takes care of himself By using St. Joseph's Liver Regulator"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1897 (manuscript copy)
KEYWORDS: medicine disease trick nonballad commerce
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 505, "The Kicker" (1 text)
Roud #7591
File: R505
===
NAME: Kickin' Maude: see Whoa Mule (The Kickin' Mule) (File: LoF231)
===
NAME: Kicking Mule, The: see Whoa Mule (The Kickin' Mule) (File: LoF231)
===
NAME: Kid, The
DESCRIPTION: Recitation. Big Ed, a teamster, adopts a boy from town. A chain breaks Ed's spine; the boy drives him back; he dies on the way. The boy pushes on; he is killed by being thrown from the sledge. The narrator learns he's telling the story to the boy's father
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Recitation. Big Ed, a teamster, comes back from town with a boy he has adopted. He teaches the boy the ways of the woods. One day a chain breaks Ed's spine; the boy drives him back, but he dies on the way. The boy doesn't notice, and pushes on; the narrator watches as he, too, is killed by being thrown from the sledge. The narrator discovers, at the end, that he's telling the story to the boy's father
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger death recitation father
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 58, "The Kid" (1 text)
Roud #4058
NOTES: This song is item dC37 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Be058
===
NAME: Kidd's Lament: see Captain Kidd [Laws K35] (File: LK35)
===
NAME: Kidder Cole
DESCRIPTION: Singer meets Kidder Cole at a dance, wants to dance but she dances with Charlie Wright. He goes to another dance; she still won't dance (because he's drunk). He visits her; she cold-shoulders him; he vows he'll dance with her yet, and praises her beauty
AUTHOR: Felix Eugene Ally?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930
KEYWORDS: jealousy courting love beauty dancing drink 
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #9131
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Kidder Cole" (Brunswick 230, 1928; on Cornshuckers1)
File: RcKidCo
===
NAME: Kielder Hunt, The
DESCRIPTION: Description of field trials at Kielder; owners and dogs are listed, and the dogs run a fox to earth. The singer drinks a toast to the "gallant sportsmen a'." Chorus: "Hark away! Hark away! O'er the bonnie hills of Kielder/Hark away"
AUTHOR: James Armstrong (source: Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 18" - 15.9.02)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1879 (in _Wannie Blossoms_, according to Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 18" - 15.9.02)
KEYWORDS: hunting drink moniker animal dog
FOUND_IN: Scotland(Bord)
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #5126
RECORDINGS:
Will & Sandy Scott, "The Kielder Hunt" (on Borders1)
Willie Scott, "The Kielder Hunt" (on Voice18)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)" (subject, phrase)
NOTES: There's actually little in common between this song and "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)"; I include the cross-reference only because of the "Hark away" phrase, and to differentiate them. - PJS
File: RcKielHu
===
NAME: Kiethen Hairst, The
DESCRIPTION: The harvest crew are described by name, task, and characteristics. "The truth I mean to tell We always got the best of meat And plenty of hame brewed ale." "Although the weather it was wet We all got on with glee"
AUTHOR: James Trail (source: Greig)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work moniker nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greig #7, pp. 1, "The Kiethen Hairst" (1 fragment) 
GreigDuncan3 410, "The Kiethen Hairst" (1 text)
Roud #5394
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hairst o' Rettie" (subject: harvest crew moniker song) and references there
cf. "The Boghead Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
cf. "The Ardlaw Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
cf. "The Northessie Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
NOTES: The song has the same happy tone about the harvest work as "The Boghead Crew" by the same author.
GreigDuncan3 dates the harvest: "The hairst began on Keithen's lands The 17th of September In the year of 1872 As we may well remember."
GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Keithen (410) is at coordinate (h4-5,v8) on that map [roughly 27 miles NNW of Aberdeen] - BS
File: GrD3410
===
NAME: Kilby Jail: see The Prisoner's Song (File: FSC100)
===
NAME: Kildallan Brown Red, The
DESCRIPTION: At Monaghan the Kildallan bird defeated a Piley from Leitrim that had previously won at Drumreilly. The Piley "brought our Kildallan bird down" first. When the Kildallan recovered he killed the Piley and "shocked the whole County Leitrim"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1979 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: fight death gambling chickens
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #5669
RECORDINGS:
James and Paddy Halpin, "The Kildallan Brown Red" (on IRHardySons)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cock-Fight" (theme)
cf. "The Follom Brown-Red" (theme)
File: RcKiBrRe
===
NAME: Kilkenny Cats
DESCRIPTION: "There once were two cats of Kilkenny, Each thought there was one cat too many, So they fought and they fit And they scratched and they bit, Till, excepting their nails, and the tips of their tails, Instead of two cats, there weren't any."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (Baring-Gould-MotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: fight animal
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #835, p. 315, "(There once were two cats of Kilkenny)"
NOTES: I don't know if the poem of the Kiklenny Cats is traditional, but the legend certainly is, so I thought I should include this item.
According to David Pickering's _The Cassell Dictionary of Folklore_, there are at least two explanations offered for this legend. One is that, in Norman times, there were rival English and Irish towns in Kilkenny, which naturally were in competition. Another bases it on a story of two cats who had their tails tied together by soldiers during the 1798 rebellion. I can't say that I find either explanation very convincing. - RBW
File: BGMG835
===
NAME: Kilkenny Louse House
DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to Carrick-on-Suir looking for a place to sleep. He is taken to Buck St John's place on Cook Lane. When the lights were out he has to fight the bugs. The slaughter is described. The band plays The Dead March. Beware Buck St John's place.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (recording, Tommy McGrath and Gemma McGrath)
KEYWORDS: battle poverty hardtimes bug
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #9228
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "The Kilkenny Louse House" (on IRTravellers01)
Tommy McGrath and Gemma McGrath, "Burke's Engine" (on Voice07)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm No' Comin' Oot the Noo" (theme)
NOTES: Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 7" - 1.3.03: "Burke's Engine" on Voice07 is a version of "Kilkenny Louse House"; "the compilers mis-heard the name of the proprietor, one Buck St John, and transliterated it as 'Burke's Engine'." Taking the Musical Traditions statement as gospel I am using "Kilkenny Louse House" as the name of the piece. The description is based on the Voice07 text. - BS 
File: RcKiLoHo
===
NAME: Kill or Cure
DESCRIPTION: The singer, "a roving Irish boy," marries Kitty O'Shaughnessy. She gets sick. He makes a bargain with the doctor: "kill or cure for twenty pounds." She dies. The doctor wants his money but he didn't cure her, won't admit he killed her, and doesn't collect
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.14(191))
KEYWORDS: bargaining death humorous wife doctor money
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 40, "Kill or Cure" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(191), "Kill or Cure" or "Katty O'Shaughnessy", H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Firth b.25(160), "Katty O'Shaughnessy" or "Kill or Cure"; Harding B 11(1988), "Kill or Cure"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Seven" (theme)
File: OCon040
===
NAME: Killafole Boasters
DESCRIPTION: The huntsmen around Newtown have a hunt for hare. The hounds are named as well as the landmarks passed. The local hunters succeed. The Killafole Boasters only follow false trails and "may go home with shame, And never come back for to hunt us again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1980 (recording, Jimmy Halpin)
KEYWORDS: death hunting animal dog moniker Ireland
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #12922
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy Halpin, "Killafole Boasters" (on Voice18)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair of Rosslea" (subject: competitive hare hunt from the huntsman's point of view)
cf. "The Huntsman's Horn" (subject: competitive hare hunt from the huntsman's point of view)
NOTES: The hunt takes place in the area around Lough Erne, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
Hall, notes to Voice18: "In Co. Fermaanagh, the average hunt club of small-town working men and small farmers is loosely organized and meets monthly in a pub to plan the month's fixtures, some of which might be in competition with another club." Hall goes on to discuss attitudes toward individual hares ("they divert the attention of the dogs if there seems any chance of a hare being killed") and foxes ("they might even take a gun out on a fox-hunting day"). "After a good meeting they might gather in a pub and sing about hunting."
Tunney-StoneFiddle p. 84: "'No good sportsman would shoot a hare; it is for coursing only', we were often told...." - BS
File: RcKilBoa
===
NAME: Killarney
DESCRIPTION: "By Killarney's lakes and fells" the singer describes "that Eden of the West; Beauty's home, Killarney": "Innisfallen's ruined shrine... Castle Lough and Glenna Bay, Mountains Tore and Eagle's Nest." Sights that "charm the eye," "each sound a harmony"
AUTHOR: unknown (see Notes)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.26(71))
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 81, "Killarney" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(71), "Killarney", T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also Harding B 12(207), 2806 c.16(219), "Killarney"
NOTES: This is credited to Falconer in Ralph L. Woods's _A Second Treasury of the Familiar_."  On the other hand, the uncredited book _The Library of Irish Music_ (published by Amsco musoc) says the words are by Edmund O'Rourke and music by Michael William Balfe. - RBW
File: OCon081
===
NAME: Killeavy's Pride: see The Pride of Newry Town (File: HHH190)
===
NAME: Killeevy's Pride: see The Pride of Newry Town (File: HHH190)
===
NAME: Killer, The: see Dobie Bill (Dobe Bill, The Killer) (File: LxA403)
===
NAME: Killiecrankie: see Killy Kranky (File: JRSF111)
===
NAME: Killin' in the Gap, The (Stevie Allen)
DESCRIPTION: "It was on a Sunday night and the moon was shining bright, Stevie Allen held his baby in his lap." The child is sick (?); Allen says he will ride to the doctor despite his enemies. The baby dies; Allen's horse returns riderless
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: children death feud horse disease
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 21-22, "The Killin' in the Gap" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. " Bonnie George Campbell" [Child 210] (theme)
NOTES: Thomas indicates no tune for this, but it looks like "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane." - RBW
File: ThBa021
===
NAME: Killy Kranky
DESCRIPTION: "Killy Krankie is my song, Sing and dance it all day long, From my elbow to my wrist, Then we do the double twist." "Broke my arm, I broke my arm, a-swinging pretty Nancy." The dancers are encouraged into other difficult positions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Hudson)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 27, 1689 - Battle of Killiecrankie
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 111-112, "[Killy Kranky]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 4, "Killy Kranky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson 54, pp. 170-171, "Killiecrankie" (1 text)
DT, KILCRNK2*
Roud #2572
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sad Condition" (lyrics)
NOTES: Despite the Ritchie spelling, which I assume will be the best-known form of this piece, is no doubt in my mind that the title of this song derives from the battle of Killiecrankie (1689). But her words have obviously wandered far, and the tune does not match either of the two I know as "Killiecrankie."
Ritchie says that this "was both a game and a song and not much of either one. The players sang the song while they 'wound the grapevine,' ... all of which Uncle Jason [from whom she learned the song] avowed was just a good excuse to get their arms around each other."
Hudson's text (with no tune) doesn't appear to be a playparty, and clearly derives from a Scots original, but appears confused ("I've fought on land and I've fought on sea, At home I've fought my auntie O"?!). I'm still looking for an intact version of this song.
The Battle of Killiecrankie effectively ended the fight in Scotland on behalf of James II in the Glorious Revolution.
Dundee (John Graham of Claverhouse, first Viscount Dundee, 1648-1689) had had a bad reputation in Scotland until that time for his persecution of Covenanters, and was known as "Black John Graham." But, absent another royalist leader, he was "recycled" as "Bonnie Dundee" (I owe that word "recycled," which is a brilliant description of what happened, to Oliver Thomson, _The Great Feud: The Campbells & the MacDonalds_,Sutton, 2000, p. 81)
Claverhouse led a small Jacobite army in an attack on Williamite forces led by General Hugh Mackay. The Jacobite cause was entirely dependent on Dundee, but he fought in the front line of the battle (he had to prove his courage, and promised that, if he won, he would not join the fray again). The Jacobites won, but Dundee was killed, and that was that. The more so as the victory was not decisive; Mackay kept his forces together, and their losses were not extreme.
Peter Underwood in _A Gazetteer of British, Scottish & Irish Ghosts_, pp. 378-379, states that Dundee had a vision before the battle, seemingly of a mortally wounded man calling the general to the field of Killiecrankie. Supposedly, every July 27, a red haze can be seen by some (but not all) over the battlefield; this is linked to Dundee's vision. (If you think this sounds very much like the story of Duncan Campbell at Ticonderoga -- yes, it does. For the Campbell legend, in addition to Richard Nardin's "The Piper's Refrain," see Walter R. Borneman, _The French and Indian War_ Harper-Collins, 2006, pp. 136-137.)
Peculiarly, I recently heard a classical recording of the tune "Killiecrankie" (definitely the same melody as that recorded by Archie Fisher and others as a Jacobite tune) which claimed that it came from c. 1600, i.e. well *before* the battle. I have been unable to determine the source of this claim. But I also have heard a classical type call the piece "Gillycrankie" (not sure about the spelling, but the first consonant was pretty definitely a "G"), so what do they know?- RBW
File: JRSF111
===
NAME: Killyclare (Carrowclare; The Maid of Carrowclare)
DESCRIPTION: The singer deliberately spies on a couple courting under the moon. The boy says he is sailing to America. The girl fears the local women will cause him to forget her. He promises never to forget her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation emigration
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H169, pp. 298-299, "The Maid of Carrowclare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2939
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "Killyclare" (on Voice04, IREButcher01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament)" [Laws O29] (plot) and references there
NOTES: I notice that the guy doesn't promise to be true -- just to remember.
"Luna" is the Latin name for the moon. Its use seems to indicate a literary origin. - RBW
File: HHH298
===
NAME: Kilnamartyra Exile, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer left Ireland for America for "love of money." After twelve years travelling from Alabama to the Rockies "black misfortune followed me" "Age has overtaken me and youth has long forsaken me." He will always fondly remember Kilnamartyra.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration separation hardtimes America Ireland age
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OCanainn, pp. 74-75, "The Kilnamartyra Exile" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: OCanainn: "This well-known song of the exile from Kilnamartyra in West Cork was sung for us by Sean O Se. Sean said it was written around the turn of the century by John Brown, a soldier who eventually became a John of God lay-brother." - BS
File: OCan074
===
NAME: Kilrane Boys, The
DESCRIPTION: April 13, 1844: thirteen "matchless youths" -- all named -- leave Wexford's Quay "bound for Buenos Aires, the land of liberty." "Foul British laws are the whole cause of our going far away ... with one for Dan O'Connell they boldly sailed away."
AUTHOR: Walter McCormack of the Bing, Kilrane
EARLIEST_DATE: 1943 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell sea ship
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 74-75, "The Kilrane Boys" (1 text)
NOTES: Ranson: "A centenary celebration was held in Kilrane on April 11th, 1944, to honor the memory of the emigrants, when the cart, which brought some of the emigrants into Wexford, was drawn into the procession." The thirteen are twelve men and a bride. - BS
File: Ran074
===
NAME: Kilruddery Hunt, The
DESCRIPTION: An early December morning the hunters, horses, and dogs "rode from Kilruddery, to try for a fox." The huntsmen and dogs are named. Reynard is "unkennelled" and the route is traced. The fox is killed after a five hour chase. The hunters party until night.
AUTHOR: Thomas Mozeen and Owen Bray (source: Croker-PopularSongs and _The Fiddler's Companion_ )
EARLIEST_DATE: 1762 (probably written 1744, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: hunting drink party moniker animal dog horse
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 204-215, "The Kilruddery Hunt" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Shelah na Guiragh" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
NOTES: The song says the hunt began at 5 in the morning, December 5, 1744. Among the places named, Kilruddery, County Wicklow, is near Bray, ten or fifteen miles down the coast from Dublin.
Croker-PopularSongs: "Called, by Ritson, 'The Irish Hunt,' and printed by him in the second volume of his collection of English Songs (ed. Park. 1813, p.184).... Mr. Walker ... informed Ritson that ''The Irish Hunt' was written by T Mozeen. It appeared in a collection of 'Miscellaneous Essays,' which he published by subscription in 1762.... Mozeen entitles the song ... 'A Description of a Fox Chase that happened in the County of Dublin with the Earl of Meath's Hounds.'"
"'The Kilruddery Hunt,' was written to this air ["Celia O'Gara (Sighile ni Ghadharadh)"] in 1744 by Thomas Mozeen and Owen Bray of Loughlinstown, Co. Dublin. It soon became enormously popular, according to Grattan Flood (1906), and was called by Ritson 'The Irish Hunt' (who incorrectly ascribed it to St. Leger)[until he corrected that error]." (source: Andrew Kuntz, _The Fiddler's Companion_ Copyright 1996-2006) - BS
File: CrPS204
===
NAME: Kilties in the Crimea, The
DESCRIPTION: "The Kilties are the lads for me, They're aye the foremost on a spree." The singer praises the Highland soldiers, and recounts their exploits in the Crimea, mentioning Alma, Sir Colin Campbell, and several Highland regiments
AUTHOR: John Lorimer
EARLIEST_DATE: 1856 (date of composition)
KEYWORDS: 
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1853-1856 - Crimean War (Britain and France actively at war with Russia 1854-1855)
Sept 20, 1854 - Battle of Alma
Oct 25, 1854 - Battle of Balaclava
Nov 5, 1854 - Battle of Inkerman clears the way for the siege of Sevastopol (the city fell in the fall of 1855)
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 223-227, "The Kilties in the Crimea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13083
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10] (subject)
cf. "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (II)" (subject)
NOTES: Among the various references in this song:
* The Royal Forty-Twa: The famous "Black Watch," which earned battle honours for Alma and Sevastopol. For more of its history, see the notes to "Wha Saw the Forty-Second." I can't help but add that this famous regiment, which held together despite service in the Crimea and the Sudan and so many other failures, has in the early twenty-first century been amalgamated into a "Super Scottish Regiment." The reason? People won't join because they refuse to go to Iraq.
* Alma: Battle of Alma. For history of this particular campaign, see "The Heights of Alma (I)"
* Sir Colin: Colin Campbell (1792-1863), commander of the Highland Brigade. He may have been the best soldier -- certainly the best brigade commander! -- in the British army at this time, but he was not a nobleman (he wasn't knighted until 1849) and wasn't rich, and so did not receive and could not buy the promotions he deserved.
According to Byron Farwell, _Queen Victoria's Little Wars_ (Norton, 1972), p. 110, Campbell was "born Colin Macliver in 1792, the son of a carpenter. He was educated by his uncle, a soldier named John Campbell." His uncle (his mother's brother) also managed to secure him a commission, though it was under the name Campbell. And so the young man became Colin Campbell. His early service was in the Peninsular Campaign, where he earned promotion to captain by merit -- and stalled. According to Oliver Thomson, _The Great Feud: The Campbells & the MacDonalds_, Sutton, 2000, p. 128, he was "invalided home in 1813. He recovered but by 1837 -- a bachelor in his late forties -- he was still only a colonel on garrison duty. Though recognized... 'as the best administrator and soldier since Wellington' he could not buy promotion and had to earn it." He gained much useful experience in Asia, but was still only a colonel when he resigned his command and went on half pay in 1853.
He was called back to duty for the Crimean War, and promoted Major General (the equivalent of a modern brigadier). His Highlanders made the key push at the Battle of Alma, and they blunted the initial charge at Balaclava. It will tell you something about the officers in the Crimea that, according to Alan Palmer, _The Crimean War_, Dorset, 1987 (originally published as _The Banner of Battle_), p. 250, he was ony of only two senior officers in the Crimea to do anything to improve their reputations afterward.
Having done much to win the Crimean War, he was appointed to command the Indian Army at the time of the 1857 rebellion. It was he who finally relieved Lucknow (Farwell, p. 112), the key event in the supression of the rebellion. He was rewarded with a peerage; according to the _Oxford Companion to British History_ becoming Lord Clyde in 1858. That's not really much of a compliment, considering how many awful soldiers were ennobled by the British over the years, but in his case, it was richly deserved.
This is not the only song about Campbell; he is mentioned in several Crimean War songs, and C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 330, prints a song called "General Campbell" about his work in India.
* Ninety-Third: Another Highland regiment (93rd Highlanders, now the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders), with battle honours for Alma, Balaclava, and Sebastopol. It was the Ninety-third, more than any other regiment, which halted the Russian charge on Balaclava.
* Balaclava: For the history of this incredible botch, see "The Famous Light Brigade." - RBW
File: FVS224
===
NAME: Kind Fortune
DESCRIPTION: A drummer proposes marriage to a maiden. She rejects him because her father "is a captain of honour and fame" and she would not "bind myself down to slav'ry." He threatens suicide. She relents. They elope. Her outraged father gives them an annual income
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1826 (broadside, Harding B 17(285a))
KEYWORDS: elopement soldier father money marriage suicide
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 74, "Kind Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 27, "The Drummer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #178, p. 2, "O Hard Fortune" (1 text) 
GreigDuncan1 86, "Oh! Hard Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST KaNew074 (Partial)
Roud #2302
RECORDINGS:
Martin Gorman, "The Little Drummer" (on Voice01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(285a), "The Silly Drummer," Angus (Newcastle), 1774-1825; also Firth c.14(305), Harding B 25(677), "The Fortunate Drummer"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Hard Times
O Bad Fortune
NOTES: Karpeles-Newfoundland omits the broadside touch of the father's money after the elopement; we are left to believe that she is left to "follow the drum."
Grieg _Folk-Song of the North-East_, CLXXVIII p.2, "O Hard Fortune," adds the following elements to the beginning of the story: A company of soldiers is playing and a drummer among them falls in love with a beautiful lady. He asks his captain what he should do since "for love I must die." His captain advises him to tell her. The plot described in DESCRIPTION continues.
Martin Gorman's version on Voice01 follows Grieg. - BS
File: KaNew074
===
NAME: Kind Friends and Companions: see A Health to the Company (Come All My Old Comrades) (File: CrSe222)
===
NAME: Kind Miss: see Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) AND The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: E098)
===
NAME: Kind Sir: see The Courting Case (File: R361)
===
NAME: Kinding Wood (My Name is Dinah from South Carolina)
DESCRIPTION: "My name is Dinah From South Carolina And I'm selling kindling wood to get along." "If you don't believe me, come down to see me, For I'm selling kindling wood to get along." "And won't you buy some, Oh won't you buy some."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 324, "Kindling Wood" (3 short texts)
Roud #15888
NOTES: This reads like a street cry, but how many street cries are there from South Carolina? It may be a fragment of a longer ballad, perhaps of an orphan child -- but if so, it has not been located. - RBW
File: Br3324
===
NAME: King and Miller of Mansfield, The: see King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth [Child 273] (File: C273)
===
NAME: King and the Bishop, The: see King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)
===
NAME: King Arthur and King Cornwall [Child 30]
DESCRIPTION: King Arthur, disguised, goes to King Cornwall's castle, where Cornwall boasts how he is better than Arthur.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1750 (Percy MS.)
KEYWORDS: royalty disguise bragging
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 30, "King Arthur and King Cornwall" (1 text)
OBB 18, "King Arthur and King Cornwall (A Fragment)" (1 text)
Roud #3965
NOTES: This ballad is known only from the Percy manuscript. Since the manuscript is heavily damaged, the detailed course of the ballad cannot be discerned. Child connects the ballad with the (twelfth century) romance of Charlemagne's visit to Jerusalem. - RBW
File: C030
===
NAME: King Canna Swagger, A
DESCRIPTION: "A king canna swagger, An' get drunk like a beggar, Nor be so happy as I"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink begging nonballad royalty
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan3 486, "A King Canna Swagger" (1 fragment)
Roud #5977
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "A-Begging I Will Go" (theme : "who would be a king, When beggars live so well?")
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan3 fragment. - BS
File: GrD3486
===
NAME: King David: see Little David, Play on Your Harp (File: CNFM046)
===
NAME: King David had a Pleasant Dream [Laws O16]
DESCRIPTION: A soldier asks for a kiss. The girl refuses; her mother has told her to avoid soldiers. He replies with the story of David, who began as a shepherd but ended as a king and the killer of Goliath. The girl decides to kiss him after all
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: soldier courting Bible
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Laws O16, "King David had a Pleasant Dream"
Belden, p 170, "King David had a Pleasant Dream" (1 text)
SharpAp 175, "The Slighted Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 478, KNGDAVID
Roud #988
File: LO16
===
NAME: King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth [Child 273]
DESCRIPTION: The King goes out a-riding and meets the Tanner. The Tanner gives abrupt answers to the King's questions. The King tries to exchange horses; again the Tanner wants no part of the deal. Finally the King gives the Tanner a gift/pension
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (Percy) (entered in the Stationer's Register in 1589)
KEYWORDS: royalty contest disguise trick gift money horse
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1154-1189 - Reign of King Henry II
1399-1413 - Reign of King Henry IV
1461-1470 AND 1471-1483 - Reign of King Edward IV
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) Ireland Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Child 273, "King Edward IV and a Tanner of Tamworth" (4 texts -- though three of them are appendices)
Bronson 273, "King Edward IV and a Tanner of Tamworth" (3 versions)
Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 92-100, "King Edward IV. And Tanner of Tamworth"; III, pp. 178-188, "The King and Miller of Mansfield" (2 texts)
Leach, pp. 649-653, "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" (1 text)
PBB 73, "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" (1 text)
BBI, ZN1472, "In summer time when leaves grow green"
Roud #248
NOTES: Thie king mentioned in this ballad varies. Child's primary text simply calls the king "Edward." Of the three texts in the appendices, the first gives no name. The second goes under the title "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth," but again the King is simply called "Edward." The third text (from the Percy folio, but not the version printed in the _Reliques_) is "King Henry II and the Miller of Mansefield," but again no name is given. The records of 1564 also mention a printing of "The story of Kynge Henry IIIJth and the Tanner of Tamowthe."
No matter which king we choose, there is no historical record of an event such as this. There is at least some verisimilitude in assigning the piece to Edward IV.
Edward was a hunter (most English kings were), but could be easily distracted -- as witness the fact that he first met his wife, Elizabeth Woodeville, on a ride. (Elizabeth, who had been widowed by the Wars of the Roses, carefully stationed herself by the path where Edward was expected to ride, and she was pretty enough to get his attention. Edward never could resist a pretty girl....) In addition, Edward was a friendly, cheerful man who could easily be involved in games such as this.
On the other hand, Henry II was engaged in constant wars with France. Henry IV was an usurper who had to deal with periodic rebellions. And Edward IV lived during the Wars of the Roses. None of them had the petty cash to give the sorts of rewards mentioned here. - RBW
File: C273
===
NAME: King Edwards
DESCRIPTION: "There never was a king so great, but love cause him to abdicate. Ch: Love, love alone, cause King Edwards to leave the t'rone (repeat)." Verses sung in first person as Edward explains reasons for abdicating and marrying Wallace Simpson.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Colcord)
KEYWORDS: shanty love royalty marriage
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1936 - Abdication of Edward VIII and his marriage to Wallis Simpson
FOUND_IN: West Indies
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Colcord, pp. 186-187, "King Edwards" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Colc186 (Partial)
Roud #4707
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Edward's Abdication"  (theme of Edward VIII)
NOTES: I don't have a copy of Thomas-Makin', but based on the description of "Edward's Abdication" I'd say that even though they are covering the same subject, these are two different songs. [Yes, they are. And this is pretty definitely the better one. - RBW] Colcord gives a tune for the chorus but says that the verses were song in a droning monotone. The chorus tune, by the way, is not "House Carpenter," which was the tune supposed for "Edward's Abdication."
Brought back from the West Indies by a Prof. Samuel E. Morison, and said to have been sung by Negro boatmen in Basse Terre, St. Kitts. - SL
Morison is, of course, the great American historian who was particularly involved in naval history. I believe he published this in one of his own books also, though I don't know which one; I'm sure I've seen the text before.
For additional information on Edward VIII and his marriage, see the notes to "Edward's Abdication." This song in addition mentions the Duke of York, Edward's brother, who became George VI (reigned 1936-1952). Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947) was Conservative Prime Minister 1923-1924, 1924-1929, and 1935-1937. The Abdication Crisis of 1936 was in some ways his finest hour; by consulting with the royal family, his own party, the opposition, and the Dominions, he found an answer everyone could accept. He resigned immediately after, leaving the post to Neville Chamberlain -- and you *know* how that turned out....
To tell this from "Edward's Abdication," consider the first few lines of text:
King Edwards:
Love, love alone, Cause King Edwards to leave the t'rone
Love, love alone, Cause King Edwards to leave the t'rone.
Edward's Abdication:
Come hearken good friends to this story so tre
Of a lord of high degree;
Concerning the love of this bonny young prince.
The King of his own countree. - RBW
File: Colc186
===
NAME: King Emanuel
DESCRIPTION: "O my king Emanuel, my Emanuel above, Sing the glory to my King Emanuel. If you want to walk the golden street, and you join the golden band, Sing glory be to my King Emanuel." The singer tells of the joys of heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 26, "King Emanuel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11979
NOTES: Allen/Ware/Garrison spell the name in this song "Emanuel" (one "m"), and I have followed this even though it has no scriptural basis; in the King James rendering of Isaiah 7:14, 8:8, it's "Immanuel," and in Matthew 1:23 we find "Emmanuel." Nor is Emmanuel ever called a king, though this usage is understandable since in Matthew 1:23 (though not the uses in Isaiah) it is taken to refer to Jesus. - RBW
File: AWG026
===
NAME: King Estmere [Child 60]
DESCRIPTION: King Estmere, aided by his brother Adler Younge, seeks to wed the daughter of King Adland. He wins her troth; at threat of losing her to rival (heathen) king of Spain, he attends the wedding in guise of a harper, kills his rival, and wins the bride.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage disguise trick royalty
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Child 60, "King Estmere" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley I, pp. 85-98, "King Estmere" (1 text)
OBB 41, "King Estmere" (1 text)
Gummere, pp. 270-279+358-359, "King Estmere" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Iona & Peter Opie, The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse, pp. 100-108, "King Estmere" (1 text)
Roud #3970
NOTES: This ballad does not exist in any proper copy. It was found in the Percy manuscript, but Percy himself tore it out, and the pages have been lost. Thus the only reference is the text printed in the _Reliques_ -- and, from Percy's comments and his patently false claim to have another copy, it seems clear that he touched that up somewhere. Nor do Percy's two editions agree entirely.
The Opies note an item mentioned in _The Complaint of Scotland_, "How the King of Estmure land married the King's daughter of Westmure land." Possibly the same story -- but who knows? It does seem to imply that "Estmere" is the "East Moor" -- i.e. the lands east of the West Moor, or Westmoreland. Which would be Northumbria or maybe Durham. - RBW
File: C060
===
NAME: King George IV's Visit to Edinburgh
DESCRIPTION: The singer's friend Pate has come to say King George has come to visit Holyrood. They think of going to see him but decide not to risk the crowd and cold but rather to stay at home, drink some more, and toast the king from home.
AUTHOR: William Lillie (source: GreigDuncan1)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: travel drink Scotland royalty
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan1 138, "King George IV's Visit to Edinburgh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5819
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The King's Visit
NOTES: GreigDuncan1: "This visit took place in August 1822." "Holyrood is the royal palace in Edinburgh"[p. 532]. - BS
The history of the joint monarchs of Great Britain was one of ignoring Scotland as much as possible. Once James I went to London, he tried to avoid ever going to Edinburgh. Charles I went to Scotland only when he had to. Charles II spent more time there when he was trying to gain the crown, but ignored it after he was restored. William III and Anne and the first three Georges all avoided a country which was far less willing to acknowledge them than was England.
The coming of George IV was therefore a fairly significant event. Commenting on the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion, Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, _Blood Royal: The Illustrious House of Hanover_ (Doubleday, 1980), p. 63, remarks that "it was the English, above all George IV, who suddenly decided that the Jacobites had been wrong, but very definitely romantic." He was actually painted wearing a tartan, and started the habit of visiting Scotland that Victoria so happily followed. - RBW
File: GrD1138
===
NAME: King Henry [Child 32]
DESCRIPTION: King Henry goes hunting and encounters a hideous woman. For courtesy he salutes her, only to find her making incredible demands -- first the flesh of his animals, and finally that he sleep with her. He does, to find her transformed into a beautiful woman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: courting sex shape-changing
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Child 32, "King Henry" (1 text)
Bronson 32, "King Henry" (1 version)
Leach, pp. 124-126, "King Henry" (1 text)
OBB 16, "King Henry" (1 text)
DBuchan 4, "King Henry" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's {#1})
DT 32, KINGHENR*
Roud #3967
File: C032
===
NAME: King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164]
DESCRIPTION: The English king sends to the French king a reminder of tribute due. The French king says our king is too young to be a threat and sends tennis balls instead. Our king takes an army, excluding married men and widows' sons, and succeeds against the French
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1832 (Nicolas); many undated manuscript copies predate this, and D'Urfey had something similar
KEYWORDS: war royalty battle
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1413 - Accession of Henry V
1415 - Henry V attacks France, captures Harfleur, and wins the Battle of Agincourt
1415-1421 - Continuing campaigns in France
1421 - Henry marries Catherine (the youngest daughter of Charles VI "the Mad," the king of France) and is declared the heir of France
1422 - Death of Henry V
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,NE,SE)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Child 164, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #6, #1}
Bronson 164, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (10 versions)
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 145-148, "King Henry the Fifth's Conquest of France" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2 a/b, although the three transcriptions are all slightly different musically}
Leach, pp. 463-466, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (2 texts)
Niles 49, "King Henry Fith's Conquest of France" (3 texts, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN305, "As our King lay musing on his bed"
DT 164, HENRYV*
Roud #251
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Agincourt Carol" (subject)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Fency King and the English King
Henry's Tribute
The Tennis Balls
NOTES: The career of Henry V marked the high point, for the English, of the Hundred Years' War. That war, fought between England and France with some participation by other countries, was a long, incredibly complex business (as you'd expect for a war that lasted from 1437 to 1453 -- though with many long periods of truce).
Because this is so complicated, I ended up with what is (as of this writing) the longest entry in the Ballad Index. I have therefore broken it up into the following sections, which you can search for if you don't want to read the whole thing (for instance, to see the names of the references cited, see the Bibliography at the end of this note). These aren't really chapters; the note is meant to be read continuously. But they may help you find the most interesting parts.
Contents:
* The Causes of the War
* The Reign of Edward III
* Strengths and Weaknesses of France and England
* Edward III, Sluys, Crecy, Poitiers, and Bretigny
* The Failure of Bretigny; Richard II and Henry IV
* The Reign of Henry V
* 1415: Harfleur and Agincourt
* The Second Invasion and Troyes: Henry the Heir of France
* The Death of Henry V and the Regency of Bedford
* Orleans
* The Death of Bedford and the Loss of France
* England After the Wars: the Overthrow of Lancaster
* The Historical Content of the Ballad
* Bibliography
>>THE CAUSES OF THE WAR<<
The Hundred Years' War started with a dispute over land. Under Henry II (reigned 1154-1189), England had controlled most of western France: Henry had inherited Normandy from his great-grandfather William the Conqueror; Anjou, Maine, and Touraine from his father Geoffrey of Anjou; and had gained Acquitaine (Guyenne and other lands) by marrying its Duchess Eleanor. He would also manage to gain working control of Brittany by marrying one of his sons to the heiress. (For a map of all this, see e.g. Ashley-Kings, p. 519.)
Over the next century and a half, those possessions were nibbled away by the French government. A large part of the problem was that, while the English King was the Duke or Count of the French territories, he still owed homage to the King of France for them. Petty nobles were always appealing to the French government for redress, and the French king often seized the land as a result. The English were usually unable to reclaim the land.
Sometimes the French captured more than just a border strip. In 1204, they recaptured the whole Duchy of Normandy in one great campaign (Harvey, p. 82). It was King John who lost the Duchy, and people said it was because he was too involved with his young wife Isabella of Angouleme -- but the real problem was that John's older brother Richard had left England bankrupt with his crusades and his temper and his ransom after he had been captured by the Austrians. (John tends to get blamed for a lot of things, these days I think mostly because of his role in the Robin Hood legends, and there is no question that he was a very violent man. Most monarchs of the time were. Many historians still condemn him as a disaster. But it seems to me that the balance has shifted somewhat: He was no worse than other kings of the time, merely much more unlucky -- his brother had left him with a lot of enemies and a lot of problems, and no money to deal with them.) Still, John's reign left England so weak that the French actually invaded -- at the time John's son Henry III was crowned, there was "no organized government, no exchequer, no royal seal. London and half the shires were held by Louis of France and the baronial rebels" (Powicke, p. 1).
Amazingly, the death of John brought most of the barons (who the year before had forced the Magna Carta upon him) back to the side of the new king. A major victory for the English at Lincoln (Powicke, pp. 9-11) and a series of smaller engagements freed England of the French invaders.
But an England distracted by invasion could hardly counter-attack in France. The French had invaded England before completing the conquest of the English territory in Gascony, but even after they were driven out of Britain, they continued to nibble away at the English property in the south of France. This continued through the reign of John's son Henry III (reigned 1216-1272). Henry III in 1258 agreed to the Treaty of Paris, in which he formally gave up his claim to Normandy, Anjou, and other northern territories, in return for being confirmed in Guyenne; he even picked up a few additional districts at the borders (Perroy, p. 61). The treaty, however, did not cause the French to stop nibbling.
The next king, the energetic Edward I (reigned 1272-1307) tried to turn things around. He stayed at peace with France for two decades (Wilkinson, p. 98), but French lawyers continued to press claims against the English domain (Wilkinson, p. 99). And, in 1294, the French king declared all English territory in France forfeit.
Edward was far the better soldier of the two monarchs; had he been fighting only the French, he might have been able to regain the territory directly (since it is believed the Gascons for the most part preferred English to French rule). But he was already fighting Wales, and the situation with Scotland was also heating up. He simply didn't have the resources to pull off all the things he was trying (Prestwich, p. 18, notes that he never found the money to complete Beaumaris Castle in Wales, and at one point apparently resorted to paying his masons with leather coin-shaped IOUs because he had not the ready coin to pay them). The three-way wars, and perhaps Edward's increasing age, seems to have left him far less able to deal with problems after about 1290 (Prestwich, pp. 26-27).
The English might have lost their foothold in France completely had not the French been badly beaten at Courtrai by the Flemings in 1302. This gave Edward the strength to negotiate things back to the situation as it had been before the confiscation (Wilkinson, pp. 101-102). Still, that left the English with only a rather precarious hold on their southern territory. (And would cause the future King Edward III to be "conditioned" to fighting with France over his holdings there; Ormrod, p. 17.)
And then came the disastrous Edward II. Most of us will know him for losing the Battle of Bannockburn, or for being deposed in 1327, but he also oversaw the loss of additional land in France. By the time his son Edward III took the throne, English possessions in France amounted to little more than a coastal strip from Bordeaux to Bayonne. (And even that had been confiscated again a few years before, and once again given back.) As Sedgwick notes on p. 23, this was only about an eighth of the original Angevin dominion. It's not really fair to blame Edward II for all the English problems -- Edward I's biggest single defect was his financial incompetence (Prestwich, p. 41), and he left the problem for Edward II to solve -- but he failed utterly to improve the situation, and he faced baronial revolts throughout his reign (Prestwich, pp. 83-85, etc.); these can only have weakened the crown.
>>THE REIGN OF EDWARD III<<<
Edward III came to power in two uncomfortable stages. After the most recent French takeover of Guyenne, Edward II had sent his wife Isabel (called the "she wolf of France"on p. 17 of Sedgwick, though Shakespeare saved that name for Margaret of Anjou, who deserved it even more; cf. 3 Henry VI I.iv.111) and his son to try to negotiate with their cousin Philip. But by letting her take their son, Edward II had given Isabel the key player in the English political situation. She scorned her husband, and the fact that she had her son meant that could stay in France until Edward II was put aside -- or she could start her own conspiracy (Prestwich, p. 96). She chose the latter, strengthening her hand by marrying Edward to Philippa of Hainault; soldiers from the Low Countries enabled her to invade England.
In 1326, when Edward III was fourteen, his mother and her lover Roger Mortimer made their move (Prestwich, p. 97). Edward II failed to respond in any useful way, and was deposed in early 1327 (Prestwich, p. 98). He was killed later in the year (Perroy, pp. 58-59). Edward III was now theoretically king, but his mother and Mortimer ran things -- with great brutality, and without much success; their attempts to fight Scotland, e.g., resulted in an unfavorable treaty in 1328 (Ormrod, p. 14).
In 1330, Edward rebelled III against his own mother, killing Mortimer and taking power into his own hands. He found himself in a very interesting situation. For one thing, he could make a very strong case that he should be King of France. France had no real succession law at this time; Perroy, p. 71, notes that for more than three centuries, every King had had sons to succeed him, so none had been needed -- the crown just naturally passed to the King's son (who often was crowned before his father died).
But that suddenly changed. The old king Philip IV "the Fair" (i.e. "Handsome," not "Just" or "Unbiased"), who had died in 1314, had had three sons. Louis X had died in 1316. He left a posthumous son who died within days and an infant daughter Joan who was set aside (Perroy, p. 72, seems to think that Joan of Navarre would have had a better chance of succeeding had it not been for the brief life of John the Posthumous, since there would have been no chance for people to sit around waiting). Louis's brother Philip V, who perhaps used the time between the old king's death and the baby's birth to improve his position, reigned 1316-1322. There had been some dissatisfaction when he succeeded (Perroy, p. 73), but when he died, leaving only daughters, the throne apparently went to his brother Charles without serious protest. Charles IV reigned 1322-1328 and left one daughter and a pregnant wife (Perroy, p. 74). The child was a daughter, and based on the recent precedents, was set aside.
In better times, the Pope might have intervened at this point. But the Papacy was under the French thumb. Philip the Fair had actually called a Pope to stand before a church council (Renouard, p. 13), and since 1305 the Popes had resided at Avignon, and were all French (Renouard, p. 15). Not all Avignon popes were entirely worthless, as is sometimes claimed; Urban V would eventually be sainted (Renouard, p. 55). But the French king definitely was in a position to pressure them (Dante, in fact, called the early popes of this period the French king's "whore"; Saunders, p. 35. Another wit of the time called Avignon a "bawdy house"; Sedgwick, p. 22. On pp. 123-124, Saunders notes an instance where Urban V was forced to deny Edward III's son Edmund a dispensation to marry a rather distant cousin because the French feared the match). It was not until 1365, when England and France were theoretically at peace, that the Pope decided to go back to Rome (Renouard, p. 58), and it didn't arrive until 1367, and even then, much of the administration was left in Avignon (Renouard, p. 60).
It is deeply ironic that this Papal ineffectiveness came about because the Pope elected in 1305, Clement V, was a Gascon who truly wanted peace between France and England; Renouard, p. 20. But Clement V -- who had helped arrange the marriage of Edward II to Isabella of France; Renouard, p. 21 -- died in 1314. And his successor, though he thought about returning to Rome, was comfortable in Avignon and feared the political situation in Italy (Renouard, pp. 27-28). (This was the political situation underlying Dante's _Divine Comedy_, which, if you study Dante, you will know was extremely unsettled). The next Pope, Benedict XII, decided it was time to build a palace in Avignon (Renouard, p. 41), and the Pope after that, Clement VI, built an even fancier dwelling, and that was that. For much of the war, there simply was no impartial pope to mediate. Benedict XII was still Pope when the Hundred Years' War started, and though Renouard declares he had "fundamental good sense," few of the other authors I've read think much of him. And Innocent VI, who succeeded Clement VI in 1352, had so many burdens due to demands by the cardinals and the poverty caused by Clement VI's excesses that he could do nothing (Renouard, p. 49).
This was the situation when Charles IV died. With his daughter out of the running, there were three candidates left for the crown of France. One was Isabel, the sister of Louis X, Philip V, and Charles IV -- or, if the French insisted on a male king but would allow succession in the female line, her son Edward III. A second possibility was Count Philip of Evreuex, who was himself of the French royal family (he was the son of Philip the Fair's younger half-brother Louis) and who by this time had married Joan of Navarre, the daughter of Louis X (in later centuries, they might have been proclaimed joint monarchs, like William and Mary or Ferdinand and Isabella, but that apparently never occurred to anyone). The third candidate was Philip of Valois, the son of Philip the Fair's full brother Charles of Valois and hence the first cousin of the three recently deceased royal brothers (Perroy, p. 74).
Perroy notes that Philip of Valois, already the regent of France, was an adult, of known competence and no great moral disqualifications, and he was the senior prince to be descended from Philip III entirely in male line. In contrast, Isabel (who had shown up in France in 1325 with her lover Mortimer) was regarded as an appalling degenerate; Edward her son was still very young; and Philip of Evreuex was also young and also had a questionable character.
It was an odd situation. If one ignored Joan, the daughter of Louis X (which everyone did, since she was only a little more than twelve years old and at this time had no supporters though she did became Queen of Navarre; in any case, she had *already* been passed over), then under English law, which permitted succession in the female line; Isabel was the rightful Queen of France and Edward her heir. The French, however, managed to dig up a law -- the so-called "Salic Law" -- that said that the throne of France could only be passed on through a male line (no one really believed this law was relevant, but the French didn't want an English king, and to they used what came to hand). 
(We might note that Joan of Navarre ended up with a really raw deal. Apart from being the legitimate Queen of France, she was Queen of Navarre, Countess of Champagne, and overlord of Brie. She was eventually allowed to succeed in Navarre, but only after the French monarchy had enjoyed it its revenue for some time, and she never got the French counties, since they were traded off for lesser lands; Perroy, pp. 80-81. In the end, this was to hurt the Valois monarch, since the heirs of Navarre would often side with the English; Joan's son Charles the Bad was truly a thorn in the French side until finally suppressed; Perroy, pp. 127-129.)
Guerard, p. 100, sums up what happened after Charles IV died: "For the third time the king had no son. The rule adopted in 1316 was applied: women could not inherit the throne, nor transmit rights which never were theirs. So a cousin of the late three kings, Philip of Valois, received the crown instead of their nephew, soon to be Edward III of England. The decision was neither absurd nor inevitable. Authority was still linked with leadership in battle, but on the other hand, women, like Eleanor [of Acquitaine], had been suffered to inherit vast feudal domains. To give this practice the prestige of antiquity, it was later called 'the Salic Law." But the French royal house had forgotten for many centuries that there ever were Salian Franks." (So much so that I've head the name "Salic Law" linked with laws governing salt. Butler, p. 14, goes so far as to declare the whole thing an invention).
Perroy, p. 71, notes that every other fief in France could pass in female line, and that the French even had rules for how female vassals could meet military obligations to their feudal overlords. But he adds that the French nobility universally accepted the accession of Philip of Valois (p. 76).
Keen, p. 245, thinks that the fact that Edward III was still a minor was significant; the French didn't want an underage King.
(Incidentally, there is a folkloric twist to the tale of the deaths of the last French kings of the Capetian line, according to Barker, pp. 12-13. Philip IV had plundered the Knights Templar, on the grounds that they were no longer defending the Temple, long lost to the Saracens -- accurate as far as it went, but it should have been the Pope's decision. Philip seized their rich treasury, and covered it up with confessions under torture. He eventually had the Grand Master of the Temple, Jacques de Molay, burned as a relapsed heretic -- relapsed because he denied a confession given under torture! De Molay cursed the Pope, Philip, and Philip's descendents. The Pope and Philip of course died, and Philip's male line died out, and the female lines never regained the throne of France.)
Despite his disappointment, Edward might have accepted the French decision regarding the kingship if he had been treated fairly -- in his early weakness, he actually paid homage to Philip VI in 1329 for his territory in Guyenne (Seward, p. 24). For a time, Edward even considered going on crusade with Philip (Perroy, p. 88). Perroy, pp. 84-85, sums up the situation in 1330 as follows: "So it had taken no more than three years for the diplomacy of the Valois, again, employing all the [bullying] methods used by the last Capetians and covering all the tracks already beaten by them, to win a victory of the highest importance over their Gascon vassal. Edward's homage at Amiens, and his subsequent declaration which put it on the same footing as liege homage, would seem to have set aside the dynastic pretensions of the Plantagenets forever. Beaten in every round of this close conflict, Edward was back in a position more humiliating than ever in relation to his suzerain. Acquitaine remained diminished by a partial occupation and weakened by the greater subjection of its duke to the French monarchy."
Several false moves changed Edward's attitude toward Philip. Edward had taken all he was going to take in France. He had unwillingly offered homage, but he had his own terms -- he wanted to keep what he had; no more French nibbling at the border! The French had never really restored what they took from Edward II in 1325, leaving Guyenne far too small to be defensible. But Philip not only kept up the pressure, he even opened up a sort of second front by demanding that the Scots would be part of any peace (Perroy, pp. 87-88). Edward, who was as tired of fighting the Scots as he was of being cheated by the French, was in the process of trying to put Edward Balliol on the Scots throne (Ormrod, p. 18), and he wanted a free hand against them.
Edward, tired of shooting at a moving target, promptly started working on building a coalition against France. Parliament voted him subsidies for war in 1336 (Perroy, p. 91). Negotiations were still going on, mediated by the Pope, but the Pope was trying so hard to prevent war that he actually made it harder for the participants to address the real issues. Perroy, p. 90, says that "From December 1334 onwards, the policy of Benedict XII ended by precipitating the conflict which it aimed at avoiding." The crisis of 1336 came about because it appeared that Philip would be sending reinforcements to Scotland, now in desperate straits in its war against Edward.
A peaceful resolution became impossible in 1337; in that year, the French once again declared Guyenne forfeit to the French crown (Seward, p. 35; Ashley-GB, p. 130; Barker, p. 12). Perroy, p. 66, suspects this may have been simply another dodge used by the French to bring the English to heel; after all, it had worked twice before in the reigns of the last two kings! But, Perroy notes, both Edward I and Edward II had been distracted. What the French had really accomplished was to convince the English that they wanted to retake Guyenne. And Edward III didn't have to take this as tamely as his predecessors; he was not distracted, as Edward I had been in 1294, or facing revolt, as Edward II had in 1324. Edward therefore declared war on his first cousin once removed.
The war which followed was not expected to last long (indeed, both parties thought they had ended it in 1360). They didn't even get down to serious fighting immediately. In this whole first phase of the war, there were only three major battles. 
Although Hundred Years War is generally held to have lasted 116 years (1337-1453), the serious periods of combat were only 1337-1360, 1414-1436, and 1449-1453. The reigns of Richard II (1377-1399) and Henry IV (1399-1413) were especially quiet. Some have proposed to split the war into three conflicts, called something like the "Crecy War" (1337-1460),  the "Agincourt War" (1415-1422),  and the "Reconquest." There is some validity to this (especially since 1453 did not actually end the English attempts to invade -- Edward IV and Henry VIII also mounted invasions). But the whole conflict from 1337 to 1453 was all about the same two issues: Who would control Gascony, and what would be the English King's relationship with the French. Edward III, in starting the war, probably wanted simply to get full control of Gascony, without having to answer to the French king.
Interestingly, though Edward had earlier stopped treated Philip as King of France (Perroy, p. 93), it wasn't until 1340 that Edward formally claimed the throne of France -- presumably partly as a bargaining chip, but mostly to make it possible for the Flemish to ally with him (Burne, p. 51). The cities of Flanders officially acknowledged the French King as their suzerain, so rebelling against Philip would have caused them to be punished by the Church. But once Edward claimed to be King of France, the Flemish could acknowledge *him* and be free from those sanctions. Of course, they would still have to face French wrath if the French won....
Edward probably never expected to become the actual King of France; indeed, when he dictated something approaching a victor's peace in 1360, he asked for far less. But he had made his claim (and the Kings of England would in fact continue to call themselves Kings of France for centuries), and that started a chain of events that would take half a century to work out.
>>STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND<<
The French actually had one advantage over what they had had in the time of Edward I: France was a more united country, meaning that the French could bring more pressure to bear. And France had a far larger population base than England -- at least three times the total population (Perroy, p. 51). Even more important, it had greater financial resources, meaning a greater ability to pay an army (Edward III, who had to keep his army together long enough to gather, invade, fight, and come home, repeatedly went bankrupt, and even drove his bankers bankrupt; Seward, p. 33. Renouard, p. 44, notes that between 1342 and 1346, the majority of Florentine banking firms -- the source of credit to all of Europe -- crashed. England's population was large enough to supply plenty of soldiers, but unless Edward could pay them, they wouldn't fight. It is interesting, though futile, to speculate how much of the economic crisis of 1348-1350 was due to the Black Death and how much due to the collapse of international credit).
But Edward III had at least *six* advantages over his grandfather for the contest with the French.
One of them was, in fact, the result of Edward I's own campaigns. Wales was now firmly in English hands. There was no possibility at all that Edward III would be seriously distracted by the Welsh -- indeed, he would have some Welshmen in the armies he took to France, and derived at least a little revenue from Wales.
Second, Edward did not have to worry too much about the Scots. He had loosed Edward Balliol upon them as a shadow king, causing several years of civil war (Magnusson, pp. 197-198). When the Scots had invaded England in 1333, Edward III faced then in his first great battle, at Halidon Hill. It was a complete English victory (Magnusson, pp. 198-199), which in fact set the pattern for the later battles of Crecy and Agincourt. Scotland was devastated. They did not manage another serious attack on the English until Neville's Cross in 1346. And even in 1346, Edward III didn't even have to show up in the north.
Third, the French, though they had money, found it almost impossible to collect. Their tax system was incoherent. The French monarchy had spent years devaluing its coinage, making it almost impossible to value or spend. By the time of the Agincourt campaigns, it was little more than pot metal (Perroy observes on p. 127 that the currency was devalued 70% in *just six years* after Crecy! Butler, p. 44, says that there were 64 devaluations under Philip VI, 104 under Jean II, and 41 under Charles V, though how this is possible is beyond me, and adds on p. 62 that there were times when no one would accept *any* money because they didn't know what the coins would be worth. Prestwich, p. 170, notes that one of the things Edward III had promised if he became King of France was a stable currency).
The British, though they too had trouble raising money, at least had a meaningful coinage which did not decline significantly over the years (Perroy, p. 124, argues that lack of finances was the chief reason the war lasted so long: Both sides had more big ideas than they had cash); Perroy, p. 56, says that "after a century of exhausting war [the pound] had not been devalued by more than 20 per cent." (The English did, however, play around with the French coinage -- Butler, p. 44 -- though some of this is the fault of Burgundians.)
Fourth, Edward had a new way of raising armies, and new tactics for the army raised. The new tactic was the _chevauchee_, the plundering raid (Seward, p. 28). It was the ancestor of Sherman's March to the Sea: A fast-moving force doing as much destruction as possible. (Walsingham summed up one of Edward III's _chevauchees_ with the Caesaresque, "Cepit, spoliavit, combussit" -- "he came, he despoiled, he burned"; Sedgwick, p. 36.) It could inflict extreme economic damage and spread great misery, though it could not defeat an enemy outright. He also had the contract ("indenture") system for raising troops.
Historians have called indentures the most significant military development of the Middle Ages (Burne, p. 31). In the old days, the King called on his retainers to bring out their servants for brief military service (a system that went back to Anglo-Saxon times); the result was often to bring out a useless, unarmed rabble -- villages would often send the men for whom they had the least use (Prestwich, pp. 63-66). Edward I had first experimented with paying soldiers to serve, and by the time Edward III took the throne, this was the standard method. It cost dearly -- it was the single biggest reason why Edward III was constantly broke -- but it brought in solid armies. They were also more disciplined, according to Burne, p. 35; a man who has to give satisfaction if he wants to be paid has to obey orders. It was not a true standing army (the French would in fact invent that later in the war), but it was closer to a professional army than anything which had existed to that time (Featherstone, p. 36).
Plus, because declines in the power of the aristocracy and the failure of some families, Edward was able to appoint more "professional" commanders -- Prestwich, p. 190, notes that Edward was able to appoint his own Marshal and Constable of England, instead of having the offices handed down by heredity. The French, by contrast, still had hereditary high officers. It is unlikely that they could have employed men such as the brilliant knights Thomas Dagworth, John Chandos, and Walter Mauny in such high posts as Edward did.
Edward also could call out men the French would never have dared to employ. Many of his soldiers were convicts given conditional pardons in return for service (Prestwich, p. 193). John Hawkwood himself was seemingly one of these; in 1350-1351, we find records of him brutally attacking a man, and soon after he was charged with stealing a horse (Saunders, p. 46). A Frenchman guilty of the sorts of crimes these men committed would likely have deserted. An Englishman in France would be less likely to do so, since he was far from home -- and even if he did desert, he would probably start preying on the French, making him a de facto ally even if not part of the army.
Fifth, Edward had the sympathy of the people of the Low Countries, many of whom were technically subject to the French but whose industries depended on English wool. Edward was to use this as something of an economic lever, selling wool to the counties that were on his side and denying it to the pro-French areas (Perroy, p. 95). This proved a mixed blessing, however, since it put the English wool production system into a severe recession -- and Edward depended on that revenue.
Edward's biggest advantage, in any case, was the longbow.
Oh, Edward I had had longbowmen, too, but not as many (indeed, the Welsh invented the longbow, so they potentially had the advantage against him -- except they never used it). By Edward III's time, practice with the bow was mandatory for the lower classes. So Edward III could assemble much larger, better armies of bowmen.
Today we tend to sneer at any weapon of the pre-firearms era. We should not. The longbow (and oriental composite bow) were the best weapons known to man until the mid-nineteenth century, when the Minie bullet made relatively rapid-fire rifled guns possible. (Indeed, Featherstone, p. 177, lists several authors who argued the English should give up arquebuses and other early firearms and return to longbows. On pp. 189-191, he actually details a case of a longbow being used in World War II!) A longbow, in the hands of a trained archer, had a greater range than a smoothbore musket, and greater accuracy than a musket, and a higher rate of fire than a musket -- a brilliant musketeer might get off five shots in two minutes, and the average would have been somewhat less than four. In two minutes, a truly excellent archer could get off more than a dozen arrows.
Prestwich, p. 70, describes the bow as follows: "[T]he classic longbow was two ells in length, or about seven feet six inches... was the thickness of four thumbs, and fired a 'clotharrow' a yard long.... It is likely that the heaviest bows had a range of up to four hundred yards, though real accuracy was unlikely beyond two hundred. A rate of fire of ten flights per minute was possible; a constantly reiterated simile of fourteenth century chroniclers is that arrows fell like snow on the battlefield; but, unlike snow, arrows produced a terrifying noise." It has been estimated that perhaps half a million arrows were shot at Crecy (Saunders, p. 3). We don't know just how much time the archers spent firing at that battle, but if we assume 20 French charges (higher than any estimate I've seen), and that the attackers were in range for four minutes per charge (which is also mathematically high), that would mean that, during the charges, a hundred arrows landing per second. Even if all they did was stick up in the dirt, they would he a fair obstacle to the attackers!
Burne, p. 28, gives slightly different statistics: "The longbow could be discharged six times a minute: It had an effective range of 250 yards and an extreme range of about 350 yards." Featherstone, p. 40, gives identical numbers, but elsewhere claims that there are instances on record of a bowshot travelling a third of a mile, although these were unaimed shafts fired solely for distance. (And I frankly don't believe it. Saunders, p. 62, says that trained twentieth century archers "achieved a range of 180-200 yards," though to be sure they did not grow up with the bow.) Seward, p. 53, says bowmen "could shoot ten or even twelve [arrows] a minute, literally darkening the sky, and had a fighting range of over 150 yards with a plate-armour-piercing range of about sixty." Barker, p. 88, states that the bows of the period had an astonishing pull of 150-160 pounds, giving them a range of about 240 yards, though Featherstone, p. 61, claims the standard pull was 100 pounds, which matches what I have read elsewhere. Jarman, pp. 73-74, makes perhaps the most extreme claim: that the bow could pierce chain mail at 275 yards! Ross, p. 111, believes the "effective" range to have been 165 yards with a rate of fire of 10-12 arrows per minute.
(Some of those range citations may actually be inspired by Shakespeare; in Henry IV, Part 2, Act III, scene ii, about line 45, Shallow claims that an archer named "Double" could shoot direct fire to a range of 280-290 yards, while implying a normal archer could shoot 240 yards. Of course, any data on anything taken from Shakespeare should be viewed with extreme suspicion. All of this is hard to prove, since no longbows of the Agincourt era have survived, according to Featherstone, p. 59. Bows eventually wore out, after all -- plus, since the best bows were made of imported yew, the supply was somewhat limited; Featherstone, p. 62. The Yorkist kings, in fact, passed laws forcing importers to bring them bowstaves; Featherstone, p. 64. Other differences in the figures may be attributed partly to the fact that different archers had different abilities, plus the fact that an arrow can be fired on either a straight or a falling trajectory, with the latter having much greater range but far less accuracy. Also there was the question of how much damage it was supposed to do when it arrived. Though national feeling also seems to have caused different assessments -- the one French historian I've studied, Perroy, claims on p. 97 that the longbow was not especially accurate and that it had a rate of fire only three times that of a crossbow -- Prestwich, p. 198, says by contrast that the longbow could fire five times as fast. Featherstone says it fired four times as fast.)
Different arrows may also play a part; Barker, p. 86, notes that there were two standard types of arrows in use by the time of Agincourt. One had a longer shaft of a lightweight wood, with a leafed or barbed head that was hard to extract; the other, designed to penetrate plate, had a shorter, lighter arrow with a "bodkin point" that was extremely sharp, with a narrow point, for maximum penetration. Barker states that this sort of arrow could pierce plate at 150 yards, though it will be evident that it would not be as stable in flight and so was less likely to hit. Featherstone, p. 48, quotes a contemporary account which describes a sheaf of arrows as containing two-thirds heavy and one-third light shafts; the latter of course did less damage but could be fired farther.
A clothyard arrow could go six inches into the flesh, and the barbed head made extraction difficult (Saunders, pp. 4-5). Such wounds were very difficult to treat using fourteenth century techniques.
To put this in perspective: Keegan, p. 95, estimates that a knight on a trained destrier could charge at 12 to 15 miles per hour. Let's use 15. That's 26400 yards per hour, or 440 yards per minute. If a bowman could begin firing at 150 yards, and could fire eight arrows per minute, then he could get off three arrows while the knight was charging him, and the last one at least could pierce armor. If he could keep calm, he could certainly stop any individual knight charging him -- and, because bowmen could stand closer together than knights on horseback, there would typically be two to four archers firing at each horseman. The longbow was about as close as the fourteenth century came to a terror weapon -- especially against horsemen; although  a clothyard arrow could not at long range penetrate plate mail (which was becoming common by the time of Crecy, and was almost universally used by the time of Agincourt), it could bring down a horse, and if a charging horse fell, it was just about sure to knock out the rider as well. And, in the crush, a man who fell to the ground was likely to suffocate or be killed by the pressure (Saunders, p. 3).
Edward III seems to have made his archers even more effective by mounting them. They still fought on foot, just like his knights -- but they were mobile while on campaign. This gave him much more operational flexibility.
And the longbow was exclusively English. The French had none. They did have archers -- crossbowmen. A crossbow was in many ways an easier weapon than a longbow; it gave the arrow a higher initial velocity than a longbow, so a crossbowman could aim straight at the target; no fancy training about angles-of-flight needed. That higher velocity also meant that it had somewhat longer range in the hands of a true expert. But it took the better part  of a minute to crank it up to prepare to fire the thing. (Seward, p. 55, says that an expert could fire four quarrels per minute. It would have taken an exceptional expert; Barker is more nearly correct when she says on p. 87 that the standard was two shots per minute -- after all, the thing had to be loaded, then aimed. A good longbowman could load and aim in one gesture. Plus crossbows were heavy and complex enough to break down fairly frequently. A longbow, being just a well-shaped piece of wood and a string, didn't have nearly as many parts that could go wrong, though it did need maintenance to retain its strength.)
A crossbowman faced with longbowmen would rarely get off a first shot; he almost never got off a second shot. And while a crossbowman didn't require as much training as a longbowman, he required some, so the French couldn't just overwhelm the English with numbers. On a man-for-man basis, longbowmen remained the most deadly soldiers in the world until the nineteenth century. (Well, apart from artillerymen, anyway.) The English lost the Hundred Years War primarily because the French eventually managed to develop a useful individual firearm. It didn't make French men-at-arms equal to English longbowmen -- but it was easy enough to use that the French could finally give all their soldiers a weapon that could hit at a distance. The English could not match that; a good longbowman had to be trained from birth (Burne, p. 220n, claims that one can still see the marks on some church walls where archers sharpened their arrows on their way to Sunday archery practice), and needed to be physically strong as well.
>>EDWARD III, SLUYS, CRECY, POITIERS, AND BRETIGNY<<
Edward III's war, as mentioned, involved three major battles. He had hoped for more, but the first phase of the war, from 1337-1341, was a complete failure on land. Edward and his Flemish allies were constantly chasing around in Flanders and northern France, but they accomplished little. The French usually had an army in the vicinity, but it consistently refused to fight -- e.g. Burne, p. 45, notes an instance early in the war where French and English armies were only twelve miles apart, but the French avoided battle; on pp. 47-49 we hear of the French and English actually coming to a battlefield, but the French still refusing to fight -- and the English couldn't go on the offensive because all their allies quit.
Gradually Edward started trusting more in his own nation and less in the allies. By 1341, his grand coalition in Flanders had dissolved and he had lost his appointment in the Holy Roman Empire (Burne, p. 63). Meanwhile, Edward was firing his ministers at home because they hadn't come up with the money he needed to keep paying off his allies. (Perroy, p. 96, remarks, "In May 1337, th[e English] set up at Valenciennes a regular market for alliances, which were bought for hard cash. It cost a great deal, for the princes of the Empire were grasping." Buying them off in fact drove Edward to bankruptcy and destroyed his bankers -- Edward's third son was called John of Gaunt because he was born in Ghent (=Gaunt). And he was born there, rather than in England, because Edward had had to leave his wife in Ghent as security for what he owed the various lords in the low countries; Perroy, p. 105.)
So high were the taxes that they must have severely damaged the English economy (Ormrod, p. 20, details the exactions made in this period -- and on p. 22 notes that Edward still spent more than he was able to collect). The French were planning invasion, and had they managed it, I suspect an exhausted England would have fallen. Ormrod, p. 24, compares the situation in 1340 to that under Edward II, implying that he thinks Edward III was in danger of deposition. In 1344, a parliament called for an end to the war, though they covered it by asking that the end be by "battle or an honorable peace" (Sedgwick, p. 28).
Yet Edward actually did better on his own than when he had with the support of the Flemish. The first big fight of the war was the naval battle of Sluys, in 1340. The English fleet attacked the fleets of their enemies at anchor off Flanders, inflicting tremendous damage and ending the threat of a French invasion (Seward, pp. 43-46; Burne believes that the English captured 190 ships, though there are no accurate estimates of casualties). The French still had enough ships to raid England, but England was now clearly stronger at sea. Edward then took the army that had won at Sluys into the Low Countries -- where it accomplished nothing. Perroy, p. 113, comments that "the period of great enterprises seemed over." On the face of it, Edward had lost the Hundred Years War after only three years.
Luckily for him, he managed to find a way to redirect the war. A succession crisis in the County of Brittany let England open a new front (Ormrod p. 26, calls this the "provincial strategy" -- ironically, something rather like it would be used against the English when they were on the defensive). When Duke John III died, the French recognized his niece Joan as heir (Burne, p. 66. This was proper under English law, since Joan was the son of John's younger full brother). The English responded by supporting John, the half-brother of the dead Duke (Burne, p. 67, notes the irony that the French followed the English law of inheritance, while the English supported the candidate who was the heir if women were excluded -- thus reversing their positions with regard to the throne of France). Joan, who in addition to being female was apparently not physically sound (she was called "Joan the Lame"; Perroy, p. 114), could not entirely control the duchy. Brittany ended up in chaos -- the civil war became deadly serious in 1342 -- and the English were able to exploit to their own ends (Prestwich, p. 174). It didn't really do much to damage the French monarchy, but it let the English practice their tactics at a price they could afford.
By 1345, Edward was planning a fight on many fronts (Ormrod, p. 26). The French tried to counter by inciting the Scots to attack England -- but Edward III didn't let that distract him. The 1346 campaigns opened on the already active battlefields of Brittany and Guyenne, where his deputies Sir Thomas Dagworth and Henry Earl of Lancaster (often called the Earl of Derby at this time, because his father was still alive and held the Lancastrian titlewhen the campaign began) had been perfecting the English tactics for archers and men-at-arms. Derby in particular was absolutely brilliant, winning several battles against extreme odds and regaining much land for the English (Burne, pp. 101-117; Burne concludes on page 128 that Derby should be considered one of England's great captains and laments that he is so nearly forgotten).
Those campaigns offered a real opening for Edward III, because the French sent all their troops to defend those fronts (Burne, p. 120). The rest of the country was almost completely undefended. And Edward III in 1346 mounted the first all-English invasion of the war -- and did it amphibiously, landing on the almost-undefended coast of Normandy (Prestwich, p. 176). This was a brilliant success, since Edward had no opposition in Normandy but the French response lessened the pressure on other fronts. Edward did a massive amount of damage to the Norman countryside (Sedgwick, pp. 35-37). He sacked Caen (Prestwich, p. 177), which had been at peace for so long that its defences were almost useless (Sumption, p. 507) but which nonetheless defied him because part of it was protected by rivers and a castle (Burne, pp. 144-145). He made a feint at Paris itself (Seward, p. 60; Burne, p. 150, thinks that this was forced upon him because he had to get across the Seine, and the one major crossing-place near his path, at Rouen, was too strongly defended, so he had to go upstream. He then rebuilt a bridge under the French noses by distracting them with small raids; Burne, p. 152). It was this army which beat the French decisively at Crecy, and which went on to capture Calais.
At first glance, the English seemed to be in great danger at Crecy. They were far from their bases, and had had much difficulty crossing the Seine and the Somme (Seward, p. 60). His army was nearly worn out, and needed rest. This was probably why Edward fought at Crecy rather than continuing to Flanders (Seward, p. 61), though Sedgwick, pp. 44-45, quotes Froissart's explanation that Crecy was in Ponthieu, a territory which belonged to Edward; supposedly Edward didn't want the French invading it..
Seward, p. 61, estimates that the English at this time had about 11,000 men -- 7000 archers, 2000 men-at-arms, and 2000 miscellaneous others. Sumption, p. 497, estimates that the ships which took his army to France had a capacity of 7,000 to 10,000, and believes that over half were archers. Perroy, also based on the capacity of the ships, argued for 8,000 riders (including both men-at-arms and mounted archers) plus 2,000 infantry. Burne, p. 138, agrees with Seward's figure of 2000 men-at-arms but estimates the whole invasion force at 15,000; on p. 167 he gives the even more amazing figure of 16,500 (neither of which I find credible, even though he too uses the shipping-capacity method of calculation to cross-check his figures); allowing for losses along the way, he argues for 12,000 to 13,000 Englishmen at Crecy (p. 170). Sedgwick, p. 33, by estimating the size of the entourage of the "typical" nobleman, thinks Edward started with 20,000 men, and on p. 47 says he had 18,900 at Crecy. On p. 284 he lists some other historians' estimates: 18,900 or 19,000 or even 25,000 -- but these are patently impossible; there would have been no way to feed them; clearly these people were paying too much attention to Froissart.
We have very little knowledge of French numbers, since of course no fleet transported it and it was not a contract army in the same way as the English. One French historian, according to Burne, p. 186, actually estimated that they were fewer than the English (i.e. not even 9000 men). But just the casualty count makes this extremely unlikely, and almost every other authority accepts that the French had superior numbers; the only question is *how* superior. Burne himself, p. 176, admits he is guessing when he gives its numbers at 40,000; he seems more confident in estimating that it outnumbered the English by three to one or more. Seward, p. 63, estimates the French army at about 30,000, of whom 20,000 were men-at-arms. Sedgwick, p. 50, again has the highest total, guessing 30,000 to 60,000. However, these forces straggled up during the battle, so it would never have been possible for the French to attack with their entire strength.
Edward had chosen an excellent position, on a slight rise, with a wood and small river to guard his right flank. And the French, it appears, would have had to march all the way across his front to attack his left flank, so that was probably safe too, at least in practice, though the only defensive feature was a small hamlet.
That French straggling added to their troubles. King Philip wanted to halt, sort out the troops, and attack the next day (Burne, p. 177). But the army was restless, and were coming up so fast that the ones in the rear were pushing forward the soldiers who had arrived first; finally, around evening, he gave the order to attack.
First to go in were the French (properly Genoese) crossbowmen -- who promptly learned that an army of longbowmen could demolish an army of crossbowmen. Especially since the situation meant that they had to deploy and then change the angle of their line before attacking -- a difficult maneuver indeed under the circumstances (Burne, p. 178). To top it all off, their shields and most of their bolts were still with the baggage, and their bowstrings may have been wet (Sedgwick, pp. 52-53). Seward, p. 63, speculates that the crossbowmen may have been routed within a minute. And their rout caused the first line of French chivalry to charge (Burne, p. 180, thinks the knights thought the crossbowmen cowards, and were actually attacking their own troops), and the horsemen were just as thoroughly massacred.
In the end, the French knights may have mounted as many as fifteen charges (Seward, p. 66; Burne, p. 177), lasting well into the night. Unfortunately for them, the charges were not continuous, letting the English gather the arrows needed to halt the next attack (Burne, p. 182). One did make it among the English men-at-arms, forcing the young Prince Edward and his guard to fight, but most were broken up by the archers. The blind king of Bohemia was killed (in an extreme case of chivalric stupidity, he had insisted on charging the English even though he couldn't see them!), and Philip of France suffered an arrow wound and lost a horse. The French army was all but destroyed -- Burne, p. 181, says 1500 knights were lost just on the part of the line in front of the Prince of Wales and reports on p. 184 that the English army claimed to have found 1542 bodies of knights and men-at-arms; he makes what he admits is a very rough estimate of 10,000 "communes" killed. Seward, p. 67, seems to be following these figures; he guesses French losses at more than 10,000, including 1,500 lords and knights. Perroy, p. 119, gives no numbers and names only a few names but says that the "flower of the French nobility" was destroyed.
As Sedgwick says on p. 56, "The victory was won by the English archers, but the primal cause was the disorder in the French army, for French bravery was as conspicuous as ever."
Burne, p. 183, and Sedgwick, pp. 56-57, observe that King Philip had lost his brother, his brother-in-law, and his nephew.
(Crecy incidentally is considered to be the first battle at which artillery was used, though it is not thought to have made any real difference; Burne, p. 28; rates of fire were low and accuracy was pitiful. Barker, p. 90, notes that, as late as Agincourt, a gunner who managed to hit three targets in the course of a day was suspected of having made a pact with the devil!)
The biggest effect of Crecy was to show that the English, who until then had not been considered very good soldiers, were now some of the best in the world. The longbow had completely changed the military equation. Some historians have argued that Edward should have attacked Paris at that time -- but, as Burne, p. 205, points out, Edward probably did not realize the completeness of his victory, and in any case was running out of supplies; he needed to get back in touch with his fleet (though Burne, pp. 206-207, also argues that Edward should have tried to capture Paris). But not even Edward III had that much daring. Hence the decision to head for the coast and besiege Calais.
The moral effect of Crecy was quickly seen. The French in early 1347 brought up a relieving army -- but were afraid to fight another battle (Prestwich, pp. 178-179; Perroy, p. 120, says that Philip of Valois "seemed to have lost all energy"; Burne, pp. 214-215, says that Philip assembled 50,000 men but messed up his negotiations with the Flemings and then stuck himself in a strategically untenable spot and had to retreat). Calais was strong enough that Saul, p. 9, estimates that half the English nobles and knights eventually took part in the siege, and even so, the defenders held out until 1347. But Edward had the answer to the usual problems of a siege; he built a town for his own soldiers, to keep them safe from disease (Burne, p. 210). Calais eventually had to capitulate, with the entire French population being forced to leave, replaced by English settlers (Seward, p. 70). Calais would remain in English hands for more than two centuries -- indeed, for a full century after every other French possession was lost.
In the aftermath, Edward III would found the famous Order of the Garter, mostly of veterans of Crecy (Sedgwick, pp. 78-79, though he omits the rather tawdry story of why it was given the name it did -- most accounts say that Edward III picked up a garter dropped by Joan "the Fair Maid of Kent," and when questioned about why he was so quick to pick up a garter from a woman not his wife, said "Hone suit qui mal y pense," which is usually translated, rather loosely, "Evil to the one whom evil thinks." Joan seems to have had quite a collection of suitors, according to Sedgwick, p. 82, and others; the Earl of Salisbury and Sir Thomas Holland fought over her; the Black Prince married her after Holland died, and supposedly Edward III wanted her himself). The order endures to this day, and is still considered one of the most exclusive orders of knighthood.
The French in 1347 tried to plan a counterattack (Perroy, p. 121). They prepared an army, and also induced the Scots to attack northern England. That proved a fiasco; Edward didn't even have to send a senior noble to fight them. The Scots were defeated at Neville's Cross, and King David was captured in the process (Burne, p. 218; Seward, p. 69; Magnusson, pp. 202-204). The Scots, for almost a decade, were out of the war.
Before the French could come into action, the Black Death struck, reducing the population of both France and England dramatically. In France, both the King's wife and the dauphin's wife died. The English royal family fared better -- Edward III and all of his sons lived. But one of his daughters died, and so of course did many ordinary people (Sedgwick, p. 86). That, and lack of money, meant that the English could do little for the next few years. The French in turn were incapacitated by the plague, lack of money -- and the death of Philip of Valois in 1450. (Seward, p. 74, and Perroy, p. 107, make the ironic note that, despite being accounted a failure, Philip had actually enlarged France -- though he lost some ground in the west, he managed to gain much in the east.)
The Plague hit both countries hard; lands went vacant, buildings fell into decay, food production dropped. The governments on both sides of the channel saw their tax revenues decline dramatically. But England recovered somewhat faster -- with its lower population, it may have suffered less in the first place, and it also had the advantage that there were no "Free Companies" of brigands ("routiers") laying the nation waste (Perroy, p. 123; Seward, p. 105).
The war was quiet from 1350 to about 1355 (Seward, p. 78, though Burne, p. 224 notes that there were plenty of skirmishes; he points out on p. 230 that Sir Thomas Dagworth was killed at this time and on pp. 233-234 mentions English attempts to add to their property around Calais; it's just that there were no major campaigns). There was even a provisional peace made in 1354 (one which, amazingly, gave the English more than they would gain in 1360; Perroy, p. 129). But it collapsed when the French realized what they were giving up, and by the mid-1350s, the English were again leading armies in France. 1355 was supposed to bring a three-front campaign (Burne, p. 246), but the front in Normandy collapsed when Charles the Bad of Navarre changed sides. Edward III's campaign from Calais was aborted by a Scottish raid which caused him to return home (Burne, p. 248. Edward went on to pillage Edinburgh -- the so-called "Burnt Candlemass"; Burne, p. 250 -- but that brought him no closer to defeating France).
That left the southern army, led by Edward the Black Prince, the son of Edward III, which defeated another French army at Poitiers. This campaign followed a raid that took the Prince's forces almost to the Mediterranean (Burne, pp. 252-254). The Prince wanted to mount another such raid -- but, this time, the French were actually prepared to fight, and they also controlled his path by blocking river crossings (Burne, p. 278). Poitiers was a much, much closer thing than Crecy -- the French thought they had the Prince trapped, and were so sure of victory that they refused the Prince's offer of the release of prisoners, return of castles, and a promise that the he would not fight in France for seven years (Prestwich, p. 181; Seward, pp. 87-88).
As usual, the French seem to have had an overwhelming superiority in numbers; Seward, p. 86, estimates that the French had some three times the 6000 or so soldiers in the English army, and that the Prince didn't have a high enough proportion of archers (or, at least, they did not have enough arrows to fight as long as needed; this seems to be what Burne is saying on p. 302, followed by Featherstone on p. 129, though Burne's figures on p. 313 imply that the number of bowmen was very small -- perhaps based on Baker's chronicle, which credited the English with 4000 men-at-arms, 2000 archers, and 1500 others; Sedgwick, p. 296. Froissart also says 7500 men, but with mor archers). Burne, p. 298 and repeated in more detail on pp. 313-314, has similar numbers: 6000 English, 20,000 French. Featherstone, p. 126, agrees with the figure of 20,000 for the French, and credits the English with 6000, of whom only 2000 were archers. Sedgwick, who has a bad tendency to follow the exaggerated chronicles of the time, suggests on p. 122 that the English had 7,000-8,000 men, and on p. 126 suggests that the French had at least a three to one edge.
There is much about Poitiers that is confusing, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that we have twenty or so near-contemporary sources (Burne, p. 310). The available records disagree on what was going on -- was the Prince trying to fight, or to escape? (Burne, pp. 280-281). Burne, p. 285, thinks he wanted to fight, and had been maneuvering to prevent two French forces from joining against him. Arguing against this is the fact that the Prince probably knew by this time that reinforcements led by the Duke of Lancaster could not join him, so he would be more heavily outnumbered than he expected.
Burne, pp. 290-291, seems to split the difference: The Prince stayed in position to fight, but sent his baggage train away so that he could rapidly head for Bordeaux if the French declined to attack him. This, I must say, seems an extremely risky strategy. Sedgwick, p. 133, has a variation on this which seems a little more sensible: The English expected the French to attack but were afraid they might instead try an encirclement. The English sent enough forces to the rear to give him some protection against this.
Seward, pp. 88-91 thinks that the English were trying to retreat from the field, and the French, surprised by this, launched the part of their forward division (he thinks they had four divisions in all) in an attempt to halt their escape. Its disorganized charge was halted, and the rest of the division failed to do much damage in the chaos as the main English force returned to the field. The second division was barely turned back. The third French division, that of Orleans, simply dodged the battle. (Sedgwick, p. 142, doesn't acknowledge that there was such a group.)
That left the final French division, led by the King himself. It was perhaps slow to come into action due to Orleans's misbehavior (Sedgwick, p. 142, thinks it was positioned much too far from the leading divisions.) Still, it outnumbered the remaining English, and it was fresh, but a tiny English reserve showed up at just the right time and put the French in panic. (Burne, p. 306, thinks the exhausted English actually *attacked* at this stage, though it's hard to imagine them having the strength for it. Reading the flowery speeches quoted on p. 144 of Sedgwick, my guess is that the English simply moved forward as the French came on, to assure the French did not have the advantage of momentum.) King Jean himself tried to hold his division together -- and, as a result, was captured. As an individual, he had fought very hard; as a general, he had been a disaster. (Perroy, p. 125, says that when Jean had come to the throne, he had "given proof of nothing but gallantry and military incompetence." Attaining the crown did little to change that.)
It is interesting to note that the French historian, Perroy, devotes only two paragraphs to the battle (pp. 130-131), and attributes the English victory to "stratagems unworthy of knights" (meaning that they took advantage of the terrain). Even more than Crecy, the loss at Poitiers seemed to really *bother* the French. Perhaps it is because, as Sedgwick says on p. 127, "this French army was very similar to that at Crecy, a mob of gentlemen who fought with brilliant valor and dazzling stupidity."
Featherstone, p. 134, concludes that 2500 French were killed, 2000 captured, and 4000 wounded. Seward, p. 93, reports that the French had lost 2500 men-at-arms, and that 17 counts were captured. Sedgwick says that the King, a younger son, 17 counts, and "unnumbered barons" were taken. The government was in ruins, with the Estates refusing to grant taxes unless there were reforms (Perroy, p. 133) -- which, however, were implemented in a fairly arbitrary fashion. (Keen, p. 251, goes so far as to suggest that France was on the verge of coming apart, and was saved only by a peasant revolt that so frightened the nobility that they decided to keep working with the monarchy.) The Dauphin was being "terrorized" by rival factions (Perroy, p. 134), and the peasantry was revolting (Perroy, p. 135). In that situation, the French had little choice but to negotiate. They made a dramatic offer: A large ransom for Jean (so large that Jean would be accused of selling his daughter on the marriage market to raise it; Saunders, pp, 118-119). All of Acquitaine (not just Guyenne) turned over to the English in full sovereignty -- in other words, it would be *theirs*, not a holding they had from the King of France. Plus other territories -- said to total a third of France.
Edward III blew it. The ransom was slow in coming, and Edward was the one who declared the provisional agreement violated (Perroy, p. 137). He made one last try, diplomatic and military, to gain the French throne in 1359 (Prestwich, p. 182; Burne, p. 334, notes that his destination was Rheims, where French kings were crowned). The French, having survived Philip of Valois and now being stuck with his even worse son Jean, the former Duke of Normandy, might arguably have been better off had they taken the deal. But the army Edward led in 1359, even though it may have been the largest he ever assembled (Burne, p. 331, says it was the largest army to leave England prior to 1513)  got bogged down in unsuccessful sieges, and was plagued by bad weather (Burne, p. 345). Saunders, p. 23, says that "Black Monday" was so bad that knights were actually electrocuted on their horses by lightning. One report has it that the storm was so severe that it caused Edward to make a vow that he would accept terms of peace in gratitude for surviving it.
Edward started out the 1359-1360 campaign on his best behavior, but ended up getting so disgusted that he turned the thing into a _chevauchee_ (Burne, p. 343). This had its usual lack of effect; the whole thing was a fiasco. But the French sent negotiators even as Edward started to pull back (Burne, p. 345), perhaps fearing that the English King had another trick up his sleeve. The English, who obviously didn't, agreed to go back to the bargaining table (Perroy, pp. 138-139; Seward, pp. 98-99; Burne, p. 347, speculates that there was already an agreement made in secret but that the French were not willing to announce it while one of their cities was under siege).
The result was the Treaty of Bretigny, which was settled in 1360. It gave the English rather less than the proposal of 1358. They would get a reduced but still large ransom for King Jean, and would be given all of Acquitaine in full sovereignty. In return, Edward III would renounce the French throne. (Note: Some, including Perroy, call the final treaty the "Treaty of Calais," since that was where it was formally ratified, using the name "Treaty of Bretigny" only for the preliminary draft. But the changes in the broad outlines are too small to make it worthwhile to differentiate -- e.g. Burne, p. 348, mentions the "Treaty of Calais" only in a two-line footnote. Unfortunately for England, one change in the details proved substantial: the renunciation of titles was postponed for a time. As it turned out, the French would never formally renounce their control over Acquitaine.)
>>THE FAILURE OF BRETIGNY; RICHARD II AND HENRY IV<<
Ironically, although the French at once started turning land over to the English, the victorious Peace of Bretigny almost immediately resulted in a turn for the worse for the English. The single biggest reason was probably money. England had "won" the war, but even with the extra revenue that brought it, she was financially exhausted. They never saw most of the money from Jean's ransom; after months in luxurious captivity (he actually grew fat while in England; Saunders, p. 24), he was set free to raise it, could not get his people to pay it, and had one of the hostages he had given escape to visit his young wife. This was a technical violation of the treaty, and caused Edward to ask a slight modification of the treaty. The Estates balked, and Jean went back into English custody, where he died in 1364, at the age of about 45 (Perroy, p. 142), perhaps of partying too much (Seward, p. 200).
The English leaders, meanwhile, were starting to wear out. Edward III at the time of Bretigny was pushing fifty, and though he was still competing at tournaments as late as 1359 (Prestwich, p. 205), he was starting to lose his energy; by the time he died in 1377, he was a non-entity even though he was still only 65 (Ashley-Great, p. 134). When the French used a legal quibble to claim that the treaty need not be fully implemented, he was stuck (Barker, p. 15; Perroy, p. 116, claims that the French had not the right to concede sovereignty of Acquitaine, but this argument is silly; it would make us all pretenders to be king of somewhere). His younger sons, such as John of Gaunt, were not particularly good leaders (Prestwich, p. 189). Sir Thomas Dagworth had been killed a decade earlier. Henry of Derby and Lancaster died in 1361. Sir John Chandos was killed in 1369 (Seward, p. 111) or 1370 (Saunders, p. 4, who tells an embarrassing tale of him slipping on ice as he got off his horse and being killed; compare Sedgwick, pp. 269-270, who says he suffered the fatal blow as a result of being blind on one side from an earlier war injury). Plus England was still suffering the after-effects of the Black Death. There were still more than enough men to fight France (French booty was all over England, and the money from ransoming French prisoners had made many a low-born man rich, according to Prestwich, pp. 202-203; attacking France seems to have attracted men the way gold rushes attracted prospectors a few hundred years later), but they weren't as restless, simply because there was now enough land for all.
An attempt by the English to open a second front by gaining a foothold in Italy promptly failed; Edward III's second son Lionel was married to 13-year-old Violante Visconte in 1368 (Saunders, pp. 133-135), but died in October that year, causing the potential alliance to unravel (Saunders, pp. 136-137. There were no children of the marriage.)
To top it all off, the Black Prince, who should have been in his prime, was ruined -- he had engaged on an expensive campaign to restore king Pedro the Cruel to the throne of Castile. This, like the attempt to gain a foothold in Italy via Lionel, was almost a proxy war between England and France, but the English expended far more troops and money -- and wasted them, because they demanded so many concessions from their side of the conflict that Pedro's government was unable to hold together (Prestwich, p. 183). The Black Prince won a great battle at Najera in 1367, and Pedro was temporarily restored -- but Pedro was so vicious that he was soon re-expelled (Perroy, p. 156, says that Pedro was "intelligent, brave, and self-assertive, but so brutal that he estranged most of his subjects" -- and this in an age when brutality was the norm, not the exception! Pedro lasted only two years after that, according to Perroy, p. 157). Pedro obviously could not pay the costs of the campaign (about all he paid was a large ruby which begame part of the British Crown Jewels; Jarman, p. 52), which left the Black  Prince to pay for it from the revenue of Acquitaine -- and it bankrupted him (Seward, p. 107; Perroy, p. 159; Sedgwick, p. 261, says that he had to dismiss his army unpaid, causing them to go raiding in France, disturbing the peace with French, and adds on pp. 262-263 that he ended up imposing extreme taxation).
The cost of the invasion was not just cash. It cost lives as well. The English army, which should have been guarding the French frontier, had been devastated by disease.
The Prince himself came back with some sort of bug; according to Saul, p. 10, it started with dysentery, but he never recovered; Sedgwick, p. 22, mentions the suggestion that it was dropsy, i.e. an edema, but does not describe the source of the excess water. Sedgwick, p. 284, mentions frequent haemorrhages. By 1370, he had to be carried on campaign in a litter (Seward, p. 112). He was so weak that he went home to England in 1371 (Sedgwick, p. 273), and though he recovered a little, he only once, very briefly, was able to go on campaign again (Sedgwick, p. 275), and that expedition never arrived due to bad weather (Seward, p. 114). He left the war in France to his less effective brother John of Gaunt, who was not a good enough general to win on his own account and was too unpopular to be able to help someone else fight. The Prince died in 1376, a year before his father (Seward, p. 108). That meant that Edward III's heir was his grandson, Richard II, who was still a boy; the Black Prince had married relatively late, and Richard was his second son -- the elder boy, Edward, had died young (Sedgwick, p. 272), -- so Richard II was only ten when he succeeded.
It would have been a wonderful time for the Pope to step in, but there still wasn't much the Papacy could do to control the situation. In the aftermath of the Anglo-French peace of 1360, the _routiers_ who had previously raided western and northern France turned their attention to Provence (Saunders, p. 30) and even Avignon (Renouard, p. 52), causing perhaps as much trouble as the political unrest in Italy, but by that time, the Papacy was settled in Avignon. (The "Great Company," which would come to dominate Italy, formed seemingly spontaneously in late 1360; Saunders, p. 30. It went on to attack Avignon; Saunders, p. 48. There were suggestions that Edward III encouraged this rather than take such scoundrels back to England.) The Papacy remained under French influence during the period when the consequences of Bretigny were worked out.
Meanwhile, the French changed their approach. There was unrest in Paris (Guerard, p. 103), which convinced the Dauphin, the future Charles V, that things could not continue as they were.
It helped that Jean II died soon after. The French from that time decided that there would be no more big battles for them! Charles V, physically weak and inclined to intellectual rather than physical pursuits, could hardly hope to lead an army anyway (Seward, p. 103, notes that he was called "Charles the Wise," but the title was meant in the sense of "Charles the Learned" or "Charles the Bookish." Perroy, p. 132, says he was "worthless as a soldier" and had fled the field at Poitiers -- slightly ironic in that Perroy had said earlier that King Jean should have done the same. Saunders, p. 147, describes him as "handsome, but thin and pallid, weakened by an obscure illness that left him easily exhausted"; she speculates that he suffered from arsenic poisoning, perhaps based on the fact that his hair and nails fell out in 1360). When the Pope called a crusade, Charles ignored him -- "all his efforts were bent on not fulfilling his obligations under the treaty of Bretigny" (Renouard, p. 56). But the young prince could organize an army, and get the royal finances into better shape (Seward, p. 109) -- far more important than mere generalship.
Similarly Bertrand du Guesclin, the new Constable of France, had proved a poor general in the Castilian campaign; Perroy, pp. 148-149, declares him a "mediocre captain, incapable of winning a battle or being successful in a siege of any scope," but admits that the new French King Charles V "found [in him] a fitting leader for the commonplace tasks which alone remained within [France's] power." (He did manage to get many of the "routiers," or independent raiders, out of France -- but he did that by luring them to the war in Spain; Perroy, p. 156. Others left for Italy -- it is noteworthy that Sir John Hawkwood, who later became a very strong force in Italian politics, went to Italy in 1361; Saunders, p. xvii). Keegan, p. 80, refers to this time as the "Duguesclin war" and calls it a "Fabian" policy (a word also used by Seward, p. 110): Avoid battle, take a weak little property here and there, eventually putting a strong point under enough pressure that it had to give in. There was no "glory" in it -- but there was no risk of a major defeat, and it slowly but steadily undercut the English position.
The war officially resumed in 1369 (Prestwich, p. 184) when the French started again hearing complaints from Gascon nobles against the English administration (Seward, p. 110; Perroy, p. 160, thinks that Charles V felt "embarrassment and hesitation" when the nobles of Acquitaine appealed to him, but the English historians pretty consistently disagree, and certainly Charles V was not slow to take advantage. Even Perroy admits that Charles kept his plans very secret until he could spring his trap). In that same year, Edward III again started claiming the title King of France (Saunders, p. 147). And, yet again, the Pope was unable to act as a moderator -- Urban V, who had tried to move back to Rome in 1367 (Saunders, p. 109, says that France, and King Charles V, were "appalled"), headed back to Avignon in 1370 to try to deal with the situation, and died there three months later (Saunders, pp. 152-153), before he had any chance to influence things (Renouard, p. 61. Urban almost certainly intended to return to Rome if possible, but he didn't live long enough, and because he died outside Italy, the Italians feld betrayed). And, without his energy, the papal entourage again set up camp in Avignon, under French influence. The next Pope, Gregory XI, was held in Avignon for years by the renewed war (Renouard, p. 64). Having condoned a massacre to rebuild his power (Saunders, pp. 216-221), he finally returned to Rome in 1377 -- and died there just over a year later (Renouard, p. 66).
Nearly everything else was turning to French advantage, too. In 1366, the French had paid enough of King Jean's ransom that most of the major hostages went free (Perroy, p. 158). To be sure, some were supposed to come back if the ransom payments halted -- but the English no longer had any hold on them. And, in fact, the hostages never went back into custody once the money stopped.
(Even this proved an advantage to the French. Charles V cut off the money to England -- but, because he hadn't actually paid off the ransom, he was able to continue the taxes which had been levied to raise the ransom! -- Perroy, p. 162.)
And England was in a bad state in 1369. The plague was back, and horrible weather caused severe shortages of food (Saunders, p. 149. There would be several famines in the mid-1370s also; Saunders, p. 195). There was no way Edward could raise a major army at the time. He couldn't even induce the Free Companies of _routiers_ back from Italy; Hawkwood and others found the pickings there too rich (Saunders, pp. 149-150. Saunders thinks Edward III wanted Hawkwood to stay in Italy to distract the Pope, but this is hard to believe -- if he wanted to distract the Pope, he'd go to Avignon!).
Early in the period, the English at least found a way to punish the French for their betrayal -- they would more regularly "wage the _chevauchee_." This was an early version of the "scorched earth campaign" such as William T. Sherman would use in marching across Georgia. An English band would set out to bring fire and sword to as large an area of France as possible. This had been a part of the English policy from the beginning (the army that won at Poitiers had set out expecting simply to wage the _chevauchee_). Now it was the main strategy. Since the French would not fight, there was little danger to the English, and they did the French economy significant harm. But there was no winning the war that way. And, eventually, even raiding proved economically difficult for the English.
By the time Edward III died in 1377 (Seward, p. 116), English possessions in Gascony were about the same as they had been fifty years earlier, when Edward came to the throne: the coastal strip from Bordeaux to Bayonne (Prestwich, p. 184). Strategically, their situation may even have  been worse, since the French had driven a salient into the middle of the coastal strip (Perroy, p. 165; Seward, p. 115), so Bordeaux and Bayonne were no longer mutually supporting. The allies of the English also lost control of most of Brittany. In 1377, the Forty Years War (the name it might have been given had not Henry V come along) looked like a strategic draw, despite the fact that the English had won all the major battles and had gained Calais.
As Prestwich says on pp. 186-187, "The reversal of English fortunes in Edward III's declining years was almost as remarkable as the earlier successes. The lack of firm direction by the ageing king was revealed in a want of coherent planning. The earlier grand strategies of simultaneous attacks from various fronts had been abandoned in favour of what appeared to be aimless raids, often launched too late in the year to do much damage." In 1376, the so-called "Good Parliament" tried for reforms, but the Black Prince died before it ended (Sedgwick, p. 283), and Edward III was senile, and little could be done to rescue the decrepit government.
Ormrod, p. 10, notes that "Edward III is now often seen as a rather second-rate ruler, stubborn and selfish in his foreign ambition, weak and yielding in his domestic policies." There is much truth in this; Edward III did little to strengthen the government of his nation (and his grandson would pay for it). But he did start a tradition -- of chivalry, and of expansionism. We may call this bad. But it clearly inspired Henry V.
The Crecy war had one noteworthy effect which is rarely mentioned in the military histories: To make the whole thing work, Edward III needed the consent of the people being taxed to pay for it. Edward consulted regularly with his nobles -- thus forming the first true parliaments. Ormrod, pp. 193-194, counts 48 parliaments in Edward's fifty year reign, and another nine quasi-parliamentary councils. Edward's assemblies were a far cry from the modern form of parliamentary government (few, according to Ormrod, lasted more than a month, and 17 lasted ten or fewer days; some were only four days long), but they were a major step. England, and England alone, has had parliamentary government ever since -- with the result that descendents of Edward III still sit on the English throne, two centuries and more after the last descendent of the Valois were set aside in France. The fact that England had a strong parliament also made it easier for Henry V to assemble his armies in 1415. The government was still stronger than parliament -- OxfordCompanion, p. 426, notes that the reforms of the Good Parliament (which lasted an amazingly long 73 days) were overturned within about a year -- but it was a step in the right direction.
For fifty years -- from shortly after 1360 to 1413, during the latter part of the reign of Edward III and the whole reigns of Richard II (1377-1399) and Henry IV (1399-1413), the English made no serious attempt to defeat the French. Perroy, p. 169, seems to imply that they would have lost all of Guyenne in 1377 had not John Neville of Raby won enough small successes to make the French temporarily stop spending money on reconquest (followed soon after by the death of Charles V, which changed the whole equation).
Richard II, in fact, wanted to end the French conflict altogether; he raised no armies, floated offers to turn Guyenne over to the French if they would allow an English duke to rule it (Saul, p. 211, who notes that Richard made John of Gaunt Duke of Acquitaine, though of course when Gaunt's son Henry IV ascended, that eliminated the whole idea since the Duke of Acquitaine was once again King of England), and made noises about supporting the French Pope during the schism (though Saul, p. 232, notes that this was really dependent on a peace with France). Richard and his government also refused to give any serious help to the anti-French forces in Flanders, meaning that these firm (if only intermittently effective) English allies were brought under French domination (Saul, pp. 138-140). Plus, in the early 1390s, he and the French negotiated for years, and according to Saul, p. 218, no one really even knows why the negotiations finally failed.
It's easy to see why Richard wanted out: The French came very close to winning the war in the first few years of his reign, attacking Calais,picking up more land in Gascony, and heavily raiding the English south coast (Saul, pp. 33-34, though on p. 208 he argues that Richard's real reason was that he wanted to go on crusade. Possible, but the idea of Richard II on a crusade strikes me as pretty scary -- for the other crusaders).
By the mid-1380s, the situation was so bad that England was afraid of an all-out invasion. Perroy, p. 191, has no explanation for what happened next: "For some obscure reasons, the expedition was called off. Was the adventure found to be too risky, the strength available too small? Or did Philip [of Burgundy] put on a costly act simply to frighten England, and was he satisfied when he obtained the reopening of the wool trade between England and Flanders? We do not know." (Saul's explanation, p. 156, is that the French lacked the money to put their armada to sea.
Whatever the explanation, it was lucky for England that the invasion was cancelled; Richard's government had little real plan to fight it (Seward, pp. 133-134). In the whole reign, there were no great land battles, and only one major sea battle, in which the Earl of Arundel defeated a larger French convoy in early 1387 (Saul, p. 168). Even this was minor enough that I have never seen the battle given a name.
The boy-king's council at first didn't even have money from parliament to fight the threat (Saul, p. 47, notes that there were *six* parliaments in the first four years of Richard's reign, most of which voted money, but somehow the cash never accomplished anything). And when they tried to mount a counter-offensive, it was late and accomplished nothing except to show that England was short on quality generals at this time (Saul, pp. 35-36). Their one major success in the early period was taking over Cherbourg, but the English obtained that by diplomacy with Charles of Navarre, not by conquest (Saul, p. 41).
Taxes in these early years were so heavy (Saul, p. 56) and Richard II's administration was so inefficient, that he in fact faced the first great peasant revolt in English history, Wat Tyler's rebellion (Ashley-Great, pp. 146-147. It is interesting to note that there were only two really major peasant revolts in English history -- Tyler's of 1381 and Jack Cade's of 1450 -- and both came during the Hundred Years War, and both came at a time when the English were clearly losing and desperate to try to fight back. Of the two, Tyler's was the more dangerous, and came about when attempts to evade an exorbitant poll tax failed; Saul, p. 57. The common people, with their population still much reduced by the Black Death, simply couldn't pay what was asked; Saul, p. 60). Perroy also blames Lollard agitation (p. 182), but Perroy (who after all was French and seems to have little knowledge of non-Catholic faiths) didn't understand Wycliff or Lollardy; the revolt did have some "communist" elements, but they almost certainly were not Lollards.
The 14-year-old King Richard did much to calm and control Tyler's rebels -- but the rebellion's failure just meant that the abuses which caused the rebellion went unchecked. Indeed, Richard had temporized during the negotiations (Saul, pp. 67-69), and it led to a reign of terror and perhaps was a foreshadowing of what Richard would become. Richard never did manage to promote meaningful reforms; it's doubtful that he ever realized how messed-up his government was. (To be fair, when the Lords Appellant forcibly took charge in the late 1380s, they proved just as incompetent. But not even having control taken out of his hands knocked any sense into Richard.)
Richard's only attempt at a foreign adventure was two visits to Ireland, which were part invasion and part progress to awe the locals. Even there, he didn't want much responsibility; his main goal in the first was to create a palatine territory for his favorite Robert de Vere (Saul, p. 274). His response to the French invasions was to seek a truce. This was agreed to in 1389, and Richard held to it for the rest of his life (Seward, p. 138), doing his best to negotiate a lasting peace (Perroy, p. 198). To calm tensions, he gave away Brest and Cherbourg, leaving England with only Calais in northern France and the remnants of Guyenne in the south. This was the period when the king tried to give Guyenne to his uncle John of Gaunt, in effect washing his hands of the whole area.
Richard eventually married as his second wife a daughter of the French king (Seward, p. 139, Barker, pp. 15-16) -- though Isabella of France was only a quarter of his age (she was six when the French offered the marriage; Saul, p. 226), and pre-pubescent even when he died; they of course left no children. After Richard's deposition and death, Henry IV used her as a bargaining chip against France (Perroy, p. 214), but in 1400 allowed her to go back to France, where she remarried at 16 and died in childbirth at 19 (Barker, p. 17). It seems Richard and his government tried to secure a true treaty with France, but couldn't come up with a deal that both the French government and the English parliament would accept -- but, in return for the French marriage, they did secure a 28 year truce, which in many ways was better than a peace since it didn't cause the sort of wranglings over precise interpretations that had spoiled earlier treaties (Saul, p. 227). In practice, the truce lasted less than two decades -- but Richard was long gone by them.
Shortly before Richard's first truce, John of Gaunt's son Henry of Bolingbroke's wife, Mary de Bohun, bore her first surviving son, Henry. (There had apparently been an earlier pregnancy resulting in a boy who died at birth, perhaps because the mother was so young -- only 11 or 12, according to Allmand, p. 8.) A record from the reign of Henry VI documents his birth near Monmouth (Allmand, p. 7), so he was called "Henry of Monmouth."
The young man was a member of the royal family, but with half a dozen people senior to him (including Richard II, who as yet was too young for anyone to know that he would die childless; Allmand, p. 8). No one realized that the young man would be particularly significant(Jarman, p. 32), so the date of his birth is not firmly known (Earle, p. 12). Allmand notes that references to his age make it possible that it was 1386 or 1387. The likely dates are August 9 or September 16. Allmand notes that his parents were in Monmouth in 1386, and so favors that year; the majority of other sources I have checked seem to prefer 1387 (e.g. Jarman, p. 32 says September 16 1387).
Mary de Bohun died in 1394, at the age of 24, bearing her sixth child (Earle, p. 12; Allmand, p. 9). She ended up with four sons and two daughters -- seemingly a fine flock, but three of the boys (Henry, the eldest; Thomas, the second, and John, the third) would die well before the age of fifty, and neither Thomas, nor John, nor Humphrey (the fourth boy) would leave a legitimate child.
Henry was considered significant enough that a marriage into the ducal house of Brittany was considered in 1395 (Allmand, p. 10), but this fell through -- and, in an "I'm My Own Grandpa" touch, Henry IV later married the girl's mother.
(Shakespeare fans please note: Although Shakespeare made Henry V and Harry "Hotspur" Percy contemporaries, Hotspur was a generation older. In 1388, just a year or two  after Henry's birth, Hotspur -- already a young adult -- would command at the Battle of Otterburn. Hotspur was killed in 1403, a seasoned veteran of about forty, at a time when Henry of Monmouth was still in his mid teens. Allmand, p. 19, in fact notes that, initially, Hostspur was appointed to lead the council that managed Wales for the young Prince!)
Perroy, p. 255, declares that Henry was "the first King of England [since the Norman conquest, presumably] who had some English blood in his veins." This is not quite true -- Henry II and all succeeding kings were descended from Saint Margaret of Scotland, the sister of Edgar the Atheling, the last scion of the dynasty of Wessex who was briefly chosen King after the Battle of Hastings. And Richard II's mother was Joan "the Fair Maid of Kent." Still, Perroy is right in that Mary de Bohun brought some blood of the English nobility into the family. This meant that Henry was culturally English, even if his ancestry was mostly from Normandy and other European monarchies.
Prince Harry was born soon after a "changing of the guard." The late 1370s was a bad period for deaths of kings and noble. Just one year after Edward III died in 1377, Pope Gregory XI, who had taken the Papacy back to Rome, followed him into the grave (Renouard, p. 66).
If the Papacy had been a poor peacemaker during its stay in Avignon, things now became far worse. Gregory had done a terrible job of managing Italian affairs; most of the Papal States had rebelled (Saunders, pp. 206-207) and Italy was almost completely out of control. The 16 cardinals who met to choose Gregory's successor were besieged by a Roman mob which wanted an Italian Pope (Renouard, p. 68). They chose an Italian -- but one who promptly made himself disliked by many; Urban VI, according to Renouard, p. 69, "showed himself to be coarse, rude and tactless to an extraordinary degree." The disgusted French cardinals declared the election invalid and chose another Pope, Clement VII. The result was the "Great Schism" (not to be confused with the real Great Schism of 1054 which split Orthodoxy from Catholicism; this one simply split Catholic Christianity, without producing any doctrinal differences).
It is ironic to note that Clement VII, whose election was certainly more irregular, had probably more and stronger supporters (Renouard, p. 69). Being the "French" Pope had clear advantages; he certainly had more revenue (Renouard, p. 73), though both Papal pretenders came in with empty treasuries. The split lasted through the next several reigns (Saul, pp. 84-85; Seward, p. 123). France and England naturally supported rival Popes, so there was now no available mediator. It would be difficult even to call in a third party, since one side or the other would claim the mediator supported the wrong Pope. The Schism, for instance, killed plans for Richard II to marry an Italian noblewoman (Saul, p. 84. We might note that Geoffrey Chaucer had been one of the negotiators who set up the preliminary arrangements). It was not until 1415, at the Council of Constance, that a real attempt was made to heal the schism, and even that did not convince the deposed Benedict XIII, who claimed the Papal title until his death in 1422 (Renouard, p. 78). The last successors of this anti-Papal line were not put aside until 1431 (Renouard, pp. 136-137).
If the English managed to retain some land in Guyenne in the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV, it was only because the French were distracted. The French constable du Guesclin was killed in 1380, and three months later Charles V died (Seward, p. 125). Charles was only in his early forties, but of course he had always been sickly. He had still done a brilliant job of reviving France after the disastrous reign of his father (Perroy, p. 145). He made perhaps only two mistakes: On his deathbed, he bankrupted his son's government by abolishing the hated hearth tax (Perroy, p. 174). And he started the process which created the mighty Dukedom of Burgundy (Perroy, p. 148 -- though, to be fair, his only other real alternative was to give a smaller Duchy of Burgundy to Charles the Bad of Navarre, who had been fighting him off and on for years. Charles the Bad had been cheated many times -- he should have been king of France! -- but this final insult led him into a rebellion which at last ended his pretensions. And Edward III, who felt bound by his treaty with France, was unable to intervene; Perroy, pp. 151-152. Charles V's diplomacy had the peculiar effect of making a Flemish heiress wife of two consecutive Dukes of Burgundy -- and of founding the dynasty which nearly overthrew France).
Most English historians seem to be amazed that the French did not win the war in the period immediately after Charles's death. The Frenchman Perroy, p. 177, has a different take: "During his sixteen years' reign, at once healing and exhausting, Charles V had accomplished a great task: the destruction of the Treaty of Calais [=Bretigny], which was the master-thought of this persistent and crafty man. But he had rekindled the war, and his slender resources did not enable him to end it. The dilemma in which he had placed the kingdom was not removed by his death. Unable to win the war, France was forced to continue it, without hope of a definite success.... By fits and starts the two countries had outrun their strength. Neither one nor the other could achieve a decision." He notes on p. 189 that tax revolts continued even after the hearth tax was abolished.
In addition, the death of Charles V turned loose the royal dukes, many of whom spent their strength on ventures irrelevant to the reconquest of France -- several, e.g., started meddling in Italy (Perroy, pp. 204-205).
Charles V was succeeded by Charles VI, who went mad early on (he actually killed four of his own attendants before being restrained; Seward, p. 143. This is based on Book IV, section 44 of Froissart's _Chronicles_, though much of it is corroborated elsewhere). The disease was at first intermittent (Perroy, p. 194), but the problem became worse and worse over time. His genes for madness would, in time, come close to destroying both France and England.
(I really wish we could go back and do genetic testing on Charles VI and his descendents -- among them Henry VI of England, who went catatonic on several occasions in the 1450s, leading to the first Yorkist protectorate and then to the first battle of Saint Albans when he recovered [Wilkinson, p. 176]; Henry VII, the majority of whose children died young and whose uncle Jasper was childless; Henry VIII; who left no legitimate grandchildren and whose partners suffered many miscarriages; aand Henry's sister Margaret Tudor, who managed to bear an heir to the King of Scotland but later suffered her own miscarriage. Seward, p. 144, suggests that Charles VI's problem was porphyria, which also afflicted George III of England; this is probably based on the fact that Charles suffered his first bout on a bright, hot day -- Earle, p. 79 -- and light and heat can bring on porphyria. He also had the sort of delusions typical of porphyria; Jarman, p. 24, says that he was "a gibbering figurehead who sat unwashed in a threadbare palace convinced that he was made of glass and would shatter at a touch"; compare Gillingham, p. 75. But I must admit that I think there is more involved; though Charles VI does sound very much like a victim of porphyria, too many of Charles VI's descendents had problems which do not fit the disease.)
Nor were the Charles VI's sons able to help; the first two Dauphins died young (Seward, p. 179), and the third, the future Charles VII (Jean Darc's Dauphin, Charles the Well-Served) was still young (born 1399) and completely lacking in energy.
With the King unable to rule, the reign of Charles VI turned France over to the factions led by his relatives. Guerard, p. 105, describes the situation this way: "Charles VI (1380-1422) was a child of twelve showing but little promise. Power fell to his uncles, the dukes of Anjou, Berry, Burgundy, and Bourbon. The royal system, as organized under Philip the Fair, was still so precarious and so ill-understood, it had proved so oppressive and at time[s] so incompetent, that there was a demand for... a complete return to feudal custom.... [T]he royal dukes proceeded to ransack the treasury for ambitious purposes of their own, Naturally, the bourgeois counselors of Charles the Wise, contemptuously called the _Marmousets_, were dismissed.
"In 1389, on attaining his majority, the young king thanked his uncles and recalled the _Marmousets_. But three years later, Charles VI, whose frail wits had not been able to stand a mad pace of pleasure, went insane; and, although he had lucid moments, he was unfit to rule for the remaining thirty years of his life."
Throw in the monetary crises in France, and the French government was unable to accomplish much for the next several decades. Even without the hearth tax, the burden on the peasants was very high, partly due to the potmetal currency (Perroy, p. 189) but mostly due to the fact that different factions, when they came to power, had to bring in their own office-holders, and scoop up every cent of cash to pay them (Perroy, pp. 222-224). In effect, the population was paying for two governments rather than one, and neither one any good.
(There were some curious parallels between England and France in this period. Both were ruled by underage kings, neither of whom was very effective. Both had trouble with uncles and councils. Richard II at least didn't leave any children with genes for madness; he seems to have left no children either legitimate or illegitimate, and no extramarital affairs; Saul, p. 94. Though he does seem to have loved his wife Anne of Bohemia genuinely; her death was very hard on him. The problem with Richard's otherwise exemplary sexual conduct was that he left no heir -- which in turn led to the succession quarrels which occupied England, off and on, for a century.)
It is interesting to note that the precipitating event for Richard II's deposition was his treatment of Henry of Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV, whom Richard exiled. Yet Richard kept the young Henry of Monmouth at his court and treated him well; Earle, p. 31 -- though he also took him to Ireland during the invasion of that country (Allmand, p. 14), just possibly as a hostage.
Richard II, in the late 1380s, had been brought to heel by the "Lords Appellant" -- Humphrey of Gloucester, Richard's uncle; the Earl of Arundel; the Earl of Warwick, the Mowbray Earl of Nottingham (later Duke of Norfolk), and Henry of Bolingbroke. The latter two eventually came over to Richard's side, and the former three were eliminated in the 1390s (though Goodman, p. 186, argues that they had created a precedent for opposing a monarch which came back into play in 1399.) Then Nottingham/Norfolk and Bolingbroke had a falling-out. It came to the point where they were about to hold a trial by combat in 1398 -- when Richard stepped in and exiled *both*, even though at least one of them was certainly on Richard's side (Allmand, p. 11).
Mowbray, who was banished for life, would die in exile. Not Bolingbroke. Initially his exile was supposed to be temporary -- but when, in early 1399, Bolingbroke's father John of Gaunt died, Richard II made the exile permanent (Allmand, pp. 11-12), probably so Richard could take over the Duchy of Lancaster that Bolingbroke should have inherited.
Richard seemed completely oblivious to his danger. He actually went to Ireland with an army to try to settle the messy situation there. Bolingbroke invaded England in Richard's absence -- and quickly gained enough support to overthrow the King (Allmand, p. 13, though on p. 14 he describes how it was made legally to appear an abdication).
Even without his treatment of Bolingbroke, it's possible that Richard would have eventually been deposed anyway, because he was clearly attempting to create an absolute monarchy. Indeed, a semi-divine monarchy; Perroy, p. 200, notes that Richard actually petitioned the Pope to canonize his great-grandfather Edward II (who, no matter how badly he was mistreated by his subordinates, was no saint!). But Bolingbroke's invasion meant that the crown went to the House of Lancaster, rather than to the youth of the Mortimer family who was Richard's proper heir (at least if succession in the female line was allowed in England -- which it was generally agreed that it was). The key effect of Bolingbroke's invasion was to make Henry of Bolingbroke into King Henry IV, and to make his son Henry of Monmouth, the future Henry V, the Prince of Wales.
Allmand, p. 15, makes an interesting point here: "Richard [II] might be said to have destroyed himself, politically at least. None the less there remained the uncomfortable fact that the new king's de facto possession of the throne was his only true claim to power. He might be the head of by far the richest family in England.... [y]et his possession of the throne of England had stemmed from a decision to use force to secure it. Early on the young man whose right to the title 'Prince of Wales' depended on his acceptance, albeit tacit, of his father's usurpation had learned that a legal claim was always rendered stronger if military might was there to support it. As his father had done in England in 1399, so the future Henry V would do in France some twenty years later."
Henry of Monmouth quickly became a major landowner: As heir to the throne, he became Prince of Wales (a title which still meant something in 1399 --Henry would spend much of his father's reign fighting Owen Glendower and other Welsh rebels), Duke of Cornwall, and Earl of Chester. Those titles were standard for the king's heir. But Henry IV also made him Duke of Lancaster and Duke of Aquitaine (Allmand, pp. 16-17). This at once gave Prince Harry a lot of responsibility and an interest in the French conflict.
It is ironic to note that, in 1406 when Parliament officially acted on the succession, it officially declared that "heirs general" could succeed to the English throne -- that is, that females counted in the succession. Thus Henry IV, whose claim to the throne -- insofar as it was not rule by conquest -- was due to being Richard II's heir male, declared that the succession should not be by heirs male! (Allmand, ppp. 30-31).
In France, by this time, the leading contenders for power were the Dukes of Burgundy, the first of whom (Philip the Bold) was the uncle of Charles VI, and the Dukes of Orleans, the first of whom was the king's brother. The Queen, who had much influence, initially supported the Burgundian faction, but when Philip of Burgundy died in 1404 and was succeeded by his son John the Fearless, Isabel instead gave her attention to the Orleans faction (so much so that she was accused, possibly accurately, of sharing his bed). The rivalry soon became war to the knife; John the Fearless (who succeeded Philip the Bold in 1404; Seward, p. 148) assassinated Orleans in 1407 (Guerard, p. 106; Perroy, pp. 226-227).
The assassination was twice fortunate for the English, since Orleans, though not a very good soldier, had been pushing back the English in Guyenne; his death may have saved the remaining English territory (Barker, p. 17; Seward, p. 145), and Henry IV (who was always broke because of the rebellions against him; Seward, p. 144) had no means to fight back. The French became particularly hostile to the English after the deposition of Richard II in 1399 -- since Richard was married to a French princess, and had not pursued the war, his overthrow was regarded as a hostile act (Ashley-Stuart, p. 35. The French were about the only ones who still liked him -- Seward, p. 142, comments that Richard had become "almost insanely tyrannical" and notes that he had very little support from the barons at the end).
Even better for the English, from the time Orleans was assassinated, France was split into two factions, the Burgundians and the Armagnacs (the latter named for the Count of Armagnac, whose daughter would marry the son of Orleans a few years after the assassination). The mad king of course could not intervene, so there was nothing to keep the factions from each others' throats. The Burgundians took control of Paris in 1409 (Barker, p. 18), but it did not last. The Armagnacs drove them out -- only to spoil their prospects by inaugurating a reign of terror (Barker, p. 60, notes an instance of the Armagnacs slaughtering a city full of their own supporters, and doing so with great cruelty). Even when the government managed to produce useful legislation, the power of the factions meant that it could not be enforced (Perroy, p. 229).
Talk about an opportunity for an outsider! The English did not intervene at first, partly because Henry IV was still not secure on the throne (Perroy, p. 213, notes that at one point Henry IV actually tried to rewrite history to make his ancestor, the younger brother of Edward I, an older brother, since that would strengthen Henry's claim), partly because the king was in poor physical condition (suffering from an undiagnosed by extremely debilitating disease; Earle, p. 69) and partly because they couldn't figure out which French faction would offer the better deal (Barker, p. 19). It is possible that this issue caused some friction between Henry the father and Henry the son; both, according to Allmand, p. 48, wanted to regain the large Acquitaine promised by the Treaty of Bretigny, but the son probably wanted a more activist policy. Indeed, two English forces landed in 1411 and 1412 -- and supported different sides in the French struggle (Perroy, pp. 230-231; Allmand, p. 54, thinks that the 1411 intervention, on behalf of Burgundy, was arranged by Prince Henry, while teh 1412 intervention was set up by Henry IV when the Armagnacs offered far better terms.).
This seems to have led to a distinct coolness between father and son. Henry IV, perhaps with the support of parliament, dismissed his entire council, including the prince (Allmand, pp. 50-51). There was talk that the prince might be disowned entirely, with his younger brother Thomas of Clarence being declared heir to the throne (Clarence, not the prince, was given command of the 1412 intervention in France). It appears two factions were forming: Henry IV and his second son Thomas, and Prince Henry and his half-uncles the Beauforts. From 1411, the Prince's faction was entirely out of power (Allmand, p. 53).
>>THE REIGN OF HENRY V<<
Then Henry IV died in 1413, and Henry of Monmouth, now Henry V, decided to play for bigger stakes. The rebellions that had plagued Henry IV were mostly quiet (Earle, pp. 101-104, notes that there were 17 higher nobles in England at the time Henry V succeeded, and 14 of them were adult and physically fit, and all 14 fought for Henry in France at some time or another. Incidentally, we should remind people that Shakespeare is not to be trusted *at all* on this count. Plays such as _Henry V_ are not nearly as false as, say, the Henry VI trilogy or _Richard III_, but Jarman, p. 64, looks at the list of leaders Shakespeare claimed were at Agincourt and finds that half of them were not. Shakespeare here at least had contact with reality -- but not much). The British economy had largely recovered from the Black Death and the exactions of Edward III and the inefficiency of Richard II. The exchequer was empty (Barker, p. 24) -- but how better to fill it than with foreign loot?
Henry V is often portrayed as a humorless crusader, and there is no question but that he was single-minded in his pursuit what he considered his "rights" in France. Ashley-Great, p. 155, describes him as "much more like Oliver Cromwell than the chivalrous Tudor hero of Shakespeare's plays"; he quotes other historians who called Henry a fanatic and a bigot. Earle, p. 99, while admitting his rigid orthodoxy, thinks he wanted to reform the papacy -- but offers no specifics. What we can say specifically is that Henry watched heretics being burned (the burning of alleged Lollards, many of whom were probably not heretics but political enemies -- Rubin, pp. 188-190 -- had been introduced under Henry IV; Rubin, p. 187), and that Henry V once sent a friend (Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham), whose opinions were slightly theologically shaky, to the stake (Earle, p. 99, though Oldcastle escaped custody just long enough to be taken and burned by a churchman without Henry himself being present; Earle, p. 101). Seward, p. 164, mentions "Ruthless authority and cold cruelty," says he was "puritanical," and speaks of "brutal single-mindedness."
Perroy, who of course writes from a French perspective, refers to his "hypocritical devoutness, the duplicity of his conduct, his pretence of defending right and redressing wrongs when he sought solely to satisfy his ambitions, [and] the cruelty of his revenge" (p. 235). This strikes me as a little exaggerated -- I don't think Henry was a hypocrite; I think he was badly messed up emotionally. But the effect is the same. It was eventually costly, too -- as Allmand notes on p. 438, since Henry said his victories were God's will, his successors could hardly negotiate with the French, since that was against Henry's version of God's desires.
Henry was well-educated, speaking and writing English, French, and Latin. There is some dispute over whether he had a lighter side. He certainly owned a harp (Earle, p. 28), and is believed to have been able to play it; he supposedly took one with him to France (Barker, p. 26); he also took an 18 minstrels along (Barker, p. 134). Jarman, p. 38, claims he also played cithera and gittern, without listing a source.
But the claim that he read Chaucer is somewhat dubious. It is true that one of the sixteen surviving substantial manuscripts of Chaucer's _Troylus and Criseyde_ (Pierpont Morgan Library MS. M 817) is imprinted with his arms as Prince of Wales. But this does not prove that he read it; his grandfather John of Gaunt was one of Chaucer's patrons, so the family may have handed him a copy whether he wanted it or not. (There was a strong literary tradition in the family. Henry IV also seems to have supported Chaucer, and he definitely supported John Gower, who dedicated an edition of the Confessio Amantis to him; Goodman, p. 156. Henry IV passed his love of books on to his fourth son Henry, one of the greatest collectors of the era, but we do not find much evidence of Henry V as patron of literature.)
What's more, Mauldwyn Mills, in the introduction to the Everyman edition of _Troylus and Criseyde_, which is based on the Morgan manuscript, notes that it contains a significant number of uncorrected errors (_Troylus and Criseyde_, Everyman; original edition 1953; revised edition, 2000; p. xxxv). Despite its very early date (one of the two earliest manuscripts, written within a dozen years of Chaucer's death), most critical editions do not use it as a copy text. The strong sense I get, in reading the notes, is that it was too poorly corrected to be a copy that was actually regularly read. Also, it is thought by many to have been taken from a not-final draft of the book, and would Henry V have accepted that if he really cared about the volume?
It should be remembered that this period was relatively impoverished in the arts. The reigns of Edward III and Richard II had been graced by Chaucer, Langland, the Gawain-poet, and John Gower. The era of the Lancastrian kings had nothing -- the only author from this period you're likely to have encountered is Sir Thomas Malory. I checked three literary anthologies, and in poetry, all skipped directly from Chaucer (died 1400) to Skelton (born c. 1460). Several books on literary history comment sourly on how barren the fifteenth century was. If Henry V patronized any writers, they certainly weren't worth what he spent on them.
Allmand, p. 42, notes that Thomas Chaucer (the son of Geoffrey) was three times speaker of parliament (1407, 1410, 1411), and thinks that this is a sign that Henry of Monmouth had great power and support in parliament, because Allmand thinks Chaucer was Henry's ally. But these three parliaments were during Henry IV's reign; I see no reason to think either Chaucer was a close ally of Henry V as opposed to Henry IV.
Henry was clearly physically tough; Barker, pp. 31-32, describes how he had taken an arrow in the face in one of his Welsh campaigns as Prince of Wales, it was said that it penetrated six inches into his head, and required extraordinary surgery to extract. (I can't recall anyone ever saying so, but I wonder if perhaps he may not have suffered minor brain damage resulting in his emotional rigidity.)
It was during the Welsh campaigns that he apparently got to know many of his later associates, such as the Earl of Warwick and the John Talbot, later to be known as "Old Talbot." Of course, he also got to know John Oldcastle, whom he would burn as a heretic (Allmand, p. 32).
The reports of a misspent youth are largely false, according to Barker, p. 43; she declares that they "acquired a veneer of historicity because they were taken up by Shakespeare" -- but of course the amount of actual history in Shakespeare is only slightly greater than the amount of quantum chromodynamics. (My guess is that the stories arose from the conflicts between Henry IV and Henry V before the latter's death; Barker, p. 21, reports that the younger Henry may have feared being disinherited by his father, and Earle, p. 69, observes that parties started forming about King and Prince as early as 1406. To be fair, Earle, p. 86, thinks it is "quite clear that there was some truth in [Henry's] reputation [for wildness]." Jarman, p. 31, declares that "Although such Shakespearean stories as that of young Hal strking Judge Gascoigne... or Stowe's chronicle depicting him 'mugging' London citizens by night in company with his friends can largely be discounted, he evidently led something of a playboy life before his accession. But what was the usual evidence of wild escapades? Illegitimate children. And Earle, p. 87, admits that Henry "left no bastards from a riotous youth," though were are told that he "followed the services of Venus as well as Mars." Yet it is unlikely that Henry was infertile; once he married, he quickly got his wife pregnant. Even Earle confesses, "For details readers will have to join Shakespeare in using their imagination.")
It is interesting to note that a French observer, who saw Henry and his brother Thomas of Clarence just before the start of the Agincourt campaign, Clarence looked like a soldier -- but Henry gave the impression of being a priest (Allmand, p. 438).
Henry V seems to have been unusually good at handling money; Barker, p. 102, reports an instance of him actually auditing some of his own books (Allmand, p. 2, implies that he was the first king before Henry VII to do so), and also notes on p. 114 that he actually kept detailed records of the men serving under him, which was largely unheard of at the time; Earle, p. 127, notes his careful attention to collecting his share of ransoms for prisoners taken by his subordinates. These were skills he perhaps learned by having to survive in penury during the poverty-stricken administration of his father (Barker, p. 34).
Henry V succeeded his father in 1413. He instantly turned things around in England. His father had never been secure on the throne. Henry V was in complete control within months. He also managed to get more money out of parliament than any other king of the time -- perhaps in history (Barker, pp. 104-105; Seward, p. 156; Earle, p. 105, quotes Stubbs as saying Henry's ability to raise money from parliament was "little less than miraculous."). Like many kings before him, he had to resort to forced loans -- but he was careful to borrow against money he new he would receive in the next tax year, and the loans were promptly repaid (Barker, pp. 108-110). He also offered many of the crown jewels as security to some of the nobility (Earle, p. 111; Jarman, p. 51, says that the need to pay retainers was so extreme that at least one crown was broken up by a subordinate).
The strength of the English economy probably helped. Henry came at a very fortunate time: The country had largely recovered from the Black Death, but the population had still not reached pre-plague levels, so the productivity of the land was not eroded by the relative overpopulation of the early fourteenth century (Earle, p. 96). And Henry had not engaged in the mass giveaway of crown properties which would bankrupt his son Henry VI.
Plus Henry knew where the power lay. Henry IV had tried to ally with the "men of lesser rank," according to Allmand, p. 62. This was not a very successful strategy in the fifteenth century; Richard III also tried to build a faction of common people plus a few nobles, and it failed spectacularly. Henry V would rely on the great lords such as the Earl of Warwick and the Earl of Salisbury.
Having put his country, and his army, on a firm financial footing, he sent envoys to Paris demanding "his" property in France. The best guess (Ashley-Great, p. 156) is that he wanted to regain Normandy and all of Acquitaine. (The English still controlled perhaps a third of the latter, none of the former). He also wanted to marry a French princess so there would be no more nibbling (Barker, p. 71). He asked for even more than that: The hand of Catherine, plus a close approximation of full empire of his great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Henry II, two and a half centuries earlier: Aquitaine, Normandy, Anjou, Touraine, Poitou, Maine, and Ponthieu (Barker, p. 121). The French, naturally, were not interested -- and probably didn't think that England, which had been weak for half a century, could pose any threat. Jarman, p. 47, reports that the French ambassadors went so far as to declare him not the rightful king of England -- though I doubt that any sane negotiator would try such a ploy.
And Henry's military reputation was not established; despite much campaigning in Wales, he could be called an inexperienced general, since most of his time had been spent on sieges and controlling hostile territory (Earle, pp. 64-65). At the time he took the throne, he had been involved in only one pitched battle (Earle, pp. 58-60), and he was not in command. The battle was at Shrewsbury, in 1403; it was part of the civil war that year between Henry IV and rebels led by the Earl of Northumberland, his son Hotspur, Owen Glendower, and members of the Mortimer faction. Henry IV attacked Hotspur, and won a very close battle, and since that put him between the Welsh and Northumbrian factions, that particular rebellion was over. Henry V was to fight only one more pitched battle in his career -- at Agincourt. Everything else was sieges.
Henry very quickly proved those who doubted him wrong. He reached an agreement with Brittany (Barker, p. 63), resulting in a reduction of the piracy which had distracted the two countries for years (Allmand, p. 69), and also giving him a clear supply line from England to France. He also leashed the Scots -- he had in his custody both the new young king James I and the son of the regent Albany (Barker, p. 73). This meant that, if Albany tried anything, Henry could punish his son, but if the Scots tried to overthrow Albany to bring back James, he had control of James and could sic the younger Albany, who was third in line for the throne behind James and his father, on them. Scotland was unable to do anything except the usual border raids (and Albany the elder frankly seems to have liked it that way). By 1415, Henry had largely managed to negotiate an end even to those; he left the border entirely in the hands of the northerners (Barker, pp. 76-78).
Soon after, he crushed a revolt on behalf of the Mortimers, the proper heirs of Richard II (Barker, pp. 78-81). There was now no threat to him from within the British Isles. In the long term, the main effect of all this was to eliminate Richard of Cambridge, the younger brother of the Duke of York, whose son was Richard, the father of the future Edward IV and Richard III. The significance of the execution was that it made the infant Richard the heir to the York dukedom should his uncle die. And young Richard would in time become the Mortimer heir -- a pedigree which could spell trouble if Henry V's line ever failed.
Allmand, pp. 76-77, thinks Cambridge may have been the ringleader, perhaps because he had been given an earldom but not enough endowed land to sustain it. He also suggests that the trials proceeded illegally -- an interesting perspective on Henry's management of the country.
For a time, Henry V continued to negotiate with France, but prepared for war -- indeed, he told London officials to prepare to invade well before the French had made their final offer (Barker, p. 70). He even induced the church to muster their clergy to see who could fight (Barker, p. 128). Henry probably meant them to suppress heresy -- he was offensively orthodox (he was quite happy burning Lollard "heretics," according to Earle, p. 29 -- ironic for the grandson of John of Gaunt, who had had Lollard tendencies, and actually arrested his own stepmother on a charge of witchcraft, according to Rubin, p. 212). But they could also serve as a sort of national guard in the event of a French invasion.
Henry also seems to have tried to hire the most professional specialists he could -- e.g. he imported gunners from Germany (Barker, p. 132). Although he did ban one other sort of specialist -- he banned prostitutes (Jarmin, pp. 79-80, says that he ordered whores who approached the camp to have their left arms broken). He also tried to ban swearing. In an army!
In 1415 Henry appointed his brother John to have charge of England (it is interesting to note that John was the third brother; the second brother, Thomas of Clarence, was given no power and left out of Henry's will -- Barker, pp. 140-141 -- even though he was then heir to the throne and was brought along on the Agincourt expedition. Barker strongly suspects there was no love lost between the brothers!). Henry told his soldiers to wear the Cross of Saint George as a sort of token of recognition atop their ordinary livery (Barker, p. 131), then set sail for Normandy. Supposedly he needed 1500 ships to transport his army (Barker, p. 147), though of course they were mostly quite small -- and he probably had two to three horses for every man (Jarman, p. 72, estimates 25,000 horses), calling for much greater carrying capacity. It took them three days to make their landing, but they got ashore unopposed (Barker, p. 157). After a brief period of looting, Henry got the army back under control -- and, from then on, discipline was strict (Barker, p. 163; on p. 240, she reports an incident of a man being hanged for stealing a cheap but theoretically holy object from a church). The soldiers doubtless grumbled, but they probably fought better.
This may have been an indication that Henry V really did want to take control of France. He didn't want to damage a country he regarded as "his." We'll never know.
>>1415: HARFLEUR AND AGINCOURT<<
The first English objective was the port of Harfleur at the mouth of the Seine -- at that time, before its harbor silted up, a very strategic point. (It had been used as a staging point for raids on England; Barker, p. 168, and was used for attacks on English shipping; Allmand, p. 67. It was at the time the most important port in Normandy, according to Allmand, p. 79, and of course could control traffic to Rouen and Paris.) Undermanned until the French managed to sneak in reinforcements (Barker, pp. 172-173), it nonetheless possessed extremely strong defences on both land and sea sides.
Those strong defences nearly led to disaster for the English. The siege was one of the first to really depend on artillery -- but it was still a long, difficult operation, taking most of a month. That was at least ten days longer than Henry expected (Barker, p. 180). During that time, much of the army came down with bloody dysentery (Barker, p. 181). Casualties were extremely heavy -- probably about a third of their numbers (Ashley-Great, p. 156). Among them was one of the king's best friends, the Bishop of Norwich (Barker, pp. 183-184). It is rather frightening to wonder what might have happened had the English been held before the town much longer. It might perhaps have happened -- the town eventually surrendered, but details are rather lacking; Barker, pp. 191-193, thinks that perhaps the town's residents quit fighting, undercutting the still-determined garrison. It appears the garrison reached a deal with Henry, agreeing to give in if the French government had not sent an army by a certain date. And, of course, the government did nothing (Barker, pp. 193-195).
Henry was severe with the garrison, humiliating them and berating them for fighting against their lawful King (Jarman, p. 109). It was not the last time he would take such a high-handed approach. He also reportedly expelled the aged and the crippled, allowing only the healthy and prosperous to stay (Jarman, p. 111), assuming of cource they accepted him as King.
Losses from disease were so severe (Allmand, p. 80, cites a chronicler who claimed 5000 Englishmen were afflicted, though the source blames the disease on eating unripe fruit. Jarman, p. 106, believes over 2000 men were lost, which seems the minimum possible) that Henry decided not to undertake an additional major offensive that year (Barker, p. 197. Allmand, p. 84, argues that Henry had never had a plan beyond taking Harfleur but intended to respond to conditions when the town fell, though Jarman, p. 114, believes he had considered an attack on Rouen or Paris or a drive toward Guyenne).
Most of Henry's advisors apparently thought he should go directly home (Seward, p. 161). Henry wasn't willing to give up quite that easily -- he still wanted to at least wage a _chevauchee_. But he decided on a short one, choosing the shortest route to Calais and safety. Even that was a difficult maneuver to undertake in October (the exact date they left Harfleur is somewhat uncertain, due to inconsistent information in the chronicles. Barker, pp. 214-218, says that every date from October 6 to 9 is possible, but thinks the most likely is October 8. This is also the date given by Keegan, p. 82). And the French had been roused from their torpor by the fall of Harfleur (Barker, p. 231).
The French of course had a decision to make: They could try to retake Harfleur, or attack Henry, or split their forces and do both. The experienced military officials apparently favored the former, but most of the nobility, their pride stung, felt that Henry had to be punished. The decision was to pursue him (Jarman, p. 123).
The French almost managed to cut off the English by blocking the passage of the Somme. The famous ford of Blanchetaque which Edward III had used was blocked off (Barker, p. 220; Jarman, p. 129). Other crossings were either guarded or were unusable because the bridges had been destroyed (Jarman, p. 131).  Some of the junior officers argued for going back to Harfleur rather than hunt for a crossing they might not find (Jarman, p. 129), but the King ignored the suggestion. Henry had to go far upstream before he found a crossing point (Allmand, p. 86), while the army grew increasingly tired and sick and short of supplies. Henry was so rushed that he made no attempts at taking seriously defended towns along the way. Even so, it looked for a time as if the French might trap him.
In fact, they *did* trap him (Seward, p. 163). There is some question about whether Henry's forces were mounted (Seward, p. 163, thinks the archers were on foot, but given how fast they moved, it seems likely that Henry's entire army was mounted), but heavy rain slowed them down. Henry had made it across the Somme -- the biggest single obstacle in his way -- but it took him far out of his way, and on October 24, when the English army was only two or three marches from Calais and safety (the field of Agincourt is in what we would now call Belgium, not France -- in fact, it's near the great World War I battlefields of the Somme; Jarman p. 178), the French army arrived (Keegan, p. 82). They stood between Henry and Calais, and even if Henry had had the provisions to make it back to Harfleur (which he didn't), they could have hit him in rear. All the French had to do was win the battle, and Henry V and his pretensions would be one with every other pretender in history.
And the French had a substantial superiority in numbers -- so much so that Barker, p. 268, reports that they sent some soldiers home! Keegan, p. 88, believes that Henry had perhaps 5000 archers and a thousand men-at-arms (knights, squires, and others who wore armor and carried short-range weapons); this is also the figure in Featherstone, p. 145, and Allmand, p. 88. Barker, p. 218, suggests 5000 archers, 900 men-at-arms, and unknown but numerous others such as surgeons, heralds, and chaplains -- though many of them were so sick with dysentery that they had had to cut the seats out of their clothing to reduce the fouling (Barker, p. 276). Rubin, p. 218, implicitly supports the figure of 5000 archers and 900 men at arms.
Numbers for the French are far less certain, with English chroniclers coming up with numbers on the order of 60,000; one managed to suggest 150,000 (Barker, p. 263). French estimates were smaller, but no one offered a figure of fewer than 8000, with most guesses far larger; they went as high as 50,000. Keegan suggests 25,000, most of them men-at-arms, some with horses, some not. Barker, after listing the evidence, seems to prefer the figure of 36,000, based on the contemporary estimate of Jehan Waurin (which is the most detailed account). Rubin, p. 218, suggests the French army was "almost three times larger" -- i.e. probably 15,000-17,000 soldiers. Certainly there were plenty of nobles -- four royal dukes (with a fifth on his way), a dozen counts, and "innumerable lords" (Barker, p. 264). Allmand, p. 88, believes the English were outnumbered three or four to one, giving the French probably on the order of 20,000 soldiers. It also probably had the edge in artillery (Allmand, p. 89, thinks the English had no artillery at all, and this seems logical -- Henry had had artillery at Harfleur, but he was using siege guns, too big to carry in the field).
What they didn't have was a real commander (Barker, p. 251; Seward, p. 165). Charles VI and the dauphin were not present, and there was no real boss appointed in their place. Both the Marshall and Constable of France were present, but they couldn't really control their juniors, especially since many of those men stood higher in the feudal hierarchy (Barker, p. 261; Allmand, p. 90, notes that the Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and Alencon -- all of whom had been allied with Henry VI in 1412! -- were young men in favor of fighting as soon as possible).
To top it all off, every high lord wanted to be in on the fight, so most of them ended up in the front line, leaving their troops leaderless (Barker, p. 266).
In accordance with the standards of the time, there was one last parley before the battle. What happened is uncertain. French chroniclers have claimed Henry found the French host daunting, and offered to give back all his gains if allowed to avoid battle (Barker, pp. 273-274; Jarman, p. 150; Seward, p. 163, though this sounds suspiciously like the story of the Black Prince at Poitiers). If Henry made the offer, it is certain that the French, believing in their numbers, refused, or demanded impossible terms (Jarman's version is that they demanded Henry renounce the crown of France), and the battle became certain (Earle, pp. 137-128). The French may even have tried to insult the English at the final parley; one of the commissioners was a man who had been an English prisoner and had broken parole (Barker, p. 273).
Having lost the chance for peace, Henry refused to show any sign of fear, declaring that he would not allow himself to be captured and ransomed (Jarman, p. 156); he would win or he would die in the field (Barker, p. 257). With a leader like that, there was no question of command structure on the English side! (Allmand, p. 90).
Henry is also supposed to have addressed his troops before the battle (Jarman, p. 156). Of course, with a line at least half a mile long, already in formation, the majority could not hear a word he said. Presumably this is just another instance of chroniclers putting their words in his mouth. Similarly, there are a few reports of Saint George (England's patron saint) being seen over the field. This probably says more about the chroniclers than conditions during the battle.
It is interesting to note that Henry defied convention to a significant extent in organizing his forces -- no doubt thereby avoiding the command problems the French experienced. He had enough high nobility that he could have placed an earl in charge of each division, but he chose to entrust the left wing to Lord Camoys (Barker, p. 261). Henry himself commanded the center (though he also fought in line himself; Seward, p. 168, reports that a French knight actually damaged the crown he wore upon his helmet). The right was entrusted to the Duke of York, the senior noble to die in the battle (supposedly of suffocation when he fell over, since he was very heavy; Earle, p. 143; Featherstone, p. 151; Jarman, p. 175, calls him "fat and scheming", though Barker, p. 303, declares this a "Tudor invention," and I suspect this is correct -- the Tudors wanted to discredit anyone associated with the House of York). Seward, p. 169, reports that the other high casualties were the Earl of Suffolk and half a dozen knights. There were, of course, many wounded, including the King's younger brother the Duke of Gloucester. The wound was said to be "in the hammes," which makes me wonder if this might not have had something to do with his childlessness. Of course, his three older brothers combined to have one child between them, so maybe not.
Although Earle, p. 137, says that the field of Agincourt was "almost perfect for the formality of a medieval battle," Henry had chosen what was, for him just about an ideal position (Jarman, p. 140). (There is a map on p 83 of Keegan , one on p. 147 of Featherstone, and another in Seward, p. 165, a fourth on Jarman, p. 159. These differ substantially -- Seward's map shows a much larger field than Keegan's and has the axis of the field, and hence the French attack, coming from northwest to southeast; Featherstone agrees with this construction. Seward's narrative, interestingly, says that the French were directly north of the English. Keegan, whom I would normally consider more reliable, shows the field pointing from northeast to southwest. Jarman's map is almost straight north to south, but angles slightly northeast-southwest. But all agree on the basic formations, and in all of them, the French are the to the north, the English to the south).
It is said that Henry ordered the army to be very quiet on the night before the battle. It is not clear what his reason was; perhaps he wanted to confuse the French or make them think the English weaker or more demoralized than they were. He seems to have succeeded (Jarman, p. 146).
Henry picked a field that was narrow enough that he could extend his line all the way across it (though wide enough that he was left with only a single line; Barker, p. 260). There was no reserve except a few dozen men guarding the baggage (Barker, p. 271; Earle, p. 139; Featherstone, p. 146), but the field had forest on either side and the towns of Azincourt/Agincourt and Tramecourt beyond the woods. This meant the French could not attack his flanks -- men-at-arms, whether mounted or not, simply weren't mobile enough to go through the woods. The only way the French could attack him was by charging down the field in the face of his arrow fire. And, with the ground so muddy from the recent rain, any attack, whether on foot or on horseback, would proceed very slowly (Barker, p. 259).
The French did not cooperate. Unlike the wars of the previous century, they did not immediately charge the English. Impetuous charges had cost them at Crecy, so they decided not to risk it. After all, to this point the longbow had served mostly at a defensive weapon. If they didn't attack, what could Henry do except try to retreat -- which would give the French the opportunity to attack with the English at a disadvantage. As a result, both sides spent several hours adjusting their lines and preparing (Barker, p. 254).
Henry outsmarted the French. After waiting long enough to be sure they would not advance (Keegan, p. 89), he ordered his army to move forward (Allmand, p. 91, estimates they moved forward 700 yards) so that they were just barely within longbow range of the French, and had his archers start firing (Earle, p. 141). They probably did not injure many knights at that range, but they irritated them and hurt their horses (Keegan, p. 94). The French should perhaps have tried a cavalry charge during Henry's advance (Barker, p. 279), but they didn't, and so blew perhaps their last chance to win the battle. No doubt the disorganization of their large force, and the fact that all the commanders had come to the front, contributed to the tactical ineptitude (Barker, p. 279).
(There was a little luck for the English, we should note: Although Agincourt was fought on a rather cold day, it was not raining, as it had been earlier in the campaign; the archers could string their bows. What would have happened had the French caught the English in a rainstorm would have been altogether another matter -- though they might have been unable to *reach* the English in the mud.)
The English archers each carried a stake, which they set in front of them to slow attacking horses. Featherstone, p. 148, says that this was a new technique invented for the Agincourt war (though this seems a bit odd, since even the French were mostly fighting dismounted by this time). It has usually been assumed that they set up a line of stakes all across the front, but Keegan, pp. 91-92, notes that this fence would have been so thick (he estimates the stakes would have been five inches apart) that the English themselves could not maneuver around the line. He suggests that they were in a checkerboard, one stake in front of each archer whether in the front rank or farther back. This would have interfered with the movement of horsemen but not the dismounted archers. This makes sense but cannot be proved.
It should be remembered that the English knights by this time always fought dismounted. Sure, they had horses, and they still practiced with the lance, at least sometimes (even half a century later, tournaments and jousting were popular), but they fought their actual battles on foot. Thus, Agincourt was essentially a contest of mounted French knights against archers and armored footmen. It is true that most of the French also fought dismounted -- but the mounted men often pushed the others forward. The French forces were so jammed together that it actually slowed their advance and reduced their effectiveness -- problems the mud made even worse (Allmand, pp. 92-93).
At least one French charge, probably the first, did reach the English line (Earle, p. 141). But it was uncoordinated and under-strength (Barker, p. 280), and the mud again cost the French: Their men-at-arms were almost immobile in their armor, but the English bowmen could move about and come to the aid of their armored comrades (Seward, p. 167). It is likely that relatively few of the dismounted Frenchmen died from arrows (which rarely penetrated at long range); they died of exhaustion or drowning in mud or falling and being unable to rise and being killed while helpless. The only way they could have avoided this was by charging on horseback -- but the longbows had no trouble killing the horses.
The bottom line was a complete disaster for the French: Nearly their only success was that some robbers had managed to lift much of Henry's personal possessions from the baggage (Barker, p. 295), but that was no help. The English had about 300 losses (Seward, p. 169); Seward guesses French casualties at 10,000. This may be high, but we have little to go on; we can't even count graves (the bodies mostly went in mass graves, and these have not been firmly identified; Barker, p. 317). Rubin, p. 218, says the English lost 500, the French 7000, with more losses from suffocation as the soldiers were buried in mud than from arrow fire.
All this from a battle that lasted only about three hours (Jarman, p. 175).
Our information on the French nobility is more definite: Casualties were three dukes, seven counts, and 120 barons. (In an irony that would become sharper over the next decade, the list included the Duke of Brabant and the Count of Nevers, brothers of the Duke of Burgundy, even though there was no Burgundian contingent in the army; Barker, p. 308.) The French would never again dare fight Henry V in an open battle (Earle, p. 148).
Many of the French dead were never identified, leaving a large number of widows who never knew their husbands' fates (Barker, pp. 312-313).
The local gentry, according to Barker, p. 306, was particularly hard-hit; Agincourt village itself lost Renaud, sire d'Azincourt, and the other nearby village, Tramecourt, lost Jean and Renaud de Tramecourt. This loss of so many locals made further resistance to Henry just about impossible at this time, and (according to Barker, p. 364) made the 1417-1419 conquest of Normandy much easier.
So deeply did the battle embed itself into English consciousness that to be "with King Harry on St. Crispin's day" was still a metaphor for being in the thick of battle half a millennium later. (Of course, the fact that this similar to a Shakespeare quote probably helped.)
The English committed one unquestioned atrocity, though Barker, p. 289, considers it "the only [action] possible" and Jarman, p. 174, justifies it as "a case of medieval expediency." Even after the battle, the French outnumbered the English, and when Henry thought they were about to attack him again, he ordered his prisoners killed; he felt he needed their guards in the line  (Seward, p. 168; Earle, p. 142; Keegan, pp. 108-111, discusses the matter but argues at the end that it was not carried out on a large scale and suggests that Henry was simply trying to scare the prisoners to keep them out of mischief; Allmand, p. 95, also thinks the massacre exaggerated). This was definitely against the rules at the time, and many troops refused to do it (though probably out of desire for ransoms rather than higher motives).
One report, unconfirmed, is that Henry forced the most noble of his captives to wait on him at his meal that night (Barker, p. 321; Jarman, p. 178). It's hard to know what to make of this. It obviously would make the captives resent him,perhaps making them less likely to acknowledge him -- but it would also emphasize their vassal status. And it certainly fits Henry's extreme view of his own importance. Barker, p. 322, nonetheless thinks the story untrue.
Agincourt is almost always held up as the high point of Henry's campaigns; the Agincourt Carol, for instance, was composed about it. But, as Seward, p. 170, points out, it was really just an incident in another _chevauchee_. Perroy (admittedly prejudiced on this point) dismisses it in a couple of sentences on page 239, and declares that "the campaign of Agincourt meant nothing decisive." This is exaggerated -- if nothing else, it meant that Parliament voted Henry a huge subsidy to finance future campaigns (Barker, p. 341), which was a big deal indeed. Also, since the Constable of France had been killed, a new Constable was needed -- and the man appointed was Bernard d'Armagnac (Allmand, p. 102), making the conflict between Burgundians and Armagnacs more bitter.
Still, it is true that, despite Agincourt, Henry so far had made no real progress on conquering France (apart from Harfleur). The next two years were relatively quiet, though the French would try and fail to retake Harfleur (Allmand, pp. 102-103). In 1416-1417, Henry's navy gained naval superiority in the channel (Seward, p. 171); control of Harfleur definitely helped with this (Allmand, p. 99. Allmand, pp. 106-107, calls this battle "the most telling" naval conflict of the Hundred Years' War, but most sources brush it off in a few words). The papal schism healed. Henry managed to gain theoretical recognition as King of France (though no military help) from the Emperor (Perroy, p. 240; Allmand, pp. 104-105 notes that Sigismund made a long and very expensive visit) But Henry made no major moves until 1417.
>>THE SECOND INVASION AND TROYES: HENRY THE HEIR OF FRANCE<<
The political situation in this period was very fluid. Originally, Henry seems to have had no deal with Burgundy. He invaded and fought at Agincourt on his own -- though there were few Burgundians in the defeated French army. But the Burgundians,having seen their enemies slaughtered, occupied Paris and killed every Armagnac they could find (Guerard, p. 106). Eventually they made peace gestures to the Armagnacs -- and then, in 1419, the Armagnacs assassinated John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy (Allmand, p. 135; Earle, p. 172; Seward, p. 180). For one act of petty revenge, they opened France to a joint English/Burgundian conquest. It came to be said that the English entered France through the hole in John's skull (Butler, p. xiii; Earle, p. 177).
Henry by then was invading Normandy. His second campaign began in 1417 (Seward, p. 171). Allmand, p. 113, thinks the forces involved were slightly smaller than in the Agincourt campaign, but in practice it was probably a stronger force because it didn't suffer as badly from disease. Their first stop was Caen, Normandy's second city. (Allmand, p. 116, hints that Henry might have been trying to set up a separate Norman administration, since Rouen was too strong to capture at this time, and Caen was easier to support from the sea.) Caen had been heavily fortified since Edward III had attacked it (Earle, p. 157), but apparently the walls were not designed to resist artillery (Earle, p. 158). Henry took the town by assault on September 4, and stayed in Normandy over the winter, capturing Bayeux, Argentan, Alencon, Falais, Cherbourg, and other towns (Allmand, p. 120; Seward, p. 173).
By 1418, Henry was besieging Rouen, which was the hardest operation he had attempted so far; the citizens had gathered much food and also destroyed anything the Englisn could use outside the walls (Allmand, p. 123). It was a brutal siege -- Henry, being the sort of man he was, when the garrison expelled useless mouths, would not let them pass through his lines, but left them outside the walls of the city to starve (Allmand, pp. 124-125, who declared that he had not put them there; this by contrast to Edward III, who had allowed the refugees expelled from Calais during the siege of that town go free; Sedgwick, p. 63). He also staged a mock battle to raise the hopes of the besieged, and perhaps lure them out of the walls (Allmand, p. 124). The city surrendered in early 1419 (Seward, pp. 175-177). That gave him control of effectively all of Normandy.
Unfortunately for him, he could not really colonize it, as he had hoped to; while England was prosperous due to the Black Death, it no longer had surplus population eager to leave home (Seward, p. 178). Henry supplied such colonists as he could, but the Normans remained mostly French -- even the government, although organized as a separate province entirely independently of the old French system (Perroy, p. 249), consisted mostly of Normans, with only a few thousand English troops and a few dozen English officials.
The war was affecting England significantly by this time; it appears no troops were sent to Henry in 1419 (Allmand, p. 130). Still, with the French unwilling to fight, Henry had no trouble conquering more and more territory: Every time he started a siege, he had a local superiority in numbers, and the garrison never had help from outside. (Henry may not have realized that they were afraid of him, but he certainly knew that Armagnacs and Burgundians were so bitter against each other than they would never be able to turn against him; Earle, p. 150.)
It was in 1419 that negotiations started again. Henry apparently saw his future wife Katherine for the first time in that year. At this stage, it appears that Henry was demanding, at minimum, a marriage to Katherine, money, and Normany and a large Acquitaine in full sovreignty (Allmand, pp. 131-132). These conditions remained unacceptable to the French. So Henry went back to trying to take the whole country. By the end of the year, his raiders were appearing outside Paris and the French court had retreated to Troyes (Allmand, p. 134).
Then came the murder of Burgundy mentioned above. Suddenly, the dauphin was discredited, and there was no chance of peace between the Burgundian and Armagnac factions. Allmand, pp. 136-137, thinks that this is the point at which Henry decided unequivocally that he would try to become King of France.
Guerard, p. 108, points out that there was no really inherent reason why the crowns of England and France could not be united. The monarchs had intermarried many times. It was only in the last few decades that the English kings had ceased to speak French as their native language (though, as Perroy comments with a rather French disdain on p. 60, it was "a peculiarly bastard dialect of that language, Anglo-Norman, full of English words and queer twists"); they might easily have gone back to speaking French. Dual monarchies had managed in the past to combine into single nations, though it would be more common in the future (think Great Britain, made up of England and Scotland, or Spain, made up of Castile and Aragon). England itself had incorporated Wales as recently as the time of Henry V's great-great-great-grandfather Edward I, and England itself been built up from smaller nations in the century and a half before the Norman Conquest.
To be sure, Perroy, p. 248, declares that "the 'dual monarchy' was doomed to failure." But Perroy -- who, after all, wrote during the German occupation of France -- has as his one fault an extreme aversion to the idea of enemies on French soil. The fact was, the French didn't have much resistance left, and would find it hard to develop any as long as the Armagnacs and Burgundians remains more hostile to each other than they were to the English.
Certainly the Armagnac court was powerless. The mad king Charles VI had lost several sons, but there was still one left, the future Charles VII. It might, however, be possible to have him declared illegitimate. (Given the behavior of his mother Isabeau of Bavaria, who went along with the story, it might even be true; certainly it was believable, because she had probably had the Duke of Orleans at least into her bed, and maybe others.) That meant that one of the daughters of Charles VI was arguably the heir (so much for the Salic Law). The eldest daughter had already been married to Richard II, but she was now dead. Some of her younger sisters were also married, but the youngest, Katherine, was still available (Perroy, p. 243; Allmand, p. 68, notes that Henry had been negotiating for her hand as early as the beginning of his reign, though balancing that off by discussing a Burgundian wife as well.).
By 1420, the French government was forced to negotiate. And, in the negotiations, Henry gained more than he had probably ever dreamed possible: He became heir to the Kingdom of France (Seward, p. 182). He would marry Katherine, the youngest daughter of Charles VI; the Dauphin was disowned and declared a bastard by his own mother (according to Earle, pp. 191-193, she needed some persuading -- apparently she never actually declared her son illegitimate, and certainly never said who was the father -- but eventually agreed to his abandonment when it was clear she had no other choice, and as a result the Dauphin almost decided to give up his throne). It was agreed that Henry would follow Charles VI on the throne (Earle, p. 191, thinks that this clause was inserted so that the Duke of Burgundy, who of course was deeply involved in the negotiations, would not be guilty of deposing his own king). Henry would have to conquer the rest of France, but at the rate things were going, it seemed perfectly possible; after all, most of the north was in his hands, and the fighting there was almost over. Burgundy was on his side. Paris would take *anything* in preference to a return of the Armagnacs (Earle, p. 190). And Henry was already acting as regent (Perroy, p. 243). The English king looked unstoppable.
Formally, it was not a union of the two nations of France and England; it was simply a Union of the Crowns (Allmand, p. 149), such as happened when James VI of Scotland became James I of England. The French would keep their national identity. (I would love to know what the fallback plan was should Henry have died without heirs. Allmand, p. 150, says that Henry's English heirs were supposed to be heirs of France also, but they weren't married to French princesses!)
The whole agreement, which took eight months to negotiate (Butler, p. xiii), was known as the Treaty of Troyes. Henry ratified the treaty at Troyes on May 20-21, 1420 (Earle, pp. 193-194; Butler, p. xiv), though it was not until September 1 that he formally entered Paris, along with Charles VI (who by now was barely able to ride a horse) and Duke Philip of Burgundy (Seward, p. 183; Earle, p. 196; Butler, p. xv).
The Troyes agreement is usually called a "Treaty," which is the same term as is used for Bretigny. But as Allmand notes on p. 145, it was really quite different. Troyes was a victor's preace, negotiated less by the French government than by the Burgundians, and the meeting at Troyes was not a negotiation but simply a ratification. (Some Frenchmen would in fact claim that it was improperly agreed to; Allmand, p. 149. But all the forms were followed; technically, it was the French, not the English, who violated the treaty.)
It is interesting to note that Troyes gave France a written constitution for the first time (Butler, p. 2). Naturally it was thrown out when the Lancastrian dynasty was expelled. Perroy, p. 247, declares that it contained flaws of "both form and substance," which is doubtless true (the French at this time were much better lawyers than the English, as the Treaty of Bretigny had shown) -- but it was a deal between conquered and conqueror; in practical terms, it was an agreement by which Henry would govern France; it might well have worked had he survived.
Troyes was a substantial accomplishment, because potentially Henry would actually merge the two countries. Edward III had probably not contemplated that (Perroy, p. 209, thinks Edward would have given France to one of his younger sons after his death, re-separating the crowns, though this strikes me as highly unlikely. Earle, p. 190, declares that Henry was specifically after a "personal union of the two crowns").
On the other hand, Allmand, p. 441, concludes that Troyes was a mistake on Henry's part. He bit off more than England could chew -- and as a result, England eventually lost not just the throne of France but even the English territories in Guyenne. Allmand admits that any settlement would have eventually been challenged, but thinks that Henry would have been more realistic to take only Normandy and an enlarged Guyenne -- in other words, the territories he initially demanded. In other words, success corrupted him.
It will tell you what sort of person Henry was that, only two days after his marriage, he rode back to war (Earle, p. 194; Butler, p. xiv). (I have to insert a side note here, which is rather curious. Henry, as we see, quickly left his wife. Later, he would take no part in her English coronation; Allmand, p. 157. Nor would she be present when he died; Allmand, p. 175. Yet she quickly became pregnant. After Henry's death, she would take Owen Tudor as a secret lover -- possibly a secret husband as well, but this was never proved. Given the seeming sterility of Henry's three brothers, is it possible that she cuckolded her husband? I have never seen this discussed elsewhere; here is yet another instance where DNA testing would be interesting.)
Ironically, the English suffered the first real bad news of Henry's career soon after, when his brother Thomas of Clarence, the heir to the throne, was killed in an impetuous and useless skirmish at Bauge in 1421 (Seward, pp. 185-186; Butler, p. xv. It's easy to understand why he was doing it, though -- Earle, p. 165, notes how Henry during the Normandy campaign "subcontracted" conquest to his lords, granting them French land if they could conquer it. Allmand, p. 159, also notes that Clarence was upset because "he had not yet won honor in battle"; he had missed Agincourt due to illness). Bauge, apart from costing some hard-to-replace troops, did little to change the strategic situation -- but it boosted the morale of the French, meaning that Henry's grip on the country was much weakened; the local lords who had submitted to him started to change their minds. Henry had to hurry back to France to redress the situation (Earle, p. 200-204; Perroy, p. 268). 
Later in that year, at Windsor, Queen Katherine bore the child who was to be sole heir to the thrones of France and England, the future Henry VI (Seward, p. 187). It was a significant boost to English morale (Allmand, p. 167), but father and son would never know each other. French towns continued to hold out for the Dauphin, and Henry V was growing increasingly cruel in his methods -- e.g. he hanged the entire garrison of Rougemont (Seward, p. 186). Toward the end of the year, he began the siege of the well-fortified town of Meaux.
It took almost half a year, and once again much of the English army was afflicted by disease. Among them King Henry himself. By the summer of 1422, he could no longer ride a horse and had to be carried on a litter (Earle, p. 212). Still, it looked as if the Dauphinists were on the brink of defeat and France and England on the verge of union. Unfortunately for the world, which was doomed to see another three and a half centuries of conflict between Britain and France, several things went wrong.
For starters, Henry V died.
>>THE DEATH OF HENRY V AND THE REGENCY OF BEDFORD<<
It is likely the cause of death was the dysentary Henry contracted at the siege of Meaux (Butler, p. xvi, and Jarman, p. 187, specifically mentions amoebic dysentary, although Allmand, p. 173, says that the precise cause of death cannot be determined), though he managed to take the town (Seward, p. 188). By the time he made it back to Paris, it was clear that he would not survive. He became the first English king since Richard I in 1199 to die outside England, meaning that he could not give final directions to his English council (Allmand, p. 173). And he had not lived long enough to succeed to the throne of France; Charles VI was still alive (though he would not live much longer, dying two months later after a reign of 42 years; Barker, p. xvii). Henry made arrangements for the government of England and France, appointing his irresponsible youngest brother Humphrey of Gloucester to head a conciliar English government  (Perroy, p. 268) and the more reliable John of Bedford to be regent of France (though Bedford was supposed to offer to the job of the Duke of Burgundy. Burgundy turned it down; Butler, p. xvi; Perroy, pp. 269-270). Henry then died, at the age of 35, on August 31, 1422 (Earle, p. 213). His heir, who was now Henry VI of England, was nine months old.
I frankly suspect that the death of Henry was good. He was getting power-mad, and vengeful. At the siege of Meaux, e.g., he demanded -- and got -- the execution of a French trumpeter who had razzed him (Allmand, p. 168). This was not the action of a chivalrous king of France; it was the act of a petty tyrant. It is frightening to think what he might have been like in another twenty years. The real question was, could his achievements stand in other hands?
Had Henry conquered France? No. He had taken over the government, but only the regions north of the Loire acknowledged him, and not all of those. And only the Burgundian alliance made it all possible. Perroy, p. 249, considers that France was actually divided into three parts at this time: Lancastrian France, Anglo-Burgundian France, and Dauphinist France -- and Lancastrian France, the only area from which the English could really gather revenue, was very small (Perroy, p. 253); it really consisted of little more than Normandy.
Perroy, p. 267, suggests that, at this time, the English should have gone all-out to try to catch the Dauphin, even though it would have meant raiding deep into unconquered territory and risking being trapped. Clearly it would have ended the war one way or another. Henry V might have managed it. Bedford, with half a country to hold together without the prestige of kingship, didn't risk it; he tried to slowly bring more and more territory under his control.
Still, the English had control of Paris through the Burgundians (and even, to a large extent, the support of the Parisians, who wanted an end to civil war above all else; Perroy, p. 247. The English garrison was only about a hundred men, according to Butler, p. 27 -- far too few even to stop a riot if on had started). The English had direct control of Normandy, and portions of Guyenne; and Henry VI could at least claim to be a descendant of the beloved French monarch Saint Louis on both his father's and mother's side (something English propaganda made much of; Rubin, p. 225); given enough additional troops and money, Bedford might be able to complete the conquest of France. The death of Henry did not immediately end the war; indeed, for a short time, the English continued to win. It was almost all due to Bedford, the Regent of France. "It was soon clear to all that there was no better person to carry on the task left by the late King Henry. Lacking his brother's harshness (and his religious fanaticism), John of Bedford possessed to the full King Henry's flair for diplomacy and his strong sense of justice. To these he added a sincere desire to establish enlightened government in France" (Butler, p. 5).
In 1423, Bedford managed to forge an agreement between England, Burgundy, and Brittany (Seward, p. 196). To cement this, he married Anne, the favorite sister of the Duke of Burgundy (Butler, pp. 19-20), though she is said to have been rather ugly. (They apparently became very fond of each other even so, though the marriage was childless; Burgundy did not desert the alliance until she died.)  If the agreement had been maintained, it would almost certainly have been the end of France. Also in 1423, the brilliant Earl of Salisbury won a medium-sized battle at Cravant (Butler, pp. 24-25; Seward, pp. 196-198), which prevented a French counter-offensive and showed that English tactics could be used by someone other than the dead King.
The French made one last attempt at an offensive in 1424. A large number of Scots had come to join the French armies (Butler, p. 33), and they wanted to fight, and were apparently causing trouble while they waited to do so (Perroy, p. 263). Bedford assembled what was surely the largest army he had ever led. In the confrontation which followed, the Scots wanted to fight, the French did not (Butler, p. 35). The Scots would have been well advised to listen.
Bedford and Salisbury met the French at Verneuil. As usual, the English were outnumbered (two to one, according to Butler, p. 39; on p. 40 he estimates English numbers at eight or nine thousand, French numbers at fifteen to seventeen thousand). It was a much closer thing that Agincourt -- the French managed to get into Bedford's baggage train, and also managed to attack part of his army before the archers had managed to fully dig in their defensive stakes (Butler, p. 38). Much of the long battle consisted of direct battle between the men-at-arms on each side. Yet, somehow, the English drove off the French wing, and then turned to encircle the Scots, who had earlier rejected quarter and were given none (Butler, p. 39). Although a very near-run thing, it ended with a complete victory for the English. This eliminated the last real army of the Dauphin (Seward, pp. 198-201; Perroy, p. 272) and left him too poor to field another (Butler, p. 40). It also caused tension between the French and the Scots; they would not actually fight together for many years after that (Seward, p. 202).
It was the last great English victory of the war.
Interestingly, the newest book I've seen on the subject, Butler's, argues on pp. 41-42 that the English might have won the war if, in 1424 after Verneuil, they had gone straight after the French court-in-exile at Bourges. This is similar to Perroy's suggestion that they should have gone after Charles VII in 1420. It was their last real chance for victory -- the Dauphin might well have been ready to give in.
The English didn't try. Probably they didn't realize how close the Dauphin was to defeat, and they recalled what had happened after Clarence had been killed. A defeat when pursuing the Dauphin would probably have meant the end of Lancastrian France. Better to continue the slow round of sieges and incremental gains. The problem was, of course, that it gave the French time to rebuild. The failure to follow up Verneuil did not automatically mean that the English would be defeated, but it did mean that the long, costly occupation had to continue -- and the money had to come from somewhere.
Which in turn meant that Verneuil was a hollow victory. France had been devastated (Seward, p. 194, comments that "Lancastrian France eventually became a wilderness laid waste by its garrisons, by deserters, by [robbers], and by Dauphinist raiders"), and England was broke (Perroy, p. 255). There was so little silver in Lancastrian France that it was almost impossible even to strike coins (Butler, pp. 40-41). Bedford would never get another chance for a knockout blow -- he couldn't afford to raise a big enough army. Normandy, which had to provide most of the money for England's war, was not up to the task -- Perroy, p. 257, notes that Bedford summoned the Norman Estates more than twenty times in thirteen years, but there was only so much that could be collected. Perroy, p. 262, estimates the revenue available in Dauphinist France to have been five times that which could be raised in Normandy.
Paris in particular was troublesome. The citizens were not rebellious, exactly, since they didn't want the Armagnacs back, but their enthusiasm was limited. Bedford used circus stunts to try to keep the citizens of Paris happy (Butler, p. 51, tells of a contest in which four blind men were engaged to try to kill a pig using hammers), but it couldn't hide the high taxes. Worse, the Parisians were often starving; bad harvests and brigands made it very hard to acquire food (cf. e.g. Butler, pp. 65-68,142-143. Almost every year of his history brings similar reports).
And it was proving difficult to keep the Duke of Burgundy, on whom everything depended, happy. In 1424, Humphrey of Gloucester, who had married the dubiously divorced Countess of Hainault (knowing she couldn't get a divorce from the regular pope, she had gone to an anti-Pope; Perroy, pp. 270-271), had led a private expedition into the low countries (Barker, p. 19; Butler, p. 45; Seward, p. 202), which angered a lot of people and distracted the English war effort; Bedford had to spend the period from 1425 to 1427 in England trying to calm things down and raise money and troops (Butler, p. 55). Bedford managed to pick up a little money, but few troops, and meanwhile, the war languished.
(To top it all off, the expedition was a failure and the Countess of Hainault walked out on Gloucester; Perroy, p. 271; Butler, p. 47, points out that Gloucester's disaster was good news for Bedford, since it meant he didn't have to directly intervene militarily.)
The French, meanwhile, had finally found a decent general in Dunois, the Bastard of Orleans, who made his name beginning in 1427. More would be heard from him later.
>>ORLEANS<<
Simple economics meant that the war would soon slow down. The question was whether the English could win before the collapse. They would find out at Orleans.
Butler, p. 4, calls Orleans the "real center" of Dauphinist France, though the actual government was carried on elsewhere. If Orleans it fell, it might well cripple the Dauphinists. The Earl of Salisbury, the best English general, therefore pressed hard to attack the city. Bedford finally gave in, even though he had wanted to campaign in Anjou (Butler, p. 78).
It wasn't going to be easy for the English, who had only a small army. Orleans was too large for the besiegers to encircle, and too strong to take by assault (Seward, pp. 209-210). Myers, p. 124, calls it "a travesty of a siege." Still, Salisbury was a genius, who if he could not invest the town was at least cutting off the roads and river passages which led to it (Butler, pp. 78-81). Many think he might have taken the city had he lived. But some sort of artillery, fired "at a venture" (as 1 Kings would put it), injured him fatally (Myers, p. 275; Butler, p. 81, says it was fired by the child!); Salisbury died October 27, 1428, and was replaced by the Earl of Suffolk (so Butler, p. 82, and Seward; Wilkinson, p. 261, says it was Lord Talbot; but Talbot was merely the most famous of the junior officers there and, if we are to believe Butler, p. 82, the one who caused the most fear among the defenders). Suffolk simply sat down to grind out the fight.
(If you want a picture of what Suffolk was like, consider this: When the French attacked Suffolk's army at Jargeau, and Suffolk was captured, he thought it so unbecoming to be captured by a mere squire that he insisted upon knighting him on the spot, even though he was an enemy; Butler, p. 98.)
One attempt to break the siege was defeated by Sir John Fastolfe at the so-called "Battle of the Herrings" (so-called because French artillery damaged the casks containing English Lenten provisions; Featherstone, p, 162 calls it the "Battle of Rouvray," but no one else uses that title), but that just meant the siege dragged on (Butler, pp. 86-87).
Guerard calls Orleans the Verdun, or the Stalingrad, of the Hundred Years War (p. 109). And it was at Orleans that Jean Darc appeared.
The lack of troops meant that the English perimeter around the city was insufficiently manned (Perroy, p. 283); it might be better to call it a blockade. But even that was loose; food could still get in at times -- especially by river, since Suffolk had not done anything to block off the Loire (Butler, p. 94). Plus Suffolk had for a time pulled back his outposts in the fall, allowing the defenders to lay in supplies and improve their defences (Butler, p. 82). And Bedford and Burgundy had a disagreement at this time, resulting in Burgundy pulling his troops out of the siege and from the supply routes leading to it (Butler, pp. 88-89). As a result, those inside the walls were not only more numerous but often in better health than those outside. Perroy, p. 275, thinks the city still would have fallen eventually, but the English historians mostly disagree. The porous encirclement also lead Jean enter the city on April 30, 1429 (Seward, p. 212). And Bedford had no hope of bringing in reinforcements, due to lack of money -- he was already being forced to cut his officials' pay (Butler, p. 91), a problem made worse by significant English casualties during an Armagnac raid toward Paris.
Jean Darc, or Joan of Ark, will always be controversial -- in part because we know so little about her. A peasant girl from Domremy, we don't even know the year she was born; Wilkinson, p. 261, says "probably in 1412." Butler, p. 96, mentions the sort-of-traditional date of January 4, 1412, but admits uncertainty. Perroy, p. 282, says her career began when she was between 16 and 20, which would allow birth dates between 1409 and 1413. Seward, p. 213, says her visions began when she was about 17, before her public career, implying a birth date of perhaps 1411. Keen, p. 257, seems to place her first visions much earlier, "just after the treaty of Troyes," which would hint that the hormonal changed caused by menarche might have caused them.
Her first communication to the English was a letter to Bedford, dated March 22, 1429, calling on the English to withdraw from France or suffer divine punishment (Butler, p. 93).
A modern presented with a list of her behaviors would almost certainly describe her as a schizophrenic; even Perroy, whose attitude on this is not very rational, admits on p. 282 that "In our skeptical days people would be inclined to regard Joan as mad, mentally deficient, visionary, or even bogus. Her contemporaries simply wondered whether she was sent by God or the devil." Butler, while seeming to have a lot of respect for her, on p. 93 calls her letter "highly illiterate." In due time, the English would burn her as a heretic; the French would revere her as a saint. The English were surely wrong; she was an orthodox Catholic. I'm not convinced the French are right, either; she was a nut case. But she had the right message for France. As Guerard comments on p. 109, "For posterity she imparted a mystic prestige to the cause of that sorry personage Charles VII."
And, after she arrived, the English siege of Orleans -- managed by relatively weak officers and conducted by insufficient forces -- failed. It wasn't exactly that Jean Darc had worked magic -- even Guerard, with a Frenchman's inflated opinion of her, admits that "the material and moral aid brought by Joan was sufficient to turn the tide" (p. 111). Wilkinson, p. 260, says that moderns have "magnified... [her] contemporary significance." Perroy, p. 283, concedes, "She knew nothing of the art of war, and thought that abstaining from oaths and brothels was enough to ensure victory for the soldiers." (The claim that she died a virgin seems to have been true; Butler, p. 138.) At least one of her suggestions, if carried out, might have led to the fall of Orleans, since it would have given the English an easy chance to capture a major supply convoy (Butler, p. 94). It was captains, such as Dunois, who led the actual fighting, often refusing to accept her suggestions. But, somehow, it was sufficient. A raid on the English fortifications captured a key strong point, and the English were no longer in position to guard all the entrances to the city (Butler, pp. 95-96). They tried to get the French to come out and fight. The French refused, and the English were out of ideas.
On May 8, 1429, the English gave up the siege of Orleans (Seward, pp. 216-219). Jean went on to have Charles VII formally crowned at Rheims, at last giving France a legitimist King. The English responded by finally crowning the seven-year-old Henry VI in England (Butler, p. 119), though it was not until 1431 that they sent him across the channel to be crowned King of France (Butler, p. 148, who notes on p. 149 that this was the first time he ever met his maternal grandmother). But since Rheims was in Dauphinist hands, Henry VI was crowned King of France in Paris -- which was not considered an official coronation; Perroy, p. 287. (Perroy, p. 285, gives the crowning of Charles VII a mystic significance which it clearly did not have, but it definitely improved the anti-English position.) To make matters worse, Henry's coronation was done in English style, apparently by Cardinal Beaufort rather than a French prelate (Butler, p. 150). The French naturally considered this a significant insult. Plus the whole banquet and celebration was completely mishandled, losing a chance to make the Parisians like their new monarch, who came off as ungenerous and inept (Butler, pp. 150-153). Admittedly the Lancastrian government was broke -- but, at this stage, they really needed to invest in keeping Paris happy, and they didn't.
The French found much encouragement in the fact that the Dauphin was now, finally, King, and when they caught up with Lord Talbot and Sir John Fastolfe at Patay, Jean pushed her soldiers into a quick attack, which proved a significant success; Talbot and several others were captured, though Fastolfe managed to keep a portion of the English army intact (Butler, pp. 103-104). It didn't change the fact that the French had finally won a victory in the field.
In one sense, Orleans, and Patay, and even the crowning of Charles VII was not decisive. The English expansion had been stopped, but they still controlled almost everything they had before, including Paris.
Jean wanted to change that; her next goal was Paris (Butler, p. 113). She failed in an assault (Seward, p. 221; Perroy, p. 285), and a crossbowman put a bolt in her thigh (Butler, p. 114). She lived, but her reputation for invincibility was broken -- she had apparently declared that the attackers would enter Paris that day, and of course they didn't (Butler, p. 115). She had actually weakened Lancastrian hold on the metropolis (the English turned it over to the Burgundians, and the suburbs became even more subject to raiders; Butler, pp. 119-120), but that wasn't even close to capturing the city.
The Burgundians by now were negotiating with the Dauphinists. But Charles VII was not yet willing to make sufficient concessions, and the negotiations broke down (Butler, p. 121).
Somewhat later, Jean was captured by the Burgundians (Perroy, p. 286; Seward, p. 219; Butler, p. 130, says she was wearing a "gorgeous gold and scarlet surcoat" when she was hauled from her horse, implying that she wasn't exactly dressing in poverty as was generally expected of prophets). She was turned over to the English (Perroy, p. 287, says she was sold by John of Luxembourg for 10,000 livres; Butler, p. 133, notes that the need to have her in custody was so urgent that the government actually had to get English gold for it).
Once in English hands, she was accused of heresy. The English did not invent these charges; apparently the University of Paris -- which was entirely French -- was the first to bring charges against her. Butler, pp. 131-132, thinks it was because they were "deeply suspicious of the female sex" and thought her behavior unnatural -- plus it was an era of visionaries, and far too many of those visionaries were women (Saunders, pp. 140-141, lists several examples, though a lot of these, like Catherine of Siena, sound to me more like manifestations of obsessive-compulsive disorder than anything else. Some probably did see visions, though; on the other side of the English Channel, and without the crazy rituals, think of Julian of Norwich). In the end, though, it appears Jean was called a witch less because she heard voices than because she cut her hair in a man's style and dressed like a man (cf. Perroy, p. 282; Rubin, p. 228) and rode astride a horse (cf. Butler, p. 138). Had she not engaged in those allegedly-masculine behaviors, she might simply have been called a nut.
The English subjected her to the sort of abuse inflicted on all suspected heretics (Seward, p. 219; Perroy, p. 288, notes that "[t]he cruelty of the procedure shocks our conscience as modern men. But it was simply that of the Inquisition, which was daily applied, without offending anyone, to any number of poor wretches..."). And she was only one uneducated girl trying to defend herself against legions of canon lawyers. The trial is popularly treated as a farce, but even Perroy, p. 288, admits that the judges had not "sold their consciences"; they were simply prelates who accepted the English cause. Naturally the court convicted her.
The English may not have been too happy, though -- the court did not condemn her to death out of hand. She confessed, and was sentenced to life imprisonment (Perroy, p. 289). But Jean, certainly foolish and very probably mentally disturbed, could not hold to the terms she had agreed to. Only a week after her confession, she was declared to have relapsed. Two days later, on May 30, 1431, she was shown to the crowd in Rouen, still dressed in men's clothing (Butler, p. 143, though it is not clear whether that was her idea or her captors'). After the display and some preaching, she was burned at the stake in Rouen, perhaps not yet twenty years old.
(A French-dominated re-trial in 1456 would overturn her conviction. Again Perroy, p. 280, is forced to admit that this tribunal "tried to prove too much"; already legend was displacing fact. It will tell you something about contemporary  politics that her visions were considered by the English as evidence of heresy, by the French as evidence of inspiration, rather either regarding them as being evidence of mental disturbance. And don't even get me started on the fact that she was canonized centuries later -- what was canonized was not Jean Darc, peasant girl who crowned Charles VII, but Joan of Arc, pious fiction hardly even "based on a true story.")
(Incidentally, this was not the only time a woman was burned during the English occupation. Butler, p. 7, observes that Bedford had a woman in Paris burned after she took part in a conspiracy to remove English control of Paris. Butler regards Bedford's tendency toward excessive punishment as one of his few faults. More significant for our opinion of Jean is the burning of a woman named Pieronne, who claimed to have conversed directly with God; Butler, p. 136. Even though she claimed to do much the same thing that Jean Darc did, but in slightly more explicit form, no one has canonized her....)
Guerard, p. 112: "[Jean] was burned in the Old Market Place, at Rouen, on May 30, 1431, with the name of Jesus on her lips. Charles VII had not stirred a finger to save her; the Holy Chrism had made a king of him, but not a man."
Little wonder that Charles was nicknamed "the Well-Served." In himself, he was almost helpless -- "Stunted, knock-kneed, blank-faced, epileptic and suspicious," according to Earle, p. 180. Seward, pp. 214-215, tells that his court included a Satanist who was also a child-murderer, and the king himself suffered from phobias and dabbled in astrology and similar foolishness. At this time, he was almost as useless as his younger contemporary Henry VI of England. But, somehow, France eventually rallied around him.
The tide might have turned even without Jean. Bedford managed by 1431 to recapture all ground lost in 1429-1430 (Seward, p. 221; Butler, p. 105, observes that "During the seven weeks following this calamity for the English and their allies, the Duke of Bedford acted with extraordinary judgment and energy" and adds on p. 134 that 12 fortresses were taken just in the first half of 1430). They even took the brigand captain La Hire soon after Jean was burned -- something taken as a sign that she had not been divinely inspired (Butler, p. 144). Ssomewhat later the Earl of Warwick captured another major leader, Poton de Xantrailles (Butler, p. 146). But the English were bankrupt, and Paris was starving and ready to give up on Lancaster (Seward, p. 222), and the Burgundians -- the only ones who were actually profiting from all this -- were wavering. And Jean has "forced the French military and political class out of a sense of inevitable defeat" (Rubin, p. 228). Charles VII still refused to fight the English in the field (Butler, p. 108), but as Charles V's reconquest of Acquitaine had shown, there were more ways to win a war than with set-piece battles.
Ironically, the French tried to develop a new Jean in the form of "William the Shepherd," whom Butler, p. 145, calls a "poor idiot." He didn't amount to much (the English captured him, displayed him to the Parisians, and caused him to disappear; Butler, p. 148) -- but he didn't need to. The tide was turning. Even Charles VII was starting to devote some energy to ruling (though Keen, p. 257, considers this due to the influence of a mistress).
1432 was a very bad year for the English. As usual, Paris was starving. The French actually made a raid on Lancastrian Rouen, though it failed spectacularly (Butler, pp. 1156-157). A difficult fight at Lagny was regarded as a moral defeat for the invaders, and Seward, p. 225, thinks that Bedford may have damaged his health. Later in the year, his wife, Anne of Burgundy, died in an epidemic of some kind, though she was only 28 (Butler, pp. 161-162) -- weakening the tie between the English and Burgundians, since the Duke of Burgundy was very fond of his sister. It probably also worsened relations with the Parisians, since the Duchess was popular there (Butler, pp. 43, 162).
In practical terms, her death may well have spelled the end of Lancastrian France, because Burgundy had been talking covertly with Charles VII for some time. With Anne gone, Burgundy lost his chief link to the Lancastrians.
In 1433, Bedford rather hastily remarried, to Jacquetta of Luxembourg, daughter of the Count of St. Pol (Butler, p. 166). She was 17 and very pretty (her children by her second husband, the Woodville clan, were among the most beautiful people in England, and her daughter Elizabeth Woodville would snag the future King Edward IV with her looks). Bedford and his wife had no children in their brief time together, and it may have caused further problems for the Anglo-Burgundian alliance, since Philip of Burgundy didn't want the English to increase their influence in the Low Countries (Butler, pp. 166-167). To add to his problems, the English parliament was starting to question the conduct of the war (Butler, p. 168). Admittedly it was going badly -- but they were the ones who failed to supply either adequate troops to win or adequate money for Bedford to finish it off with soldiers from the continet. In the end, Parliament in effect asked Bedford to act as regent for both France and England (Butler, p. 170), which inevitably meant that he would devote less attention to France.
By 1434, Bedford's younger brother Humphrey of Gloucester was offering to take over the war. His proposals, when examined, amounted to very little (Butler, pp. 174-175), But no one else had a better idea. As usual, nothing much was done.
Not surprisingly, the English position continued to decay. There was a rising in Normandy in 1434 (Butler, p. 176), and the garrisons in Paris were going unpaid. Yet when Philip of Burgundy suggested negotiations, Bedford unwisely turned the idea down. In 1435, as Burgundy applied more pressure, the parties actually held peace negotiations -- but they went nowhere (Butler, p. 181). Bedford apparently participated only because he was pressured by Burgundy (Butler, p. 182). He seems to have hoped the French government would fall apart due to lack of money. According to Perroy, p. 294, the best offer Bedford was willing to make to Charles VII was in effect to let him keep what he still held if he would acknowledge English overlordship. This offer was understandably rejected. It is true that,when the English gave up on the talks, the French tried to get them back -- but they really didn't need to. They were winning.
In February 1435, Bedford left Paris  (Butler, p. 182) -- for the last time, as it turned out (Seward, p. 230). Soon after, a force under the Earl of Arundel was destroyed while fighting raiders in Normandy, and Arundel suffered a fatal injury from a cannonball -- a foretaste of events in 1453 (Butler, p. 183). The French meanwhile were building works they would use to besiege Paris.
The English still might have salvaged something had they been willing to compromise; Burgundy worked hard to bring this about (Butler, pp. 185-186). But Burgundy was going to have peace no matter what. The moment the peace talks failed, the Burgundians turned about and agreed to the Treaty of Arras, reconciling them to the French monarchy (Myers, pp. 124-125; Perroy, pp. 292-294, Butler, p. 187). In the long run, it was a disastrous move for Burgundy (Seward, p. 234)  -- Louis XI would swallow the French portions of it in the 1480s when the male line of dukes failed. But the Burgundian dukes had a record of not thinking very clearly; Perroy, p. 291, suggests that Duke Philip thought he could dominate Charles VII and the French monarchy. He was wrong, but before he realized it, he had rendered the English position impossible. He also blew the chance to create an independent Burgundy, though he gained a great deal of (temporary) power in France itself (Perroy, p. 295). To top it all off, Charles VII never implemented many of his promises to Burgundy (Perroy, p. 332).
>>THE DEATH OF BEDFORD AND THE LOSS OF FRANCE<<
Bedford had blown any chance of keeping a position in France, and he seemed to know it, for he seemed to fall into despair. He would not live to see Lancastrian France destroyed. Shortly before the Treaty of Arras was formally announced, Bedford died on September 14 at Rouen (and was buried there, one of the few great English nobles buried in France); Seward, p. 231. According to Butler, p. 187, so deep was his despair that he literally turned his face to the wall and died. He was only about 46. His only offspring was a bastard son; he left most of his property to the monarchy (Butler, p. 188).
The English, minus Bedford, quickly discovered how important the Regent had been at controlling their hotheads. The Burgundians were willing to stay at peace with the English, but the English insisted on treating them as enemies from this time forward (Butler, p. 190). Naturally this made their problems worse. A few of the wiser English leaders, such as Cardinal Beaufort, gave in and started thinking about a real peace (Butler, p. 191). They had very little time.
Paris was already in a panic by late 1435 (Butler, p. 191). They sent to the government in England, which scraped up a few troops but did not get them moving in time; they seem to have promptly disbanded (Butler, p. 192).
In 1436, the French captured some small ports in Normandy (Butler, p. 195). Lord Talbot, realizing that Paris could not be held, seems to have withdrawn most of his inadequate force before the French surrounded the town (Butler, p. 196). That left the city commander, Lord Willoughby, with only a token defensive force when the French began their blockade. Even this was whittled down as the garrison was pushed into raids on areas outside the walls, and some of the raiders were captured . Although several bishops wanted to fight on, the townsfolk proved unwilling to defend the walls of Paris (Butler, pp. 200-201), and the English garrison was overwhelmed on April 13. Happily, there was no sack of the city (Butler, p. 203, though he notes on p. 204 that Charles VII would not be so gentle in future), and the besiegers even brought in food.
Lord Willoughby and his troops took refuge in the citadel, but soon had to retreat to Rouen (Seward, p. 235). This hardly brought peace to France -- the war had loosed many brigands who continued to destroy the countryside (Perroy, p. 303) -- but it meant that English revenues fell even more. Seward, p. 234, suggests that some in England were wise enough to realize that they could not win, and would have been willing to settle for Normandy and Guyenne in full sovereignty. But, as usual, there was a war party which made such a settlement impossible. They deluded themselves mostly by looking at the success of Lord Talbot, who actually managed a raid on Paris in 1437 (Butler, pp. 207-208.)
By this time, Henry VI was old enough that he might have been able to influence things. But he was about as unlike his fearsome father as it was possible to be. Wilkinson, p. 257, declares, "[N]o earlier monarch after Ethelred the Unready had been so lacking in the attributes necessary in a medieval king.... Henry VI had only scholarly learning, piety, and good intentions to commend him at a moment in history that demanded heroic virtues, the capacity for great decisions, and inflexibility of purpose." He could not run a war; he couldn't even run his own court! As Ross says on p. 21, "Unfortunately, comments on Henry's character by people writing before the Yorkist usurpation of 1461 are few and meagre, but they lend some support to the notion that he was indeed a man of limited mental capacity who was too much influenced by those around him."
From then on, the war in France was all rearguard action: A few _chevauchees_, a few raids and sieges, the latter led mostly by Lord Talbot, who was turning into "Old Talbot" -- a legendary figure in England but one who lost the only major battles he led (Seward, p. 236-237). The Earl of Warwick, the last of Henry V's great officers, died in 1439 (Seward, p. 239). Various officials were put in charge in France in the next dozen years, including the Duke of York and the Earl of Somerset. York, assisted by Talbot, managed to mostly hold his ground; the English held off attacks on Normandy and Guyenne in 1441 and 1442 (Seward, pp. 240-241). But York was spending his own money to do it (Rubin, p. 271; Gillingham, p. 66, says that by 1446 York was owed over 38,000 pounds); it was not something that could last long. And Somerset was a disaster who took a large force to France and accomplished nothing except to bring the government closer to bankruptcy (Seward, p. 242).
It was not yet a civil war in England, but with Bedford dead and Henry VI unable to control the factions, things were moving that way. On one side was Henry V's last brother, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, who favored escalating the French war though he had no real plan for how to do so. On the other was Henry's half-uncle, Cardinal Beaufort. Beaufort was more realistic; Gloucester had more popularity with the commons. Beaufort had control of the court, but could do little with it.
So bitter was the hatred that Humphrey in the 1420s had accused Beaufort of treason (Butler, p. 63). Bedford had soothed that over -- but with him gone, things got much, much worse. In the early 1440s, Humphrey's latest wife Eleanor Cobham (who had replaced Jacqueline of Hainault) was convicted of witchcraft by the Beaufort party (Wilkinson, p. 265). In 1447, they arrested Humphrey himself, and he died in custody (Gillingham, p. 60). Gillingham thinks he died of a stroke (which was the report of one contemporary chronicler), but most contemporaries apparently regarded it as murder, and in this they are followed by Wilkinson, p. 266. Rubin, p. 231, says the death took place in "mysterious circumstances."
Gloucester's death produced a real political crisis, since he was heir to the throne. With him dead, and Henry VI still childless, who was heir? Henry VI was the only true "Lancastrian" Plantagenet alive. For the first time, the question of a Beaufort succession had to be faced (Perroy, p. 336, thinks their leader, Somerset, "might aim at the succession to the King"). They were partially legitimized descendents of John of Gaunt, Henry VI's great-grandfather; if they were fully legitimized, they were the heirs to the throne. But if they were not considered legitimate, then the Duke of York was heir in male line (and actually senior to the Lancastrians in female line). In 1450, a motion was made in parliament to have York declared Henry VI's heir. The court responded by having the petitioner arrested (Rubin, p. 272; Wilkinson, p. 278). There is much dispute over the extent of York's ambitions, and his abilities (Ross-Wars, p. 28, thinks he had "little capacity or inclination to seek and win support from his fellow-noblemen or from the wider public," while admitting that he tried to provide honest government while regent) -- but it is certain that he was a better leader than Henry VI or his wife Margaret (anyone would be), and that he had been utterly mistreated by the government.
The court party, being so weak, had repeatedly tried to buy support with grants of titles and annuities; by the 1450s, due in no small part to massive grants of land to new peers (Gillingham, p. 56), Henry VI's government had revenues of less than 30,000 pounds per year, household expenses of 24,000, and a debt of 400,000 (Myers, p. 126; based on Gillingham, pp. 66-67, more than 10% of this was owed to the Duke York alone!). With no money available to pay soldiers, naturally garrisons dwindled to almost nothing. Lancastrian France was a hollow shell.
In 1444, the Earl of Suffolk (who took charge of the court party when Cardinal Beaufort retired from his public role) tried to negotiate a peace. So bad was the English situation, and so incompetent was Suffolk, that in return for a royal marriage (Henry VI to the utterly disastrous Margaret of Anjou) and a two year truce, he had to agree to the surrender of the county of Maine (Seward, p. 244; Myers, p. 126, says that Margaret had to talk Henry into giving up Maine; Gillingham, p. 57, suggests that Henry VI made the concession on his own to assert his independence and in a sort of Munich-like attempt at peace through weakness; Wilkinson, p. 271, points out that Henry himself wrote a 1445 letter agreeing to the surrender). Other than the brief truce, Margaret brought no dowry at all (Gillingham, p. 59) -- indeed, she had to be given land in Lancashire to pay her expenses (Rubin, p. 231).
(The above, at least, is the English view. Perroy, pp. 310-311, says that it was only a ten month truce with an option for an extension, and thinks that it was a good deal for both sides, because the marriage of Henry and Margaret was a "promising prospect." Promising it was -- but only for the French.)
In one sense, the surrender was realistic: The English had to give up some lands. The mere fact that they were treating with Charles VII shows that they had abandoned hope of ruling France. But I have to agree with the anti-Margaret faction: they should at least have gotten value for what they gave up! Gillingham, p. 56, notes that they still had a strong position: Guyenne, Calais, Normandy, much of Anjou, and Maine -- the latter well fortified for the defence of Normandy. They were giving up the key to this position -- and all they got for it was a truce too short to do any good, and a Queen who would cause England to fight the Wars of the Roses starting just 11 years later.
To make matters worse, the French used the truce to improve their situation, even as the English sat and twiddled their thumbs. After most past truces, the French soldiers had been cut loose to become brigands, weakening the economy even as it ruined the army. Charles VII cleverly took the best of the soldiers into his peacetime army, strengthening his forces for the next showdown and avoiding the unpopularity the soldiers would have caused in the countryside (Perroy, p. 304). It meant taxes stayed high -- but the centralized French government no longer worried about that.
Margaret was now the real ruler of England, through her husband, but she was "a domineering and uncompromising woman. She had no understanding of English traditions and not much more of English politics, and was soon hated by the _plebs_ as representing an unpopular policy in both foresight and domestic affairs" (Wilkinson, p. 270). Her primary ally was Somerset, the leading Beaufort -- in other words, with Humphrey of Gloucester dead, he probably though of himself as Henry VI's heir unless Margaret bore a child (Gillingham, p. 68). Little wonder there were court conflicts!
 Even Perroy, pp. 335-336, admits "Margaret of Anjou was a foreigner, ambitious, active, and intense, and she knew nothing about English affairs. Brought up in the kingdom of France, where no one opposed the royal authority, she wanted to rule without the counsel of the barons and the advice of Parliament.... French at heart, she stood for peace [with France] and did nothing to wrestle from the Valois the provinces recently lost by England.... This was another source of her unpopularity, since public opinion unanimously demanded revenge for these defeats, though it was unready to bear the cost of a fresh war. The more isolated she felt, the more enthusiastically Margaret committed herself to the party that had put her on the throne. This was the clan of the Beauforts... led by Someset, vanquished at Caen but now Constable and all-powerful counselor."
The French meanwhile were building a true standing army (Seward, p. 247; Perroy, p. 300; Keen, pp. 257-258 credits this to the "great ordinance of 1439") -- not even Henry V had really had that, though he had controlled his forces well enough that he might as well have. But lesser English lords had only their household troops -- tough as any regulars, to be sure, but not as numerous. Charles VII also managed to gain control over revenues -- he now simply set the tax rates, and the people had to pay (Perroy, p. 302. I can't help but wonder if the people who fought against the English knew what they were getting themselves into).
In 1449 the French moved on Normandy, given an excuse by some sharp dealings involving the surrender of Maine (Gillingham, p. 61; Perroy, p. 317, notes the extreme folly of the situation, in which allies of Somerset attacked the pro-French Duchy of Brittany). At once, the English house of cards collapsed (Seward, p. 248). Within three months, Rouen was under siege -- and the townsfolk admitted the French, forcing the English back into the citadel. Somerset, who had distributed his forces into penny-packet garrisons that the French could easily swallow, promptly had to surrender -- and to leave Talbot, the last noteworthy English general, in French hands (Seward, p. 249).
The English finally managed to scrape up a few reinforcements in 1450, led by a mere knight, Sir Thomas Kyriell. These blundered into battle at a small town called Formigny (Guerard, p. 113). As usual, estimates of their number vary; Perroy, p. 318 suggests that there were 5000 from England and 2000 from the remaining Norman garrisons, but most sources seem to give estimates in the 4000-4500 range. Featherstone, pp. 168-169, suggests 4000 men but makes it even weaker in practice, since there were only 1500 archers, and a few hundred men-at-arms, meaning that half the army was billmen -- surely the weakest type of soldier for this sort of fight.
What is certain is that the English were decisively defeated; supposedly the French counted over 3700 dead. Perroy, p. 319, says that English casualties, killed, wounded, and captured, were "nearly 5000." Featherstone, p. 171, declares that 80% of the English army was killed.  Kyriell himself was among those captured (Seward, pp. 250-251). Caen fell soon afterward. On August 12, 1450 -- supposedly one year to the day after the campaign started (Perroy, p. 319) -- Cherbourg surrendered (Seward, p. 252). English Normandy -- the territory Henry V had apparently wanted above all else -- was gone.
The government by then was completely bankrupt; the officers of state were going unpaid (Rubin, p. 65). There was no possibility of mounting a major counterattack.
Suffolk, who had the support of Queen Margaret, was made a Duke in 1448, but so great was the unrest that Parliament impeached him (Wilkinson, p. 275); Henry VI tried to save him by exiling him, but before he could escape the country, he was murdered in 1450 (Gillingham, p, 63; OxfordCompanion, p. 758; Seward, pp. 254-255). Two others who had large roles in Henry's government were killed at about the same time (Wilkinson, pp. 273-274). The disaster also led to Jack Cade's rebellion, which didn't really accomplish much but which scared a lot of people. So pig-headed was the court party that the de facto role of Prime Minister now went to Somerset, who had been in charge of the loss of Normandy (Perroy, p. 319).
The popular resentment didn't change the situation. In 1451-1453, the French threw the English out of Guyenne, which they had ruled since 1154. The initial occupation took only a few months in 1451 (Seward, pp. 256-257). It needn't have been final; the Guyennese actually preferred remote English rule to direct French control, and the imported French officials proved harsh masters (Perroy, p. 320). When the English scraped together an army in 1452, Bordeaux rebelled and admitted them (Seward, p. 258); much of the rest of the province followed.. But the general the English sent, "Old Talbot," while a genius in leading raids, was not a great commander at set-piece battles, and was now very old (Perroy, p. 321, says over eighty, though most sources say he was in his seventies; OxfordCompanion, p. 173, says he was 65). And the French had finally found a new weapon to combat the longbow: Artillery. Guns let them destroy Talbot and his troops at Castillon on July 17, 1453 (Myers, p. 127; Perroy, p. 321; Ros, p. 122; Keen, p. 255, calls it the battle of "Chastillon") when Talbot impetuously tried to attack the French artillery park head-on (Seward, pp. 260-262) and without examining the position (OxfordCompanion, p. 173).
The castles and towns of Guyenne promptly gave in to the French. Bordeaux, the last, surrendered only three months after Castillon (Seward, p. 262). This time, they were treated as conquered territory, and suffered badly (Perroy, p. 321). But there was no going back. As Perroy says, the great fief of Acquitaine, and the Angevin Empire, was gone.
The Hundred Years' War was over. It was "the final, though as yet unbelievable, severance of England from the last remnants of the continental empire of Henry II" (Harvey, p. 190). Except for Calais, which the English held for another century, the invaders had been driven from France. Henry V's "conquest" was lost at a time when he would still have been alive had he lived out a normal life (he would have been 66).
No peace treaty was ever signed, and England's Edward IV actually invaded France at one point, to be bought off with a subsidy (Perroy, p. 347). Henry VIII would  would fight in France as well, from 1512-1524. Perroy, p. 348, sums it up: "As late as 1487 there was talk of a possible English landing in Guienne.... But to pursue our story further would be playing on words. Though no peace ratified its results, the Hundred Years' War was long since over. It was true that Calais did not become French again until 1553 and that for centuries longer the English sovereigns continued to bear the empty title of King of France. But these were belated survivals of no importance. When the Burgundian State was dismembered, a fresh factor in the history of Europe relegated the old Anglo-French dispute to the background" (because England no longer had an ally within France).
>>ENGLAND AFTER THE WARS: THE OVERTHROW OF LANCASTER<<
Even Calais would have been lost much sooner had Henry V's dynasty endured longer; when Margaret of Anjou fled to France in 1462, she promised to turn the town over to Louis XI in return for help (Perroy, p. 344).
But Margaret could not fulfill her promise, because she never regained power; the loss of France was to deal the Lancastrians a fatal blow. The response in France to the end of the war was an attempt to rehabilitate Jean Darc (Perroy, p. 323). The response in England was to seek a scapegoat. Suffolk had not been enough of a sacrifice. It might have been better if Henry VI had put Somerset out of the government. But even had Henry wanted to, he could not -- because he went catatonic (Gillingham, pp. 74-75). Margaret and Somerset tried to cover it up, but eventually their enemy the Duke of York was appointed protector. Somerset went into the Tower, but he was not executed, and York has "made an effort to rule the country with the help of a fairly broad-based council and administration" (Gillingham, p. 84). There might have been peace -- if nothing had changed.
But "If Henry's insanity had been a tragedy, his recovery was a national disaster" (Gillingham, p. 84, quoting an unnamed source). Henry, though again capable of speech, was no longer fit to rule (Ross, p. 52, calls him a "useful political vegetable"; on p. 118, Ross notes that Henry was taken prisoner *three time* during the Wars of the Roses; no other pretender to the throne was captured with such ease). Somerset and Margaret again took charge -- and immediately turned on York, his allies the Nevilles, and others who had opposed their narrow government. York and the Nevilles, who clearly needed to defend themselves, took to arms. The first major fight of the Wars of the Roses, the First Battle of Saint Albans, took place in 1455, only a year after Henry recovered from his madness. That finally got rid of Somerset, who was executed on the field (Gillingham, p. 89), but at this time, the Yorkists were still willing to accept Henry VI as king (Gillingham, p. 90, thinks Somerset was killed because "York and the Nevilles had therefore pushed themselves into a position where they could either depose the king or kill the king's [councilors]"; these were the only possible ways to reform the government. And they remained loyal to the King).
There followed four years of relative peace in which the Yorkists exercised greater control over the biddable King Henry (Ross, p. 32). But it was fragile -- Margaret of Anjou was still around, and she would not accept anything she viewed as an infringement on her rights.
Ross, pp. 37-40, discusses several reasons why the situation flew so far out of control, including economic difficulties and a large number of local feuds -- but ultimately it was that a weak king was ruled by a partisan wife. Margaret in June 1459 called something that was almost a parliament -- but she excluded York, the Nevilles, and York's allies such as the Bourchiers (Gillingham, p. 102); the Yorkists expected to be indicted (Ross, p. 37). At this point, though York still hesitated to claim the throne, true peace was impossible. Later in 1459, Margaret scattered the Yorkist princes, and seemed to have won a complete victory (Gillingham, p. 105); the Yorkists fled to Ireland and Calais.
It is ironic to note that Charles VII of France thus found himself strongly backing Henry VI (Dockray, p. 54), the king with whom he had contested his own throne and territory for more than thirty years! But Margaret managed to blow her advantages by her abominable behavior. In 1459 the so-called "parliament of devils," which she dominated, passed 27 bills of attainder (Gillingham, p. 106), condemning among others the Duke of York, his sons the Earls of March and Rutland, and the Neville Earls of Warwick and Salisbury. For the Yorkists, it was now win or die.
And Margaret was unable to consolidate her position, because the government was once again broke (Gillingham, p. 108). And her generals and admirals were completely inept; Warwick apparently sailed right past the superior fleet of the Duke of Exeter to invade (Gillingham, pp. 109-110). He captured King Henry (but not Margaret) at the Battle of Northampton (Gillingham, p. 114).
It appears the Yorkists hadn't really worked out what came next. Warwick probably still hoped to rule through King Henry. But the Duke of York himself came to Parliament and, somewhat hesitantly, claimed the throne (Gillingham, pp. 116-117; Ross, pp. 47-49). The uncommitted Lords, though they were tired of the Lancastrian regime, were not ready to go that far. Eventually a compromise was reached: Henry VI would retain his throne (presumably with a new ministry), but York was declared Henry's heirs, and York's heirs after him (Gillingham, p. 117). It was a logical compromise; York might never take the throne (since he was about a decade older than Henry), but it did restore the rightful line.
It also meant that Margaret of Anjou's son Edward was cut out of the succession. That she would never allow. It was she, not the Yorkists, who really ramped up the Wars of the Roses.
The Wars, though they resulted in the overthrow at one time or another of four different kings, were ultimately struggles between noble factions over who would rule England (Perroy, pp. 338-339). The first monarch to go was Henry VI, who was overthrown in 1461. The single biggest reason for his downfall was surely the loss of the territories in France -- and the behavior of the Frechwoman, Margaret. Henry was not captured until 1464 (to spend the next half dozen years in the Tower), but he hardly mattered anyway; it was Margaret who was fighting -- less on behalf of her husband than on behalf of her disinherited son.
In 1470-1471, an attempt was made to bring Henry VI back, but it was made by a coalition of allies who distrusted each other utterly (Dockray, p. 66). The Earl of Warwick, who organized the "re-adaption," had to try to keep everyone happy, and seemingly failed (Dockray, p. 68). When the displaced King Edward IV invaded, the Lancastrian government lost the two battles of Barnet (where Warwick was killed) and Tewkesbury (where Edward the son of Henry VI was killed) and the regime collapsed (Wilkinson, p. 293). In the aftermath, Henry VI was executed. The Lancastrian line was extinct; all of Henry V's  other close relatives were dead by then. Henry V's brothers had all died without issue -- Clarence in 1421, Bedford in 1435, Gloucester in 1447. The closest surviving relations of the Lancastrian kings were the Beaufort family, the descendents of the illegitimate half-brothers of Henry IV. The future King Henry VII was descended from that line, but it took a lot of luck....
It is true that, when King Edward IV invaded France in the 1470s, he implicity invoked the memory of Henry V -- but one of his parliaments declared Henry V "late in ded and not in right Kyng of Englond" (Allmand, p. 432). But Henry was already becoming a legend in the sixteenth century, as shown by books such as Fabyan's Chronicle (whose author died in 1513) and Edward Hall's 1547 "history" (Allmand, p. 434) -- a work containing far more propaganda than genuine history. And Shakespeare, of course, strengthened this unhistorical legend (so much so that authors such as Jarman seem to have bought into it almost completely).
Even Allmand, p. 443, concludes, "A careful consideration of his whole achievement reveals much regarding Henry's stature both as man and king. From it he emerges as a ruler whose already high reputation is not only maintained but enhanced." But, on the previous page, he had admitted a more troubling truth: "He therefore passed on to his son an inheritance which may justly be termed 'damnosa hereditas.'''
For the aftermath of the Agincourt War, see especially the notes to "The Children in the Wood" (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34].
>>THE HISTORICAL CONTENT OF THE BALLAD<<
As far as historical accuracy is concerned, this ballad ranks pretty near the bottom. Child's single short text (collated, to be sure, from multiple broadsides) appears to be late, and has few details. And most of those are wrong:
"A tribute that was due from France Had not been paid for so long a time." The French did not owe tribute to the English under any reckoning. They had agreed to a ransom for John II -- but had been unable to pay (Henry V at the start of his reign apparently claimed arrears of 1.6 million ecus; Allmand, p. 68), so John II had gone back into English custody. He died there, so there were no arrears on the ransom. Of course Henry could claim to be overlord of France, and due its revenues -- but the fact that the song recognizes a king of France (since Henry sends to him) means that, in the song, that claim is not being made.
"Your master's young and of tender years." Henry V in 1413 was about 26 years old. Charles VI of France was about 45, but he had been intermittently insane for two decades, and his children were all younger than Henry; the future Charles VII was only ten years old. There was no one in France in position to insult Henry's intelligence or experience.
"Three tennis-balls." The story about the tennis balls is widely told (including in some old chronicles; Shakespeare has it from Holinshed, according to Jarman, p. 47, and Allmand, p. 427, says it was mentioned by Audeley early in the reign of Henry VI), but there is no real reason to believe it true. Barker, p. 69, notes that the then-Dauphin (not Charles VII but an older brother) was a decade younger than Henry and could hardly taunt the English king about his youth (and, to repeat, King Charles was insane and couldn't order such a thing). Some have suspected that this incident derives from a story of Darius III of Persia and Alexander the Great: Darius sent Alexander children's toys. Barker and Jarman in fact note that Henry continued to negotiate for some time after the alleged incident, which would be quite unlikely had the incident actuallly happened.
Allmand, noting that the story is very widespread, thinks it unlikely that the tale is pure fiction, but suggests (p. 71) that someone in France *discussed* such a move and was overheard by an English envoy, who then blew the idea out of proportion. He says, "The most telling and most contemporary account, that of John Strecche, canon of Kenilworth, written probably soon after Henry's death, records the Frenchmen's pride and arrogance, and, as an illustration of this, that they would send Henry balls with which to play and cushions upon which to lie, the implication clearly being that the king was too much inclined to love his creature comforts and too inexperienced in war to do any harm."
In any case, it wasn't modern lawn tennis back in the fifteenth century; lawn tennis is a nineteenth century invention, based only very loosely on the older game of Court Tennis (or Royal Tennis, or Real Tennis). As a matter of fact, it was not until the late 1420s, according to Butler, p. 73, that the French first saw it played with a racquet -- until then, players used their hands. Though the sport seems to have been reasonably well-established on both sides of the Atlantic; Dockray, pp. 55, tells of a top tennis player being executed for political reasons in the 1460s.
"Recruit me Cheshire and Lancashire, and Derby Hills... No marryd man nor no widow's son...." There is no evidence for a special callup of the counties cited, and the claim of exemptions is impossible; we know that married lords, and sons of widows, fought at Agincourt. If there is a basis for it at all, it may have been suggested by the fact that Henry was Duke of Lancaster and Earl of Chester. Or, perhaps, it may have derived from an earlier event in Henry's career; Allmand, p. 18, refers to a time when Henry, as Prince of Wales, led troops from Cheshire to fight against Scotland. The bit about married men and orphans may just be based on the Bible's restrictions on having such men fight.
"The first shot that the Frenchmen gave, they killd our Englishmen so free; We killed ten thousand of the French." The ten thousand figure may actually be accurate, but note that the English, not the French, fired the first arrows at Agincourt.
"And the finest flower that is in all France, To the Rose of England I will give free." The French did eventually agree to marry the princess Katherine to Henry V -- but not until well after Agincourt. The English did not even march on Paris at that time.
>> BIBLIOGRAPHY <<
Allmand: Christopher Allmand, _Henry V_, University of California Press, 1992
Ashley-GB: Maurice Ashley, _Great Britain to 1688_, University of Michigan Press, 1961
Ashley-Kings: Mike Ashley, _British Kings and Queens_, Barnes & Noble, 2000 (originally published as _The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens_, 1998)
Ashley-Stuart: Maurice Ashley, _The House of Stuart_, J. M. Dent, 1980
Barker: Juliet Barker, _Agincourt_,2005 (I use the 2007 Back  Bay paperback edition)
Burne: Lt-Col. Alfred H. Burne, _The Crecy War_, Eyre & Spottiswoode,1955 (I use the 1999 Wordsworth paperback reprint)
Butler: Raymond Reagan Butler, _Is Paris Lost? The English Occupation 1422-1436_, Spellmount, 2003
Dockray: Keith Dockray, _Edward IV: A Source Book_, Sutton, 1999
Earle: Peter Earle, _The Life and Times of Henry V_, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1972
Featherstone: Donald Featherstone, _The Bowmen of England_, Clarkson N. Potter, 1968 (I used the 2003 Pen & Swoard paperback edition)
Gillingham: John Gillingham, _The Wars of the Roses_, Louisiana State University,1981
Goodman: Anthony Goodman, _The Loyal Conspiracy: The Lords Appellant under Richard II_, University of Miami, 1971
Guerard: Albert Guerard, _France: A Modery History_, University of Michigan Press, 1959
Harvey: John Harvey, _The Plantagenets_, 1959 (I used the 1979 Fontana edition)
Jarman: Rosemary Hawley Jarman, _Crispin's Day: The Glory of Agincourt_, Little Brown, 1979
Keegan: John Keegan, _The Face of Battle_ Viking Press, 1976 (I use the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition)
Keen: Maurice Keen, _The Pelican History of Medieval Europe_, Pelican, 1968
Magnusson: Magnus Magnusson, _Scotland: The Story of a Nation_, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000
Myers: A. R. Myers, _England in the Late Middle Ages_, being volume 4 of _The Pelican History of England_, eighth edition, 1971 (I use the 1979 Pelican paperback printing)
Ormrod: W. M. Ormrod, _The Reign of Edward III_, updated edition, Tempus, 2000
OxfordCompanion: John Cannon, editor, _The Oxford Companion to British History_, Oxford, 1997
Perroy: Edouard Perroy, _The Hundred Years War_, Capricorn, 1965 (a translation by W. B. Wells of Perroy's French original _La Guerre de Cent Ans_, 1945)
Powicke: Sir Maurice Powicke, _The Thirteen Century, 1216-1307_, Oxford, 1962 (I use the 1998 Oxford paperback edition. And if you're wondering how the thirteenth century came do be defined as 1216-1307, it is the reigns of Henry III and Edward I)
Prestwich: Michael Prestwich, _The Three Edwards: War and State in England, 1272-1377_, 1980; I use the 2001 Routledge paperback edition
Renouard: Yves Renouard, _The Avignon Papacy: The Popes in Exile 1305-1403_, translated (and with some additional content) by Denis Bethell, 1970 (I use the 1994 Barnes & Noble editin)
Ross: Charles Ross, _The Wars of the Roses_, Thames and Hudson, 1976
Rubin: Miri Rubin, _The Hollow Crown: A History of Britain in the Late Middle Ages_, Penguin, 2005.
Saul: Nigel Saul, _Richard II_ (part of the Yale English Monarchs series), Yale, 1997
Saunders: Frances Stonor Saunders, _Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman_, Faber and Faber, 2004
Sedgwick: Henry Dwight Sedgwick, _The Black Prince_, no copyright date (I use the 1993 Barnes & Noble reprint)
Seward: Desmond Seward, _The Hundred Years War: The English in France, 1337-1453_, Atheneum, 1978
Sumption: Jonathan Sumption, _The Hundred Years War I: Trial by Battle_, University of Pennsylvania Press 1990
Wilkinson: B. Wilkinson, _The Later Middle Ages in England, 1216-1484_, Longmans, 1969 (I use the 1980 paperback edition)
- RBW
File: C164
===
NAME: King Herod and the Cock: see The Carnal and the Crane [Child 55] (File: C055)
===
NAME: King James and Brown [Child 180]
DESCRIPTION: Douglas comes to attack the King. The ruler is saved by Brown. Brown convinces the king to pardon Douglas; Douglas reacts by attacking Edinborough. Brown once again defeats the renegade Earl; for this and other services, King James makes him an earl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: royalty nobility fight rescue
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: April 7, 1571 - hanging of James Hamilton, Archbishop of Saint Andrews, whom Child believes to the the Bishop of Saint Andrews whom Brown defeated
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Child 180, "King James and Brown" (1 text, with appendix "The King of Scots and Andrew Browne")
cf. Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 221-225, "King of Scots and Andrew Brown" (1 text, not from the folio manuscript even though the folio includes part of the piece; note that this is the piece Child puts in the appendix, not the main text, though both are from the Percy folio)
BarryEckstormSmyth p. 467, "King James and Brown" (notes plus a modified partial text from Child)
Roud #4009
File: C180
===
NAME: King John and the Abbot of Canterbury: see King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)
===
NAME: King John and the Bishop [Child 45]
DESCRIPTION: King John tells the (bishop of Canterbury) he must answer the King's questions or die. The bishop, unable to answer, turns to a shepherd (his brother?). The answers are so clever the king rewards the shepherd and pardons both (makes the shepherd bishop)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1695 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: questions help riddle
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1199-1216 - Reign of King John
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(MW,MA,NE,NW)
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Child 45, "King John and the Bishop" (2 texts)
Bronson 45, "King John and the Bishop" (15 versions plus1 in addenda)
GreigDuncan2 281, "The Jolly Abbot" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 303-312, "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury" (2 texts, one from the Percy folio and one as printed in the _Reliques_)
BarryEckstormSmyth p. 445, "King John and the Bishop" (brief notes only)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 111-112, "The King's Three Questions" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 200-203, "The King's Three Questions" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11; note that Bronson has the wrong date in his headnotes}
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 280-298, "King John and the Bishop" (5 texts plus 2 fragments, 3 tunes; the texts are listed A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, C, D, because A1 and A2 were both ultimately derived from the same singer through different informants and B1, B2, B3 are from the same informant at different times) {A1=Bronson's #11}
Gardner/Chickering 155, "King John and the Bishop" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Leach, pp. 154-158, "King John and the Bishop" (1 text)
Leach-Labrador 2, "King John and the Bishop" (1 text: Newfoundland story related by theme to the ballad)
OBB 172, "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury" (1 text)
Niles 19, "King John and the Bishop" (1 text, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN1364, "I'le tell you a story, a story anon"
DT 45, KJONCANT*
Roud #302
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Bishop of Canterbury" (AFS 4196A, 1938; tr.; on LC57, in AMMEM/Cowell) {Bronson's #4}
SAME_TUNE:
The Shaking of the Sheets (Chappell/Wooldridge II, pp. 228-229; British Library Add. MS. 15225; entered in the Stationer's Register for John Awdelay 1568/9; Playford, The Dancing Master, 1651; rec. by The Baltimore Consort on The Ladye's Delight)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The King and the Bishop
NOTES: King John did not have a good relationship with the Catholic Church; he refused to accept Stephen Langton, the Pope's choice for Archbishop of Canterbury. From 1208 to 1213 England was placed under Interdict by the Pope. John responded by removing bishops from their offices -- and taking away their mistresses (though he allowed them pensions). The historical story bears only the slightest similarity to the tale in the ballad, however, which may also have been influenced by the war of wills between John's father Henry II and Thomas Becket.
Bronson notes that the song has been in constant contact with broadside prints, and doubts that any of the versions arose entirely from traditional stock. Several of the broadsides list the tune as "The Shaking of the Sheets"; see the "Same Tune" reference.  - RBW
File: C045
===
NAME: King Knapperty: see Kempy Kay [Child 33] (File: C033)
===
NAME: King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O: see Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)
===
NAME: King o' Spain's Daughter, The: see Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)
===
NAME: King of the Cannibal Islands, The
DESCRIPTION: Sometimes a ballad about castaways marrying the daughter of the King of the Cannibal Islands, but often degenerates into a quatrain-ballad about the odd events on the islands. The use of the title phrase is characteristic.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 36(10) View 2 of 2)
KEYWORDS: humorous cannibalism
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 195, "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #15695
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 36(10) View 2 of 2, "The King of the Cannibal Islands," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads 536, Harding B 11(322), Harding B 11(1997), Firth c.17(312), Harding B 11(1496), Harding B 11(2830), "[The] King of the Cannibal Islands"
NLScotland, R.B.m.143(147), "The King of the Cannibal Islands," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1858
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf."The Settler's Lament (The Beautiful Land of Australia)" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Hoke Pokee Wonkee Fum (per broadside, NLScotland, R.B.m.143(147))
The Settler's Lament (The Beautiful Land of Australia) (File: PFS101)
NOTES: This doesn't show up in folk songbooks much, but it seems to me that I heard it somewhere in my youth; I suspect it qualifies as a children's folk song. At least, I'm putting it here on that assumption. - RBW
From the commentary for broadside NLScotland RB.m.143(147): "This ballad was written at a high-point of British Imperialism, and is a telling illustration of the superior attitudes which popularly existed among both those Brits who settled abroad, in countries such as Africa, and also among the broadside-buying public back in Scotland. As with another broadside in the National Library of Scotland's collection, 'The Queen of Otaheite', the 'natives' are portrayed as bigamous cannibals, with little regard for Western ways."
Opie-Oxford2 re 227, "Hokey, pokey, whisky, thum": Evidently derived from "King of the Cannibal Islands" by A.W. Humphreys. See broadside [Note however that the NLScotland broadside of 1858 states that the tune comes from "Hokee Pokee Wonkee Fum"] - BS
File: PHCFS195
===
NAME: King of the Fairies, The
DESCRIPTION: "A wee, wee man came to our toon en', Fiddledum, faddledum, fee, fee, fee," singing the men from their work despite his huge feet and mouth, odd clothes, very long arms, etc. He holds a dance, then frightens them; he becomes king of the fairies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: dancing talltale music
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 166-167, "The King of the Fairies (Nursery Song)" (1 text)
Roud #5561
File: Ord166
===
NAME: King Orfeo [Child 19]
DESCRIPTION: The wife of (King) Orfeo, perhaps in a fit of madness, flees from him and his court. Orfeo sets out to find her. Encountering her under guard in a high hall, he plays his pipes so well that his wife is returned to him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1880
KEYWORDS: music magic separation madness
FOUND_IN: Britain(Hebr)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Child 19, "King Orfeo" (1 text)
Bronson 19, "King Orfeo" (1 version plus 1 in addenda)
Davis-More 11, pp. 79-80, "King Orfeo," comments only
OBB 15, "King Orfeo (A Shetland Ballad)" (1 text)
DT 19, KNGORFEO*
Roud #136
RECORDINGS:
John Stickle, "King Orfeo" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
NOTES: Loosely based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Euridice. Observe, however, that "King Orfeo" has a happy endings: Orfeo and the Euridice figure are successfully reunited.
The same is true of what may be the direct source of this piece, the Middle English romance "Sir Orfeo."
The interesting question is how "Sir Orfeo" evolved the ending it did. Of the 50-odd Middle English romances, it is generally considered the best not by Chaucer or the Gawain-Poet or Marie of France ("Sir Orfeo," like the works of Marie, is considered a "Breton Lei").
The story of Orpheus was known in the Middle Ages (from Virgil's Georgics and from Ovid -- indeed, it seems to have been better known from Latin than Greek sources), but it's not clear how it was converted to a romance, or how the ending changed. It has been theorized that there is a lost French version, but if so, it's definitely lost.
"Sir Orfeo" is now found in 3 MSS, with the earliest and best, the Auchinlek MS.,  from about 1330; the others, Harley 3810 and Ashmole 61, are of the fifteenth century. The language of this piece appears to be SW English but with some northern forms, perhaps introduced by a northern copyist; the whole is perhaps from a French or Breton original).
Sir Orfeo is, incidentally, one of the few Middle English romances to be generally praised by critics, for both its plot and for its well-handled poetry. It is #3868 in the Brown and Robbins Middle English Index.
A full apparatus criticus for "Sir Orfeo" has been published by A. J. Bliss. A critical text of the romance is available in Kenneth Sisam's _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_. (604 lines) Unfortunately, it is not glossed (though the book has a complete glossary by J. R. R. Tolkien). A glossed version is available in Donald B. Sands, _Middle English Verse Romances_ (580 lines). Tolkien later published a modernized verse version following the same lineation as Sisam (though it is not just a crib; it's a true translation, using almost none of the language of the original); it is available in the volume _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight * Pearl * Sir Orfeo_.
Several other ballads also derive loosely or from Middle English romance, or from the legends that underly it, examples being:
* "Hind Horn" [Child 17], from "King Horn" (3 MSS., including Cambridge Gg.4.27.2, which also contains "Floris and Blancheflour")
* "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child 31], from "The Weddynge of Sir Gawe and Dame Ragnell" (1 defective MS, Bodleian MS Rawlinson C 86) 
* "Blancheflour and Jellyflorice" [Child 300], from "Floris and Blancheflour" (4 MSS, including Cambridge Gg.4.27.2, which also contains "King Horn," and the Auchinlek MS, which also contains "Sir Orfeo") - RBW
File: C019
===
NAME: King Pharim: see The Carnal and the Crane [Child 55] (File: C055)
===
NAME: King Shall Enjoy His Own Again, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer claims he can forsee the future as well as Booker: "all things will be well When the king shall enjoy his own again"; else "the times will never mend, ... the wars will never cease, ... rejoice will never I again" 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1745 (Denis Hempson, according to Bunting)
KEYWORDS: royalty nonballad political Jacobites
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hogg1 1, "The King Shall Enjoy His Own Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Hogg1: "What Booker doth prognosticate" refers to a man of Charles I's time who "went about prognosticating the downfall of the king and popery, which were terms synonymous at that day." [A slightly exaggerated statement, since Charles I was a genuine Anglican. But he was a very high-church Anglican. The downfall of Charles I meant that religious services got rid of a lot of ritual and costume and repetition and flummery. - RBW]
Hogg1: "It is with particular pleasure that I am enabled to restore to the public the original words of the most famous and most popular air ever heard of in this country; although, at the same time, it must be confessed, that it does not appear to have been originally a Scottish air, though many a Scottish ditty has been made to it.... It was invented at first to support the declining cause of the royal martyr, Charles I.; and served afterwards, with more success, to keep up the spirits of the cavaliers, and promote the restoration of his son; an event it was employed to celebrate all over the kingdom.... [The lines,] 'Full forty years this royal crown Has been his father's and his own.' ... fixes the date of the song to 1643...." [James VI and I, the first Stuart king of England and the father of Charles I, succeeded Elizabeth I on the English throne in 1603. - RBW]
Of the harper Denis Hempson, "[in] his second trip to Scotland, in the year 1745 ... being at Edinburgh when Charley the Pretender was there, he was called into the great hall to play ... the tune called for was, 'The king shall enjoy his own again:' he sung here part of the words following: 'I hope to see the day When Whigs shall run away, And the king shall enjoy his own again.'" (source: Edward Bunting, _The Ancient Music of Ireland_ (Mineola, 2000 (reprint of 1840 Dublin edition)), p. 75.)  The words quoted by Bunting are not part of Hogg's "original" text, but the pattern matches Hogg's text. As Hogg points out the song had many versions; the air "appears to have had an influence on the popular mind quite unequalled by any thing of the kind ever before known. Nothing can be a better proof of this than the strenuous endeavors of the Whigs to enlist it on their own side," and he follows with a Whig version (p. 156). - BS
File: Hogg1001
===
NAME: King Solomon's Temple: see The Building of Solomon's Temple [Laws Q39] (File: LQ39)
===
NAME: King Stephen Was a Worthy Peer: see The Old Cloak (File: OBB170)
===
NAME: King Takes the Queen, The
DESCRIPTION: "The King will take the Queen, But the Queen will take the knave, And since we're in good company, More liquor let us have. Here's to you, Tom Brown, and to you me jolly soul." As cards take cards, so each reminds the singer of a happy life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(96))
KEYWORDS: drink cards nonballad game
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Kennedy 283, "Tam Broon" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan3 571, "Tam Broon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 64-66, "Tam Brown" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 232, "Tom Brown" (1 text)
Roud #884
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(96), "Tom Brown" ("The deuce take the cards, for they give me the gripes"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838
LOCSinging, sb40522a, "Tom Brown" ("The King will take the Queen"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
With All My Heart
The Card Song
The Cards
The Two Beats the One
NOTES: Tunney-StoneFiddle has the song in a Mummers' Play.
Broadside LOCSinging sb40522a: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: FSWB232
===
NAME: King William and the Keeper
DESCRIPTION: King William disguises himself as a poacher. He's caught by the keepers, who tell him no one may hunt this ground without leave of King William. He attempts to bribe the keepers, but they refuse (and beat him). He reveals himself and praises their loyalty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1676 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: virtue crime poaching hunting royalty money disguise
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1688-1702 - Reign of William III
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MacSeegTrav 116, "King William and the Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood" [Child 151] (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Suit of Russet Grey
The Loyal Forester or Royal Pastime
NOTES: [MacColl and Seeger write,] "Following the return of William III from his Irish campaigns, London balladmongers would appear to have been fully employed in creating an acceptable popular image for Ebsworth's 'saturnine' monarch. Old tales and ballads were refurbished with William represented as a roistering updated Prince Hal, consorting with sailors, farmers, shepherds and foresters." One hopes he carried adequate identification. - PJS
Few such songs seem to have survived in tradition, for which we should perhaps be thankful. I wonder how many merged with the songs allegedly about James V of Scotland?
Incidentally, there is little evidence that William III had any such "popular" tastes. - RBW
File: McCST116
===
NAME: King William was King James's Son
DESCRIPTION: "King William was King James's Son, Upon the royal race he run, Upon his breast he wore a star, (That points the way to the ocean far)." "Now this couple are married together... You must be kind, you must be good, And help your wife in kindling wood."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Newell)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty royalty
FOUND_IN: US(NE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Randolph 543, "King William was King James's Son" (15 texts, mostly short, 2 tunes; the "C" and "D" texts might be "Oats and Beans and Barley Grow")
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 402-403, "King William Was King James's Son" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 543A)
Hudson 142, pp. 289-290, "King William" (1 text plus mention of at least five others)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 263-264, "See This Pretty Little Girl of Mine" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, pp. ,188-189 "King William Was King George's Son" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 181-182, "The White Cockade" (1 text, translated from the Gaelic with some lines surely inspired by this; the rest is not the usual "White Cockade." I rather suspect two-way translation)
ST R543 (Full)
Roud #4203
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oats and Beans and Barley Grow" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The White Cockade"
NOTES: Norm Cohen says succinctly of the Randolph version, "The title of the song is not true."
To clarify: There are no specific references in this song to which king is meant, but there has never been an actual case, in England or Scotland (or any other country, to my knowledge) of a King William who was the son of a King James. The closest thing to a parallel would be William III and Mary II; William III was the nephew, son-in-law, and deposer of James II.
Paul Stamler recalls a song "King William was King George's Son," and of course this is the title in Flanders/Brown; Newell also lists this as a variant reading. This is more possible (King William IV, reigned 1830-1837, was the song of George the III and the younger brother of George IV) -- but William IV was a dissolute, childless king who would hardly inspire a song.
Another known combination of father and son is the song is King Charles son of James (possible for James I and Charles I).
Gomme has two texts with William son of David; England never had a King David. Scotland did, but neither was succeeded by a William. David II Bruce died without legitimate offspring. David I was succeeded by his grandson Malcolm IV "the Maiden." When Malcolm died, he was succeeded by his brother William the Lion. This is therefore the closest example of a William-and-David in British history.
It has been claimed that this is a war recruiting song, but of Randolph's fifteen versions, only one (H, "This old slouch hat you must put on To follow the man with the fife and drum") supports this conclusion, and while Newell's text #177 gives hints of a soldier's life, it's directed to a young woman! The Flanders/Brown version appears to be just a singing game.
Newell tied his first text (#27) to the Swedish tale of Folke Algotson, but if so, there has been a lot of evolution along the way. - RBW
File: R543
===
NAME: King William's Son: see Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)
===
NAME: King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood, The [Child 151]
DESCRIPTION: King Richard, impressed by Robin's reputation, seeks him. Disguised as an abbot who is the king's messenger, he hears Robin's declarations of loyalty to king and of spite to clergy. Well treated for the king's sake, he reveals himself and pardons Robin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1777
KEYWORDS: Robinhood royalty disguise clergy
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1189-1199 - Reign of King Richard I
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Child 151, "The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood" (1 text)
Roud #3993
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "King William and the Keeper" (theme)
NOTES: Robin Hood is often portrayed as a loyal servant of King Richard I against his vile brother John. However, it should be noted that Richard was a rotten king (especially for England, where he spent only six months of his ten year reign -- and used those six months solely to gather money). Richard was rash, brutal, and indecisive -- and John never really rebelled against him; he merely succeeded him. In other words, the events in this ballad are historically almost impossible.
For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. - RBW
File: C151
===
NAME: King's Dochter Lady Jean, The [Child 52]
DESCRIPTION: The king's daughter goes to the wood, where a man meets her and rapes her. After he is through, they exchange names. He is her brother came back from the sea! She stabs herself. She is carried home and dies. When he sees her body, he dies in her arms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: royalty incest rape suicide
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(MA)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Child 52, "The King's Dochter Lady Jean" (4 texts)
Bronson 52, "The King's Dochter Lady Jean" (5 versions plus 2 in addenda)
DT 52, KINGDAUJ KNGDAU2
Roud #39
RECORDINGS:
Sara Cleveland, "Queen Jane" (on SCleveland01) {Bronson's #1.1 in addenda}
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf "The Bonnie Hind" [Child 50] (plot)
cf. "Sheath and Knife" [Child 16] (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" [Child 14] (plot)
cf. "Lizie Wan" [Child 51] (theme)
NOTES: On the scientific evidence that brothers and sisters raised apart are particularly likely to fall in love, and some further speculation as to why, see the notes to "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14]." - RBW
File: C052
===
NAME: King's Land, The
DESCRIPTION: "I'm on the King's land, The King's not at home! The King's gone to Boston, To buy his wife a comb."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Linscott)
KEYWORDS: royalty commerce home playparty
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Linscott, pp. 30-31, "King's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14049
NOTES: Linscott describes this as being derived from an ancient game, "King of Cantland"; I can't find any records of such a thing. - RBW
File: Lins030
===
NAME: King's Three Questions, The: see King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)
===
NAME: Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo)
DESCRIPTION: "Say, darkeys, hab you seen de massa, Wid de muff-stash on his face, Go long the road some time dis mornin' Like he gwine to leab de place?" The slaves exult that the coming of Union soldiers is chasing Master away, leaving them free (and free to rejoice)
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST_DATE: 1862
KEYWORDS: slave slavery Civilwar freedom
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Randolph 230, "The Year of Jubelo" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 232, "Kingdom Coming" (3 texts)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 106-109, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, pp. 92-93, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 114-115, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, p. 104, "The Year of Jubalo" (1 text)
DT, YRJUBILO*
ST R230 (Full)
Roud #778
RECORDINGS:
Frank Jenkins & his Pilot Mountaineers [Oscar Jenkins, Frank Jenkins, Ernest V. Stoneman], "In the Year of Jubilo" (Conqueror, unissued, 1929)
Chubby Parker, "The Year of Jublio" (Conqueror 7897, 1931)
Pete Seeger, "Kingdom Coming" (on PeteSeeger28)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Babylon Is Falling" (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Massa's Gone Away
NOTES: This was the first song by Henry Clay Work (1832-1864) to be published. Work was a fervent abolitionist; his father had been jailed for his activities with the underground railroad. One day the younger Work showed up at Root and Cady. George F. Root described him as "a quiet and rather solemn-looking young man, poorly clad," but was astonished by the song he brought along.
"Kingdom Coming" was taken up by the Christy Minstrels in 1862, and soon became a runaway bestseller. Work's career was off to a fine start.
In a rather hilarious twist, the polemic _War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy_ (1904?) publishes this as "The Contraband," along with an explanation of how slaves loved their masters! Work's name, naturally, is omitted; it is offered as "A song of Mississippi negros in the Vicksburg campaign."
I have never seen an explanation of how this song originated, but there is an incident which might have played a tangential role, and which happened fairly early. In 1862, in the western theater of the war, Confederate commander Albert Sydney Johnston had played a vast game of bluff, occupying a line in Kentucky and northern Tennessee with forces he knew to be inadequate to the task. After U. S. Grant broke the center of his line by capturing Forts Henry and Donelson, he had no choice but to move the rest of his lines sharply south. In the process, he had to abandon his main supply base at Nashville (February 24, 1862, according to [no author], _The Civil War Almanac_, World Almanac/Bison Books, 1983, pp. 86-87).
When Federal troops entered Nashville, a reporter went to one of the leading hotels and pounded on the door. According to Shelby Foote, _The Civil War: A Narrative_ (Volume I: Fort Sumter to Perryville) (Random House, 1958), p. 217, "He kept on ringing, with the persistency of a tired and hungry man within reach of food and a clean bed. At last he was rewarded. A Negro swung the door ajar and stood there smiling broadly. 'Massa done gone souf,' he said, still grinning."
What's more, there *was* "a smoke way up de ribber" at that time. It came from two Confederate gunboats being burned (Foote, p. 216) -- but the civilians could hardly know that, and they *did* know that Federal gunboats had been responsible for the capture of Fort Henry and had attacked (though they had been repelled at) Fort Donelson. - RBW
File: R230
===
NAME: Kinghorn Ferry
DESCRIPTION: Soldiers take a pedlar through Kinghorn Ferry streets. He says he would be forced to be a soldier in Flanders. The women plead unsuccessfully for his release. They disarm, beat and drive the soldiers to sea and save the pedlar. Sailors laugh.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan2); there is a broadside dated 1701
KEYWORDS: army soldier battle rescue humorous
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greig #169, p. 1, "Kinghorn Ferry" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 238, "Kinghorn Ferry" (1 text)
Roud #5842
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(009), "The Lasses of Kinghorn" ("All Gentlemen and Cavaliers that doth delight in sport"), unknown, 1701
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Clavers and his Highland Men" (tune, per broadside NLScotland Ry.III.a.10(009))
NOTES: There is a passing reference to King William: the leader of the women, "General" Paterson, says "Had it not been for King William's sake, we'd drowned them [the soldiers] in the Sea." Greig: "'King William' may be William IV. [1830-1837], in which case the ballad would take us back to the Thirties of last [19th] century. But the style of the piece seems older than this, and though it carries us back to the end of the 17th century, I am inclined to think that the Monarch referred to must be William III [1688-1702]. This view gains confirmation from the reference which the packman makes to the wars on the Continent. Further, the heroism of the women and their readiness to handle weapons is in keeping with the spirit of those days as illustrated by many another contemporary ballad."
Eoin Shalloo, Curator, Rare Book Collections, National Library of Scotland, explains the 1701 probable date of publication as follows (quoted with permission): "I think the date 1701 has been assigned to this broadside from a number of reference sources. The Wing Short Title Catalogue (no.466c) gives the date as [1700?] and our working copy of H.G. Aldis, A list of books printed in Scotland before 1700 (ref. 3978.5) also uses the same date. Whoever compiled the entry for the broadside website probably used the date from our online catalogue which came from Wing. Where Wing got the date from I don't know. It is possible from looking at the item that is could have been printed retrospectively 20 or 30 years later, but it would have had more relevance if printed closer to the time of the action." - BS
File: GrD2238
===
NAME: Kings of Orient: see We Three Kings (Kings of Orient) (File: OBC195)
===
NAME: Kingston Volunteers, The: see James Bird [Laws A5] (File: LA05)
===
NAME: Kinkaiders, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer tells us that the "place I like the best" is "the sand hills, O the sand hills, The place Kinkaiders make their home." He praises the corn, melons, cows, etc., and gives thanks "for the homestead law he made, This noble Moses P. Kinkaid."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: home farming
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1903-1919 - Term of Congressman Moses P. Kinkaid, who introduced the homestead law which was so widely praised in Nebraska
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Sandburg, pp. 278-279, "The Kinkaiders" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 85, p. 184, "The Kinkaiders" (1 text)
Roud #4982
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (tune) and references there
NOTES: Pound reports, "Moses P. Kinkaid was congressman of the sixth congressional distict [of Nebraska], 1903-1919. He was the introducer of a bill for 640-acre homesteads known as the 'Kinkaid Homestead Law.'"
Also known as the "Kinkaid Home Act," and passed in 1904, the Act applied originally only to unsettled areas of Nebraska, and granted the land in return for five years residence and $800 in improvement. It was extended in 1909.
Given that the song was collected while Kinkaid was still in office, one wonders if this might not be a campaign song. - RBW
File: San278
===
NAME: Kinmont Willie [Child 186]
DESCRIPTION: Kinmont Willie, a notorious raider, comes to the border under a truce, with few men at his back, and is treacherously taken by a large force under Lord Scroop and others. He is imprisoned as a raider, but finally rescued
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: betrayal prison rescue borderballad
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Apr 13, 1596 - Rescue of William Armstrong of Kinmouth (Kinmont Willie) from the castle at Carlisle
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Child 186, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Bronson 186, "Kinmont Willie" (1 version)
Leach, pp. 504-509, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
OBB 137, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
PBB 56, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Gummere, pp. 116-122+327-328, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 108-114, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
DT, KINMWILL
Roud #4013
NOTES: Kinmont Willie was a real person, and he caused a major border incident at a time when James VI of Scotland was really trying to stay on good terms with Elizabeth I of England, since he wanted to succeed her.
According to Roaslin Mitchison, _A History of Scotland_ (second edition), p. 158, "In 1597 [her date; Child's extensive note says 1596] there was the international incident of Kinmont Willie. The English broke Border law by capturing him at a day of truce, and refused from personal animosity to the Scottish Warden, Buccleuch, to hand him back. Buccleuch then rescued him from Carlisle castle. The subsequent outbreak of diplomatic huffiness was resolved by a joing English and Scottish commission."
This was typical of the problems of the time: The governments wanted peace, but the borderers wanted to keep on looting. - RBW
File: C186
===
NAME: Kinsale versus Mallow
DESCRIPTION: The singer's answer to Paddy. "What could bewitch you, to sing ... the praise of Kinsale?" The only commerce of Kinsale is fish. The spa at Mallow beats that at Kinsale. No king would ever have sight of the Kinsale hotel. "I'll stay here in Mallow"
AUTHOR: John Lander (source: Croker-PopularSongs)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1831 (Haly broadside, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: commerce fishing humorous nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 218-220, "Kinsale versus Mallow" (1 text)
NOTES: Kinsale and Mallow are in County Cork.
Croker-PopularSongs: "This satirical song ["The Praise of Kinsale"], with the subsequent reply to it ["Kinsale versus Mallow"], are given from a broadside purchased by the Editor in 1831, at the shop of Haly, a ballad printer in Hanover Street, Cork. The were respectively entitled, 'Paddy Farrell, of Kinsale, to his Friend at Mallow;' and 'Answer of Thady Mullowny, of Mallow, to Paddy Farrell, Kinsale.'" - BS
File: CrPS218
===
NAME: Kintey Coy at Samsonville
DESCRIPTION: Tales of Old Abey Kelder's bar. The clientele is reported to have "kintey coyed and raised the devil; I bet they thought their heads was level." The behavior of various bar patrons is briefly described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: drink moniker
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
FSCatskills 162, "Kintey Coy at Samsonville" (1 text)
ST FSC162 (Partial)
File: FSC162
===
NAME: Kintyre Love Song, A
DESCRIPTION: "Like the violets in spring, like the lark on the wing... so sweet is she." The singer uses similar imagery to illustrate that "so fair is she," "so kind is she," "so dear is she."
AUTHOR: Words: James Hamish Dall Mactaggart
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: beauty nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H195, p. 234, "A Kintyre Love Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9468
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Ned of the Hill" (tune)
File: HHH195
===
NAME: Kipawa Stream, The
DESCRIPTION: "I am a roving shantyboy -- the pinewoods is my home, Like every other fellow, from camp to camp I roam." The singer recalls his years of work on the rivers, noting "My muscle is my fortune." He wishes he could have revenge on the Indians
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1966 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger drink Indians(Am.)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke-Lumbering #63, "The Kipawa Stream" (1 text)
Roud #4557
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Manistee River Song"
cf. "Boardman River Song"
NOTES: Although the final stanza of this song seeks revenge on the Indians, the singer gave no reason for wanting such revenge. It may be that this is a leftover from one of the various other versions of this song (see the cross-references). - RBW
File: FowL63
===
NAME: Kirn Song
DESCRIPTION: "Robbie Burns, altho' he be dead ... could handle the ploo"; he enjoyed himself at the harvest celebration. "Some drink to ladies, and some drink to lairds, But here is to the farmers wi' their big corn yards"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming drink party
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan3 633, "Kirn Song" (1 text)
Roud #6067
File: GrD3633
===
NAME: Kirtle Gaol: see County Jail (II) (File: Mack148)
===
NAME: Kishmul's Galley: see Beinn a' Cheathaich (File: K002)
===
NAME: Kiss in the Morning Early, A
DESCRIPTION: A maid goes to her cobbler "for her kiss in the morning early." They plan to marry. He gives her a fancy pair of shoes. She goes home and tells her father "I've got me a man." He wonders who but guesses it is only the cobbler when he sees the shoes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: courting father clothes
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 75, "A Kiss in the Morning Early" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3807
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "The Shoemaker's Kiss" which is also about relations between a girl and a shoemaker -- but the latter involves a pregnancy, on which basis we split them (at least until I find linking versions). - RBW
File: OLcM075
===
NAME: Kiss Me, Oh, I Like It
DESCRIPTION: "One morning rather dark as I strolled through the park, I met with a blushing young maid." They find their way beneath the trees, where she proclaims, "Kiss me, oh, I like it, Kiss me again, it's nice.... You are a dear, and no one is near....."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (recorded from Edith Perrin)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #16398
RECORDINGS:
Edith Perrin, "Kiss Me, Oh, I Like It" [fragment] (on USWarnerColl01)
File: RcKMOILI
===
NAME: Kissing in the Dark
DESCRIPTION: "For lang I courted Jeannie... And whan she cam to see me, I wad kiss her in the dark." One night when she is away, he sneaks in and accidentally kisses her mother. This causes the mother to give consent to their marriage, and her money when she dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love courting humorous mother nightvisit
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 97-98, "Kissin' in the Dark" (1 text)
File: Ord097
===
NAME: Kissing Song (I)
DESCRIPTION: The loving young man "hangs all around the cabin door," kissing the girl "for (his/her) mother and her sister and her brother Till her Daddy comes...." Daddy threatens to shoot him; the girl objects. They continue courting much to the old folks' delight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: love courting father family
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 374, "A Young Man's Love" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 305-307, "A Young Man's Love" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 374C)
DT, KISSNG
Roud #3642
RECORDINGS:
Chubby Parker, "The Kissing Song" (Conqueror 7891, 1931)
NOTES: According to Cohen, this song was copyrighted by Billy Carter in 1882 as "Kissing on the Sly." - RBW
File: R374
===
NAME: Kissing Song (II -- She Just Kept Kissing On)
DESCRIPTION: "I gave her kisses one, kisses one (x2), I gave her kisses one, And she said 'twas well begun, So we kept kissing on, kissing on." Similarly, "Kisses two... She said that would not do...." and so on, up to perhaps "ten... begin again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 313, "Kissing Song" (1 text plus a fragment)
Roud #4388
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "She Just Kept Kissing On" (Victor V-40095, 1929; on KHarrell02)
NOTES: The editors of Brown link this with the other "Kissing Song" found in Randolph. This is perverse -- this is a counting song, Randolph's a genuine courting song. - RBW
File: Br3313
===
NAME: Kissing's No Sin (I)
DESCRIPTION: "Some say kissing's a sin, but I think it's nane ava, For kissing has been in the world When there was but only twa." The singer points to all those who have engaged in kissing, noting that it must be lawful if lawyers do it, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kinloch-BBook XXIX, pp. 86-88, "The Mautman" (1 text, containing at least a fragment of this)
Roud #2579
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mautman" (lyrics)
cf. "The Hog-tub" (lyrics)
cf. "The Song of Temptation"  (theme of the antiquity of sexual relations)
NOTES: This is, quite simply, a tangle. This consists of two parts: "Some say that kissing's a sin" and "If it wasna lawful...." The former is shared with "The Mautman," which adds a story about a mautman demanding his pay; the latter is shared with "The Hog-tub," which adds a Mother Goose rhyme, "Once I courted a pretty lass." How all these grafts came together I don't know; the combination found in this song seems most logical, but what does that prove? - RBW
File: RcKiNoSi
===
NAME: Kissing's No Sin (II): see The Mautman (File: KinBB29)
===
NAME: Kitardine
DESCRIPTION: "One night ... Some rambling thoughts came in my mind And caused me for to roam." The singer leaves his girl, takes the train from Kitardine to the lumber camp, and takes a job as a cook. At season's end he signs on to help take the lumber to Bangor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: courting farewell lumbering
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 42-43, "Kitardine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12473
NOTES: Dibblee/Dibblee: Kitardine is in Maine. - BS
File: Dib042
===
NAME: Kitchey Coo: see Bill Wiseman (File: Doyl3014)
===
NAME: Kitchey-Coo: see Bill Wiseman (File: Doyl3014)
===
NAME: Kitchie-Boy, The [Child 252]
DESCRIPTION: A lady reveals her love to a kitchen boy. He begs her not to make it known; her father would kill him. She sends him over the sea; he rebuffs a lady's advances. He returns home in disguise and convinces the father to let him marry his daughter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1803 (Skene ms.)
KEYWORDS: love separation nobility servant disguise marriage reunion return
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 252, "The Kitchie-Boy" (5 texts)
Bronson 252, "The Kitchie-Boy" (3 versions)
Leach, pp. 616-621, "The Kitchie-Boy" (1 text)
DBuchan 25, "The Kitchie-Boy" (1 text)
Roud #105
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Matt Hyland" (plot)
cf. "Richie Story" [Child 232] (plot)
cf. "The Prince of Morocco (The Sailor Boy II)" [Laws N18] (plot)
cf. "Hind Horn" [Child 17] (lyrics)
NOTES: Child views this as a "modern 'adaption' of 'King Horn'" (i.e. "Hind Horn," Child 17), from which it derives some stanzas. The plot, however, is by no means identical, sharing elements with a number of other ballads. - RBW
File: C252
===
NAME: Kite Abandoned in White Bay, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye rambling sailor boys And hearken please to me And hear what fishermen endure...." The Kite sets out with the sealing fleet, but her slow speed causes her to be left behind. 22 crew leave her to go home and seek better work
AUTHOR: probably Johnny Burke
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small)
KEYWORDS: ship hunting abandonment
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, p. 103, "The 'Kite' Abandoned in White Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of Newfoundland (II)" (tune)
NOTES: This apparently comes from a manuscript with no indication of author, date, or tune. Ryan and Small believe it to be by Johnny Burke. Looking at the form and certain of the words, I think it effectively certain that "The Banks of Newfoundland (II)" was his  model. - RBW
File: RySm103
===
NAME: Kitten Is Under the Sod, The
DESCRIPTION: "The kitten is under the sod, the sod, The kitten is under the sod."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal burial
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 179, "The Kitten Is Under the Sod" (1 short text)
File: Br3179
===
NAME: Kittie Wells: see Kitty Wells (File: MN2166)
===
NAME: Kitty Alone (I): see Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)
===
NAME: Kitty Alone (II): see The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)
===
NAME: Kitty Alone and I: see Kemo Kimo (File: R282)
===
NAME: Kitty Brewster
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls Kitty Brewster's tavern where you could have her good ale and argue politics at the fireplace in winter. Now she has died and the tavern is gone and so are "the chaps wha ance at Kitty's shrine Pour'd their libations votive"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: death drink nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan3 554, "Kitty Brewster" (1 text)
Roud #6029
NOTES: GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Kittybrewster (554) is at coordinate (h1,v9) on that map [roughly 2 miles NW of Aberdeen]. - BS
File: GrD3554
===
NAME: Kitty Cain't You Come Along Too?: see Raccoon (File: R260)
===
NAME: Kitty Clyde: see Katy Cline (File: FSWB149)
===
NAME: Kitty Gray
DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a girl and courts her "For she looked like an angel although she was poor." Her widowed mother consents to the marriage "as by flattery and deception I won Kitty Gray." But when she realizes his deception, she and the baby die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: "One morning as through the village churchyard I did stray," the singer sees a girl and courts her "For she looked like an angel although she was poor." Her widowed mother consents to the marriage "as by flattery and deception I won Kitty Gray." But when she realizes his deception, she and the baby dies
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty death children money trick
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Gardner/Chickering 32, "Kitty Gray" (1 text)
ST GC032 (Partial)
Roud #3692
File: GC032
===
NAME: Kitty Kline: see Katy Cline (File: FSWB149)
===
NAME: Kitty Kline (II): see Little Birdie (File: R676)
===
NAME: Kitty O'Noory: see Katie Morey [Laws N24] (File: LN24)
===
NAME: Kitty of Coleraine
DESCRIPTION: "As beautiful Kitty one morning was tripping" she sees the singer, stumbles, breaks her pitcher and spills its milk. He comforts her. "She vowed for such pleasure she'd break it again." Soon after not an unbroken pitcher could be found in Coleraine
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1809 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(8))
KEYWORDS: sex humorous food
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
O'Conor, p. 44, "Kitty of Coleraine" (1 text)
Hayward-Ulster, p. 67, "Kitty of Coleraine" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Kitty of Coleraine" (source notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 467, "Kitty of Coleraine" (1 text)
Roud #6534
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(8), "Kitty of Colerain", Laurie & Whittle (London), 1809; also Firth b.25(262), 2806 c.15(262), 2806 c.17(209), Harding B 28(149), "Kitty of Colerain"; 2806 b.11(176), Firth c.26(216), Harding B 25(1033), Harding B 12(49), "Kitty of Coleraine"; Harding B 28(265), "Kitty of Colerein"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Spotted Cow" (theme)
cf. "Blackberry Grove" (theme)
cf. "Three Maidens to Milking Did Go" (theme)
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 10(8) imprint: "Publish'd Apr. 4, 1809, by Laurie & Whittle, 53, Fleet Street, London. Sung with unbounded applause by John Johnstone, Esq of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, amongst his convivial friends in Ireland." - BS
The editors of _Granger's Index to Poetry_ list this as "wr[ongly] at[tributed] to Charles Dawson Shanley." Hoagland, at least, follows this incorrect attribution (giving Shanley's dates as 1811-1875, which obviously demonstrates why he couldn't have written a song published in 1809), though she admits some doubts. - RBW
File: OCon044
===
NAME: Kitty Tyrrell
DESCRIPTION: The singer comes to the girl, describing all he has to offer if she will marry. He concludes "Your silence I'll take for consent... Now all that I have is your own. This week you may be Kitty Tyrrell; Next week you'll be Mistress Malone."
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Jefferys / Music: Charles W. Glover (died 1863)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1860 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2430))
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage home
FOUND_IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 788, "I've Built Me a Neat Little Cot, Darling" (1 text)
O'Conor, p. 12, "Kitty Tyrrell" (1 text)
Roud #7418
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2430), "Kitty Tyrrell", Ryle and Co (London), 1845-1859; also Harding B 11(708), Harding B 18(333), Harding B 11(858), Harding B 11(3976), Harding B 11(2011), "Kitty Tyrrell"; Firth b.26(102), Firth c.26(154), "Kitty Tyrell"; Firth b.25(82), "Kitty Tyrrel"
NOTES: O'Conor attributes the words to [Samuel] Lover - BS
File: R788
===
NAME: Kitty Wells
DESCRIPTION: The singer weeps to remember Kitty Wells. The two were planning their wedding when she died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1858
KEYWORDS: courting death nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
BrownIII 411, "Kitty Wells" (1 text plus mention of 12 more)
Brewster 92, "Kitty Wells" (2 texts plus an excerpt)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 166-168, "Kitty Wells" (1 text, 1 tune)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 185-186, "Kittie Wells" (1 text)
Beck 78, "Kitty Wells" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 94, p. 202, "Kitty Wells" (1 text)
JHCox 127, "Kitty Wells" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Kitty Wells" (source notes only)
ST MN2166 (Full)
Roud #2748
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Kitty Wells" (Victor 20058, 1926)
Sid Harkreader, "Kitty Wells" (Paramount 3043, 1927)
The Hillbillies, "Kitty Wells" (Vocalion 5018/Vocalion 5019, c. 1926)
Doc Hopkins, "Kitty Wells" (Decca 5983, 1941)
Bradley Kincaid, "Sweet Kitty Wells" (Champion 15502 [as Dan Hughey]/Gennett 6363/Silvertone 5187/Silvertone 8218/Supertone 9208, 1928; rec. 1927)
Pickard Family, "Kitty Wells" (Columbia 15141-D, 1927); (Conqueror 7517, 1930)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Kitty Wells" (Okeh 45048, 1926) (Edison 51994, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5341, 1927)
Virginia Ramblers, "Kitty Wells" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(110b), "Kitty Wells," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Kate Wells
Katy Wells
NOTES: This piece was repeatedly published in the mid-nineteenth century. The earliest copy (1858) credits it to Charles E. Atherton; the same publisher in 1861 issued an "authorized" edition as by T. Brigham Bishop. A third copy, from 1860, credits the piece to Thomas Sloan, Jr.
From the notes in Cox, it appears that this began life as a dialect song, but many of the texts (including Cox's own) are now in ordinary English. - RBW
File: MN2166
===
NAME: Kitty, the Wicklow Girl
DESCRIPTION: "God bless you all, I just came out to have a little chat, I am Irish sure, but thatÕs no sin, IÕm a rollicking merry Pat." The singer claims great success with girls, but wants only Kitty. He describes the happy process of courting her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 68,, "Kitty, the Wicklow Girl" (1 text)
Roud #5498
File: Dean068A
===
NAME: Klondike Gold Rush, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh come to the place where they strike it rich, Come where the treasure lies hid, Where your hat full of mud is a five pound note.... Klondike, Klondike, Label your luggage for Klondike." The singer tells the poor folks about easy wealth in Klondike
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959
KEYWORDS: gold mining nonballad money
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1896 - George Carmack and his companions discover gold near the Klondike River. By 1898 there were so many prospectors (an estimated 25,000) in the area that the Mounties turned back anyone not carrying a year's worth of supplies
FOUND_IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 186-188, "The Klondike Gold Rush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4527
NOTES: Fowke collected this song in British Columbia, but believed it was written by an Englishman (it refers to a "five pound note" and a "quid," although Canada went to dollars in 1858, even before Confederation). - RBW
File: FMB186
===
NAME: Knave, The: see The Rogue (File: RL187)
===
NAME: Knaves Will Be Knaves: see The Rogue (File: RL187)
===
NAME: Knickerbocker Line, The
DESCRIPTION: The earliest versions seem to involve a man who became involved with a seamstress who later stole his watch. In the U.S. this plot seems to have disappeared, replaced by sundry nonsense. The references to the Knickerbocker Line seems diagnostic
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1911 (but FSCatskills, p. 550, points to a probable parody from 1859)
KEYWORDS: nonsense robbery courting
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(West)) US(MA) Australia
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Kennedy 323, "The Knickerbocker Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 146, "The Knickerbocker Line" (2 texts, 2 tunes, plus a text of a published antecedant)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 195, "The Knickerbocker Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST K323 (Partial)
Roud #2149
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Great Northern Line" (tune & meter)
File: K323
===
NAME: Knife in the Window, The: see Creeping and Crawling (File: RL033)
===
NAME: Knight and the Labourman's Daughter, The: see The Laboring Man's Daughter (The Knight's Dream) (File: K132)
===
NAME: Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter, The [Child 110]
DESCRIPTION: A knight, drunk, lies with a shepherd's daughter. She goes to the king's castle and calls for justice. With the king's help, she finds the culprit. The king orders the knight to marry her; he laments his fate.  (She reveals that she is richer than he.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1769 (Percy); title mentioned 1656 (stationer's register; tune from "The Dancing Master," 1652)
KEYWORDS: marriage betrayal trial royalty seduction rape knight
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) US(NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (16 citations)
Child 110, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (16 texts)
Bronson 110, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (24 versions+5 in addenda, though the last three are variants on each other and of dubious authenticity)
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 76-80, "The Knight, and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
BrownII 31, "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 17-18, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 15, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 230-232, "Sir William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 315-320, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 150, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 3, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 40, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
DBuchan 32, "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 185-186, "The Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, p. 289, "The Shepherd's Daughter" (1 tune, called "Parson Upon Dorothy" in Chappell's sources) {Bronson's #22c}
BBI, ZN2533, "There was a Shepherd's daughter"
DT 110, SHEPDAU * SHEPDAU2 SHEPDAU3* SHEPDAU4* SHEPDAU5*
Roud #67
RECORDINGS:
Lizzie Higgins, "The Forester" (on Voice06)
John Strachan, "The Royal Forester (The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #17.1 in addenda}
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Haselbury Girl, The (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl)"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter
The Shepherd's Daughter and the King
Eywillian
NOTES: What might be a fragment of this ballad is found in John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont's 1611 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle", Act II, scene viii:
He set her on a milk-white steed,
And himself upon a gray;
He never turned his face again
But he bore her quite away.
Of course, it might be a fragment of "Lady Isabel" or "The Baffled Knight" or several other ballads as well. - RBW
File: C110
===
NAME: Knight in Green, The
DESCRIPTION: A knight pledges a fortune to win a beautiful girl. To raise this money he must borrow from a Jew, offering his own flesh as collateral. When the bill comes, he cannot pay, and flees. And on it goes, till they all live happily ever after
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1825 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: bargaining courting  exile poverty reprieve Jew
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 184-191, "Night in Green" (sic) (1 text)
ST FO184 (Partial)
Roud #303
NOTES: The theme here was, of course, used in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." The text here shows no direct knowledge of that play, but the two probably derive from a common ancestor.
The notes in Flanders/Olney state that there is a broadside version in the Folger Shakespeate Library. Unfortunately, they give no other details.
It's worth noting that this very long item comes from manuscript, not singing. And, yes, the title listed by Flanders is "Night," not "Knight."  - RBW
File: FO184
===
NAME: Knight of Liddesdale, The [Child 160]
DESCRIPTION: Only one stanza extant: "The Countesse of Douglas out of her boure she came, And loudly there did she call: 'It is for the Lord of Liddesdale That I let all these tears downe fall.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: (1833)
KEYWORDS: death mourning nobility
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1353 - Assassination of William Douglas, "The Knight of Liddesdale," by his relative Lord William Douglas
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Child 160, "The Knight of Liddesdale" (0 texts!)
Roud #3999
NOTES: Child apparently included this ballad in his collection "on speculation"; Scott's "Minstrelsy" claimed there were "fragments" still current in his time. Child, however, had only one stanza, and nothing more has been recovered since.
Child has extensive notes on the Knight of Liddesdale, who is the probable subject of this ballad. William Douglas, who was known as the Knight of Liddesdale, was active during the reign of David Bruce, the son of Robert Bruce (for some details on the complicated Scottish succession of this period, see the notes to "The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward" [Child 271]).
David had come to the throne as a child of five, and soon after, the English were invading; the English King Edward III (reigned 1327-1377) was promoting Edward Balliol as King of Scotland (this was, in a way, proper, since Edward Balliol was the son of John Balliol, who was the rightful heir of Scotland's King Alexander III. But the Balliol claim had been abdicated, and Edward III was promoting Edward Balliol solely to gain control of Scotland.)
In this period, there was much conflict between the Balliol adherents and the loyalists who supported David Bruce's claim. This conflict did not really end until Edward III started the Hundred Years' War with France and started sending his troops to France rather than Scotland. The Balliol forces were then pushed out of Scotland. Naturally there was much opportunity for various people to pick up lands at the expense of their neighbors. The Knight of Liddesdale was one of the staunchest defenders of the Bruce legacy (see Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, _The History of Scotland_, 1982; I use the 1995 Barnes & Noble edition; p. 85).
We can't say much about this song, but since it seems to refer to Liddesdale's death, the possibility cannot be ruled out that the song at least mentions the complicated question of his successor (which Child does not elaborate) -- or of Douglas's dealings to obtain his fief in 1342. These were, according to Stephen Boardman's _The Early Stewart Kings_,  p. 162, "somewhat dubious."
What followed Liddesdale's death was at least as dubious, since the other William Douglas (the assassin) became "Lord of Liddesdale" by a royal grant in 1354, and the grant was converted to an earldom in 1384. This even though the Knight had had a daugher, Mary, though she died in 1367 without issue.
Earl Liddesdale died in 1388, causing yet another squabble over the inheritance (since there was a major factional struggle in Scotland at the time); eventually the property went to Douglas of Dalkeith. - RBW
File: C160
===
NAME: Knight Templar's Dream, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer dreams of the burning bush. He picks up the fiery serpent and it becomes a rod which he takes to Jerusalem. He sees the knights of Malta. He is enlisted "to fight for Christian Liberty." He travels to Ararat and Enoch's temple before he wakes. 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 19C (broadside, NLScotland L.C.1270(010))
KEYWORDS: dream ritual religious
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 130-131, "The Knight Templar's Dream" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.21(38), "The Knight Templar's dream," unknown, no date
NLScotland, L.C.1270(010), "The Knight Templar's Dream," James Kay (Glasgow), c.1845
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brilliant Light" (subject)
cf. "The Grand Mystic Order" (subject)
cf. "Sons of Levi (Knights of Malta)" (style)
cf. "The Grand Templar's Song" (subject)
cf. "The Blackman's Dream" (subject)
NOTES: Zimmermann, p.303 fn. 39: "Some of those who founded the first Orange Lodges were 'unwarranted' Freemasons, and both institutions had much in common in the early nineteenth century. Other Protestant organizations ... were also the themes of allegorical songs which appeared, along with masonic texts, in Orange collections." - BS
Moses and the burning bush are found in Exodus, chapter three. Exodus 4 mentions the rod which became a serpent, and vice versa -- but this serpent is not fiery, though it swallowed other serpents (Exodus 7:12). We meet fiery sepents in Numbers 21:6-9, where Moses makes a bronze serpent to combat a plague of serpents. (Note that it's not the same rod!) This fiery serpent did end up in Jerusalem, because King Hezekiah later destroyed it (2 Kings 18:4); the people were worshiping it. But Moses didn't take it to Jerusalem; Moses was dead before the Israelites conquered Canaan. It cannot have been taken to Jerusalem before the time of David.
Enoch's Temple is even more curious. Enosh was notable in that he "walked with God," but there is no evidence that he built a Temple. Even if he had, it would, in the Biblical view, have been destroyed in the Flood. - RBW
File: BrdKnTeD
===
NAME: Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter: see The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter [Child 110] (File: C110)
===
NAME: Knight's Dream, The: see The Laboring Man's Daughter (The Knight's Dream) (File: K132)
===
NAME: Knight's Ghost, The [Child 265]
DESCRIPTION: The lady comes to the seashore to meet her lord from sea; the sailors tell her he is slain. She gets them drunk and locks them away. Asleep in her room, the knight comes to her and tells her to release the sailors, then tells parts of her future
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: death sailor prison dream ghost reprieve knight
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 265, "The Knight's Ghost" (1 text)
Bronson 265, "The Knight's Ghost" (1 version)
Roud #3889
NOTES: Child says of this piece that it "has not a perceptible globule of old blood in it," and he may be right (Bronson's comment is that it is "pointless") -- but its only real defect is that the knight returns in a dream rather than his ghost walking to rescue his sailors from their unfair treatment. The ending is, in a way, realistic; the lady will live a normal life rather than pining away with grief. - RBW
File: C265
===
NAME: Knights of Malta: see Sons of Levi (Knights of Malta) (File: HHH146)
===
NAME: Knock a Man Down: see Blow the Man Down (File: Doe017)
===
NAME: Knock John Booker: see Johnny Booker (Mister Booger) (File: R268)
===
NAME: Knocklayde
DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing of a mountain, the pride of the north...." The singer describes the great summit of Knocklayde. It would take a surveyor to measure it. It is made of limestone, and supports good grass. The singer will stay there and enjoy its beauties
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H509, p. 168, "Knocklayde" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13481
NOTES: I think this is the only geological folk song I've ever encountered.
Knocklayde probably would not inspire non-Irish very much. A short distance south of Ballycastle (on the very northern coast of Ulster), it rises only 517 meters above sea level. - RBW
File: HHH509
===
NAME: Knot of Blue and Gray, A
DESCRIPTION: Singer tells why she wears upon her breast both blue and gray. She says that she had two brothers; one fought and died for the north, the other for the south -- "But the same sun shines on both their graves"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (recording, Loman D. Cansler)
KEYWORDS: grief army Civilwar war death mourning brother
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Loman D. Cansler, "A Knot of Blue and Gray" (on Cansler1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)" (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Blue and Gray
NOTES: This song, apart from being ridiculously schmaltzy [Not necessarily schmaltzy if sung well. See Barton & Para's version, for example. - PJS], has real historical problems. The oldest version is in the Dabney papers (Dabney Family Papers, MSS 9852, Box 21, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library), and in it, the southern brother "rode with Stonewall and his men," while the northern brother "followed Sherman's march, Triumphant to the sea."
The problem is, Jackson was not a cavalry general. And the number of battle casualties on Sherman's March to the Sea could be counted on one's finger. One has to suspect the author just plugged in some familiar names.
The Duke University collection has a text which eliminates the reference to Stonewall Jackson and credits the music to T. Brigham Bishop. Since Bishop's name appears on at least two other pieces ("Kitty Wells" and "Shoo Fly") which he almost certainly did not write, one suspects, in Paul Stamler's words, "an early-day Lomax in action." Particularly since the Cansler version is sung to "The Wearing of the Green." - RBW, PJS
File: RcAKOBAG
===
NAME: Knox's Farewell
DESCRIPTION: The singer (Sam Knox) now must leave the land where he long wandered; he will seek his fortune overseas. He bids his parents not to grieve, bids farewell to the land and his friends, and asks that he be remembered
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel Knox/Music set by Sam Henry
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H49, p. 200, "Knox's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH049
===
NAME: Knoxville Girl, The: see The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)
===
NAME: Kock, De (The Cook)
DESCRIPTION: German shanty. Verses made up of short phrases, the cook describing himself, his habits, the meals he prepares. No chorus, but a pull on "seggt he" (says he) after each phrase. "Yellow peas, sez he. Cook for me, sez he. Keep them stirred, sez he," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty cook food
FOUND_IN: Germany
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 537-539, "De Kock" (3 texts-German & English, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "In Berlin Sagt 'Er" (tune)
File: Hugi537
===
NAME: Kom Till Mig Pa Lordag Kvall, A (Come to Me on Saturday Night)
DESCRIPTION: Swedish hauling song. Chorus: "Viktoria, Viktoria! Kirre-verre-vipp-bom! Hurra sa!" Printed verses have rhymes about drinking, Hugill says there were 18 verses he couldn't print.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty worksong
FOUND_IN: Sweden
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 427-428, "A Kom Till Mig Pa Lordag Kvall " (2 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
cf. "Halarvisa" (similar chorus)
NOTES: Hugill says the unprintable verses of this shanty are identical to a Chinese song which refers to the "18 points of feeling." They are quoted in _Sang under Segel._ - SL
File: Hugi427
===
NAME: Kookaburra
DESCRIPTION: "Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree, Merry merry king of the bush is he, Laugh, kookaburra, laugh, kookaburra, Gay your life must be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Silber-FSWB, p. 413, "Kookaburra" (1 text)
File: FSWB413B
===
NAME: Kum Ba Yah: see Kum By Yah (File: FSWB368D)
===
NAME: Kum By Yah
DESCRIPTION: You know the drill: "Kum by yah, my Lord, kum by yah (x3), Oh, Lord, Kum by yah." "Someone's crying, Lord..." "Someone's singing, Lord..." "Someone's praying, Lord...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (recording, Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Silber-FSWB, p. 368, "Kum Ba Yah" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Kum Ba Yah" (on SeegerTerry)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Come By Here" (form)
NOTES: Although almost the prototypical camp song, and certainly a folk song in that right, genuine field collections seem to be few and far between. - RBW
File: FSWB368D
===
NAME: Kyle's Flowery Braes: see Laurel Hill (File: HHH008)
===
NAME: L'amant a la Fenetre de sa Maitresse (The Lover at his Mistress's Window)
DESCRIPTION: French. The singer returned from war and knocked at his mistress's door. Her father and mother are in their bed, and they have barred the door and have the keys. She opens the window to her bedroom.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting love sex return father lover mother nightvisit
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 493-494, "L'amant a la Fenetre de sa Maitresse" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea493
===
NAME: L'il Liza Jane: see Li'l Liza Jane (File: FSWB037)
===
NAME: L'Internationale: see The Internationale (File: FSWB297B)
===
NAME: La Courte Paille: see Courte Paille, La (File: FMB041)
===
NAME: La Cucaracha: see Cucaracha, La (File: San289)
===
NAME: La Gaie-Annee: see Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)
===
NAME: La Gui-Annee: see Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)
===
NAME: La Guignolee: see Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)
===
NAME: La Guillannee: see Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)
===
NAME: La Rose Blanche (The White Rose): see Rose Blanche, La (The White Rose) (File: FMB118)
===
NAME: Laboring Man's Daughter, The (The Knight's Dream)
DESCRIPTION: A nobleman dreams of a beautiful girl. After seven years' searching he finds her, a poor laboring-man's daughter. He tells her he has seen her only in a dream, but is confident she will not deny him. He takes out a ring and proposes. (They happily marry)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Sharp, JFSS)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: A nobleman's son dreams of "the beautiful-est girl in the nation." After seven years' searching he finds her, a poor laboring-man's daughter. He tells her he has only seen her once, as she lay by him in a dream, but he is confident she will not deny him. She asks what is his desire, that he's so afraid of denial; "Although I am poor, no scorn I'll endure/Do not put me under any such trial." He takes out a ring and proposes. (She worries that his parents will look down on her; he replies that they are both dead, and his friends will not object. They marry and are happy)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage ring travel dream nobility worker beauty
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South,North)) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Kennedy 132, "The Labouring Man's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 540-541, "The Knight and the Labourman's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST K132 (Partial)
Roud #595
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Queen Among the Heather" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Knight and Labourman's Daughter
NOTES: I'm not certain "A Cornish Young Man" is the same song, but Kennedy lumps it in. - PJS
File: K132
===
NAME: Labour Boroo, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams he is at the "Labour Borue." Everyone is polite; they offer a seat, brandy, a smoke, money for the asking, and a taxi home; his wife welcomes him. His wife wakes him. He screams. She asks if his worthless self had had a nightmare.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1970 (Morton-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: work unemployment dream husband wife
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Morton-Ulster 25, "The Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-Belfast, pp. 46-47, "The Labour Boroo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2886
NOTES: Morton-Ulster: "N.E. Ireland has always been the 'industrialized' sector of the country.... When a man is unemployed he faces what for many is a humiliating half-life of 'signing on at the Employment Exchange', otherwise known as the Labour Bureau (Borue)." - BS
File: MorU025
===
NAME: Labourer, The: see Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)
===
NAME: Labouring Man's Daughter, The: see The Laboring Man's Daughter (The Knight's Dream) (File: K132)
===
NAME: Labrador
DESCRIPTION: The crew on the schooner Carey catch bait in Conception Bay and cash in at Holyrood. They hear fishing is exceptional on the Labrador. They fight bad weather to get there, are poorly equipped, and fare badly.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea storm
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 138-139, "Labrador" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9965
File: Pea138
===
NAME: Lachlan Tigers, The
DESCRIPTION: The shearers wait eagerly for the shift to begin: "At his gate each shearer stood as the whistle loudly blew...." The expert shearers set out to be the fastest, while the boss tries to make sure they shear the sheep completely.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1957 (Stewart & Keesing, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: sheep work Australia
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 136-137, "The Lachlan Tigers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 178-180, "At the Gate Each Shearer Stood" (1 text)
DT, LCHLNTIG*
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Lachlan Tigers" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd8)
NOTES: The region along the Lachlan river is one of Australia's best sheep-raising areas. Naturally, it attracted the best shearers, who came to be known as the "Lachlan Tigers."
Jackie Howe holds the all-time (and probably unsurpassable) record of 328 sheep sheared in an eight hour day; hence the remark in the song "There's never been a better board since Jackie Howe expired." - RBW
File: FaE136
===
NAME: Lad and a Lass, A: see No Sign of a Marriage [Laws P3] (File: LP03)
===
NAME: Lad in the Scotch Brigade, The (The Banks of the Clyde)
DESCRIPTION: Geordie and Jean meet on the banks of the Clyde. She tries to dissuade him from "going to fight for his queen." She gives him a lock of her hair. In the battle a bullet "buried that dear lock of hair in his heart." Jean and his mother comfort each other.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Spelling)
KEYWORDS: courting army battle separation death lover soldier
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf,West)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Leach-Labrador 133, "The Banks of the Clyde" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab133 (Partial)
Roud #1784
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2032), "The Lad in the Scotch Brigade" or "The Burning Plains of Egypt" ("On the banks of the Clyde stood a lass [sic] and a lassie"), unknown, n.d.
NLScotland, RB.m.143(125), "The Scotch Brigade," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1880-1900
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair Town of Greenock" (theme)
cf. "The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands)" [Laws N2] (theme)
NOTES: This ballad is reported in _What We Sang Down on the Farm: A Forgotten Manuscript on Western Canadian Singing Traditions_ by David A.E. Spelling in Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1985). The article includes an anonymous undated manuscript collected in Alberta by Dr. Robert E. Gard in the 1940s. The author of that manuscript recalls that "our favourite war song was 'The Lad in the Scotch Brigade,' a product of the war in Egypt and the Soudan." The manuscript then summarizes the ballad and includes the chorus from the broadside omitted in the Leach-Labrador version.
The Alberta source, in placing the war "in Egypt and the Soudan" was probably imagining it to be about the recent (1884-1885 and 1896-1898) wars against the Dervish Empire. The ballad does not name the battle at which the hero is killed but refers only to "the great victory." In those "river wars" the "great victory" was the Battle of Omdurman, September 2, 1898. However, one of Roud's sources for #1784, as "The Scotch Brigade," was _Delaney's Song Book No.1_ published in 1892, before the second Dervish war. Too bad: the Scotch Brigade -- the 94th Regiment of Foot -- was in the second war against the Dervish Empire. It does not seem that the Scotch Brigade was in Egypt at any other time. You can find a history of the Scottish Brigade at the Dungarvan Museum site Historical Articles - BS
File: LLab133
===
NAME: Lad That's Far Awa, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer's sweetheart is a sailor "banished by the law To go owre the seas and far awa." Her mother wants her "to marry a man of high degree." She imagines him returned and will not forsake him for "rings, jewels and 'a." In one version he does return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: love return separation transportation mother sailor money exile
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greig #129, pp. 1-2, "The Lad That's Far Awa'" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 61, "The Lad That's Far Awa" (2 texts)
Roud #5812
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Sailor Lad
File: GrD1061
===
NAME: Lad Wha Hauds the Ploo, The
DESCRIPTION: "There's some wha like a country life while others prefer the toon," but "there's nae a blyther lad" than the ploughboy. He whistles in all weather with few holidays "but he's aye happy wi' his lot." He can work and talk with a girl at the same time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad courting work
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan3 419, "The Lad Wha Hauds the Ploo" (1 text)
Roud #5938
File: GrD3419
===
NAME: Lad Wi' The Tartan Plaidie, The: see The Tartan Plaidy (O My Bonnie Highland Laddie) (File: BrAPS495)
===
NAME: Laddie That Handles the Ploo, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the plowmen and farmers who provide others with food. He lists other occupations, and notes how much they are needed -- but none of them could survive "Gin it werena for the bonnie laddie that handles the ploo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming worker food
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Greig #107, p. 1, "The Laddie that Handles the Ploo"; Greig #160, p. 2, "The Laddie that Handles the Ploo" (2 text) 
GreigDuncan3 449, "The Laddie that Handles the Ploo" (10 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord, p. 81, "The Bonnie Lad That Handles the Plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2170
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer is the Man" (theme)
cf. "The Praise of Ploughmen" (theme)
cf. "Come All You Jolly Ploughboys" (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Success and Flourish
Trades
Health to the Farmers
Tradesman's Song
File: Ord081
===
NAME: Laddie Wi' the Tarry Trews, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer is a woman, probably a mill worker, who wants to be taken from the mill by a sailor. She describes him, "a sailor wi' a rolling eye," rowing on the ocean and sailing across the sea. He says he would take her from the mill.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad sailor technology
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan1 56, "The Laddie Wi' the Tarry Trews" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #5809
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "No More Shall I Work in the Factory" (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Mill
A Sailor
NOTES: The GreigDuncan1 entries are all fragments. Two share the verse "He bade me aye cheer up my heart An' he bade me nae be dull He bade me aye cheer up my heart An' he'd tak me frae the mull." All three texts refer briefly to sailors: "And the laddie wi' the tarry trews, Is aye the lad for me," "A sailor wi' a rolling eye I'd lay my life to be his wife," and "And the sailor wi' the curly kep, Oh he's the lad for me."
GreigDuncan1: .".. millgirls' song - usually sung as they marched home in groups after the day's work (about 1850)." - BS
File: GrD1056
===
NAME: Ladies to the Center
DESCRIPTION: "Ladies to the center and a ding dong ding, Gents to the center and form a ring, Mile and a quarter round this ring, Meet your partner, balance and swing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (JAFL 27)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 577, "Ladies to the Center" (1 fragment)
Roud #7666
File: R577
===
NAME: Ladies' Orange Lodges O!, The
DESCRIPTION: "The Orange cause is booming strong, Since ladies joined the Order." "They crowd round William's banner." Throughout England they "lilt their Orange ditties" and "work against those who love the night, And hate the British Empire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1895 (Graham)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Graham, p. 19, "The Ladies' Orange Lodges O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The Loyal Institution of Orange Ladies of England is a section of the Loyal Orange Institution of England.  "Ladies Lodges have been a part of the Orange family since the middle of the nineteeth century, with Lodges meeting in different locations, mainly in the Lancashire area ...." (source: "The Orange Ladies of England" at the Grand Orange Lodges of England [GOLE] site). - BS
File: Grah019
===
NAME: Ladle Song, The: see A Rich Old Miser [Laws Q7] (File: LQ07)
===
NAME: Lads of Wamphrey, The [Child 184]
DESCRIPTION: The Johnstones raid the stable of the Crichtons. William, nicknamed Galliard, the Johnstone leader, by mistake rides off on a blind horse. He is captured and hanged. His nephew gathers a gang which drives the Crichtons from their land
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1791
KEYWORDS: feud battle execution revenge
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 184, "The Lads of Wamphrey" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 495-497, "The Lads of Wamphrey" (1 text)
Roud #4011
File: C184
===
NAME: Lads that was Reared Among the Heather, The
DESCRIPTION: Girls: the best men are "the lads that was reared in the heather"; the best dances are in the barn, not the hall, with the lads ...; the best ship builders, the best soldiers and the best poets are the lads....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1967 (recording, Willie Scott)
KEYWORDS: bragging commerce dancing nonballad soldier
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #5127
RECORDINGS:
Willie Scott, "The Lads that was Reared Among the Heather" (on Voice05)
File: RcLTRATH
===
NAME: Lady Alice [Child 85]
DESCRIPTION: Lady Alice sees a beautiful corpse being carried by and learns it is her lover. She bids the bearers leave it; she will herself be dead by the next evening. They are buried apart but roses from his grave grow to reach her breast until severed by a priest.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1810
KEYWORDS: death corpse love burial flowers
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (24 citations)
Child 85, "Lady Alice" (4 texts)
Bronson 85, "George Collins (Lady Alice)" (43 versions)
SharpAp 25 "Giles Collins" (6 short texts, 6 tunes){Bronson's #13, #15, #14, #28, #5, #42}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 452-453, "Lady Alice" (notes plus a text derived from Child C)
Peacock, pp. 738-739, "Young Collins Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 12, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 85, "George Collins" (1 text)
Randolph 22, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #27}
Davis-Ballads 25, "Lady Alice" (7 texts apart from the appendix, 5 tunes entitled "Johnny Collins," "George Collins"; 10 more versions mentioned in Appendix A)
Davis-More 26, pp. 199-206, "Lady Alice" (3 texts plus a fragment, 4 tunes -- but the fourth, fragmentary, text and tune could as well be "Fare You Well, My Own True Love" or something similar) {Bronson's #41, #32, #31, #29, #2}
BrownII 28, "Lady Alice" (8 texts plus 2 excerpts, a fragment, and mentions of 4 more)
Chappell-FSRA 14, "Georgie Collins" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Hudson 16, pp. 107-111, "Lady Alice" (4 texts)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 47, "George Collins" (1 short text)
Cambiaire, p. 76, "George Collins" (1 short text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 117-122, "Lady Alice," with individual texts titled "George Collins," "George Collins," (no title), "George Collins," (no title), "George Allien" (4 texts plus 2 excerpts, 4 tunes on pp. 393-394) {Bronson's #22, #19, #1, #11}
OBB 154, "Lady Alice" (1 text)
Warner 96, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 37, "Lady Alice" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 246-247, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 32, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 17, "Lady Alice" (5 texts)
Silber-FSWB, p. 151, "George Collins" (1 text)
DT 85, GEOCLLNS* GEOCOL2 GEOCLLN3
ST C085 (Full)
Roud #147
RECORDINGS:
Dixon Brothers, "Story of George Collins" (Montgomery Ward M-7580, 1938)
Henry Griffin, "George Collins" (on HandMeDown2)
Spud Gravely, "George Allen" (on Persis1)
Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers, "George Collins" (Brunswick 250, 1928; on ConstSor1)
Kelly Harrell, "The Dying Hobo" (Victor 20527, 1926; on KHarrell01 -- a rather strange version combining the first verse of "The Dying Hobo" with a plot, taken from "George Collins," of a girl mourning her dead lover) {Bronson's #30}
Dick Justice, "One Cold December Day" (Brunswick 367, 1929 -- like the Harrell recording, this starts with a "Dying Hobo" verse, then parallels "George Collins")
New Lost City Ramblers, "George Collins" (on NLCR02)
Frank Proffitt, "George Collins" (on Proffitt03)
Riley Puckett, "George Collins" (Montgomery Ward M-4551, 1934)
Enos White, "George Collins" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1, Voice03)
Henry Whitter, "George Collins" (OKeh 45081, 1927, rec. 1926) (Broadway 8024, c. 1931); Henry Whitter & Fiddler Joe [Samuels], "George Collins" (OKeh, unissued, 1926)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Earl Colvin
Young Collins
George Coleman
Dame Alice was Sitting on Widow's Walk
George Collum
George Promer
NOTES: A number of scholars (including Coffin and Lloyd, with some support from Bronson) believe that "Lady Alice" is a fragment of a larger ballad (called "George Collins" or the like). The first half is found in "Clerk Colville" [Child 42]; "Lady Alice" forms the second half. Lloyd writes, "Either these are two separate songs which have been combined to form George Collins or (which seems more likely) they are two fragments of the completer ballad."
Paul Stamler provides this description of the composite ballad:
George Collins, out walking, kisses a pretty maid, who warns him he won't live long. He kisses her, goes home and dies. His lover kisses his corpse goodbye; she dies too. In the last verse, it's said that six pretty maids died in one night for his sake. Many have interpreted the "pretty maid" as a water-fairy whom Collins has been trysting with; when she finds he's been betrothed, she gives him a poisoned kiss. - RBW, PJS
The supernatural explanation seems reasonable. But sudden death transmitted by a kiss -- has no one suggested communicable disease?
The ballad is found throughout western Europe, including a manuscript poem from Germany dated c. 1310. - PJS
[For discussions of the question of whether this is one ballad], see Barbara Craster in the _Journal of the Folk-Song Society_ 2:4 (15) (1910) pp. 106-109 (comparisons) and in Coffin, _Brit. Trad. Ballad in N. America_ (1977 edn.) p. 51 and pp. 86-88, 241 - JM
[Ewan] MacColl in The Long Harvest... feels there is little left to doubt and combines them.  He cites S.P. Bayard, "No two ballads in English are more closely allied."  Harbison Parker gives much detail and together, says MacColl, "make an almost watertight for the two Child ballads as springing from one and the same source. - AS
In general I have followed the policy of listing "George Collins" versions here, without further notes, as the "Lady Alice" portion is more integral to the story. - RBW
A curious thing is that Sharp calls the ballad "Giles Collins", but the protagonist is "George" in 5 of his 6 examples, and "Charles" in the sixth.
Again this [Silber's version] is fragmentary; George Collins, driving home, is taken sick and dies. His Nell opens his coffin to kiss him goodbye, then laments his passing. That's it; nothing else happens. Nothing to connect it to Lady A. except George's name. Arghh. - PJS
File: C085
===
NAME: Lady and the Dragoon, The: see The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)
===
NAME: Lady and the Farmer's Son, The [Laws O40]
DESCRIPTION: A wealthy lady wants a youth to marry her, but he is pledged to one of the lady's servants. The lady brings her maid on a boat trip and throws her into the sea. She winds up in prison; the young man goes mad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Flanders/Olney)
KEYWORDS: murder drowning prison servant courting money
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws O40, "The Lady and the Farmer's Son"
Flanders/Olney, pp. 170-171, "The Lady and the Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 490, FARMSON*
Roud #994
NOTES: This is so close to Sharp's "Handsome Sally" that Paul Stamler lumped them. But Laws and Roud distinguish them, so I tentatively do the same. - RBW
File: LO40
===
NAME: Lady and the Glove, The: see The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)
===
NAME: Lady and the Gypsy, The: see The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)
===
NAME: Lady and the Sailor, The: see Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)
===
NAME: Lady and the Shepherd, The: see The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)
===
NAME: Lady and the Soldier, The: see One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)
===
NAME: Lady Anne
DESCRIPTION: Lady Anne bids false Sir William farewell as he goes to war. One day she sees three boys playing ball and is asked to choose one. She would clothe the naked boy who has been with them one year. The boy reveals he is her son murdered and buried by a nurse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: murder pregnancy adultery childbirth burial children accusation supernatural ghost
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 20 Appendix, "Lady Anne" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 194, "Lady Anne" (1 text)
Roud #9
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Cruel Mother
NOTES: The following plot elements are shared with Child 20: a woman murders a baby and continues her life as if the baby had never been born; after some time she sees a boy playing and says that if he were hers she'd dress him in finery; she is told he was hers.
Why is the baby murdered? In Child 20 it is to avoid exposure at the lady's wedding. Here it appears that Lady Anne had an affair in Sir William's absence and was avoiding exposure at his return. The nurse (midwife?) murders, or at least buries, the baby after it is stabbed to death. - BS
This raises the interesting question of why Sir William is called false when it was Lady Anne who had the affair. Had he had his own dalliance before leaving, or did she suspect he would while he was gone? Was she trying to get back at him? Just some points to ponder.... - RBW
File: GrD194
===
NAME: Lady Connolly
DESCRIPTION: Rebellion begins May 18, 1798. Lord Carhampton "burned our holy altars, and Dunboyne town also." Lady Connolly, "may her soul rest in glory, while Lord Carhampton's sent to hell." We'll keep Carhampton agitated until the French come, then we'll skin him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1970 (Healy's _Mercier Book of Old Irish Street Ballads Vol. 2_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: rebellion death France Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule 
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 51, "Lady Connolly" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Moylan: "Lady Louisa Connolly was the wife of Tom Connolly of Castletown House. She was the aunt of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and visited him in his cell in Newgate Prison a couple of hours before his death.... The Earl of Carhampton, of Luttrelstown House, was the Commander-in-Chief in 1795 and was responsible for the dragooning of Ulster in response to the outbreak of Defenderism. He was universally feared and hated...." - BS
According to Thomas Pakenham, _The Year of Liberty_, pp. 235-238, Lady Connolly did very little except write a rather pathetic account of Edward Fitzgerald's last hours (for Fitzgerald, see the notes to "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)"), which nonetheless made clear that the British had not mistreated him once he was in custody. Her position may have been somewhat equivocal; she was the aunt of Fitzgerald -- but she was also the wife of Tom Connolly, the commander of the Derry militia (Pakenham, p. 48).
Carhampton I think may be the Lord Lieutenant, John Jeffreys Pratt, second earl of Camden. He was appointed in 1795, and lasted until after the 1798 rebellion, when he was fired (Canning privately wrote that he had been rendered useless for anything) but promoted to marquis. I can't find any source that calls him "Carhampton," but there is no one else who seems to fit. Certainly theIrish did completely bamboozle him. - RBW
File: Moyl051
===
NAME: Lady Diamond [Child 269]
DESCRIPTION: The king's daughter Lady (Daisy) is with child by a kitchen boy. The king has the boy killed and a token (his heart) sent to Lady Daisy. She dies for love (prompting the king's deep regret)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1823 (Sharpe) 
KEYWORDS: royalty execution pregnancy death bastard
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Child 269, "Lady Diamond" (5 texts)
Bronson 269, "Lady Diamond" (4 versions)
Dixon XIV, pp. 71-72, "Ladye Diamond" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 635-636, "Lady Diamond" (1 text, correctly titled but erroneously numbered as Child 264)
PBB 37, "Lady Diamond" (1 text)
DT 269, LADYDIAM* LADYDIA2
Roud #112
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie o Winsbury" [Child 100] (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lady Daisy
Lady Dysie
NOTES: [A. L. Lloyd writes,] "Boccaccio re-tells [this story] in his tale of Ghismonda and Guiscardo, and in later years it was made into a play in England and elsewhere. Versified into a ballad, it was widely known throughout Western Europe and Scandinavia." - PJS
The link to Boccaccio was noted long before Lloyd; Child mentions it and many non-English analogies, and the link to the Decameron goes back at least to Dixon.
The tale is the first story of the fourth day, told by Fiammetta. In outline, the Decameron account is precisely "Lady Diamond," but there are also substantial differences. In "Lady Diamond," the girl is pregnant and the father forces the truth out of her; in Boccaccio, she is already a widow and her father discovers the truth accidentally; in "Lady Diamond," she dies for love, whereas in the Decameron, she takes poison, and the Italian tale ends with the king's repentance, something rare in the ballad.
With all that said, it's hard to doubt that the two spring from the same sources. Much of the difference may be simply due to the fact that the Decameron version had to be fleshed out to a full story, while the ballad version, like most ballads, strips much inessential detail. - RBW
File: C269
===
NAME: Lady Elgin, The: see Lost on the Lady Elgin (File: R692)
===
NAME: Lady Elspat [Child 247]
DESCRIPTION: Lady Elspat and Sweet William plan a tryst, but Elspat's brother's page reports to her mother. The mother takes the boy to court on a charge of robbery. The judge concludes that his only crime is being relatively poor, and frees William to wed Elspat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1783
KEYWORDS: courting trial reprieve
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Child 247, "Lady Elspat" (1 text, 2 tunes, but Bronson says the tunes are not proper to the text)
Bronson 247, "Lady Elspat" (2 versions)
OBB 86, "Lady Elspat" (1 text)
Roud #4023
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial)" [Laws M10] (plot)
cf. "Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter)" [Laws M16] (plot)
File: C247
===
NAME: Lady Fair (I): see The Suffolk Miracle [Child 272] (File: C272)
===
NAME: Lady Fair (II), A: see Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)
===
NAME: Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9]
DESCRIPTION: A sailor has a dream (. He hears Lady Franklin) telling of the loss of her husband, who disappeared in Baffin's Bay as he sought the Northwest Passage. He never returned, and is presumed dead, but Lady Franklin would give a great fortune to be certain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1878 (Faulkner, _Eighteen Months on a Greenland Whaler_); broadside versions probably date from the period 1850-1853
KEYWORDS: sailor wife death exploration Eskimo
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1845-1847 - Lord Franklin's final expedition
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Laws K9, "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)"
Doerflinger pp. 145-147, "Lady Franklin's Lament" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Colcord, pp. 159-159, "Franklin's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 154-156, "The Franklin Expedition" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H815, p. 103, "Franklin the Brave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #86, p. 2, "Lady Franklin's Lament" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 16, "Lady Franklin's Lament" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 151, "The Franklin Expedition" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Blondahl, pp. 65-66, "Franklin In Search of the North-West Passage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 145, "Franklin and His Ship's Crew"; p. 146, "Franklin and His Bold Crew" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 97, "Franklin and His Bold Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 401, LADYFRAN* LADYFRN2 LADYFRN3
Roud #487
RECORDINGS:
Pat Maher, "Franklin" (on NFMLeach)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y2:005, "Lady Franklin's Lament for her Husband," unknown, 19C [there is a hand-written date of "1851" on the sheet, but this appears to be a later addition; the text itself says it has been seven years since Franklin sailed, making the year at least 1852]
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lord Franklin
NOTES: This song is the chief musical relic of one of the saddest events in the history of arctic exploration: The last failed attempt in the nineteenth century to sail the "Northwest Passage" from the Atlantic to the Pacific north of Canada.
It was a popular theme in broadsides, but most of the results were terrible (for an example of just how bad they can be, see "A Ballad of Sir John Franklin," in Sandler, pp. 96-98. For the list of books cited in this note, see the bibliography at the end of this essay). It appears that none of these products survived in tradition -- except this song, which has proved enduringly popular.
Unfortunately, the song ends in the middle of the story, with an unsolved mystery. Most books about the Franklin Expedition, simply describe the quest for the Northwest Passage, Franklin's part in it -- and then the quest to discover what happened to Franklin. I'm going to try to do it from the standpoint of the song, telling the history of the quests for the passage, then discussing Franklin, then looking what the song has to say on the subject -- and only then talking of the search for and fate of Franklin. It's not a very coherent story this way, but it avoids "cheating." If you want a more orderly exposition, try one of the books listed in the bibliography (I'd recommend Delgado or Fleming-Barrow). 
The quest for the Northwest Passage began because the sea trip from Europe to Asia was so long -- going eastward, it required ships to not only sail the length of Eurasia but, in the period before the opening of the Suez Canal, also south around the Cape of Good Hope. The westward route was also long, and required making the dreadful trip around Cape Horn, which is perpetually stormy. Mariners desperately wanted a shorter, safer route. For that reason, the Northwest Passage had been a goal of mariners since Martin Frobisher in the sixteenth century (McGhee, pp. 23fff.) -- but, at that time, the Little Ice Age almost certainly made it impossible.
As the climate warmed, and as ships improved, chances became better. Plus, despite centuries of failures, people becane more willing to look. For most of the eighteenth century, apart from a naval expedition around 1740 (Williams, pp. 62-108), the area of the Passage had been in the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, a closed group with no willingness to spend money on speculations or on anything that might affect their business (Williams, p. 49fff. Their employees at one time were given instructions to give no cooperation at all to Passage expeditions -- which, in practice, meant that they interfered with them; Williams, pp. 142-143). But then came Napoleon. Since it was only the Navy that kept the French from invading England, the Navy had to expand; it ended up roughly four times bigger in 1812 than it had been 25 years earlier. (This had dramatic side effects, such as the Nore and Spithead mutinies; see "Poor Parker" for background.)
Following the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy was dramatically reduced; some 90% of Navy officers were on "half pay" -- i.e. still on the books, but with no commands; in effect, they were in reserve -- and, often, going slowly bankrupt; Fleming-Barrow, pp. 2-3. The attempts at the Northwest Passage were in part an attempt to find something for them to do. With so many officers available, it is no surprise that many exploratory voyages, to all parts of the world, were ordered. Britain ruled the waves; now it wanted to know just what waves it ruled.
Some of these exploratory voyages were successful, but those to the Northwest Passage all failed, and most resulted in much privation and some death -- Cookman, pp. 221-222, examines eight Passage attempts between 1819 and 1836: Three under Parry, two under Franklin, one under John Ross, and two under Back. 15 men died out of a total force of about 450 embarked. His list is not comprehensive -- e.g. Williams, pp. 18-32, documents the early eighteenth century expedition of James Knight, which was lost without any survivors from two ships and a crew numbering in dozens. (It is strange to note that no serious attempts were made to find Knight, even though the approximate site of his disappearance was known. Recent expeditions have discovered his ships and winter camp, but no records and almost no bodies; the best guess is that, like the Franklin expedition a century and a quarter later, Knight's men left their ships and vanished in the wilderness; Williams, pp. 32-45.)
But most of these were relatively small attempts. Franklin's 1845 expedition was organized on a massive scale.
Someone compared the quest for the Northwest Passage to the 1960s Apollo lunar program. In terms of cost, the comparison is ridiculous, but in one sense, it's accurate: The quest pushed the limits of what was possible with current technology. It is unfortunate that the Admiralty tried to hurry the Franklin expedition due to budget constraints.
The comparison with NASA is instructive. NASA's lunar expeditions were preceded by every possible test -- three generations of manned hardware (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo), plus much detailed exploration (Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter). Even so, there were disasters (Apollo 1) and near-disasters (Apollo 13). The Franklin expedition made no such preparations. No one tried to finish off the maps of the relevant area; no one tested the new equipment in Franklin's ships. The massive expedition thus became a massive disaster. What follows can only sketch the story as far as it is now known.
John Franklin, the leader of the expedition, was born on April 16, 1786; he joined the Royal Navy in 1801. His early career was distinguished; he fought as a junior officer at Copenhagen and Trafalgar (aboard the _Bellerophon_, one of the more heavily-engaged ships, and the one which would later bear Napoleon into exile); the noise was so great as to cause permament damage to his hearing (Wilkinson, pp. 117-118).
Franklin then became a noted explorer. In his late teens, he helped chart portions of the south Pacific -- and faced a shipwreck and his first experience of starvation. In 1818, as lieutenant in command of the of the _Trent,_ he was part of David Buchan's failed push from Spitzbergen toward the North Pole, narrowly surviving the encroachments of the ice (Fleming-Barrow, pp. 53-55, speaks of a "hair-raising series of near disasters"). The next year, on foot rather than by ship, he explored the north coast of Canada between Point Turnaround and the Coppermine River -- an expedition that nearly caused his death, and resulted in charges of cannibalism and murder, though by men who were separated from Franklin at the time.
Berton, p. 70, accuses Franklin of "ignor[ing] common sense," but also admits that his orders were faulty and the mission funding was inadequate. Fleming-Barrow, p. 125, says more charitably that he was "ordered to hitch-hike through a war zone into a wilderness," being forced to beg assistance from the Hudson's Bay and North West Companies, which at this time were engaged in a small-scale war of raids; they had no time for a Royal Navy interloper.
It would not be the last time John Barrow, the Second Secretary of the Admiralty who dreamed up most of these projects (and for whom Point Barrow, Alaska is named; Savours, p. 39), sent Franklin on a mission that was not adequately prepared.
At least Franklin could learn. In 1825 he went on another expedition in northern Canada. This one charted the coastl region from the Coppermine River to the Mackenzie, and this time, his planning for the expedition was much better; Fleming-Barrow, p. 173, says he allowed "little scope for failure." There were no casualties, and much territory was charted. It also showed how good Franklin was at charming people; at one time he had in his camp Englishmen, Gaelic-speaking Scots, Canadians, Inuit, and four different tribes of non-Inuit Indians, but there were no fights (Savours, p. 88). Almost the only problem was a failure of two of their three chronometers (Savours, p. 89), making some of their maps ever so slightly inaccurate, but hardly Franklin's fault!
It was, in many ways, the highlight of his career. Never again would he have such a happy result while on duty. Franklin was knighted for his work (Fleming-Barrow, p. 175; Savours, p. 102, says this happened in 1829. We should note that the song's title "Lord Franklin" is not correct; he was neither an admiral nor a peer. His highest title was "Sir John Franklin," and his wife was Lady Franklin).
Incidentally, the 1825 expedition split into two smaller parties once it reaached the coast, with Franklin going west and the other party going east. One of Franklin's most important subordinates in the eastern group, Dr. John Richardson, apparently felt that they explored enough coast to have mapped the Northwest Passage (Savours, p. 99). This was almost true; the upper coast of Canada was mapped -- except for the Boothia Peninsula and the water route between it and Victoria Island. It could be said with fair confidence that there was a water route; between what James Clark Ross, Parry, and Richardson had found, that much seemed certain. But that did not show how a ship could travel it. So Richardson (properly, to my mind) was not given the reward for finding the passage.
Having made those three exploratory voyages, Franklin went back to more normal sea duties for about a decade, serving for a time in the Mediterranean and earning the famous Franklin Medal from William IV for services done on behalf of the Greek government.
Eventually, though, he was called home, and found he needed a job. Explorers were not wanted at the time, and the navy still had lots of excess officers. It took him a while before he was given an offer he thought worthwhile -- and it was one for which he really wasn't competent.
From 1837-1843 Franklin served as governor of Van Diemen's Land, bringing much relief after the dreadful leadership of George Arthur -- Franklin, in a brutal age, was gentle enough that he trembled when seamen were flogged, and one of his subordinates on one of the Canadian expeditions told of him refusing to kill a mosquito that landed on him (Fleming-Barrow, p. 129). He even tried to learn about the few surviving Tasmanian natives, though it was far too late to help them. He also founded what would become the Royal Society of Tasmania, and made some efforts to treat prisoners humanely (Wilkinson, p. 128; Cookman, pp. 26-27).
Frankly, he was just what the colony needed -- except that he didn't have the deviousness to outmaneuver the local officials. And, unfortunately, his civilized attitude was resented by the local establishment; they quarrelled with him constantly, and still more with Lady Jane Franklin, who actually wanted to be a human being rather than a ceremonial ornament, and who did much exploring and even founded a local college.
(Franklin's career seemed jinxed, but he was very lucky in love: His two wives were both beautiful, forthright, and highly intelligent. His first, Eleanor Ann Porden, gave him his only child, a daughter, but died of tuberculosis six days after he set out on one of his expeditions. (Moss, p. 15, thinks it an unhappy marriage, but I have seen no hint of this in other sources.) On his return, he married the former Jane Griffin -- in 1828, according to Savours, p. 167. Lady Jane Griffin Franklin, 1791-1875, would prove one of the most determined women of the nineteenth century. It has been said that Franklin's wives were smarter than he was. Very likely true -- but at least he was a man enough to let them be the brilliant women they were.)
(Today, Lady Franklin is known mostly for her quest for her husband, but if things had turned out differently, or if she had lived a century or so later, things might have been very different: She wanted to learn, study, and work; Berton, p. 138, sourly remarked on her room in Tasmania that it was "'more like a museum or menagies than the boudoir of a lady,' being cluttered with stuffed birds, aboriginal weapons, geological specimens, and fossils." I can't help but think, had she been born in the twentieth century, she would have made a good Education Secretary.)
(Franklin also inspired real loyalty from his subordinates. John Hepburn, who had served with him as early as 1818, and also lived through the disastrous first land expedition, still cared for his commander enough to volunteer, when in his early sixties, for one of the Franklin searches; Savours, p. 241.)
MSmith, p. 86-87, sums up Franklin's time in Tasmania this way: "Van Diemen's Land was an unpleasant, half-forgotten penal colony on the fringe of the Emmpire. Over 17,000 of the island's population of 42,000 were shackled convicts and many of the free citizens were former prisoners.... To Franklin and his feisty, strong-willed wife, Lady Jane Franklin, it was a hellhole. To round things off, almost everyone in the suffocating, reactionary frontier community disliked the Franklins, who were regarded as outsiders and dangerous liberals. Lady Franklin, an assured, unconventional woman in her late forties, simply grated... They found her aggressive and disconcertingly radical, especially when she defied convention by straying into unwelcome areas, such as her attempts to improve the island's mediocre schools.... John Franklin was a square peg in a round hole. He was a genial an inoffensive man who had very little in common with the hostile colonialists or the wretched convicts and often found himself at the mercy of the wily civil servants in the Colonial Office."
Franklin eventually was recalled from Tasmania in mild disgrace, though it's reported that thousands of non-government officials showed up to cheer him off. (In fact, the people of Tasmania would later contribute 1700 pounds to the search for Franklin; Berton, p. 140. This out of a relatively impoverished free population numbered in the tens of thousands. As a result, the Tasmania Islands in the Arctic are named for them; Savours, p. 168) But, when he got back to England, he again needed a job.
And, after years of ignoring the Arctic, the Royal Navy was getting interested again. It was clear the Passage would never be commercially useful with nineteenth century ships -- but Admiralty Second Secretary Barrow, who had sent out all those other missions of exploration, was in his eighties, and knew he wouldn't be around much longer; he wanted the Passage to finish off his career.
(How hard has it been to make it through the passage? Cookman, p. 197, counted only seven successful trips through the passage as of 2000 -- though Savours, pp. 326-328, has a list of 49 passages from 1906 to 1990, with the rate increasing steadily over the years. But most of these are icebreakers or small boats. It appears, until around 2000, the passage was *still* not commercially viable -- MacInnis, p. 121, notes that in his first two years of hunting for the _Breadalbane_, there were only seven days of suitable weather, and Edinger, pp. 263-264, describes the attempt of the icebreaker/tanker _Manhattan_, which made it through the passage carrying a symbolic barrel of oil,but sustained heavy damage in the process; the attempt was not repeated.)
(It's likely that global warming will change that in the next few years, though; I heard a recent report of a group of people canoeing the Northwest Passage in a single year. Williams, p. xix, notes that the _St Roch II_ in 2000 made it through the passage in a month, without ever being halted by ice! And the difficulty of the Passage does not mean that there is no traffic up there; oil has been discovered in the Artic Archipelago, so ships are frequently going in and out, and there are several icebreakers on regular arctic duty. It's just that they don't take the Passage; they go out the same way they came in.)
Once the Passage expedition was chartered -- and thrown together hastily to get it on the present budget -- someone had to run it. Usually a commander was lined up before an expedition was organized. Not this time.
There was no question about who the first choice would have been: Captain James Clark Ross was the greatest Arctic explorer then alive. He had served on Passage expeditions with his uncle John Ross and with William Edward Parry; he had discovered the North Magnetic Pole, and he was just back from the most successful Antartcic expedition ever made. There was no man alive who knew more about arctic exploration.
But he ruled himelf out. Part of the reason was that he had not fully recovered from the Antarctic expedition; in addition, he had promised his wife and father-in-law that the southern expedition would be his last. (Fleming-Barrow, p. 351; MSmith, pp. 76, 137-138).
The next choice would be Ross's former commander William Edward Parry, whose 1819 Passage attempt had come closer to success than any before or since (Delgado, pp. 58-64), and who had followed it with two other, less successful attempts at the Passage and an 1827 attempt at the North Pole which failed but which set a new "Farthest North" record that would stand for fifty years (Berton, p. 637). But Parry was now 54 and not interested (MSmith, p. 138).
With those two out of the running, there was no really obvious choice left. The leaders in Arctic experience were Franklin and Captain F.R.M. Crozier; each had drawbacks. Crozier had less seniority; though an intelligent self-made man, had never held an independent command. And, somehow, he never seemed to gain any recognition or fame (MSmith, p. 132).
To be sure, his paper credentials were excellent. Born in Banbridge, Ireland (MSmith, pp. 6-7), he was of an Ulster Presbyterian family (the family home, now known as Crozier House, still stands). He was born around September 17, 1796. His family joined the (Anglican) Church of Ireland in the aftermath of the 1798 rebellion (MSmith, p. 10).
Francis himself joined the navy in 1810, at the age of 13 -- an unusual choice, since most of the other members of his family were solicitors. He served as a midshipman on the _Fury_ during Edward Parry's 1821 expedition to Hudson Bay, where he became friends with his future commander, James Clark Ross (MSmith, p. 29). He was also part of Parry's 1824 Passage expedition which ended in the loss of H.M.S. _Fury_ (MSmith, p. 51). He was made lieutenant in 1826, and in that capacity he joined Parry's 1827 North Pole quest, and commanded _Hecla_ while Parry was away trying (and failing miserably) to sledge across the polar ice (MSmith, p. 59). But then -- nothing. He was a lieutenant on half-pay (i.e. without an actual posting) for most of the next seven years (MSmith, pp. 66-67), though he did briefly serve on an expedition sent to rescue some whalers (MSmith, pp. 71-73); if nothing else, that earned him a promotion to Commander (MSmith, p. 74). In 1839, James Clark Ross asked him to be second-in-command of the expedition he was taking to the Antarctic, and it was Crozier who did most of the work of organizing this highly successful expedition (MSmith, p. 78). But, of course, the credit would go mostly to Ross.
It was probably small consolation to be elected a member of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1827 (MSmith, p. 67). Crozier also has a lunar crater named after him, close to the Mare Fecundatis, between it and the Mare Nectaris, close to Columbo Crater. It's a small crater, though, barely visible on most maps. Nor is it located anywhere near either pole, unlike Amundsen Crater (which is right at the South Pole) or Scott Crater (and why Scott should get a bigger crater than Crozier is beyond me, except that he had a great P.R. machine) or Nansen crater near the North Lunar Pole. In time, he even was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society -- a major tribute to his scientific work (MSmith, p. 145).
But he seems to have lacked self-confidence (MSmith, p. 29). And  -- he was a victim of unrequited love. His history in that regard was strange and sad. MSmith, pp. 75-76, tells of hints that he was attracted to the poetess Jean Ingelow (1820-1897), very well known in her time but now remembered, if at all, only for "High Tide on the Coast of Lancashire" and perhaps "Seven Times One." She was less than half Crozier's age at the time they met, and nothing ever came of it -- but, strangely enough, she would never marry, and some of her poetry refers to loving a sailor lost at sea.
It wasn't Crozier's last odd romantic attachment. His may have been one of the strangest love triangles of all time. The woman he had fallen in love with was Sophia Cracroft, Franklin's niece (Cookman, p. 54; Savours, p. 177; MSmith, pp. 87-88, says she was the daughter of Franklin's younger sister Isabella and Thomas Cracroft, and was known as "Sophy." Her father died in 1824, when she was nine, and Franklin, and later Jane Franklin, watched over her from that time. Franklin's relationship with Isabella was mutually beneficial, since Isabella watched over his daughter when he was at sea.).
Sophy Cracroft, after she grew up, served as a sort of general assistant to Lady Jane Franklin. She met Crozier in Van Dieman's Land, when Franklin was Governor there; Crozier and James Clark Ross twice stopped there during their Antarctic voyage. Crozier promptly fell in love with her, but she just as promptly fell in love with his commander Ross, even though he was already spoken for  (Fleming-Barrow). Sophy, who apparently was quite flirtatious, was not interested at all in Crozier, calling him "a horrid radical and an indifferent speller" (! -- MSmith, p. 89). Smith seems to think he proposed to her at least twice, once while in Hobart (MSmith, p. 95) and once in 1844 after he and she had returned to England (MSmith, p. 133); on the latter occasion, she reportedly told him that she would not be a captain's wife.
Crozier apparently didn't hold her feelings against Ross (they continued to serve well together, and Crozier kept writing to Ross after the expedition ended -- indeed, Crozier lived with Ross and his wife in the last month before the Passage expdition; MSmith, p. 152), nor seemingly against Franklin, but he continued to carry a torch for her. (Interestingly, Cracroft never did marry. She stayed with Jane Franklin to the end of the former's life, and would take possession of her papers after her death.) In the course of the Antarctic expedition, Crozier was finally promoted to Captain (MSmith, p. 119). Crozier and Ross also selected the site of the future Port Stanley, the only significant town in the Falkland Islands (MSmith, p. 122).
All this seems to have left Crozier depressed. Jane Franklin and Ross both worried about him (MSmith, p. 134). He ended up taking a leave of absence from the Navy to try to get his feelings straightened out (MSmith, p. 135). When the possibility of the Passage expedition came up, he declared "I am not equal to the hardship" (MSmith, p. 140), and turned down the command (Fleming-Barrow, p. 366) -- though this may not really have been his choice; as a self-educated Ulster Presbyterian, he had no political clout, and would likely have been rejected anyway by political hacks (Sandler, p. 72); he would, as we shall see, accompany the party as second-in-command (MSmith, p. 141, calls this "the worst of all decisions," but I can't see why this is so; Crozier's depression would have made him a poor commander -- and it sounds as if it got worse as the expedition went along; his last letter, written to the Rosses, sounds like a man on the brink of a breakdown; it is quoted on MSmith, pp. 162-163. But he had shown his skill as an executive officer).
John Franklin, though more willing to command the Passage expedition, and more socially acceptable (Moss, p. 137, calls him "securely part of the establishment," which he was not -- hence his problems getting a job! -- but he was an establishment type), had a very different, and probably worse, set of drawbacks. He was elderly, overweight, not a strong physical specimen (Sandler, p. 32, says that he had had circulation problems even when in his twenties), and though he had long before explored northern Canada, he had not been part of any previous naval expedition to the Passage. But he was the only Arctic veteran available, so he was appointed to command even though many simply didn't think him up to the task (Beattie, p. 36; Fleming-Barrow, pp. 366-368).
Franklin's last expedition was mounted in 1845, with the explorer acting as commodore commanding two ships (the reinforced bomb ships H.M.S. _Erebus_ and H.M.S. _Terror_). Not a single man ever returned (MSmith, p. 164). It has been argued that they must have found the Northwest Passage. But it is certain they could not travel it. Their fate would not be learned for many years, and even now, much about it is unknown.
By the late 1840s, the world was growing very concerned about the Expedition. They had been given supplies for three years -- enough that they would probably last four. But that time was about up, and nothing had been heard. A vast effort was mounted to try to learn the expedition's fate.
Looking at the fuller versions of this song, including the Murray broadside, we observe that the texts detail rescue attempts but do not recount the fate of Franklin's crew. I think it nearly certain that the piece originated in this period -- probably in broadsides of 1850-1851, when almost nothing was known and before it became clear that M'Clintock and Rae and McClure, not Austin and Ross and Grinnell, were the most important of the searchers.
It is possible that the Murray broadside is the original of the piece; it looks like a partial adaption of another lost-sailor song (in it, Lady Franklin is seen wandering by the Humber looking for her husband!). Nearly every other version, though, is shorter and frankly better; I suspect that there is at least one other deliberate recension standing between the Murray text and the large majority of traditional versions.
This song is surprisingly accurate in its details (another indication that it is contemporary), though later texts have mangled some names badly -- e.g. I can't imagine who captains Hogg(s) and Winslow might be (Mirsky, pp. 322-324, lists all Franklin search parties; neither name is mentioned, nor anything that sounds similar). Some examples of correct references in one or another text:
"I dreamed a dream, yes I thought it true": The idea of a sailor seeing Franklin in a dream is not just fiction; one W. Parker Snow had dreamed of finding Franklin near the North Magnetic Pole (which, amazingly and ironically, was actually about right; the Pole at that time was on the western side of the Boothia Peninsula, the expedition passed quite close to it shortly before Franklin's death. Had rescuers gone straight there at the first opportunity, they might have rescued some of his men, would almost certainly have learned his fate sooner, and might even have saved one of the ships). Snow joined one of the searches as a result, though he was of no other significance to the search for Franklin (Berton, p. 174, etc.). He later ended up having a major row with the later explorer Charles Francis Hall about a book they both wrote, but that is another story altogether (Sandler, p. 269; Berton, p. 370).
Lady Jane Franklin, to her discredit, also tried consulting spiritualists to seek her husband (MSmith, pp. 203-205). Strangely enough, this also pointed to roughly the right part of the Arctic, but nothing ever came of it.
There is a third spiritual link in the Franklin story, making you wonder how anyone could call this an enlightened period: Elisha Kent Kane, who tried to reach the North Pole while pretending to search for Franklin, was involved with a "spiritualist" named Margaret Fox; her ability as a "spirit rapper," according to Berton, p. 237, was "the mould from which all future mediums were fashioned." Berton's claims that no one tried to communicate with the dead are patently false -- note that Saul is reported to have brought up the shade of the Prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 28! -- but Fox perhaps did found the modern industry of making a *profession* of lying to fools stupid enough to listen to them. Supposedly Kane tried to get her out of this business, but still, he was attracted to her.
"In Baffin's Bay where the whale fish blow...": The Northwest Passage does begin from Baffin Bay -- up the Davis Strait, into the Bay, through Lancaster Sound (which separates Baffin and Devon Islands) and Barrow Strait (between Somerset Island on the south and Devon and Cornwallis Islands on the north), with several alternatives from there (the straight path is through Viscount Melville Sound and McClure Strait, but these are almost always blocked by ice; the best route is south through Peel Sound, passing to the east of Prince of Wales and King William Islands, and then west along the north coast of the Canadian mainland). On July 28, 1845, in Baffin Bay, the Franklin Expedition was seen for the last time by Europeans; they met the whalers _Enterprise_ and _Prince of Wales_ before heading into Lancaster Sound.
(Whalers, we should add, did most of the original exploring of these northern regions; indeed, it was the report of a whaler, William Scoresby, that the ice was melting in the north, that helped encourage the British voyages of exploration after the Napoleonic Wars; see Berton, pp. 24-26. Whales, and hence whalers, are common in far northern and southern latitudes, because that's where the food is -- cold water holds more dissolved oxygen than warm.)
"Three ships of fame": Franklin's expedition of course consisted only of two ships, _Erebus_ and _Terror_,  but they had initially had the supply ship _Barretto Junior_ along; it turned back before they went on the ice. In addition, H.M.S. _Rattler_, famous for being an early screw steamer, accompanied them as they left England; Cookman, p. 74. (Some versions say he had only two ships anyway.)
The ships were indeed famous, given their Antarctic adventures with James Clark Ross; Mt. Erebus and Mt. Terror in Antarctica are named for them. _Terror_ also participated in the bombardment of Fort McHenry that gave rise to "The Star-Spangled Banner"; as a bomb ship, she would have been responsible for at least some of the "bombs bursting in air." Since _Terror_ had been part of George Back's arctic expedition of 1836, and both had been to the Antarctic with James Clark Ross, they were already adapted for arctic service, and were selected because they would need relatively little modification.
But this is where the technology of the time became a problem. Bombs were immensely strong; no ships in use were better designed to withstand the pressure of the ice; they had been used for exploration as early as Middleton's expedition a century earlier (Williams, pp. 62-64). But bombs -- tubby, heavy, low-riding vessels -- were probably the slowest class of ships in the navy, and the modifications for Arctic service, which added to their weight and put them lower in the water, made them slower still. Almost painfully slow. _Terror_ was particularly bad (during the Antarctic expedition, Ross in _Erebus_ often had to shorten sail to let Crozier's ship catch up; MSmith, p. 84). _Terror_ even before her refit was capable of only nine knots before the wind and five when close-hauled (Cookman), p. 74. Those figures probably fell by a third as refitted.
It was hoped that steam might provide the answer. The two ships had revolutionary engines -- removable screw propellers powered by locomotive engines -- but the supply of coal was finite and could not be replaced, and the engines developed only a few dozen horsepower anyway. This was the result of Barrow's hurrying the expedition along; the Admiralty had little time to fit engines more suited to the actual ships. The result was that their engines gave them a speed of only about four knots (Cookman, p. 41; MSmith, p. 149, notes that _Terror_ even on her test run under steam reached only four knots, implying that she would be slower still in field conditions).
Franklin's _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were not the first ships to use steam power in the Arctic -- _Victory_, sailed by John Ross in 1829, also used steam. But he found the engine so useless in arctic conditions that he actually yanked it out of his ship in 1830! (Fleming-Barrow, p. 283; Edinger, p. 33, mentions the curious fact that Ross didn't just toss the engine overboard, but carefully disassembled it and had it carried to a beach nearly a mile away. This was nice for historians -- Delgado, p. 91, shows a photo of some of the parts still by the seaside -- but a rather pointless burden for the crew. Ross's adventures inspired at least one song, "The Bold Adventures of Captain Ross,Ó found in C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907, p. 331, available in Google Books, though this shows some pretty substantial errors).
Steam technology had improved since then -- notably in the replacement of paddlewheels with screw propellors -- but steam engines were still not mass-produced items; each had its own peculiar characteristics. And Cookman argues that, in this case, the engines used coal that the expedition really needed for heating. _Erebus_ and _Terror_ would be slow to make the passage even under ideal circumstances -- and ideal conditions never happen in the Arctic, and the ships were very unhandy if there were a need for fast maneuvering.
There was another drawback to the steam engines: They were not interchangeable. It had been settled policy for decades to send two nearly-identical vessels on exploring missions (Savours, p. 115); this meant that they could sail the same passages, move at the same speed, and interchange parts at need -- plus, if one ship sank, its crew would be able to fit on the other. And, indeed, _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were close to identical as originally built. But there was no way they could swap engine parts. We have no reason to think it mattered -- but, with the fragmentary information we have, we can't prove it didn't, either. It's another small bit of evidence of the hastily-thrown-together nature of the trip.
Another side-effect of the hasty throwing-together of the expedition was the lack of a backup plan. Voyages to the Arctic *did* end in disaster -- as Ross's _Victory_ expedition had shown; given supplies for only a year and a half, they spent four years on the ice, surviving only because of the caches left on Fury Beach years before by Parry. Ross had known about this, and planned all along to use those supplies -- though hardly intending to use them to survive two extra winters! (For details on how _Victory_ was trapped, see Edinger, pp. 123-128; for her abandonment, pp. 170-177.) Franklin had no such emergency cache, and no backup route home -- and, like Ross, his ships would be iced in for more than one winter.
"Captain Perry of high renown": Not one of Franklin's officers; Captain F. R. M. Crozier commanded the _Terror_, which had also been his ship during Ross's Antarctic expedition, while the slightly newer and larger _Erebus_ was under the immediate direction of Commander James FitzJames -- an officer so promising and so well-versed in current technology that Secretary Barrow had thought about giving him command of the expedition, but he was considered too young at 33 (Sandler, p. 72; Cookman, pp. 55-57; MSmith, p. 138, is scathing about this nomination, which he thinks political, but none of the other authors seem to have thought him unfit). Instead, he was given the post of Commander aboard _Erebus_, where Franklin flew his flag -- making him, in effect, her captain, since Franklin, the nominal skipper, would be commanding the whole expedition.
"Perry" refers rather to the aforementioned William Edward Parry (1790-1855), an explorer active mostly from 1819-1825 -- and one of the best in terms of ground covered and casualties avoided; his first voyage had disovered Barrow Straight and Viscount Melville Sound and made it farther west than any expedition for more than thirty years. He, like James Clark Ross, had been offered command of the Franklin expedition -- and turned it down; he was long since done with adventure.
"Captain Ross": Either John Ross or his nephew James Clark Ross. The elder Ross, who led expeditions in 1818 and then commanded the aforementioned _Victory_ expedition of 1829 (the primary subject of Edinger), had harmed the quest for the Passage by erroneously stating that Lancaster Sound was a closed inlet. His four-year second expedition (1829-1833 -- the one that resulted in him tossing his steam engine on the beach) learned survival techniques that the Franklin expedition ignored to its cost -- but also produced a distorted map of King William Island, with what proved fatal consequences (Delgado, p. 93; Fleming-Barrow, p. 288; Mirsky, pp. 132-133; MSmith, pp. 68-69, points out that this was one of the few Arctic expeditions that did not include F.R.M. Crozier, and that this would, ironically, prove fatal to him).
At 72, John Ross led an expedition to find Franklin in 1850 -- but found nothing, and came back with a third-hand report from Greenland that the entire Franklin party was dead. That was, in fact, true, but the details of the report were entirely wrong, and were (properly) ignored. Lady Franklin bitterly remarked that, if she could have done so, she would have put after her name in the subscription list for Ross's expedition, "with a deep sense of gratitude to Sir John Ross for murdering her husband" (Edinger, p. 249). Nonetheless, the Admiralty sent more expeditions; they just didn't send Ross. He died in 1856.
Ross the younger, who had served under his uncle and under Parry, commanded _Erebus_ and _Terror_ on their Antarctic expedition (1839-1843), making many important discoveries including the Ross Sea and Ross Ice Shelf (which were named for him). Though Ross had refused to command the Passage expedition of 1845, he took a turn hunting for his friends Franklin and Crozier in 1848-1849 (and broke his health in the process).
"Captain Austin": Horatio T. Austin of HMS _Resolute_, one of the search vessels. A man of great experience and courage (Sandler, p. 115), he nonetheless proved a not very inspiring leader. Clements Markham, a midshhipman on the expedition, describes him as small and stout, an advocate of steam, a "great talker," "genial and warm-hearted," "fond of detail," and having "wide knowledge, though he was a little narow in his views. But for managing the internal economy of an expedition... he was admirable" (Savours, p. 205).
Austin and Erasmus Ommaney of _Assistance_ were the first to find any traces of the Franklin expedition, in the form of discarded supplies  on Devon Island, and later three graves and other artifacts on the peninsula known as Beechey Island (Berton, p. 180). But they did not learn the expedition's fate (and met public scorn on their return home in 1851). Having concluded that Franklin could not be west of Lancaster Sound, and could not have turned south because Peel Sound was blocked, they turned north into Jones Sound, where Franklin never ventured (Savour, p. 211)
The very fact that the Austin expedition's early return is not mentioned in the earliest known broadside hints that it dates from before they made it back. Austin would not serve in the Arctic after his first mission, and spent the last years of his career in what amounted to desk jobs (Sandler, p. 252)
"[Captain] Osborn": Given its context and the timing, this is probably an error for "Captain Austin," but it might refer to Sherard Osborn, who as a lieutenant commanded the _Intrepid_ during Austin's expedition and also served under Edward Belcher during the expedition of 1852-1854. Osborn was arrested by Belcher for arguing about the commander's plans -- but it wasn't held against him, because Belcher's expedition was such a disaster. Osborne later wrote a book called _Stray leaves from an Arctic journal_ (Savours, p. 206).
(Arressting a subordinate was by no means unusual for Belcher. Savours, pp. 243-245, devotes three pages to a history of his arguments with junior officers. On p. 245, she cites a source describing which tells how Belcher *habitually* court-martialed his officers at the end of a voyage!)
All that can be said in defence of Belcher is that few men died on his watch. Otherwise, his expedition was an unmitigated disaster, learning nothing useful and resulting in the loss of four ships. And not to the ice -- Belcher (who had from the start indicated little interest in the Arctic) after two years decided he had had enough, and despite the arguments of his subordinates abandoned four of his five ships, even though they were still intact. Berton, p. 244, calls him "one of... the most detested figures in the Royal Navy" and Sandler summarizes his actions as a "disgraceful performance"; p. 253. Belcher of course faced a court-martial, which concluded that his actions fell within his discretion, but they gave him back his sword "in stony silence"; (Sandler, p. 145).
Belcher was deprived of all future commands -- and his subordinate Osborn promoted for his actions (Mirsky, p. 153). Indeed, Osborn would campaign for expeditions to the Pole long after the Admiralty had decided to stop wasting ships and men on the Arctic.
(It was, incidentally, during Belcher's expedition that the supply ship _Breadalbane_ was sunk off Beechey Island; MacInnis, p. 38. The search for the _Breadalbane_ was the subject of MacInnis's book; the ship was and is the northernmost known shipwreck. The ordeal of the ship shows clearly the problems or operating in the Arctic. _Erebus_ and _Terror_, despite a year and a half trapped in the ice, stayed afloat until abandoned, showing the strength of bomb ships. The unreinforced _Breadalbane_ was not supposed to enter the ice -- but you can't avoid ice in the Arctic. Off Beechey Island, she was "nipped" by the ice and sank in 15 minutes; MacInnis, p. 116. Had the rest of Belcher's expedition not been based there, the entire crew would probably have been lost.)
"[Captain] Penny": This might be an error for the more famous Captain Parry, but chances are it refers to captain William Penny, an experienced whaler. Lady Franklin managed to convince ("con" might be a better word) the Admiralty into sending this veteran arctic sailor on a search expedition in 1850-1851, but he didn't find much (Berton, p. 171.); he was sent into Jones Sound (north of Lancaster Sound, and far away from the path Franklin had been ordered to follow; Berton, p. 173). It was closed by ice, so he headed for Lancaster Sound, but that left him among all the other search vessels. His men were the first to find the traces on Beechey Island (Sandler, p. 115), but there is no doubt they would have been found soon anyway.
He then wanted to head north up Wellington Channel, but even had this been permitted, that wouldn't have found Franklin either. Berton thinks it might have caused the search to be directed in a better direction (pp. 190-191), but I can't see how.
Penny ended up in a dispute with Austin, and went back to whaling after his one experience with the navy (Simpson, p. 264).
"Granville": Probably Henry Grinnell, an American trader who was convinced by Lady Franklin to support the search. He paid for (but did not accompany) two expeditions; neither accomplished much except to make Elisha Kent Kane briefly famous for surviving a disaster he largely caused.
"With a hundred seamen he sailed away": Franklin's force initially totalled 134 men, one of the largest forces ever sent on an exploratory voyage; five were sent home sick before the ships entered Lancaster Sound and were the only survivors. Three of those initial losses were significant: the sailmaker from _Terror_ and armorers (gunmakers) from both _Erebus_ and _Terror_ (McClintock, p. 231). The loss of the latter would make hunting for provisions much harder (and fresh food was the only way to get the Vitamin C to avoid scurvy); the loss of the former meant that the two ships -- never speedy, as we saw above -- might end up even slower.
It's perhaps worth reminding moderns, who never face scurvy, how deadly it was at the time.  It affects the connective tissue especially, meaning that scars reopen; it also casuses blood vessels to leak, resulting in bruises where there has been no trauma; it leaves men weak and gasping for breath, and kills when blood vessels in the brain rupture (Sobel, p. 14). For years, it had ruined crews on long voyages, opening old wounds, causing joint pains, eventually resulting in the loss of teeth as the jaws swelled up; it also affected the mind, so the victims did not realize how bad the problem was.
Scurvy is prevented by Vitamin C, but that is found primarily in fresh vegetables, and also to an extent in fresh meat (especially organ meat). Crews on sea voyages had none such, and the symptoms usually started to occur in four to six months. This is because crews lived mostly on biscuit and salt meat (as late as the Franklin search, the daily died for sledgers consisted of 3/4 of a pound of salted meat and bacon, a pound of biscuits, a drib of many-year-old potatoes, and chocolate and tea; Savours, p. 263). By the time of the Franklin expedition, the use of lemon juice (frequently called "lime juice") was common -- but the juice loses potency over time.
Another curious fact about the expedition is that, though the crew was hand-picked, it had very little useful experience (MSmith notes that the Admiralty had given responsibility for choosing the crew to FitzJames -- ordinarily it would have been Crozier's job -- and blames him for botching it, even accusing FitzJames of "nauseous whiff of patronage"; p. 146. This was unfortunate in at least one way: It meant that the depressive Crozier had no close friends aboard the expedition; MSmith, p. 155). Apart from Franklin and Crozier, the only commissioned officer who had been to the arctic was Lt. Graham Gore of the _Erebus_ (Fleming-Barrow, p. 373) -- and his experience was slight; he had been on George Back's disastrous expedition on the _Terror_, which would have taught him a lot about shipwreck but little about arctic survival. Plus he, like Franklin, would die fairly early on. Crozier was the only officer on the expedition to know about wintering in the arctic on a ship.
The men were rather better. On paper, only about half a dozen sailors had arctic experience (Cookman, p. 61) -- but some of those who did had very extensive backgrounds indeed. Thomas Blanky, who had been first mate on John Ross's harrowing four-year expedition of 1829-1833 (Edinger, p. 244), meaning that he had more experience of wintering in the arctic than any man alive other than James Clark Ross, would go on to be _Terror's_ Ice Master (cf. Savours, p. 127). One of the surgeons had been on whaling voyages; there was a whaling captain who served as an Ice Master (Savours, p. 178). Even the men who had not been to the Arctic -- who were, of course, the large majority -- were mostly veterans with good records.
"To the frozen ocean in the month of May": The expedition left the Thames on May 19, 1845, to arrive in Baffin Bay in June (there was little point in arriving before June due to the ice, though a departure date a few weeks earlier might have allowed the expedition to make it a little farther before their first winter. At least in a normal year, though 1845 was more than usually icy; MSmith, p. 163. But a departure date earlier than mid-May was impossible due to the rush with which the expedition was put together. In any case, it appears that there was ice in Barrow Straight in the first year of the Franklin expedition, causing them to make a useless circuit of Cornwallis Island before settling down to winter at Beechey Island. So an earlier start, in 1845, would have done no good at all. The really strange part is that the expedition seems to have left no records at all at Beechey Island -- just empty cans and a few other artifacts and the three graves).
"On mountains of ice their ship was drove": The whole Northwest Passage is around 70 degrees north; as early as 1631, Luke Foxe had proved that there was no passage south of the Arctic Circle, and this was confirmed by the explorations of the west side of Hudson Bay done in the eighteenth century. Despite stories by men such as Juan de Fuca, the last blow to the "Straits of Anian" (an easy Northwest Passage with at most a short stretch in the Arctic) was struck by Samuel Hearne, who in 1771 (in the company with a party of natives) reached the mouth of the Coppermine River and became the first European to view the seas around the Arctic Archipelago. His journey showed for the first time that northern Canada was very large and contained no straights or sounds or passages (Williams, pp. 231-233). The passage, such as it was, is all in the Arctic.
(Hearne, incidentally, was forced to witness a massacre along the way, and his sad retelling of the tale would much later inspire Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"; McGoogan, pp. 1-3.)
Much of the Passage, including Lancaster Sound, is well north even of the Arctic Circle. Even in summer, the waters are never entirely free of ice; in winter, they all freeze over, and it's a matter of luck which ones thaw out in any given spring.
Nearly every arctic expedition at some point found itself frozen in, and those which handled their ships badly would see them crushed by the ice. Franklin was neither the first nor the last to come to grief this way, though severe weather in 1847 probably sealed the expedition's fate. (Beattie, p. 128, notes that ice cores show that "the Franklin era was climactically one of the least favorable [i.e. coldest and iciest] periods in 700 years," while MSmith, p. 179, mentions an Inuit report that "there was no summer between two winters" in the time the ships were trapped in the ice.)
The history of ships in the passage shows how deadly the ice could be. Parry's H.M.S. _Fury_ was lost to it on his third expedition. The ice had trapped John Ross's _Victory_, forcing him to abandon the ship. _Terror_ herself had nearly been wrecked in George Back's expedition of  1833-1835 -- the ice "once hurled his battered vessel forty feet up the side of a cliff" (Berton, p. 130); the ship barely made it back across the Atlantic and had to be beached on the Irish coast. _Breadalbane_, mentioned above, lasted only a few days in the Arctic. And H.M.S. _Investigator_ never escaped Mercy Bay after being trapped in the Franklin search.
"Only the Eskimo in his skin canoe Was the only one to ever come through": The Inuit did indeed use skin kayaks, and they did know the paths through the ice -- and, as it turned out, saw at least some of the Franklin survivors. They had saved John Ross's 1829 expedition, which would have perished due to starvation and scurvy without them. But not every European commander had the diplomatic skills or wisdom to work with them (no one prior to Charles Frances Hall in the 1860s really tried to make friends with them), and no one bothered to talk to them about Franklin until John Rae in 1854. Even more important, Franklin had too many men for the Inuit to be able to provide useful supplies; the natives travelled in small bands and were barely able to feed themselves even so.
"For my long-lost Franklin I'd cross the main": Lady Franklin did not physically participate in all the searches (Sandler, p. 86, says that she volunteered to join John Richardson's search, only to be politely rejected), but she did in fact go to the Americas during the hunt, and during the great push starting in 1850, she was hovering around the edges of the search.
"Ten thousand pounds would I freely give": The Admiralty for a time was offering twenty thousand pounds for anyone who could rescue the Franklin expedition, and half that for definitive word of Franklin's fate, but eventually dropped it, though Rae did manage to collect.
Lady Franklin spent much of her limited fortune financing search parties; M'Clintock's final expedition, which found the key evidence telling of the expedition's fate, was relatively small mostly because of Lady Franklin's need to keep costs down (Berton, pp. 317-318): it consisted of one small ship, with the officers serving as volunteers. The exact amount she spent is unknown -- I've seen estimates as low as 3,000 pounds and as high as 35,000 (so Berton, p. 333, though this probably includes contributions from others) -- but it was substantial.
I do not know if it is significant, but Berton, pp. 202-203, says that Lady Franklin brought ten thousand pounds to their marriage, and that part of the estate was one of the things he left her in his will. Thus, if she did spend ten thousand pounds, it was the entirety of her own money. (But she spent more than her own money, by every indication; Franklin had left his first wife's dowry to his daughter Eleanor, and she quarrelled with her stepmother, arguing that Jane Franklin had wasted her estate.)
Lady Franklin's dedication did do some slight good for feminism: She would be the first woman to be given the Patron Medal of the Royal Geographic Society.
As we see, the song ended before the fate of Franklin was known. So what happened to him?
From what was learned later, we know that the ships were caught on the ice; eventually they were abandoned and wrecked (this was verified both by Inuit accounts and by wreckage; Collinson found some as far away as Dease Strait, some ten degrees west of where the ships went down; Savours, p. 233), but the men were unable to reach civilization.
Bad maps may have played a role. The Northwest Passage can be thought of as proceeding from Baffin Bay in four stages: The first is Lancaster Sound, then the Barrow Straight. The obvious third stage was the straight path through Viscount Melville Sound (which runs north of Victoria Island). This path, however, is usually frozen; Parry had made it part way on his first voyage, but had eventually been halted, and no one else had even come close. The fourth stage would be due west to the Beaufort Sea and out the Bering Strait.
The first, second, and fourth parts were known, but no one had even mapped a complete route for the third stage. It was known, e.g., that there was a straight path to the south of Victoria Island, but no one knew how to get to Victoria Island from Barrow Straight.
Franklin's first attempt at finding the third stage was an unfruitful exploration of Cornwallis Island; this led nowhere. Franklin then properly headed south through Peel Sound and past Prince of Wales island, just to the west of the Boothia Peninsula.
The question then was whether to pass east or west of King William Island, which lies in the area between the Boothia Peninsula and Victoria Island. This was where Franklin had to make a guess. And the charts Franklin had were not just incomplete but inaccurate. John Ross's error, cited above, closed off the eastern passage around King William Island (which, in any case, was narrow and shallow; it would have been hard to navigate -- MSmith, p. 171). Another error seemed to imply a useful passage further west which did not exist. (Lest we criticize, the Arctic Archipelago -- called the "District of Franklin" when they were still part of the Northwest Territories -- is among the hardest places on earth to map; I have an atlas from 1967 which still contains some fairly significant errors, such as showing Borden and Mackenzie King islands as one; an atlas from 1952 is even worse, omitting islands and bays and creating a great bay which doesn't exist.)
Given that misinformation, Franklin chose to steer west of King William Island. That route, while short in air distance, is exposed to pack ice coming down M'Clintock Channel. While technically ocean, the route in fact almost never thaws -- there is so much ice that it periodically throws floes high up on King William Island (Fleming-Barrow, p. 288; MSmith, pp.170-171, quotes James Clark Ross's observtions of the ice on the island). Franklin seems to have entered it at one of the few times when it was partly open. His ships were frozen on the ice for almost two years before they were finally abandoned.
Franklin did not live long enough to know the worst. He died, of unknown but probably natural causes, aboard _Erebus_ on June 11, 1847; his body has not been found. His loss shouldn't have been fatal -- after all, that left the veteran F. R. M. Crozier in command.
But the loss of their paunchy admiral seemed to take something out of the expedition. Crozier, though an intelligent self-made man, had never held an independent command. And, somehow, he never seemed to gain any recognition or fame (MSmith, p. 132). Plus, though reportedly respected by his crews, he is said to have been a strict disciplinarian (MSmith, p. 97) and probable was not loved.
His mental state wasn't the best, either. Crozier told the wife of another officer that he didn't expect to get back alive from the Franklin Expedition (MSmith, p. 156; cf. Cookman, p. 73; Fleming-Barrow, p. 374). His last letters hint strongly at depression (Cookman, p. 54), and Lady Franklin wrote that he "seemed... ill and dispirited when he left" (Savours, p. 192). He felt, with some justice, that his record should have earned him more recognition than he had been given. Bitter and pessimistic, he was hardly the man to save a bad situation.
After being frozen off King William Island for two winters, Crozier finally abandoned the ships and tried to head back to a possible rendezvous point by the Great Fish River (now the Back River). But there were no rescue ships there, and indications are that the crew broke up into smaller groups, none of which survived. Several bodies have been found which seem to come from the Franklin Expedition -- and which show obvious signs of cannibalism.
The last written record of the expedition comes from the spring of 1848, as they abandoned the ships, though we know some men lived longer -- possibly into the 1850s.
Franklin's problem, perhaps, could ultimately be put down to "bad luck" -- i.e. lack of actual genius; his 1819 expedition had ended in disaster through minor errors in what we would now call "staff work," and that is perhaps part of what happened here: When he needed to be inspired, he instead got bogged down, wasting much time circling Cornwallis Island, failing to leave cairns to mark his progress (or building cairns but leaving no records in them; see, e.g., Savours, p. 292), and then dying before he could rectify his mistake.
(Most books seem to take a position that is either strongly pro- or anti-Franklin. I must admit that I find this hard. Of the men most qualified to know -- Parry, James Clark Ross, and Crozier -- all initially approved of his appointment; although Crozier eventually because depressed, he had written to Ross somewhat earlier expressing his approval of Franklin; Savours, p. 178. Reading the passages from Frankin's notes compiled by Savours, pp. 169-177, it appears he was much wiser about the Arctic than his superiors. And yet -- he *did* fail. My best guess is that he was a better-than-average commander for the task -- but that the task, given the weather conditions in the late 1840s, needed someone who was better than better-than-average.)
All this of course was reconstructed from the findings of the expeditions sent to look for Franklin. There were many (Beattie, pp. 262-263, list some 17 ships sent out by 1850, plus some land expeditions; Delgado, p. 149, says that 32 expeditions were mounted from 1847 to 1859), but the initial searches were rather a failure; although the ships charted some new territory, few discovered anything and several managed to come to grief themselves.
Lady Franklin did not get any useful word until 1854. At that time, John Rae -- who wasn't even searching for Franklin; he was exploring the Boothia Peninsula for the Hudson's Bay Company (Savours, pp. 270-271) -- met sundry Inuit (Savours, p. 272) who had collected a few relics (including the Franklin Medal) and had also seen a company of perhaps forty white men struggling south in the snow. The Europeans had starved to death (Savours, p. 273), and the Inuit had collected the relics.
While that located the expedition in the waters west of the Boothia Peninsula -- an area that no one had bothered to search, though Lady Franklin had urged it -- it left at least two-thirds of the men unaccounted for, though Franklin on the evidence was surely one of the casualties. The Admiralty was satisfied; it closed the books (Cookman, pp. 1-2, prints the preliminary Admiralty order to pay off the men's widows after a certain date if no word was heard. This was before Rae reported; obviously his report just made it final). The Navy declared the seamen dead (Moss, p. 140, says that this is good, since it started the pension process, but pensions cost them far less than regular wages), passed out a few knighthoods, and sent its fleet to fight in the Crimean War (where the British forces suffered more wastage than they ever did in Lancaster Sound, and for even less use. The Northwest Passage expeditions not only charted new ground, but they made biological, geological, and anthropological discoveries, though hardly enough to justify the lives they cost).
Lady Franklin wasn't satisfied, but from now on, she was entirely on her own. She would finally learn her husband's fate in 1859.
In 1857, Lady Franklin had chartered one last expedition, under Francis M'Clintock -- one of the most industrious of the early explorers, though he didn't become famous at the time. They had only a single small ship, the _Fox_, a 177 ton topsail schooner, formerly a yacht, with auxiliary steam (Savours, p. 284) that had to be crammed to the bilges to fit in all the men and supplies (Savours, p. 285) -- but they finally went to the right place, searching (mostly by sledge) around King William Island and the Boothia Peninsula. They also talked to quite a few Inuit.
During their search, they found skeletons, more relics -- and two of the expedition's summary reports (Franklin had had orders to leave reports, sealed against water, at regular intervals, though only a handful were ever found, most from very early in the expedition; in effect, we have only one document of the last stages). These two summaries were both written on the same sheet of paper, and found in a cairn by one of McClintock's officers (for details of the finding, see e.g. Sandler, pp. 182-185, plus of course McClintock, pp. 190-192).
The first report, from May 28, 1847, was still optimistic. The expedition, after wasting most of 1845 circling Cornwallis Island, had spent the winter of 1845-1846 at Beechey Island. Once the ice broke up the next spring, Franklin had headed south, spending the winter of 1846-1847 off King William Island. At the time the report was written, the ships were still stuck there. Still, there seemed to be hope.
The second report, from (probably) April 25, 1848, was a grim addendum written in the margins of the first; the ships had been ice-locked by dreadfully cold weather for more than a year and a half. Both Franklin's subordinate captains, Crozier and FitzJames, were alive to sign the report (McClintock, p. 193, believed that the note was written by FitzJames himself, save the last words which were by Crozier; he does not give reasons for this, but Savours, p. 292 accepts it). Franklin, though, had been dead for ten months, and a total of two dozen men -- 20% of the expedition's total -- had been lost. There seemed no way to escape by sea. On April 22, Crozier ordered the 105 survivors to abandon the ships and head for the mainland.
The 1848 report did not tell the fate of the last survivors, of course. Most think they simply tried for the mainland (the report says they would "start tomorrow... for Back's Fish River") and failed to make it. But David Woodman speculated that they wanted to hunt and fish at the river to restore their strength, then return to the ships (Delgado, p. 163). This would explain why there were relics found at so many places -- and also why the one ship's boat that was located was found on a sledge heading *north* (Savours, p. 296). On this theory, some of the crew may have lived until 1851 or 1852. But they were never seen again by Europeans.
They may have made severe mistakes in planning this last stage -- M'Clintock found they took a lot of junk, such as books and silverware, with them, though it has been argued that they simply emptied the ships (perhaps of materials not needed for the final part of the voyage, or perhaps to keep them available should the ships sink).
They may not have been in shape to travel. Their sledges were ill-designed and heavy. It is little surprise that most died along the trek. It appears that quite a few simply dropped as they walked, and died where they fell (Beattie, pp. 80-81). Then, too, the evidence of cannibalism is overwhelming (Rae observed it at once -- Savours, p. 273 -- and others later confirmed it), in the form bones carved by knives and often scattered in a completely unnatural way (Delgado, p. 168; Sandler, pp. 150-151; Cookman offers additional details on pp. 176, 178, then proceeds on p. 184 to accuse Crozier of killing living men to feed the others. Of course, the only evidence of that is Cookman's drug dreams).
The Inuit would indicate that, after _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were abandoned, one sank and one was crushed by ice (Sandler, p. 180). This seems likely, and would accord with a few pieces of wreckage which have been found, but unlike the _Breadalbane_, their wrecks have not been discovered (it's a lot easier to search around Beechey Island, where the waters open almost every year and which is close to regular sea routes, than the often-frozen waters off King William Island).
The crew's strange behavior in these final months led to speculation that the men were slowly losing their minds. Much would be made of this in the next century.
It is an irony of the search for Franklin that it finally *did* find the Northwest Passage; explorers from the west, led by Robert McClure, discovered McClure and Prince of Wales Straits and followed each far enough to sight Melville Sound and Parry's Winter Harbour (where that explorer had wintered in 1820), "forging the last link," as the journalists of the time put it (it apparently was Franklin's friend John Richardson who first said the that Franklin's party "forged the last link of the Northwest Passage with their lives"; Mirsky, p. 136. But the phrase became a commonplace). Both these routes, however, were blocked by ice and unusable at the time (and are close enough to the arctic pack that they rarely open).
McClure managed at one point to sledge to Winter Harbor, the westernmost point reached by any expedition from the east, but he and his ship _Investigator_ did not come through -- and indeed blundered around so much that the ship was lost (having first risked a winter in open ice -- Mirsky, p. 145 -- the next year McClure entered a cul-de-sac he called "Mercy Bay," where the ship was trapped; Berton, pp. 228-232). Shortly before they were found, McClure engaged in a brazen attempt to send more than half of his crew to their deaths so that the remainder (the strongest) would have a better chance to survive (Sandler, pp. 131-132). Fortunately, they were found before he managed to execute his plan.
Even when McClure's crew was rescued by sledges from ships in the east, he tried to keep his sick crew on his ship, so he could try to claim the prize money for the passage -- but he simply couldn't convince the crew to do it (Berton, p. 248). Fleming-Barrow, p. 405, calls his behavior at this time "a little mad," which may be an understatement; several of his crew were dead, all had scurvy, and clearly they weren't strong enough to sail the vessel, but McClure tried to trick his superior into forcing them to stay with his ship. He also tried to force his crew to abandon the journals which would have documented his behavior (Savours, p. 222).
What it came down to was that McClure's crew made the passage (from west to east) -- but no ship did. In the end, the eastern expeditions returned east, and the the one surviving this that had gone in from the west went back west, without their vessels meeting.
Captain Richard Collinson, McClure's nominal superior, also discovered a passage (Delgado, p. 133), approximating that later used by Amundson, but gained little credit for it, in part because McClure made it home first and in part because he didn't actually follow the passage. Yet, as his brother noted in editing his journals that he "demonstrated practically that it is navigable for ships" (quoted by Savours, p. 231) -- that is, Collinson, though he mapped only a small part of the Passage, was the first to sail a ship through large portions of it. It was Collinson, not McClure or Franklin or anyone else, who proved that -- under ideal circumstances -- it was possible to get a ship through the Passage. (Amundsen would later say that Collinson would get far too little credit for what he did; Savours, p. 307). All that was needed after that was for someone to actually do it.
It was not until 1903-1906 that Amundsen in the _Gjoa_ would make the actual passage from Baffin Bay to Beaufort Sea -- and even he didn't take the Lancaster/Melville/McClure route, but turned south from the Barrow Strait to take the longer, narrower, but less icy, route east and south of King William Island and then south of Victoria Island -- in effect combining the first part of Franklin's path with the main part of Collinson's.
It wasn't until 1944 that Larsen made it through the icy Lancaster/Melville passage. (Amazing to realize that, now, there are actual settlements -- Resolute and Grise Fjord, among others -- north of that route. Though Wilkinson, p. 78, notes an interesting point about Resolute: It is mostly a military base and airfield, designed to watch the Pole -- and it was supposed to be set up at Parry's Winter Harbor. But there was too much ice to get there, so they set up on Cornwallis Island instead. Winter Harbor ended up being the place where the first Arctic oil drilling began, though -- Wilkinson, p. 99. If that's something worth memorializing.)
But why did the expedition fail? Why did they make the strange decisions they did, and why weren't they able to make it home? Crozier and company were far from anywhere when they abandoned ship, but they should still have had enough supplies to make it to one or another Hudson Bay Company outpost.
This is the second Great Mystery of the Franklin Expedition -- the one that endures to this day.
The obvious answer is, Scurvy, or vitamin C deficiency (cf. MSmith, p. 174, who estimates that the disease would have turned serious just about when Franklin died). As noted above, this had been the constant companion of long sea voyages for as long a men could remember; it nearly ruined Magellan's first circumnavigation of the globe.
Franklin's crews of course were given the standard rations of lemon juice -- but the standard ration is not by itself enough to prevent scurvy. On most ships, this doesn't matter; the crews get at least some fresh food. Not in the Arctic, though! And Vitamin C has an unfortunate tendency to degrade when exposed to light and air, so a dose of lemon juice that might have prevented scurvy in 1845 would have been too weak to do much good in 1847. Plus, Sherard Osborn noted that no canned materials were found among any of the relics found along King William Island. If the survivors had any provisions left, they were in the form of salt meat and biscuits, which had no vitamin C at all (Savours, p. 297).
What's more, scurvy affects both the mind and the body; a man too badly afflicted might make the sort of strange decisions Crozier and his surviving officers are accused of having made.
Yet many deny the possibility of scurvy (e.g. Fleming-Barrow, p. 416 thinks it killed too quickly). Owen Beattie found another theory. In 1984 and 1986, he autopsied the bodies of the first Franklin men to die (the three buried on Beechey Island in the first winter). He found extremely high levels of lead. He also looked at some of the bones of the skeletons found along the path of the Franklin Expedition. He found strong evidence of scurvy (Beattie, p. 16) -- and more lead. His theory is that the men were driven mad by lead poisoning, which would explain their erratic behavior, and of course would make them less able to bear the privations of an arctic journey. Documentation of this may be found in Beattie.
Beattie states clearly in his work that lead did not kill the three men he autopsied on Beechey, though it may have weakened them and left them vulnerable to other illnesses. Nonetheless, the lead theory has been widely repeated, often without even Beattie's cautions -- e.g. Emsley, p. 217, blames the deaths on Beechey, and the failure of the Franklin expedition, solely on lead. Emsley, pp. 218-219, also explains why lead is so dangerous: It interferes with the manufacture of hemoglobim, and causes the buildup of a precursor chemical. The intestines are heavily affected; there is also a high likelihood of fluid on the brain.
But while the lead theory has become popular, the evidence is far from complete -- Beattie examined only a handful of bodies, and only the three from Beechey Island were intact; all three had elevated levels of lead, but all died of other causes. And even if lead poisoning caused some of the other deaths, we cannot be sure if these men were typical.
If anything, the evidence for lead poisoning is stronger in the search expeditions -- e.g. nearly everyone in James Clark Ross's crew came down sick for extended periods, and their problem does not appear to have been scurvy (Sandler, p. 93); it has all the hallmarks of lead affecting the digestion.
Against the lead theory may be set the fact that the last message, written and signed by Crozier and FitzJames, seems largely coherent and reasonable. The men were debilitated, but not entirely mad. Berton, p. 146, mentions the lead theory but says flatly that "the main cause of death was clearly scurvy." MSmith, p. 181, notes that Crozier's decision to abandon the ships in April 1848 was rational: although the weather would be warmer later on, this was the best time to travel across the ice, which would still be firm after the winter. The decision may have been wrong, but it was probably the best Crozier could have done in the circumstances. A man who was truly mad would have been more likely to stay with the ships or head in some other direction.s
In any case, there is the question of where the lead came from. *This* question we can answer: It came from their food. About a third of the provisions supplied to the Franklin Expedition came from canned food -- in tin cans sealed with lead. And yet, other expeditions also sailed with lead-sealed cans, and survived. Indeed, thirty-some years later, the _Jeannette_ expedition suffered from lead poisoning (in the form of stomach cramps) -- and they identified the condition and corrected it (see Leonard F. Guttridge, _Icebound_, p. 158; for background on the _Jeannette_, see the notes to "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay").
This led Cookman to another theory. Canning was still a new technology in 1845 (the first British patent was granted in 1811), and people were still tinkering with it. The contract to supply the Franklin Expedition was so large that most canners had backed out. One who did not was Stephan Goldner -- who submitted by far the lowest bid.
Cookman portrays Goldner as the extreme villain of the piece, deliberately cheating the Admiralty. This need not follow -- but it is quite clear that Goldner was not really up to the job he had contracted for. He was supposed to supply a variety of provisions -- canned vegetables, meats, soups -- mostly in small cans. He delivered almost nothing by the contract date, and was allowed to substitute large cans (cheaper and faster to manufacture) at the last moment.
By the end of the 1850s, it would become clear that Goldner's methods simply didn't work. He did not cook the contents of the cans sufficiently, and he didn't solder them tightly enough; the contents, in addition to being saturated with lead, very often rotted in the cans, or in some instances burst.
Cookman thinks that Goldner probably adulterated what he shipped, as well; since he was canning in the spring, there would have been few fresh vegetables, and little fatted meat, available. Between the inferior ingredients, the inadequate cooking, and the undeniably unsanitary conditions in Goldner's factory, the canned goods would almost certainly have been breeding grounds for bacteria. Including botulism bacteria.
But is this a quality control problem or deliberate cheating? Cookman thinks the latter -- but it appears that some contemporary Goldner products had proved acceptable (Beattie, p. 65), and that Goldner had given satisfaction in the past (Beattie, p. 45). And Cookman is demonstrably wrong in one charge against Goldner (p. 87, where Goldner, correctly, argued that round cans are structurally more sound than square. Goldner's explanation is imprecise, so Cookman calls it a lie even though the gist of it is true).
But deciding that Goldner was evil allowed Cookman to evolve a vision of the expedition which makes Franklin and Company look much better: At every stage their behavior was rational. They just kept dying of food-borne illnesses. The idea is old: as early as Austin's expedition, Captain Ommaney, counting the number of tins left on Beechey Island, thought that some of Franklin's food might have been bad. The only problem with Cookman's version it is that it's about 10% facts (the facts being Goldner's problems, the large number of cans in the cairn on Beechey Island, and the known places where Franklin artifacts were found) and 90% Cookman -- and Cookman's writing shows his ability to substitute speculation for fact; his history of the expedition often includes detailed descriptions of events no one witnessed or could reconstruct from the available data (e.g. he actually tells us which hatches were bolted on Franklin's ships during the winter -- see p. 95).
Still, MSmith, p. 150, mentions the botulism theory with some approval.
That Goldner's products were inferior is certain; there were many complaints in the years after the Franklin expedition, and eventually the Admiralty imposed such stringent conditions on him that he appears to have been driven out of business. Even if his products weren't filled with lead or fatal bacteria, many of the cans probably contained spoiled food.
This would fit Beattie's autopsy of Marine Private William Braine, who was very tall for the period (about 6 feet/180 cm.) but utterly emaciated (about 40 kg/90 pounds); botulism frequently affects the digestion first, and other forms of food poisoning target the digestion even more.
In this regard, the Admiralty's decision to fit out a large expedition was probably largely to blame: The ships were heavily modernized and very up-to-date -- but, with so many hands, the crew could not possibly pick up enough food to significantly supplement their diets. (Indeed, it appears they didn't have anyone trained as a hunter.) They had to rely overwhelmingly on provisions taken from England -- which, whether lead-contaminated or not, whether poison or not, whether vermin-infested or not, lacked Vitamin C and were guaranteed to produce scurvy.
It seems to me that all the individual theories have contradictions. If the problem were lead alone, then there was enough food, so why cannibalism? If it were scurvy alone, again, why cannibalism? If it were botulism alone, then why were there so few deaths on Beechey Island? Hundreds of cans were discarded, yet only three men died, at least one of them primarily of tuberculosis. Even when the men abandoned the ships, the casualties were still only in the dozens. Goldner's cans may have been filled with junk, but at most a tiny fraction could have contained actual toxins. And if there were no toxins, then Cookman's diatribe against Goldner has no point.
One thing I note is that very many Arctic expeditions -- e.g. those of Kane, Hall, and Greeley, for which see "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay," and the _Karluk_ voyage, for which see "Captain Bob Bartlett" -- ended in madness and insubordination. This was true from the time of the earliest explorers: Martin Frobisher, the first man to seek the Northwest Passage, came to blows with some of his captains during his third voyage to Baffin Bay (McGhee, pp. 143-145). Henry Hudson's crew set him adrift in Hudson's bay because he would not abandon the weaker members of the party (Mirsky, pp. 62-63; Woodman, pp. 36-40, thinks that the madness was actually Hudson's, not his men's, and suggests that "there seems little doubt that Hudson, whatever his skills as a seaman and his experience as an explorer, was a feeble commander. Setting aside the suggested ambiguities in his sexuality, his vacillations and his biddable character are enough to condemn him"). Williams, pp. 16-17, tells of exploring parties sent by the Hudson's Bay Company in which men -- often the leaders -- lost their minds; in a later expedition, two ship captains ended up quarrelling over something as trivial as who distributed ptarmigan brought in by Indians (Williams, p. 173), and the officers were accusing each other of plotting murder (Williams, p. 175).
The Arctic brought out the worst in men, and not just because of hunger and scurvy. Noah Hayes, who was on Charles Francis Hall's 1871 expedition, wrote "I believe that no man can retain the use of his faculties through one long [Arctic] night" (quoted in Fleming-North, p. 145).
Thomas Collinson, who edited the journals of his brother Richard Collinson (who spent five arctic winters in the search for Franklin), confessed "there appears to be someting in that particular service... that stirs up the bile and promotes bitter feelings" (Berton, p. 296); Berton himself says on pp. 392-393, "The history of Arctic exploration is riddled with irrational decisions and events."
That there was an Arctic disorder seems clear. I've not seen any writing explaining it, though -- seasonal affective disorder might play a part (the Inuit actually had a name for that; they called it "perlerorneq"; MSmith, p. 175) , but it hardly seems sufficient. Perhaps SAD plus incipient vitamin deficiency? Or calcium deficiency? In Robert Peary's later expedition, his Inuit were sometimes attacked by a disease called _piblokto_, which produced vicious and erratic behavior; it is now thought to be caused by lack of calcium (see Fleming-North, p. 359). Reading the accounts of Dr. Frederick A. Cook's arctic quest, I thought his behavior evidence of some sort of mental disturbance, and Bryce, p. 844, quotes another source who had the same thought. Whatever the "arctic madness" was, who is to say it didn't affect the Franklin expedition?
The various books I've consulted all seem quite certain about their theories. But it appears that, barring additional evidence, we simply cannot be sure. It is true that occasional relics continue to turn up, but they don't tell us much. Barring some other written record -- and, after 150 years, such a record is unlikely to be found (particularly since the detailed 1879 search by Frederick Schwatka, which most most of the remaining relics, was so thorough; Beattie, p. 99) -- we will remain as uncertain as the author of this song.
It's pretty useless at this stage to assign blame, but it's worth noting that not everyone thinks Franklin entirely at fault for the disaster. He has had a curious history -- the British at first treated him as a near-saint. Then came the reaction in which he was treated as a fool. Now there are various attempts to vindicate him. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. A wiser man would probably have done better with the materials he had at hand, but it was not Franklin who designed the expedition. That was done by John Barrow, the Admiralty Second Secretary. Cookman, p. 204, blames Barrow explicitly; Fleming-Barrow implies it repeatedly. Ironic, then, that I have never seen a version of this song which mentions Barrow.
Moss, p. 221, suggests that the Franklin Expedition suggested _The Hunting of the Snark_. I grant some faint similarities, but the differences are tremendous -- and it should be remembered that Carroll told us how the _Snark_ came to be, and it was composed from the last line backward, with no hint of which way the plot would go.
For the later fates of some Franklin searchers, who then turned to North Pole exploration, see "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay."
>>*BIBLIOGRAPHY*<<
In writing this summary, in addition to the standard references, I have heavily consulted the following works, of varying quality.
Beattie: Owen Beattie & John Geiger, _Frozen in Time_ (revised edition by Greystone, 2004). This is specific to the fate of the Franklin Expedition, but says less about the Franklin itself than about Beattie's autopsies; it's not really a history of the Franklin Edition. It exists mostly to advance the lead theory.
Berton: Pierre Berton, _The Arctic Grail_ (Viking, 1988). This covers the whole history of Polar and Passage exploration. It has a very low opinion of most arctic explorers -- it is almost as if Berton set out to insult as many people as possible -- but which includes much useful detail. Because it predates Beattie's main publication, it does not address the lead issue in full detail.
Bryce: Robert M. Bryce _Cook & Peary: The Polar Controversy, Resolved_ (Stackpole, 1997) is not about Franklin, or the Northwest Passage, but contains so much detail that some of it reflects on the Franklin expedition.
Cookman: Scott Cookman, _Ice Blink: The Tragic Fate of Sir John Franklin's Lost Polar Expedition_ (Wiley, 2000). Another Franklin-specific book. Although published as non-fiction, and including several useful appendices, this is really more of a historical novel. It advances the botulism theory -- and then basically invents a history of the expedition, right down to what Captain Crozier was thinking as he abandoned the ships and decided to engage in cannibalism. Uh-huh. Maybe there is merit to his theory -- but he'd have done a lot better to present his theory, not write a piece of fiction and try to sell it as fact.
Delgado: James P. Delgado, _Across the Top of the World_ (Checkmark, 1999). This book, which provides a good general overview of Passage exploration, briefly cites this song (and Stan Rogers's "Northwest Passage" and is a good place to start studying Passage exploration. Incidentally, Rogers looked almost eerily like early engravings of Franklin; see, for instance, Delgado's modern edition of Franklin's own edition _Journal to the Polar Sea_ -- there is a reproduction facing p. 160), and appears to be up to date on the state of research through 1999. This has the advantage of providing a good context, since it covers the Northwest Passage expeditions before and after Franklin.
Edinger: Ray Edinger, _Fury Beach: The Four-Year Odyssey of Captain John Ross and the Victory_, Berkley, 2003. Mostly about Ross, of course, rather than Franklin, but it has some useful background.
Emsley: John Emsley, _Molecules at an Exhibition: The Science of Everyday Life_, Oxford, 1998 (I use the 1999 Oxford paperback). Not a history of polar exploration, of course, but it has a significant section on lead poisoning.
Fleming-Barrow: Fergus Fleming, _Barrow's Boys_ (Grove, 1998) covers the explorations undertaken at the behest of John Barrow, Second Secretary of the British admiralty for most of the first half of the nineteenth century. This includes most of Franklin's explorations, though it includes much other material as well. Still, it gives the feel of the period better than any of the other books, including Delgado.
Fleming-North: Fergus Fleming, _Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole_ (Grove, 2001). In some ways, a companion volume to the preceeding, devoted mostly to the quest for the North Pole with occasional side glances at other aspects of arctic exploration. It of course shares most of the characteristics of Fleming-Barrow.
MacInnis: Joe MacInnis, _The Land that Devours Ships: The Search for the Breadalbane_ (CBC, 1985). The story of a modern search for one of the Franklin rescue ships, with relatively little about Franklin himself -- but, because of its monotonous background about the process of the search, it gives a fair amount of detail about working on shipboard in the Arctic.
McClintock: Francis McClintock, _The Voyage of the Fox_, 1860(?); I use the 1998 Konemann edition which omits most of the extensive appendices but retains the main narrative. This is one of the key source documents, though it is unindexed and not particularly readable. NOTE: This edition spells the captain's name "McClintock," in accord with modern usage; he and his contemporaries used the spelling "M'Clintock."
McGhee: Robert McGhee, _The Arctic Voyages of Martin Frobisher: An Elizabethan Adventure_, University of Washington Press, 2001. It barely mentions Franklin, but it documents the first-ever search for the Northwest Passage.
McGoogan: Ken McGoogan, _Ancient Mariner: The Amazing Adventures of Samuel Hearne, the Sailor Who Walked tot he Arctic Ocean_, Harper Perennial Canada, 2003. Obviously not about Franklin -- it never even mentions the 1840s expedition, though it does briefly allude to the disastrous 1821 trip that retraced part of Hearne's route. But it gives good background on the whole nature of exploring northern Canada.
Mirsky: Jeannette Mirsky, _To the Arctic: The Story of Northern Exploration from the Earliest Times to the Present_, revised edition, Knopf, 1948. Given its date, this inevitably shows its age. It also glosses over almost all errors while stressing the heroism of arctic explorers. But it covers all attempts at the Arctic, even those by Russians, which is rare.
Moss: Sarah Moss, _The Frozen Ship: The Histories and Tales of Polar Exploration_, BlueBridge, 2006. Had I known what I was getting into, I would never have started citing this; I find that every one of my notes is to refute her views. She also spends a lot of time accusing scientists of being ghouls. I'd be more inclined to use the word "ghouls" of those who write about an event inaccurately and without contributing anything new.
MSmith: Michael Smith: _Captain Francis Crozier: Last Man Standing_ (Collins Press, 2006). The first attempt at a full biography of Frankin's second-in-command, it gives a rather different look at the whole Northwest Passage expedition. There are a number of mathematical gaffes (the author does not understand the difference between linear and area measure!), but it is useful as a counterweight to the usual books all about Franklin.
Sandler: Martin W. Sandler: _Resolute_ (Sterling, 2006). This is, of all things, a book about a desk. But it's a desk made out of wood from one of the Franklin search ships. I ended up -- by accident , thanks to Half Price Books selling a copy that should not be sold (a fact I failed to notice) -- with an uncorrected review copy. I've noticed several small errors in dates, but I assume the pagination will be little changed.
Savours: Ann Savours, _The Search for the North West Passage_ (St. Martin's, 1999). I found this somewhat heavy going, and while it is footnoted it manages to quote the Stan Rogers song "Northwest Passage" as a "seafarer's song" (p. viii), but the appendices, with lists of Northwest Passages and artifacts from the Franklin Expedition, are most useful, and it covers the ground thoroughly.
Sobel: Dava Sobel, _Longitude_, 1995 (I use the 2007 Walker edition with a foreward by Neil Armstrong). This has nothing to do with Franklin, but has useful information about scurvy and about navigation in unknown waters.
Wilkinson: Douglas Wilkinson, _Arctic Fever: The search for the Northwest Passage_ (Clarke Irwin, 1971). This seems to be written for a school-aged audience; footnotes are few, and there are a lot of minor slips. It's quite readable, though, and has some information not found elsewhere, mostly about the Arctic today.
Williams: Glyn Williams, _Voyages of Delusin: The Quest for the Northwest Passage_ (HarperCollins, 2002; I use the 2003 Yale University Press edition). Despite what you might think from its title, this is not a history of all the Passage attempts; it ends c. 1800, and Franklin is mentioned only three times, briefly. But it's a good background book for the pre-Franklin period.
Woodman: Richard Woodman, _A Brief History of Mutiny_, Carroll & Graf, 2005. It doesn't even mention Franklin, but some of its insights on mutiny in the cotext of Arctic Madness are interesting.
- RBW
Greenleaf/Mansfield states that 151C is a different song from 151A and 151B.  The text is
We sailed away down Baffin Bay,
Where the nights and days were one;
And the Huskimaw in his skin canoe,
That was the only living soul.
The ice-king came with his eyes aflame,
Perched on our noble crew,
And his chilly breath was cold as death,
It pierced our warm hearts through.
- BS
It is noteworthy that Laws does not list that song with this piece, and most of the lines quoted above are not normally found in "Lady Franklin's Lament." The reference to Eskimos, however, *is* found in other Franklin versions, so (given the rarity of this version), I'm still lumping the songs for the moment.
Incidentally, though the word "Huskimaw" for "Eskimo" seems to be extinct today, it was common enough in the past that it gave rise to the name "husky" for arctic dogs. (Thanks to J. V. Arkle and Lyle Lofgren for bringing this to my attention.) - RBW
File: LK09
===
NAME: Lady Gay (I): see The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)
===
NAME: Lady Greensleeves: see Greensleeves (File: ChWI239)
===
NAME: Lady Isabel [Child 261]
DESCRIPTION: Isabel's stepmother accuses Isabel of being "her father's whore," and tries to have her drink (poisoned) wine. At church; her mother advises her to take the poison. She bids farewell to her servants, drinks the poison, and dies. The stepmother goes mad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: death stepmother poison murder mother wine
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 261, "Lady Isabel" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 633-635, "Lady Isabel" (1 text)
Roud #3884
NOTES: Something seems to be wrong with this ballad; there are too many loose ends. While the stepmother's actions are perhaps understandable (she thinks Isabel's father pays more attention to his daughter than his new wife), Isabel's love beyond the sea appears for only one stanza, her mother's behavior is inexplicable, and Isabel is much too passive. Presumably something has been lost. - RBW
File: C261
===
NAME: Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4]
DESCRIPTION: A knight woos a lady. He will marry her if she runs away with him. He leads her to the seashore and threatens to drown/kill her as he has killed others before. She makes him turn his back and kills him instead. She bribes her parrot to keep her secret
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: elopement murder seduction bird lie
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Australia; analogues in Poland, Germany, France, Scandinavia, Netherlands
REFERENCES: (58 citations)
Child 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (8 texts)
Bronson 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (144 versions plus 2 in addenda)
Dixon XI, pp. 63-65, "The Water o' Wearie's Well" (1 text, plus an "Outlandish Knight" text on pp. 101-104 in the notes)
Greig #106, pp. 1-2, "May Colvin" (1 text) 
GreigDuncan2 225, "May Colvin" (2 texts)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 130-131, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #29}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp.14-34, "The False-Hearted Knight" (8 texts plus a fragment, 6 tunes; the "B" text is probably mixed as it starts with first person verses from the false knight) {Bronson's #50, #22, #35, #81, #5, #13}
Flanders/Brown, pp. 190-192, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #130}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 4-7, "The False-Hearted Knight"; pp. 109-111, "The Castle by the Sea"; pp. 129-131, "The Outlandish Knight" (3 texts, 3 tunes)  {Bronson's #138 ,#57, #141}
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 82-123, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (14 text plus 5 fragments, 12 tunes; the "C" and "D" texts have scraps from "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" [Child 105], and the "J" fragment also appears to be mixed) {A=Bronson's #138, E=#141, F=#130, I=#60, N=#57}
Belden, pp. 5-16, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (8 texts plus variants)
Randolph 2, "Pretty Polly Ann" (4 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)  {A=Bronson's #121, C=#86, E=#131}
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 16-18, "Pretty Polly Ann" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 2A) {Bronson's #121}
Eddy 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (4 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #49, #89}
Gardner/Chickering 1, "Lady Isabe and the Elf-Knightl" (1 text plus a fragment and mention of 1 more, 1 tune) {Bronson's #92}
Davis-Ballads 3, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (17 texts plus 2 fragments, 7 tunes entitled 'Pretty Polly," "The Nine King's Daughters," "The Seven King's Daughters," "The False-Hearted Knight," "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight"; 9 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) { {Bronson's #103, #146, #23, #104, #2, #19, #24}
Davis-More 4, pp. 16-25, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts, including one reconstructed, 2 tunes)
BrownII 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (7 texts)
Chappell-FSRA 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (2 fragments)
Hudson 1, pp. 61-66, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (3 texts plus a fragment)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 43-45, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #120}
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 127-128, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 short text, apparently without a local title, consisting mostly of the ending with little of the initial seduction)
Brewster 3, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 2-9, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (4 texts plus 3 fragments, 4 tunes) {Bronson's #74, #44,  #42, #43}
Greenleaf/Mansfield 1, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #73}
Peacock, pp. 206-207, "The King's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 1, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 1, "Pretty Polly" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #61}
Manny/Wilson 53, "The Gates of Ivory (Doors of Ivory)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 72-76, "Doors of Ivory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 53-59, ""Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts)
Wyman-Brockway I, p. 82, "Six Kings Daughters" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #109}
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 143-145, "The Seventh Sister" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 2-3, "False Sir John" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #102, which has two fewer verses and transcribes the tune rather differently}
OBB 8, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight"; 10, "May Colvin" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 10, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (2 texts)
Warner 41, "The Castle by the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
PBB 12, "Lady Isobel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 11, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28a}
Niles 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's#96}
SharpAp 3 "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (10 texts, 10 tunes) {Bronson's #110, #106, #9, #111, #116, #99, #118, #100, #135, #55}
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 4, "The Outlandish Knight (Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune, somewhat edited and expanded) {Bronson's #99}
Sandburg, pp. 60-61, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #64}
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 80-81, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #39, though Bronson has a different title and no text}
SHenry H163, pp. 413-414, "The King o' Spain's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Ulster 13, "The Parrot Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 8, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #44}
Hodgart, p. 28 ,"Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
DBuchan 42, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
TBB 32, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
JHCox 1, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (9 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #126}
JHCoxIIA, #IA-B, pp. 5-9, "The False Sir John," "Six Kings' Daughters (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #128, #127}
MacSeegTrav 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 188, "Lady Isabel And The Elf Knight" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 23-26, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (2 texts)
BBI, ZN975, "Go fetch me some of your father's gold" (said to be combined from several Child ballads)
DT 4, OUTKNGHT* ELFKNGHT* WILLWTRE* KNGSPAIN* FLSESIRJ
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #427, ("The Water o' Wearie's Well") (1 text)
Roud #21
RECORDINGS:
Jumbo Brightwell, "The False-Hearted Knight" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
Bill Cassidy, "Pretty Polly" (on IRTravellers01)
Lena Bourne Fish, "Castle by the Sea" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
Mary Anne Haynes, "The Young Officer" (on Voice11)
Fred Jordan, "The Outlandish Knight (Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1) (on FJordan01, HiddenE)
Sam Larner, "The Outlandish Knight" (on SLarner01)
Jean Ritchie, "False Sir John" (on JRitchie01) {Bronson's #102}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 244, "The Outlandish Knight" ("An outlandish knight came from the north lands"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.21(15), Firth c.21(16), 2806 c.17(323), Firth c.26(230), Harding B 11(2886), Harding B 11(2887), Harding B 11(2889), Harding B 11(2890), Harding B 11(2891), "[The] Outlandish Knight"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Fair Eleanor (II)" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
King of Spain's Daughter
Lady Ishbel and Her Parrot
King William's Son
The Courting of Aramalee
May Colvin
An Outlandish Rover
The Highway Robber
The Old Beau
Halewijn
The Seventh King's Daughter
Pretty Cold Rain
Sweet William
The Six Fair Maids
The Hinges of Ivory
The Prating Parrot
NOTES: Many theories have been offered as to the origin of this ballad (closely connected with the Franko-Dutch tale of Halwijn). The most widely known is Bugge's theory that this is a corrupt form of the tale of Judith, found in the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books of the Bible.
It should be noted, however, that the only actual parallel between Judith and Lady Isabel is that both end with the bad guy being killed by the heroine.
A comprehensive study of the origins of this piece is offered by Holger Olof Nygard in "Ballad Source Study: Child Ballad No. 4 as Exemplar" (first printed in the _Journal of American Folklore_, LXV, 1952; see now MacEdward Leach and Tristram P. Coffin, eds, _The Critics and the Ballad_, pp. 189- 203). Nygard concludes that none of the theories of origin is accurate, and I heartily agree. This piece stands on its own.
Peter Underwood, in _A Gazetteer of English, Scottish & Irish Ghosts_, p. 383, associates this song  with Lendalfoot in Ayreshire, and claims that "mysterious shrill cries and strangely fading screams are still heard there." One has to suspect that this is one of those legends that arose after the song. - RBW
MacColl & Seeger cite a German broadside, c. 1550. - PJS
Of course, most of the alleged parallels to this piece (few of which are *truly* parallel) are in German and Scandinavian literature. As a matter of fact. a brief item in _Sing Out!_, Volume 29, #1, p. 10, suggests that the story runs the other way -- that is, that a German folktale derives from this song. In this tale, a man makes a deal with the devil that makes him (or his music) irresistible to women. The devil's price is that the fiend will get every twelfth soul. The man ravishes and kills eleven women, but when he attempts to take the twelfth, she or her brother (or her brother in disguise, or something) manages to kill the murderer instead. As the murderer dies, a voice is heard on the wind, "The twelfth soul is mine." - RBW
Also collected and sung by Kevin Mitchell, "False Lover John" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
File: C004
===
NAME: Lady Ishbel and Her Parrot: see Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)
===
NAME: Lady Keith's Lament: see When the King Comes O'er the Water (Lady Keith's Lament) (File: Hogg1027)
===
NAME: Lady Leroy, The [Laws N5]
DESCRIPTION: A girl and her lover want to escape her father. She disguises herself and buys the Lady Leroy from her father. The father sends a ship to intercept them, but the girl captures her father's ship and sends it home. She and her lover continue on their way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1895 (JAFL8)
KEYWORDS: love escape disguise ship
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,So) Canada(Ont,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (13 citations)
Laws N5, "The Lady Leroy"
Belden, pp. 180-182, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text)
FSCatskills 58, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 137-138, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 33-34, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 63, "Lady Leroy" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
JHCox 118, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text)
SharpAp 155, "Sally and Her Lover, or Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H214, pp. 445-446, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 111, "The Lady Uri" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 208-209, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 25, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 440, LADYLROY LADYLRO2
Roud #1889
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Lady Leroy" (AFS 4205 B1 and 4205 A2 [last verse], 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell); "The Fair Captive [wrong title, fragment]" (AFS 4205 A2, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES: The LC recordings are a bit of a mess. The one identified as "The Fair Captive" has numbers listed as AFS 4205 A1 and A2, but clicking on any of the audio links brings down only A2, which is definitely "Lady Leroy" or a fragment thereof. The listing under "The Lady Leroy," on the other hand, has a full version, 4205 B1, plus the same fragment, which is really the last verse of "The Lady Leroy." "The Fair Captive" is actually recorded, in full, on AFS 4201 B1. Got that? - PJS
File: LN05
===
NAME: Lady Maisry (II): see Mother, Mother, Make My Bed (File: VWL071)
===
NAME: Lady Maisry [Child 65]
DESCRIPTION: The Scottish heroine loves an English lord above all Scots. Her family, learning of her love and (in most versions) her pregnancy, prepare to burn her. She sends tokens to her love, but she has been burnt before he can arrive. (He takes bitter vengeance)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1822
KEYWORDS: love separation death hate hardheartedness family execution revenge
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland) US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Child 65, "Lady Maisry" (11 texts)
Bronson 65, "Lady Maisry" (13 versions, though some of these are really "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed")
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 448-449, "Lady Maisry" (notes only)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 117-119, "Bonnie Susie Cleland" (1 text)
Davis-Ballads 16, "Lady Maisry" (2 fragments, the first probably this but the second is only the verse of the messenger boy swimming the river; I suspect it's actually from "Little Musgrave," or "Mother, Mother," or "Lord Lovell," or some other such source)
SharpAp 17 "Lady Maisry" (2 texts, 2 tunes){Bronson's #13, #12}
Sharp-100E 10, "Lady Maisry" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Leach, pp. 208-213, "Lady Maisry" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 74, "Lady Maisry" (1 text)
OBB 73, "Lady Maisry" (1 text)
PBB 40, "Janet (Lady Maisry)" (1 text)
Niles 26, "Lady Maisry" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the second is short, and appears to be a mixed text)
Gummere, pp. 218-222+352, "Lady Maisry" (1 text)
DBuchan 11, "Lady Maisry", 29, "Lady Maisry" (2 texts, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #1}
DT 65, SCLELAND* LMAISRY *
Roud #45
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Stolen Bride" (plot)
cf. "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" (lyrics)
cf. "Kafoozalem (I)" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Bonnie Susie Cleland
Sweet Maisry
Lord Dillard and Lady Flora
NOTES: Bronson, Roud, and Scarborough, and probably others, have filed "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" with "Lady Maisry," but that ballad (composed largely of floating elements) lacks key plot elements, notably the reasons for, and fact of, the girl's condemnation and death. It appears to be a separate song, though perhaps composed on the fragments of this song.
Interestingly, it appears that every text Bronson has of "Mother, Mother" is part of his "C" tune group, and every text in the "C" group is either "Mother, Mother" or is too short to allow identification. - RBW
File: C065
===
NAME: Lady Margaret: see Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)
===
NAME: Lady Margaret (II): see Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77] (File: C077)
===
NAME: Lady Margaret and King William: see Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)
===
NAME: Lady Margaret and Sweet William (I): see Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)
===
NAME: Lady Margaret and Sweet William (II): see Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77] (File: C077)
===
NAME: Lady Margot and Love Henry: see Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)
===
NAME: Lady Margot and Sweet Willie: see Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)
===
NAME: Lady Mary (The Sad Song)
DESCRIPTION: "He came from his palace grand And he came to my cottage door... But I was nothing to him, Though he was the world to me." She desperately loved him; now he is dead, but she has no excuse for mourning. She wonders if, in heaven, he will still ignore her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (collected by Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: death love beauty
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 698, "The Sad Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 522-524, "The Sad Song" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 698)
DT, LADYMARY*
Roud #6358
RECORDINGS:
Bud Skidmore, "The Sad Song" (Columbia 15761-D, 1932)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "We Met, 'Twas In a Crowd"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Palace Grand
NOTES: This has been quite popular in the folk revival; it appears that most if not all of these versions derive from the May Kennedy McCord collected by Randolph and Hunter; she also gave it to Evelyn Beers. Bush's printing also derives from McCord. Thus although there are a few other versions of the song known (from Owens and Sandburg), if you've heard this song, the version you know almost certainly comes from McCord. - RBW
File: R698
===
NAME: Lady Mary Ann (by Robert Burns): see A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)
===
NAME: Lady o' the Dainty Doonby, The: see The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)
===
NAME: Lady of Arngosk, The [Child 224]
DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "The Highlandmen has a' come down... They've stowen away the bonny lass, The Lady of Arngosk." They dress her in her silken gown, and the Highland leader draws his sword and bids her come. They tie her hands, but she scorns them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1823 (Sharpe)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection clothes abduction
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Child 224, "The Lady of Arngosk" (1 text)
Roud #4019
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Eppie Morrie" [Child 223] (plot)
NOTES: Child's notes to this are about twelve times as long as the actual three-stanza text (the only fragment recovered, and likely the only one which ever will be recovered), and give the apparent background to the song. The lyrics itself are so fragmentary, however, that they could well be a minor adaption of some similar piece such as "Eppie Morrie." - RBW
File: C224
===
NAME: Lady of Carlisle, The [Laws O25]
DESCRIPTION: Two brothers court a lady. Unable to choose between them, she decides to find out who is braver. She throws her fan into a den of lions and says she will marry whoever recovers it. The sea captain does so; she offers herself as the prize
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1807 (various broadside, National Library of Ireland I 39988b4: Belfast 1807-1837 2, according to John Moulden)
KEYWORDS: contest courting clothes marriage animal
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(So)) Ireland
REFERENCES: (19 citations)
Laws O25, "The Lady of Carlisle"
Flanders/Olney, pp. 207-208, "In Castyle there Lived a Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 36, "Lady of Carlisle" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 66, "The Bold Lieutenant" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
SHenry H474, pp. 488-489, "The Glove and the Lions" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride 49, "London City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 36, "The Bold Lieutenant" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Creighton-NovaScotia 43, "Lion's Den" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 34-35, "The Lady's Fan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 22, "The Lady's Fan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 133, "The Lion's Den" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 393-394, "The Lion's Den" (1 text)
BrownII 89, "The Glove" (2 texts)
Hudson 29, pp. 139-141, "The Faithful Lover, or The Hero Rewarded" (1 text)
Brewster 59, "The Lady's Fan" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 146, "Lady Of Carlisle" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 130-131, "Carolina Lady" (1 text)
DT 335, LDYCRLIL* LDYCRL2*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #5 (1973), p, 4, "The Carolina Lady" (1 text, 1 tune, the Dillard Chandler version)
Roud #396
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "The Fan" (on IREButcher01)
Dillard Chandler, "Carolina Lady" (on Chandler01)
Teresa Maguire, "The Lion's Den" (on FSB8)
Basil May, "Lady of Carlisle" (LC-1587/AAFS 1702, rec. 1937)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Lady of Carlisle" (on NLCR03, NLCR12, NLCRCD1) (on NLCR16)
Pete Seeger, "Down in Carlisle" (on PeteSeeger16)
Doug Wallin, "The Bold Lieutenant" (on Wallins1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(327a), "The Faithful Lover" or "The Hero Rewarded," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.19(28)[some words illegible], "The Faithful Lover" or "The Hero Rewarded"; Harding B 28(187), "Faithful Lover" ("Near to St. James's there lived a lady"); Harding B 17(167b), "The Lions' Den"; Firth c.13(35) View 1 of 2, "The Bold Lieutenant in the Lions' Den"; Harding B 16(29a), "Bold Lieutenant"
LOCSinging, as102520, "The Faithful Lover" or "The Hero Rewarded," J. Catnach (London), 19C
Murray, Mu23-y1:087, "The Bold Lieutenant in the Lion's Den," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
In Roslyn Isles There Lived a Lady
NOTES: Kennedy notes, "Lions were kept at the Tower of London from the time of Henry III [reigned 1216-1272] until 1834." Sam Henry dates this to an actual event in the reign of Francis (I? -- reigned 1515-1547) of France. This is more probable than most of these derivations (how many people in the world are that silly?), but as usual, it cannot be proved.
The notes in Brown posit a different original, claiming (following Barry?) that it originated in Spain, spread to France and Italy, and inspired Schiller ("Der Handschuh"), Browning, and Leigh Hunt ("The Glove and the Lions"). Belden (_The Vulgar Ballad_, p. 6) thinks he finds traces of a broadside published between 1814 and 1834. Again, proof is lacking.
Leigh Hunt (who is remembered mostly for nauseating generations of schoolchildrem with "Abou Ben Adhem") gives a rather different ending to the story in "The Glove and the Lions." As given in [no author listed], _The Household Treasury of English Song_, T. Nelson and Sons, 1872, pp. 180-181, Hunt's poem begins
King Francis was a hearty king, and loved a royal sport;
And one day, as his lions strove, sat looking on the court:
The nobles filled the benches round, the ladies by their side,
And 'mongst them Count de Lorge, with one he hoped to make his bride.
And truly 'twas a gallant thing to see that crowning show --
Valor and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below.
The poem goes on to describe the raving of the lions. De Lorge's "beauteous, lively dame" declared that he is "as brave as brave can be," and would do anything to show his love for her. So:
She dropped her glove to prove his love -- then looked on him and smiled;
He bowed, and in a moment leaped among the lions wild:
The leap was quick, return was quick; he soon regained his place,
Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face.
"Well done!" cried Francis; "bravely done!" and he rose from where he sat:
"No love," quoth he, "but vanity, sets love a task like that!" - RBW
File: LO25
===
NAME: Lady of Dun, The
DESCRIPTION: A harper comes to a castle. His playing wakes the lady. She orders him thrown into the sea. Afterwards, she can no longer sleep, and dies in terror, seeing always his eyes and foam-flecked beard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: murder death drowning dream harp
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan2 188, "The Lady of Dun" (1 text)
Roud #5840
NOTES: The GreigDuncan2 text is fragmentary but Greig reconstructed the plot as follows [the square brackets] bracket what we know from the actual text:
before st. 1, 'A harper came to the castle and his playing awoke the lady.' 
[st. 1: "The owner's heart was as hard as stane, And the lady's heart was harder I ween."] 
before st. 2, 'She orders him to be thrown into the den.' 
[st. 2: "Harping at this time in the morn, Is sure a thing that cannot be borne."] 
'A girl pleads for him' before st.3, 
[st. 3: the girl is described] 
[st. 4: The lady calls the girl senseless and has the harper thrown into the sea for waking her.] 
and at the end, 'They obeyed her behests. He sunk in the deep, but the lady could never mair sleep, and died in terror, seeing always his eyes and foam-flecked beard.'" 
Robertson, quoted by GreigDuncan2, tells that Greig at first "thought it was an attempt to make an imitation of an old ballad but after studying it thought it had been from an older ballad but we never got any light on it." How did Greig come up with his patches?
In any case, this augmented text is the basis for the description. - BS
File: GrD2188
===
NAME: Lady of the Lake, The (The Banks of Clyde II) [Laws N41]
DESCRIPTION: The singer walks up to a girl and asks her why she is weeping. She says that the Lady of the Lake, carrying her true love, was wrecked off Newfoundland. He tells her that Willie is dead, and gives her his last message, but then reveals that he is Willie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie); c.1850 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.16(54))
KEYWORDS: love death wreck ship disguise
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 11, 1833 - The "Lady of the Lake" strikes an iceberg off Newfoundland and sinks, taking with her most of her passengers
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws N41, "The Lady of the Lake (The Banks of Clyde)"
Doerflinger, pp. 302-303, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text)
SHenry H765, pp. 312-313, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 928-930, "Liza Gray" (1 texts, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie 67, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text)
DT 466, LADYLAKE
Roud #1886
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(54), "The Lady of the Lake," G. Jacques (Manchester), c.1850; also Firth b.27(297), Firth c.12(230), "The Lady of the Lake"
Murray, Mu23-y3:010, "The Lady of the Lake," unknown, 19C
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Lady of the Lake" (subject) and notes there
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "The Wreck of the Lady Shearbrooke" (plot)
cf. "Thomas and Nancy" [Laws K15] (theme)
NOTES: Leyden: "Total saved 34; perished 197; total 234" with a list of those saved, including Captain Grant and at least one William. - BS
For more details on the casualties, see "The Loss of the Lady of the Lake." - RBW
File: LN41
===
NAME: Lady of the Land (Here's a Poor Widow)
DESCRIPTION: "Here comes a poor (woman/widow) from (Babylon/baby-land), WIth three small children in her hand. One can brew, the other can bake, The other can make a pretty round cake.... Pray, ma'am, will you take one in?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: cook children poverty playparty
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Leyden 19, "Here's a Poor Widow from Sandy Row" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #641, p. 256, "(Here comes a poor woman from baby-land)"
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 85, "(Here's a poor widow from Sandisland)" (1 text)
Roud #12975
File: BGMG641
===
NAME: Lady of York, The: see The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)
===
NAME: Lady Turned Serving-Man, The: see The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)
===
NAME: Lady Uri, The: see The Lady Leroy [Laws N5] (File: LN05)
===
NAME: Lady's Fall, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer warns listeners against sex before marriage. A lady becomes pregnant by her love, who deserts her. Once the babe is born, she dies, only to have her lover kill himself with sadness 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: love sex pregnancy childbirth family death infidelity burial
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 139-145, "The Lady's Fall" (1 text)
BBI, ZN1753, "Mark well my heavy doleful Tale"
NOTES: Hales believes this to be by the same author as "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34] - RBW
File: Perc3139
===
NAME: Lady's Fan, The: see The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)
===
NAME: Lady's Waiting Man, The
DESCRIPTION: A beautiful girl falls in love with her father's servant-man who waits on table. She faints and when she recovers asks "in the kitchen carry me." When he brings her "dainties" she kisses him and professes her love. He is happy to wait on her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: love beauty servant 
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 545-546, "The Lady's Waiting Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6460
File: Pea545
===
NAME: Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home
DESCRIPTION: "Ladybug/Ladybird, Ladybug/Ladybird, Fly away home, Your house is on fire, Your children do roam." The extended version may instruct the insect to go to Flanders or elsewhere, and fly to the singer's love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: bug home fire
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #467, p. 209, "(Lady Bird, Lady Bird)" (a short version in the text with a long addedum in the notes)
Opie-Oxford2 297, "Ladybird, Ladybird" (1 text)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 15, "Ladybird" (1 very full text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 243, (no title) (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #164, "(Ladybird, Ladybird, fly away home)" (1 text)
Roud #16215
File: MSNR15
===
NAME: Ladye Diamond: see Lady Diamond [Child 269] (File: C269)
===
NAME: Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs, The
DESCRIPTION: When the king returns from traveling, his daughter welcomes him. A lord calls her very fair; her stepmother turns her to a worm. Child Wynd arrives and, with difficulty, transforms her back. He turns the queen into a toad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1812 (Bell); Child estimates the date of the "Hagg Worm" version as c. 1775
KEYWORDS: animal magic royalty jealousy beauty father stepmother revenge
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 34 Appendix, "The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs" (1 text plus a "more popular" version, "The Hagg Worm," in the addenda to volume IV)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 180-181, "The Laidley Worm" (1 slightly defective text, 1 tune)
ST C034A (Partial)
Roud #3176
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Kemp Owyne" [Child 34]
NOTES: Child prints this ballad as an appendix to #34, "Kemp Owyne." There are, however, just enough known versions (including Stokoe's, with a tune of uncertain origin) that we split them.
The reference to a King based in, or at least leaving his daughter in, Bamborough, is puzzling; being near the Scots border (but never in Scotland), it is a rather unsafe place; in any case, few Kings of England spent much time in the north, except in cases such as that of Henry VI when he was a fugitive. If, then, we assume a King who campaigned in Scotland, had daughters, and had a second wife, the obvious choice is Edward I (reigned 1272-1307). Which seems awfully early....
The theme of a beautiful daughter and jealous stepmother and a transformation is of course commonplace, with the best known version being "Snow White" (which is from the Grimm collection: #53, Schneewittchen, printed 1812, from the Hassenpflug family). - RBW
File: C034A
===
NAME: Laidley Worm, The: see The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs (File: C034A)
===
NAME: Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea, The [Child 36]
DESCRIPTION: The singer's mother died when he was seven, and his stepmother enchanted him into a "laily worm" and his sister into a "machrel." When their father learns the truth, he forces her to restore the children, then burns her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1802/3 (Skene ms.)
KEYWORDS: family father children stepmother magic shape-changing rescue monster
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 36, "The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea" (1 text)
OBB 14, "The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea" (1 text)
PBB 20, "The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea" (1 text)
DT 36, LAIDLEYW
Roud #3968
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Allison Gross" [Child 35] (theme)
NOTES: Child's text is badly and multiply defective, but the lack of materials makes restoration well-nigh impossible. Child's conjectures as to what is missing seem apt. - RBW
File: C036
===
NAME: Laird o Cockpen, The
DESCRIPTION: "The Laird o Cockpen, he's proud and he's great... He wanted a wife his braw hoose tae keep...." He comes to court the noble but poor Jean, who at first turns him down, but then thinks of his wealth and chooses to wed him
AUTHOR: Adapted by Lady Nairn?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1821
KEYWORDS: courting marriage money nobility 
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Logan, pp. 355-359, "The Laird of Cockpen" (1 text)
DT, COCKLAIR*
ADDITIONAL: Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #333, pp. 563-564, "The Laird o' Cockpen" (by Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne)
ST Log355 (Full)
Roud #2859
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Squire and the Gipsy" (theme)
SAME_TUNE:
Tipperty's Jean (Ord, pp. 283-284)
Parody on Laird o' Cockpen (Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(103), "Parody on Laird o' Cockpen" ("The Laird o Cockpen he's puir and he's duddy"), unknown, c. 1875)
New Year (Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(104), "The New Year" ("And now we're to enter another New Year, When little is thought on but whiskey and beer"), unknown, c. 1875)
The Laird of D--mm-- (broadside NLScotland, ABS.10.203.01(102), "The Laird of D--mm--e," unknown, c. 1835)
"Incompetence of Politicians" (Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(6a), [no title] ("Oh! hae ye heard o' an unprincipled squad"), unknown, n.d.)
File: Log355
===
NAME: Laird o Drum, The [Child 236]
DESCRIPTION: The Laird o Drum, instead of wooing a noble lady, chooses to court a poor working girl. All his relatives oppose this, but he notes that the girl is willing to work; instead of costing him money (as his previous wife did), she will help him earn it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1803 (Skene ms.; cf. Herd 1776)
KEYWORDS: courting poverty
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1665-1710 - Life of Margaret Coutts, second wife of Alexander Irvine of Drum (previously married, in 1643, to Mary Gordon of Huntley. Drum died in 1687)
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Child 236, "The Laird o Drum" (6 texts)
Bronson 36, "The Laird o Drum" (26 versions+1 in addenda)
Dixon VIII, pp. 53-56, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 text)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 300-303, "The Laird of Drum" (1 text with variants, 1 tune) {Bronson's #26}
Creighton-Maritime, p. 28, "The Laird O'Drum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 4-9, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
DT 236, LAIRDDRM*
Roud #247
RECORDINGS:
Lucy Stewart, "The Laird o' Drum" (on FSBBAL2) (on LStewart1)
NOTES: Bodleian, 2806 c.11(7), "The Laird o' Drum" ("The laird o' Drum is a hunting gane"), unknown, n.d. could not be downloaded and verified. - BS
File: C236
===
NAME: Laird o Logie, The [Child 182]
DESCRIPTION: (Logie) is in prison awaiting death; Margaret would save him. She petitions the King; he will not free Logie for all the gold in Scotland. (The queen/Margaret) (steals tokens from the King) and orders that Logie be freed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: prison escape trick nobility love mercy help
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Child 182, "The Laird o Logie" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 182, "The Laird o Logie" (3 versions)
GreigDuncan2 247, "The Young Laird o' Logie" (3 texts)
Leach, pp. 493-495, "The Laird o Logie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #422, "The Laird o' Logie" (1 text)
Roud #81
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Gallant Laird o' Young Logie
Young Logie
NOTES: In 1591, the Earl of Bothwell tried to capture King James VI of Scotland, and James Weymis of Logie was implicated in the plot. One of Queen Anne's maids, Margaret, loved him; she forged an order to have him questioned, and used it to help him escape. James's anger was appeased by the Queen, and he pardoned Logie, who then married Margaret - RBW
File: C182
===
NAME: Laird o Roslin's Daughter, The: see Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)
===
NAME: Laird o Udny, The: see Let Me In This Ae Nicht (File: DTaenich)
===
NAME: Laird o Windy Wa's, The: see Let Me In This Ae Nicht (File: DTaenich)
===
NAME: Laird o' Drum (II), The: see Queen Among the Heather (File: K141)
===
NAME: Laird o' Grant, The
DESCRIPTION: Laird of Grant goes to a home, disguised as a haughty beggar, intending to win a daughter of the house. Her parents would have the beggar dismissed but the girl would feed him. They would have her stay home. She would go with Laird of Grant.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: courting disguise begging father mother
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan2 276, "The Laird o' Grant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5853
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Beggar Man
NOTES: GreigDuncan2 assumes that the original version has the daughter ride off with the beggar after she would feed him and before they would have her stay home. That might explain how she recognizes the beggar as Laird o' Grant. - BS 
File: GrD2276
===
NAME: Laird o' Leys, (The): see The Baron o Leys [Child 241] (File: C241)
===
NAME: Laird o' the Dainty Doonby, The: see The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)
===
NAME: Laird of the Denty Doon Bye, The: see The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)
===
NAME: Laird of Wariston, The [Child 194]
DESCRIPTION: Wariston (accuses his wife of adultery and) strikes her. She avenges herself by killing him with the help of a servant. Lady Wariston is arrested and condemned. (She begs the King to lessen her sentence to beheading. He wishes she did not have to die.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: murder revenge adultery accusation punishment execution nobility royalty
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 5, 1600 - Execution of the former Jean Livingston, Lady Wariston (according to Birrell)
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Child 194, "The Laird of Wariston" (3 texts)
Leach, pp. 528-533, "The Laird of Wariston" (2 texts)
DT 194, WARSTON
Roud #3876
NOTES: Child reports that this event is historical, but the judicial records of Lady Wariston's trial are lost. This ballad is therefore the only evidence of the motive for her murder of her husband.
This certainly appears to be a folk ballad, but it also appears to be extinct. Child knew three texts, all damaged, and the song has not been collected since. Ewan MacColl has a tune for it, but it's nearly certain that it came out of his own head. (Or, more correctly, is a modification of a tune for another ballad -- e.g. it's much like the tune I know for "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow.")
Child treats this as one ballad, and given its lack of survival in tradition, there is no reason to break it up into two entries -- but I think it likely that it is in fact *two* ballads, one represented by Child's A and B texts and the third by his C text.
There are several reasons for this. The forms of the stanzas are different (though we might note that A and B also differ from each other). There are only a few common words, and most of them commonplace ("O Wariston, I wad that ye wad sink for sin").
Most crucial, though, is the complete difference in motive. In the A/B text, Wariston strikes his wife over a trivial quarrel. In C, however, Lady Wariston is a child bride (her age is given as fifteen at the time of her marriage; the real Lady Wariston seems to have been about nineteen). Shortly after their marriage, Wariston goes to sea; before he returns a year later, she bears a child.
Upon his return, Wariston accuses his lady of adultery and casts her out. The murder is her retaliation. - RBW
File: C194
===
NAME: Laird's Wedding, The: see The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)
===
NAME: Lake Huron's Rock-Bound Shore: see The Persian's Crew [Laws D4] (File: LD04)
===
NAME: Lake Huron's Rockbound Shore: see The Persian's Crew [Laws D4] (File: LD04)
===
NAME: Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33]
DESCRIPTION: Willie Leonard and a friend visit Lake Cool Finn. Willie dives in first, and swims to an island, but warns his friend not to follow, warning of "deep and false water...." When Willie tries to swim back, he vanishes (to fairyland?). He is mourned by many
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1873
KEYWORDS: death drowning
FOUND_IN: US(MA,NE) Ireland Britain(England,Scotland) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Laws Q33, "The Lake of Cool Finn"
Greig #114, p. 1, "The Loch o' Shilin" (1 text) 
GreigDuncan2 228, "The Loch o' Shilin" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach, pp. 732-733, "Willie Leonard or the Lake of Cool Finn" (1 text)
FSCatskills 72, "The Lakes of Col Flynn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 324, "The Lakes of Shallin" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H176, p. 146, "Willie Lennox" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 35, "The Lake of Coolfin" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride 44, "Johnny Bathin" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, pp. 15-16, "Lakes of Cold Finn" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "The Lakes of Cold Finn" (source notes only)
DT 541, LKCOLFIN* LKCOLFI2*
Roud #189
RECORDINGS:
Amy Birch, "Royal Comrade" (on Voice11)
Patsy Flynn, "Willie Leonard" (on IRHardySons)
Tom Lenihan, "The Lake of Coolfin" (on IRTLenihan01)
Mary Reynolds, "The Lakes of Shallin" (on FSB7)
Cathie Stewart, "The Lakes of Shillin" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
Scan Tester, "The Lakes of Coalflin" (on Voice03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(260), "The Lakes of Cold Finn," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 20(88), "The Lakes of Cold Finn"; 2806 b.11(31), Firth b.26(168), Harding B 11(1376), "Willie Leonard"
LOCSinging, as107400, "The Lakes of Cold Finn," unknown, 19C
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Billy Henry
NOTES: The Loch o' Shilin versions expand on the mother "tearing her hair" by adding father and sweetheart. Greig comments that his version was sung to the tune of "Villikens and his Dinah." - BS
File: LQ33
===
NAME: Lake of Coolfin, The: see Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)
===
NAME: Lake of Ponchartrain, The [Laws H9]
DESCRIPTION: A young man (Union soldier?), lost in the south, is taken in by a Creole girl. He asks her to marry; she cannot, for she is promised to another who is far away (at sea?). He promises to remember her always
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Pound)
KEYWORDS: courting separation promise
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,West)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Laws H9, "The Lake of Ponchartrain"
Randolph 882, "The Ponsaw Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin, pp. 46-48, "On the Lake of the Poncho Plains" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 55, pp. 127-128, "The Creole Girl" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 45, "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Creighton-NovaScotia 137, "On the Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 78, "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H619, pp. 373-374, "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 649, PONTCHAR PONCHAR2 PONCHAR3 PONCHAR4
Roud #1836
RECORDINGS:
Sarah Ann Bartley, "Lakes of Ponchartraine" (on Saskatch01)
Walter Coon, "Creole Girls" (Superior 2521, 1930)
Frances Perry, "On the Lakes of Ponchartrain" (AFS, 1946; on LC55)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (Supertone 9717, 1930) (Perfect 5-10-14/Melotone 5-10-14, 1935; rec. 1934) 
Art Thieme, "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (on Thieme05)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Lakes of the Ponchartrain
File: LH09
===
NAME: Lake of the Caogama, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, now we're leaving home, me boys, to Ottawa we're goin', Expectin' yo be hired, and yet we do not know." The singer hires with Tom Patterson, and spends his time in a comfortless shanty eating bad food. He misses the girls and looks forward to leaving
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger work lumbering hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Fowke-Lumbering #24, "The Lake of the Caogama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 21, "The Lake of the Caogama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4534
NOTES: Typical shantyboy complaint song. Lake Caogama (pronounced keg-a-ma) was a lumber camp on the northern shore of the Ottawa River. - SL
File: FowL24
===
NAME: Lakes of Cold Finn: see Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)
===
NAME: Lakes of Shillin, The: see Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)
===
NAME: Lakes of the Ponchartrain, The: see The Lake of Ponchartrain [Laws H9] (File: LH09)
===
NAME: Lamachree and Megrum
DESCRIPTION: Each verse describes a farm hand experience. For example, "I there got buttered bread and cheese An oil to keep my shoon in grease." or "Betty Barbour was fu' keen, She had twa bonnie blinkin' e'en"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greig "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 71-72, "Lamachree and Megrum"; Greig #4, p. 1, "Lamachree and Megrum" (2 texts, 1 tune) 
GreigDuncan3 398, "Lamachree and Megrum" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #2873
NOTES: NOTES:
Greig notes that "Mains o' Culsh" is sung to the tune of "Lamachree and Megrum"; on the other hand, GreigDuncan3 398C includes three verses that belong to, or at least are central to, "Mains o' Culsh." The MacColl version - "learned from print (_Miscellanea of the Rymour Club of Edinburgh_)" -- is very close to GreigDuncan 398C minus these three verses (on Ewan MacColl with Peggy Seeger and Alf Edwards, "Bothy Ballads of Scotland," Folkways Records FW 8759 LP (1961)).
GreigDuncan3's five versions of "Lamachree and Megrum" include twenty-five verses, rhymed couplets, only one verse is repeated, and that only once: "I gaed up to Aberdour, I got lasses three or four." Greig #4 states that "Sometimes a ploughman song deals with a series of places at which the singer is understood to have served. 'Lamachree and Megrum' may be given as an example." "Lamachree and Megrum" seems a disconnected set of verses in the nature of a military cadence call. 
GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Auchtydure (398) is at coordinate (h4-5,v0-1) on that map [roughly 25 miles N of Aberdeen] - BS
File: GrD3398
===
NAME: Lambkin: see Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)
===
NAME: Lambs on the Green Hills, The: see The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)
===
NAME: Lambton Worm, The
DESCRIPTION: Young Lambton catches a fish of an unknown kind. Wanting to know what it is, he puts it down a well, then sets off for the Crusades. The fish grows into a serpent that leaves the well and does great damage. The lord comes home and kills the creature
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1892
KEYWORDS: animal monster fishing fight
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
PBB 104, "The Lambton Worm" (1 text)
DT, LAMDWORM
Roud #2337
NOTES: Reputed to be about a Northumbrian lord's attempt to raise taxes. I know of no hard evidence of this. - RBW
File: PBB104
===
NAME: Lament for John Sneddon: see The Collier Lad (Lament for John Sneddon/Siddon) (File: HHH110)
===
NAME: Lament for the Loss of the Ship Union: see Lovely Ann (File: Leyd034)
===
NAME: Lament of John O Mahony
DESCRIPTION: The singer, growing old "in a foreign land, in a lonesome city" thinks "not a single hope have I seen fulfilled For the blood we spilled." He thinks of his home land. "My heart still lingers on its native strand And American land holds naught for me"
AUTHOR: Dr. Douglas Hyde (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: homesickness rebellion exile America Ireland lament nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 31, "Lament of John O Mahony" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: OLochlainn-More: "O'Mahony, born in Co. Limerick, turned out with Smith O'Brien at Ballingarry, 1848, fled to France and in 1852 to America; with Stephens founded I.R.B. and was Head Centre in U.S.A. Died in poverty, New York, 1877." - BS
For more on the events of 1848, see especially "The Shan Van Voght (1848)." It is ironic to note that the 1848 rebellion was the one attempt to set Ireland free that resulted in almost no bloodshed. - RBW
File: OLcM031
===
NAME: Lament of the Border Widow, The: see The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)
===
NAME: Lament of the Irish Emigrant, The: see I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary (The Irish Emigrant II) (File: Pea462)
===
NAME: Lament, The: see The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)
===
NAME: Lamentation of a Bad Market, The
DESCRIPTION: On January 10 a carpenter starts a fire that burns a bridge over the Thames. A lord and the King, looking at the thin ice, bet whether a man's weight could be held. The king loses when three children fall through and drown. John is beheaded.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1651 (The Loves of Hero and Leander, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: wager execution death drowning fire parody children nobility
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: ()

BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(53), "The Lamentation of a Bad Market ," J. White (Newcastle), 1711-1769
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Three Little Girls A-Skating Went" (see Notes)
NOTES: Immediately after the King loses his bet a man is beheaded without explanation or follow-up.
Opie-Oxford2 99, "Three children sliding on the ice": "It describes the burning of 'a bridge of London town' and was probably occasioned by the fire which, in February 1633, destroyed much of London Bridge. Stanzas 12, 18, and 19, run:
Three children sliding there abouts, Upon a place too thin, That so at last it did fall out, That they did all fall in.
Yee Parents all that Children have And ye that have none yet; Preserve your Children From the Grave, And teach them at home to sit.
For had these at a Sermon been, Or else upon dry ground, Why then I never have been seen, If that they had been drown'd.
This is undoubtedly a burlesque of the pious ballad-mongers whose 'Providential Warning and Good Counsels' wearied the Cavalier aristocracy."
The three verses survive as "Three Little Girls A-Skating Went" changed slightly to add paradox. - BS
According to the _Riverside Shakespeare_, p. 1395, it has never been common for the Thames to freeze over -- but that page shows a woodcut from Dekker's 1608 publication _The Great Frost: Cold Doings in London_; the winter of 1607-1608 did see the river frozen solid. Most amazing is the fact that it shows a fire burning in a pan set directly on the ice. Evidently this sort of thing was common.
And don't get me started on Minnesota ice fishermen who park their pickup trucks out in the middle of lakes. - RBW
File: BdBLoaBM
===
NAME: Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds, The
DESCRIPTION: Hugh Reynolds loves Catherine McCabe who, by perjury, has him condemned to be hanged. "With irons I'm surrounded, in grief I lie confounded, by perjury unbounded; she's the dear maid to me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1845 (Duffy)
KEYWORDS: abduction execution trial lament
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: March 28, 1826 - Hugh Reynolds executed for the abduction of Catherine M'Cabe (source: Sparling [see notes])
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
OLochlainn 66, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 380-381, 513, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds"
Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 152-153, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds"
Roud #2395
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star of Sunday's Well" (tune)
NOTES: Sparling: "Both families were County Cavan people and Catholics, but there was a feud between them, begun over 'a bit of land.' ... Catharine was very reluctant, and her evidence had to be forced from her.  Her uncle was universally credited with being the instigator of the prosecution, and the vindictive inventor of the plot by which Reynolds was captured and convicted.  The girl died soon after--of a broken heart, say the gossips; who also report that 'Divine vengeance' followed the M'Cabes." 
Duffy: "'She's a dear maid to me.'  Perhaps the English reader will require to be told that this is not to be taken in its literal meaning; it is a proverbial expression, implying that he would pay dearly for his acquaintance with her."
"Another popular ballad on the same subject is 'The Abduction of the Quaker's Daughter' by John M'Goldrick." (source: Chapters of Dublin History site: John Edward Walsh, _Ireland Sixty Years Ago_ (1911), "Chapter III. Abduction - Abduction Clubs - The Misses Kennedy - Miss Knox") - BS
File: OLoc066
===
NAME: Lamentation of James O'Sullivan, The
DESCRIPTION: July 12 in Stewartstown the Catholics defend their church, leaving 22 Orangemen "a-bleeding on the ground." O'Sullivan is jailed, tried, convicted, "and sentenced for to end his life upon a gallows tree." He refuses freedom and reward to turn informer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1830 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: violence execution trial Ireland political lament
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann 36, "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Owen Rooney's Lamentation" (subject: "party fights")
cf. "The Battle That Was Fought in the North" (subject: "party fights")
cf. "The Noble Blue Ribbon Boys" (subject: Ulster quarrels)
NOTES: July 12 is the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date for celebrating the victory of William III of Orange in the Battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690.
The complete title of Zimmermann's broadside is "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan, Who was executed at Omagh Jail for being concerned in the battle which took place between the Catholics and Orangemen at Stewartstown on the 12th July."
Zimmermann: "This ballad ... [was] perhaps also inspired by the 'party fights' in July 1829. Upwards of twenty men were said to have been killed in County Tyrone.... There was more fighting near Stewartstown in July 1831." - BS
And it would continue for many more years; after the fight at Dolly Brae in 1849 (for which see "Dolly's Brae (I)" and "Dolly's Brae (II)"), the British would pass the Party Processions Act in 1850 to control these fights. But still they march at Portadown.
Stewartstown is roughly on the boundary between the majority-Catholic and the majority-Protestant parts of Ulster; so it's easy to see how life could be very tense there. - RBW
File: Zimm036
===
NAME: Lamentation of Patrick Brady, The: see Pat Brady (File: OLoc053A)
===
NAME: Lamfin: see Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)
===
NAME: Lamkin [Child 93]
DESCRIPTION: (Lamkin) rebuilt a lord's castle, but was never paid. As the lord sets out on a journey, he warns his wife to beware of Lamkin. The precautions are in vain; Lamkin (helped by a false nurse) steals in and kills the lord's child (and wife) (and is hanged)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1775 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: death theft revenge children punishment murder cannibalism
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(Lond,South,West)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (38 citations)
Child 93, "Lamkin" (25 texts)
Bronson 93, "Lamkin" (30 versions (some with variants)+3 in addenda)
GreigDuncan2 187, "Lambkin" (3 texts)
Leather, pp. 199-200, "Young Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #19}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 200-206, "Lamkin" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 1 tune; also extensive notes on version classification) {Bronson's #16}
Randolph 23, "False Lamkin" (1 text with variants, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Eddy 17, "Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Gardner/Chickering 127, "Lamkin" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune) {Bronson's #15}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 104-107, "Squire Relantman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 297-316, "Lamkin" (7 texts plus 3 fragments, 4 tunes) {C=Bronson's #7)
Linscott, pp. 303-305, "Young Alanthia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-Ballads 26, "Lamkin" (3 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune entitled "Lampkin") {Bronson's #10}
Davis-More 28, pp. 214-220, "Lamkin" (1 text)
BrownII 29, "Lamkin" (1 text plus assorted excerpts)
Chappell-FSRA 42, "Lamkins" (1 text, apparently a fragment of Child #93 (containing only a threat of cannibalism) plus three "My Horses Ain't Hungry" stanzas)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 62-64, "Bolakin (Lamkin)" (1 text)
Brewster 16, "Lamkin" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #20}
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 20-21, "Lamkin" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 806-807, "Bold Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 13, "Lamkin" (1 text, 4 tunes)
Lehr/Best 35, "False Limkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 288-295, "Lamkin" (4 texts)
Leach-Labrador 6, "Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 199, "Lamkin" (1 text)
OBB 78, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Warner 102, "Bolamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 27, "Lamkin" (5 texts, 5 tunes){Bronson's #11, #14, #12, #4, #9}
Sharp-100E 27, "False Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
PBB 64, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Niles 38, "Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 60-61, "Long Lankin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28}
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 258-259, "False Lanky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 64, "Lamkin" (1 text)
DBuchan 16, "Lamkin" (1 text)
TBB 19, "Lamkin" (1 text)
SHenry H735, p. 133, "Lambkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 63-64, "Bo Lamkin" (1 text)
DT 93, BLAMKIN* BOLAMKN2* BOLAMKN3*
Roud #6
RECORDINGS:
Ben Butcher, "Cruel Lincoln" (on FSB4, Voice03)
George Fosbury, "False Lamkin" (on FSBBAL1)
Frank Proffitt, "Bo Lamkin" (on Proffitt03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1048), "The Lambkin," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Batson" [Laws I10] (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lamfin
NOTES: John Jacob Niles claims that this song was once sung in the Louisville schools. One can only wish he had offered supporting evidence.
Anne G. Gilchrist examines the development of this ballad in "Lambkin: A Study in Evolution" (first printed in the _Journal of the Emglish Folk Dance and Song Society_, I, 1932; see now MacEdward Leach and Tristram P. Coffin, eds, _The Critics and the Ballad_, pp. 204-224).
Gilchrist finds two basic forms of the ballad. In one, primarily Scottish, Lamkin is a mason defrauded of his pay by the lord whose castle he built. In the other, Northumbrian and English, Lamkin is simply a ruffian or a border raider, seeking loot or perhaps the hand of the lord's daughter.
Gilchrist believes the Scottish form to be older, and believes that the other arose when the first stanza (in which the lord's fraud is described) was lost. She argues that the name "Lambkin" is diminutive of the Flemist name Lambert, and speculates that it may have been based on a (hypothesized) incident at Balwearie in Fife -- a site mentioned in some versions of the ballad, and located near a Flemish colony. - RBW
File: C093
===
NAME: Lammas Fair in Cargan, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer rambles until he chances on the Cargan fair, which he says exceeds all others. He describes the people, the food, the vendors, the police, the brawling -- and admits to coming home bruised and beaten
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: party drink fight nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H513, p. 75, "The Lammas Fair in Cargan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9051
File: HHH513
===
NAME: Lancaster Maid, The: see Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)
===
NAME: Land League's Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland, The
DESCRIPTION: "Cheer up your hearts, you tenant farmers, the land you nobly till, Pay no rent, and keep the harvest" is the advice of Parnell, Brennan, Thomas Woods and Michael Davitt. Thumb your nose at the landlord. Reject the champion spud
AUTHOR: "M. O'Brien" (Source: Zimmermann)
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1881 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: farming Ireland nonballad political
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann 79, "The Land League's Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)" (subject)
cf. "Michael Davitt" (subject)
NOTES: Bodleian, Harding B 40(6), "The Land Leagues Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland ("Attend to me you tenant farmers thats assembled in this town"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899 is apparently this ballad but I could not download the image to verify that. It has the author as M. O'Brien. 
Zimmermann: "This ballad was probably written as a comment on the 'No-Rent Manifesto' issued by the Land League after the arrest of its leaders, advising the tenant farmers 'to pay no rents under any circumstances to their landlords ... They can no more evict a whole nation than they can imprison them'" quoting _The Nation_, 22nd October 1881.
Zimmermann notes that the "Champion spud," ridiculed in the song, was resistant to the potato blight and was grown in Scotland and Ireland after 1870.
Zimmermann notes, p. 276, that Thomas Brennan was a Land Leaguer arrested in 1881. Charles Stewart Parnell was also arrested in 1881 (p. 278; cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)"). Michael Davitt is another arrested Land Leaguer (cf. "Michael Davitt"). [For these two, see also the notes on "The Bold Tenant Farmer." - RBW] I have no information on Thomas Woods. - BS
File: Zimm079
===
NAME: Land o' America, The
DESCRIPTION: "You native Scots, and relations all, A ploughman's wages is but small." Come to America. "There is plenty o' tobacco te smoke and te chaw" but beware the Indians. He says "nor yet will I forsake my dear, but I'll won gold and buckle braw"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1911 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration gold America Scotland nonballad Indians(Am.)
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greig #179, p. 2, ("You native Scots and relations all"); Greig #179, p. 2, ("Yer stinkin' cheese, and yer breid fired raw"); Greig #179, p. 2, ("The women there they nakit run") (3 fragments) 
GreigDuncan3 535, "The Land o' America" (3 texts)
Roud #6013
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
America
NOTES: GreigDuncan3 by Greig in 1911: "Heard sung at St Combs seventy years ago." - BS
File: GrD3535
===
NAME: Land o' Cakes, The: see Bannocks o' Barley Meal (File: FVS142)
===
NAME: Land o' the Leal, The
DESCRIPTION: "I am wearing awa', Jean, Like snaw when it's thaw, Jean; I'm wearing awa' tae the land o' the leal...." The (old man) recalls the hard times they have been through, and looks forward to a happier life
AUTHOR: Caroline, Lady Nairn
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (Eliot)
KEYWORDS: love separation death
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
DT, LANDLEAL
ADDITIONAL: Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #330, p. 560, "The Land o' the Leal" (by Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne)
Roud #8999
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Be Kin' to Yer Nainsel, John" (parody)
NOTES: One of Lady Nairn's most popular pieces, reprinted in works such as Palgrave's _Golden Treasury_. Gordeanna McCulloch sings a song, "Be Kind  Tae Yer Nainsel," which purports to be from oral tradition and which has many of the same lyrics but a rather different purpose. I do not know whether it inspired Lady Nairn's song, or was inspired by it; the notes on the recording imply the former. - RBW
File: DTlandle
===
NAME: Land of Fish and Seals, The
DESCRIPTION: "Let Sunny India her wealth proclaim... We envy not her gaudy show." The singer contrasts "the land of fish and seals" with foreign nations: though "No great immortal names are ours," they can boast of freedom and "our living brave."
AUTHOR: "Mrs. Peace" ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung By Old Time Sealers of Many Years Ago)
KEYWORDS: nonballad patriotic Canada fishing recitation
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, p. 25, "The Land of Fish and Seals" (1 text)
NOTES: A poem not a song, and probably not traditional -- but seemingly widely printed in Newfoundland. - RBW
File: RySm025
===
NAME: Land of Potatoes, Oh!, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, had I in the clear five hundred a year" the singer would build a cottage and garden in Ireland, not roam to other countries. Those from other lands would stay here if they came once. An Irish wife, "so nice and complete," would make him even happier.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs); before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1066))
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration Ireland nonballad home
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
O'Conor, pp. 73+160, "The Land of Potatoes, Oh!" (1 text)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 57-60, "The Land of Potatoes, O!" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1066), "The Land of Potatoes", J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819 
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Morgan Rattler" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
NOTES: Croker-PopularSongs: "[The Land of Potatoes] is ascribed to Mr. [Robert MacOwen] Owenson, the father of Lady Morgan; who is also said to have been "the author of various lyrical compositions, which were sung on the Dublin stage, and are remarkable for broad wit and genuine humour" (see also "Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan),Novelist, c1783 - 1859" at the site for George Owenson, Dalgety Church and Dalgety Bay). - BS
File: OCon073
===
NAME: Land of the Silver Birch
DESCRIPTION: A pseudo-Indian ode to northern lands: "Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver, Where still the mighty moose wanders at will, Blue lake and rocky shore, I will return once more." The singer ends by promising to build a wigwam in the north
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1953 (Ontario Department of Education booklet)
KEYWORDS: homesickness return nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 190-191, "Land of the Silver Birch" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ190 (Partial)
Roud #4550
NOTES: For some reason, we learned this in elementary school in Minnesota, some time around 1970. I can't imagine why. - RBW
File: FJ190
===
NAME: Land of the West, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer urges his love to "come to the west... I'll make thee my own. I'll guard thee, I'll tend thee...." North and south have their delights, but the west is warm and fair. He again calls her to come to his own land
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868) (source: Hayes)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 118)
KEYWORDS: love home nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
GreigDuncan3 505, "The Land of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H677, p. 175, "The Land of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II, pp. 27-28, "The Land of the West"
Roud #5990
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 118, "The Land of the West" ("Oh, come to the West, love, oh come there with me"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.13(67), Harding B 11(528), Firth b.27(301), Harding B 18(336), Harding B 11(2056), Harding B 11(4390), 2806 c.15(247)[some words illegible], "The Land of the West"
LOCSinging, as202030, "Land of the West," H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1878; also sb20284a, "Land of the West"  
NOTES: Broadside LOCSinging as202030: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging as202030 and Bodleian Harding B 18(336) are duplicates. - BS
File: HHH677
===
NAME: Land Where the Shamrocks Grow, The
DESCRIPTION: "There is an Island thatÕs famed in her glory, Sweet poets have sung in her praise." Some prefer England or Scotland, but the singer gives his love to Ireland. He hopes that she may soon be more friendly to England
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, pp. 60-61, "The Land Where the Shamrocks Grow" (1 text)
Roud #9559
NOTES: There is a relatively common poem with this title, found e.g. in the Digital Tradition. They are not the same song. I have found no other sure references to this piece, though with two songs having the same title and general theme, it can be hard to tell.... - RBW
File: Dean060
===
NAME: Landlady of France, The
DESCRIPTION: "A landlady of France loved an officer, 'tis said, And this officer he dearly loved her brandy-o." As he prepares to go off to battle, they encourage encourage each other (primarily to drink more), "For love is like the colic, cured with brandy-o."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942
KEYWORDS: soldier drink separation love
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Gilbert, pp. 37-38, "The Landlady of France" (1 text)
DT, LNDLDYFR*
File: Gil037
===
NAME: Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl
DESCRIPTION: "Landlord, fill the flowing bowl until it doth run over (x2), For tonight we'll merry merry be (x3); Tomorrow we'll be sober." The singer describes those who drink water, ale, whiskey and/or court freely -- noting that those who drink deep are happier
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(55a))
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad courting landlord
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
GreigDuncan3 562, "Come, Landlord, Fill a Flowing Bowl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 229, "Landlord Fill The Flowing Bowl" (1 text)
DT, COACHMN3*
Roud #1234
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(55a), "Come Landlord Fill a Flowing Bowl," T. Birt (London) , 1828-1829; also Harding B 18(602), Harding B 15(53a), Harding B 11(2318), "Come, Landlord, Fill a Flowing Bowl" ; Harding B 15(52b), Firth c.22(49), Firth b.26(267), "Come Landlord Fill the Flowing Bowl"; Firth b.28(34) View 2 of 2, "Landlord Fill a Flowing Bowl"; Harding B 11(2247), 2806 c.17(135), "Flowing Bowl"
LOCSinging, as108210, "Flowing Bowl," Pitts, J. (London), 1819-1844; also sb10068a, "Come, Landlord, Fill a Flowing Bowl"; as102150, "Landlord, Fill the Flowing bowl" 
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Three Jolly Coachmen
NOTES: Broadsides LOCSinging as108210 and Bodleian Harding B 11(2247) are duplicates, [as are] LOCSinging sb10068a and Bodleian Harding B 18(602). - BS
File: FSWB229A
===
NAME: Lane County Bachelor, The: see Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor) (File: R186)
===
NAME: Lang Johnny More [Child 251]
DESCRIPTION: John More, on a visit to London, falls in love with the King's daughter. The King declares he will kill John, and takes him prisoner by drugging him. John sends a message begging help. Two giants come to rescue him, browbeating the King into surrender
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1828 (P. Buchan)
KEYWORDS: royalty love courting prison execution rescue
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Child 251, "Lang Johnny More" (1 text)
Bronson 251, "Lang Johnny More" (15 versions)
Greig #27, pp. 1-2, "Lang Johnnie More" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 246, "Lang Johnnie More" (10 texts, 8 tunes) {A=Bronson's #5, B=#3,C=#2, D=#1, E=#13, F=#11, G=#9, H=#12}
DBuchan 59, "Lang Johnny More" (1 text)
DT 251, LONGJOHN
Roud #3100
RECORDINGS:
John Strachan, "Lang Johnny More" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #8}
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnie Scot" [Child 99]
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Long John, Old John, and Jackie North
Lang Johnnie Moir
NOTES: Child views this as "perhaps an imitation, and in fact almost a parody, of 'Johnie Scot.'" Certainly the plots are very much alike -- but the supernatural feats of the rescuers are commonplaces (cf., e.g., "Hughie Grame" [Child 191]).
The surname "More/Moore" appears a distortion of Gaelic "Mor," "big." - RBW
File: C251
===
NAME: Lang Lang Syne: see Do Ye Mind Lang Syne (File: FVS190)
===
NAME: Langolee: see (references under) The Banks of the Dee (File: DTbnksde)
===
NAME: Lanigan's Ball
DESCRIPTION: Jimmy Lanigan had "batter'd away till he hadn't a pound"; coming into money from his father, he determines to have a party. A fight ends the ball when "Old Shamus the piper" was tangled in "pipes, bellows, chanters" and "the girls in their ribbons"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2058))
KEYWORDS: money party fight dancing drink music humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MW) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
GreigDuncan3 627, "Lannagan's Ball" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 222-224, "Lanigan's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, pp. 100-101, "Lannigan's Ball" (1 text)
OLochlainn 52, "Lanigan's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Lanigan's Ball" (source notes only)
DT, LANIBALL*
ST SWM222 (Partial)
Roud #3011
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Jimmie Lanigan" [fragment] (AFS 4212 A4, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2058), "Lannigan's Ball", H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 15(167a), Harding B 11(3172), Harding B 26(345), 2806 c.8(124), "Lannigan's Ball"; 2806 b.11(154), "Lannigan's Ball!"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blythesome Bridal" (theme)
SAME_TUNE:
Larry Magee's Wedding (File: OCon083)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Laddikin's Ball
NOTES: This reminds me quite a bit of "The Blythesome Bridal," in that the minimalist plot is offered simply to offer a justification for the party that the song is really about. - RBW
OLochlainn: "Air and fragment of words from my mother who learnt them in Kilkee about 1880.... I have seen a full music sheet of this song published about the 'seventies, where words were ascribed to 'Mr. Gavan, the celebrated Galway poet.'"
The versions of "Lanigan's Ball" that I have seen (the broadsides, O'Conor, OLochlainn, the Spaeth fragment in the Supplemental Tradition) vary very little. The fragments in GreigDuncan3 have a phrase ("Just in time for Lannagan's/Laddikin's ball") that ends a verse of other texts but the lines preceding that phrase ("I'll get up in the morning early, I'll get up and gie ye a call, I'll get up in the mornin' early") do not come close to fitting any of those texts. Greig, in GreigDuncan3, suggests this as "kind of chorus." - BS
File: SWM222
===
NAME: Lannagan's Ball: see Lanigan's Ball (File: SWM222)
===
NAME: Lannigan's Ball: see Lanigan's Ball (File: SWM222)
===
NAME: Lanty Leary
DESCRIPTION: "Slippery Lanty Leary" and Rosie Carey are in love. Her father is opposed. He follows her anyway. Her father dies leaving her "house, land, and cash." He agrees to follow her again. Deathly sick, she asks him to follow her. "I'll not, says Lanty Leary"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Hayward-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: courting death money humorous father separation
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hayward-Ulster, p. 78, "Lanty Leary" (1 text)
Roud #6538
File: HayU078
===
NAME: Largy Line, The
DESCRIPTION: Shoemaker George McCaughey, having seen many women, is ready to abandon them for "Miss Baxter." He met her while teaching the "Tully band," and walked home together. Her family has consented to the marriage. He blesses the founder of the band
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting music family
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H781, p. 467, "The Largy Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9457
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Foot of the Mountain Brow,The (The Maid of the Mountain Brow)" [Laws P7] (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Foot of the Mountain Brow,The (The Maid of the Mountain Brow) [Laws P7] (File: LP07)
File: HHH781
===
NAME: Lark in the Morning, The
DESCRIPTION: (Singer) meets young girl who praises plowboys. The singer meets a plowboy. He takes her "to the fair." The rest of their relationship is couched in equally allegorical terms.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1854 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1070))
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad farming courting seduction
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) Ireland US(So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Sharp-100E 62, "The Lark in the Morn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 562, "Lark in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 140, "The Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LARKMORN* LARKMOR2*
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 46, "The Lark in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #151
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "The Lark in the Morning" (on Voice05) [a mixture of "The Lark in the Morning" and "Roger the Ploughboy"]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1070), "The Lark in the Morning" ("As I was a walking one morning in May"), Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also Harding B 11(3684), Firth c.18(172), Firth b.34(224), Harding B 16(125c), Harding B 11(2060), "The Lark in the Morning"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Pretty Plowboy
NOTES: The narrative thread is so fragmentary that I've classed this as a lyric song, not a ballad. -PJS
There is a ballad back there, though, as Kennedy's version shows; under all the symbolism is a story of seduction. The title apparently came about because larks are among the first birds to start singing in the morning. - RBW
Re Paddy Tunney's "The Lark in the Morning" (on Voice05): the first verse is a fragment of "The Lark in the Morning"; the second is a fragment of "Roger the Ploughboy." - BS
File: ShH62
===
NAME: Larrigans, The
DESCRIPTION: About Angus Munn, his size 14 larrigans, and the daily life in the winter lumber camps: sleep on spruce boughs, up three hours before sun-up, lunch, axes and saws at work, songs at night.
AUTHOR: Jim McAree, Baldwin's Road
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: lumbering music humorous
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 34-35, "The Larrigans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12474
NOTES: Here is a description of larrigans from the Web: "They're felt boots and rubbers. Heavy felt, shaped like an English Wellington and knee-high, with tough rubbers over the feet, the whole being devised to comfort woodchoppers in deep snow. The larrigan is noticeable and recognized at a great distance." (source: _Grandmothers I Have Known and Embellished_ by John Gould, quoted from The Home Forum Column from the September 15, 2000 Christian Science Monitor on the Cristian Science Monitor site). In Dibblee/Dibblee pp. 38-39, "Shanty Boys" "We all arrive at the shanty wet and cold with damp feet; We then pull off our larrigans...." - BS
File: Dib034
===
NAME: Larry Doolan: see My Irish Jaunting Car (The Irish Boy) (File: HHH592)
===
NAME: Larry Magee's Wedding
DESCRIPTION: Larry "dwelt in a fashionable part of the city An illigant fine mansion." The dancers, drinkers and eaters "at the grand wedding" are named. All the old songs are sung. The wedding ends with a grand fight.
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging as107470)
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous party drink fight food moniker
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor pp. 83-84, "Larry Magee's Wedding" (1 text) 
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as107470, "Larry Magee's Wedding," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864 
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lanigan's Ball" (tune, per broadside LOCSinging as107470)
NOTES: Broadside LOCSinging as107470: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: OCon083
===
NAME: Larry Marr: see The Big Five-Gallon Jar (File: Doe111)
===
NAME: Larry McGee
DESCRIPTION: Larry coaxes "Missus Brady, who was reared up a lady" to marry. There was a huge wedding party with dancing, drink and food. Larry gets drunk, confuses his donkey for his wife, gets into a fight "in defense of his darling" and is laid out "with a clout" 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie)
KEYWORDS: wedding fight dancing drink food music humorous animal 
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Mackenzie 139, "Larry McGee" (1 text)
Roud #3283
BROADSIDES:
Harding B 11(684), "The Wedding of Larry Magee," unknown, n.d.
NOTES: MacKenzie: "The Irish song 'Larry Magee's Wedding' is so similar in metre and plot to [MacKenzie 139] that there is pretty certainly a tie of relationship." It all depends. Mackenzie cites O'Conor pp. 83-84 (included in the Index as "Larry Magee's Wedding," by Samuel Lover); that is certainly a different song. However, broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(684) is certainly Mackenzie's song. - BS
File: Mack139
===
NAME: Larry O'Gaff
DESCRIPTION: Larry's father leaves when he is a baby in Ireland. He recounts his rambles to England as a hod carrying, bog trotting, soldiering at Waterloo, and retiring "with a wife to spend my life, sport and play, night and day" to Ireland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1072))
KEYWORDS: Napoleon Ireland marriage rambling return abandonment soldier
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Eddy 148, "We Fought Like the Divil" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
O'Conor, pp. 55-56, "Larry O'Gaff" (1 text)
ST E148 (Full)
Roud #13383
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1072), "Larry O Gaff", J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844 
File: E148
===
NAME: Lass from Glasgow Town: see The Lass of Swansea Town (Swansea Barracks) (File: Pea547)
===
NAME: Lass o Glencoe (I), The
DESCRIPTION: Singer reminisces about the lass he has left in Glencoe. He meets her in the heather and asks her to marry; she refuses. He promises to keep a lock of her hair. Last line of most verses: "I still like my lassie fae bonnie Glencoe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (collected from Maggie McPhee)
KEYWORDS: love rejection parting travel Scotland
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MacSeegTrav 29, "The Lassie o' Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3923
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe" (lyrics)
cf. "Portmore (My Heart's in the Highlands)" (lyrics)
NOTES: Despite a few lyrics in common, this is a separate song from "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe." It also seems to have had grafted onto it a verse from "Portmore", which inspired Burns's "Farewell to the Highlands." - PJS
File: McCST029
===
NAME: Lass o Glencoe (II), The: see MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39] (File: LN39)
===
NAME: Lass o' Bennochie, The
DESCRIPTION: "Twas at the back o' Bennochie... There I fell in love wi' a bonnie lass." Her wealthy father, despising the lad, forces him into the army. He returns to claim the girl. Father and uncle pursue, but the soldier beats them off. They live happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love courting poverty soldier separation reunion father
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ord, pp. 438-441, "The Lass o' Bennochie" (3 texts, very diverse; the second is mixed with "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13])
DT, LASBENCH
Roud #406
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "Locks and Bolts" (Laws M13), and indeed Ord's second version includes several whole verses from that song.  And Ord's other versions, particularly the third, are so different that it might be reasonable to classify #3 as a separate song and place #2 with "Locks and Bolts."
Nonetheless the similarity of Ord's #1 and #2, and the overall distinctness of the pair from "Locks and Bolts," causes me to split them. This apparently follows Laws, who does not list the Ord texts with M13. Best to see both songs, however - RBW
File: Ord438
===
NAME: Lass o' the Lecht, The
DESCRIPTION: A servant girl becomes lost in a storm on Earnan's banks. Her master organizes a search. The towns that participate are named. Searchers and bloodhounds fail to find her in the snow. Her body is found in May and buried in Corgarff churchyard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: burial corpse death storm servant
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greig #129, p. 1, "The Lass of the Lecht" (1 text) 
GreigDuncan2 229, "The Lass o' the Lecht" (3 texts)
Roud #5841
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnnie Cope" (tune, according to GreigDuncan2)
cf. "Haughs o' Cromdale" (tune, according to GreigDuncan2)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Lass o' the Light
NOTES: GreigDuncan2: "From leaflet printed at Grantown. Girl was a daughter of Lewis Cruickshank, a contractor near Advie. She was in service at Milton of Allargue. Got permission to visit a former master and mistress near Tomintoul. Tragic death in February 1860. Body found in following May."
Margaret Cruikshank "set off from Tomintoul ... to cross the Lecht Pass over the Ladder Hills [in the current Cairngorms National Park].... body was discovered in Strathdon, on the banks of the river Earnan, many miles from the Lecht" (source: "History - Whisky Smuggling" at the Glenlivet Estate site).
Corgarff is in Aberdeenshire. - BS
File: GrD2229
===
NAME: Lass of Dunmore, The: see The Maid of Dunmore (File: MaWi083)
===
NAME: Lass of Glenshee, The [Laws O6]
DESCRIPTION: The singer woos the a Scottish shepherdess. He offers to marry and provide wealth and servants. She agrees, even though she is content with her life and herd. The singer looks back on years of happy marriage
AUTHOR: Andrew Sharpe (1805) ?
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1851 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2075)))
KEYWORDS: courting money marriage
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Britain(Scotland) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
Laws O6, "The Lass of Glenshee"
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 12-15, "The Lass o' Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 75-76, "The Lass  o Glenshee" (1 text, tune referenced)
Warner 4, "Lass of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 28, "The Hills of Glenshee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 77, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 131-132, "The Lass of Glenshie" (1 text)
SHenry H590, pp. 486-487, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 31, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 36, "The Rose of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 471, GLENSHEE GLENSHE2 GLENSHE3
Roud #292
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Lass of Glenshee" (on Abbott1)
Warde Ford, "Lass of Glen Shee" (AFS 4199 A1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
"Yankee" John Galusha, "Lass of Glenshee" (on USWarnerColl01)
Mrs. T. Ghaney, "The Lass of Glenshee" (on NFMLeach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2075), "The Lass o' Glenshea," Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1850; also Harding B 17(162a), 2806 c.14(23), Harding B 11(3321), "The Lass o' Glenshea"; Harding B 25(1081)[some words illegible], "The Lass o' Glenshee"; Firth b.26(227), "The Lass of Glenshee"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(120), "The Lass o' Glenshee," unknown, c. 1875
SAME_TUNE:
Queen Victoria's Welcome to Deeside (Ord, p. 337)
Crafty Wee Bony (File: GrD1151)
The Guid Coat o' Blue (File: GrD3660)
NOTES: Ford's notes claim that "The Crookit Bawbee" is "simply a free adaption" of this piece. In music, possibly. The text -- hardly. - RBW
Leach-Labrador notes the difference between his text and Ord's: "The present text of six quatrains tells the same story found in the Ord text of twelve quatrains. The difference is, as usual, in the repetition of details." The difference between Leach-Labrador and all of the broadsides is similar. The difference is more than the usual repetition of details. There are very few lines in common though the story outline is the same. This seems a rewrite by someone who once heard the original but never got the words and rebuilt the ballad out of the usual pieces. I wonder what A.B. Lord would have done with this. (No, this is not "Crookit Bawbee" either.) - BS
File: LO06
===
NAME: Lass of Glenshie, The: see The Lass of Glenshee [Laws O6] (File: LO06)
===
NAME: Lass of Mohe, The: see The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)
===
NAME: Lass of Mohea, The: see The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)
===
NAME: Lass of Mohee, The: see The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)
===
NAME: Lass of Mowee, The: see The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)
===
NAME: Lass of Roch Royal, The [Child 76]
DESCRIPTION: (Anne) misses her love (Lord Gregory). She sets out to meet him. When she comes to his castle, Gregory's mother turns her (and her son) away. When Gregory arrives/awakens to meet his love, he find Anne dead (drowned) and gone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: separation death mother betrayal floatingverses
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland) US(Ap,MW,So,SE,SW)
REFERENCES: (24 citations)
Child 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (12 texts)
Bronson 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (23 versions+1 in addenda, though many are generic "Pretty Little Foot" versions; I would regard only #1, #3, #4, #4.1 in the addenda, #5, #16, and #21 as being true versions of this piece, and the first two of those are fragments; #2 has the correct title but no text)
Dixon X, pp. 60-62, "Love Gregory" (1 text, plus a "pleasing imitation" called "Lord Thomas," printed 1825, on pp. 99-100)
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 174-177, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 fragments, one of which is probably "The Lass of Roch Royal" but the second being "Pretty Little Foot"; 1 tune)
Belden, p. 55, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (notes and references only)
Randolph 18, "Oh Who Will Shoe My Foot?" (8 texts, 5 tunes, with only the "C" and "G" versions clearly belonging here; most of the rest are "Pretty Little Foot" texts; "D," "E," and "F" are probably "Fare You Well, My Own True Love") {G=Bronson's #16}
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 37-39, "Oh, Who Will Shoe My Foot" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 18G) {Bronson's #16}
BrownII 22, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, clearly this song, but with the "Storms are on the ocean" verse; this is either the original of the latter or the two combined)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 122-123, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (sundry excerpts from versions she did not collect; the versions Scarborough collected are of "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot," "Honey Babe/New River Train," and "I Truly Understand That You Love Some Other Man")
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 78-79, "Fair Annie of the Lochroyan" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #5, a rather different transcription though of the same approximate version}
Leach, pp. 253-256, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text)
OBB 43, "The Lass of Rochroyan" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 78, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (3 texts, 1 tune, with only the "A" text being this ballad)
Niles 31, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the second clearly "The Lass of Roch Royal" but the first could be any "Who's Goin' to Shoe" song)
Gummere, pp. 223-227+352, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text)
Sandburg, 98-99, "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (3 texts, 1 tune; of the three texts here, "C" is definitely a fragment of this piece, "B" is "The Storms Are on the Ocean"; the "A" text is a "pretty little foot" version)
Combs/Wilgus 21, pp. 118-121, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text)
DBuchan 12, "The Lass of Roch Royal" , 13, "Love Gregor" (2 texts)
JHCox 13, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, but one is a "Pretty Little Foot" version)
MacSeegTrav 10, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 65-68, "Love Gregor" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 214, "The Lass Of Roch Royal" (1 text)
BBI, ZN1259, "I built my love a gallant ship"
DT 76, LORDGREG LORGREG2 LRDGREG2*
Roud #49
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Lord Gregory (The Lass of Roch Royal)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
Peggy Delaney, "Maid of Aughrim" (on IRTravellers01)
Jean Ritchie, "Fair Annie of Lochroyan" (on JRitchie01) {Bronson's #5}
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mary Anne" (lyrics)
cf. "Blackbirds and Thrushes (I)" (theme)
cf. "More Pretty Girls than One" (tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lord Gregory
A-Roving On A Winter's Night
Roving On Last Winter's Night
Who's Goin' to Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot
Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot
Sweet Annie of Roch Royal
NOTES: This song has created a great deal of confusion, because of the attempt of certain scholars to make everything a Child Ballad. Some versions of this song contain the verses beginning "Who will shoe your pretty little foot, And who will glove your hand...." Therefore, anything containing these verses is filed by those scholars as Child #76, even though the songs they so file often contain no other portions of "The Lass of Roch Royal" -- and in fact the "pretty little foot" stanzas are not integral to "Roch Royal"; it's my personal feeling that they originated elsewhere and floated into this song, rather than the reverse.
For this yearson, it may be that some of the versions listed here should be classified with "The Storms Are on the Ocean" or other some other song with the "who will shoe your pretty little foot" lyrics. (I eventually tried to clean those out, but it's hard to do after the fact, and for too long I just trusted people who stamped a song "Child 76.") The floating stanzas about shoeing the girl's feet are simply too widespread for any classification effort to be entirely successful; hence the Ballad Index staff created the entry "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot."
After much hesitation, we finally ended up dividing the complex family of songs involving those lyrics as follows:
* "The Lass of Roch Royal" for the ballad of that title
* "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" for fragments too short to classify at all
* "Mary Anne" for the versions specifically about that girl
* "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)," for everything else.- RBW
Of Child's versions, Peggy Delaney's "Maid of Aughrim" on IRTravellers01 is closest to 76H. - BS
File: C076
===
NAME: Lass of Swansea Town, The (Swansea Barracks)
DESCRIPTION: A maid tells a man she is waiting for Willie, a sailor who left eight years ago. She would know him by a scar. He says Willie was killed in battle and told him to look after her. She only wants Willie. Then she sees his scar. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1842 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2071))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage war reunion beauty dialog sailor separation trick
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Peacock, pp. 547-548, "The Lass of Swansea Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 45, pp. 136-137,173, "The Lass from Glasgow Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LASSWANS
Roud #1416
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2071) , "The Lass of --- Town" ("As down by --- barracks"), T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 11(2072), "The Lass of ---town"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] (plot) and references there
SAME_TUNE:
Irish Molly O! (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2071) )
NOTES: At the Reinhard Zierke site re Mike Waterson entry for Swansea Town: "A.L. Lloyd said in the Mike Waterson sleeve notes: Behind this is an Irish song, The Blooming Rose of Antrim. Old Phil Tanner, of the Gower Peninsula, South Wales, used to sing it, and perhaps it was he who moved the events to Swansea." It's Waterson's version that repeats the line "She's the blooming rose of South Wales and the Lass of Swansea Town."
However, the version of The Blooming Rose of Antrim I've seen, at Henry's Songbook site, called Flower of Corby's Mill, the form of the ballads is similar and there are some parallel verses but the stories are entirely different: specifically, Antrim has no mention of a lost sailor or his return; the "Blooming Lass" is "the bonny wee lass that works in Corby's Mill."
The CD _A Gower Garland_ by CaLennig includes (Tanner's?) version of "Swansea Barracks" in which the action takes place at Swansea Barracks but the maid is "the blooming rose of South Wales, the lass of Swansea Town."  Swansea is in fact in South Wales. Antrim is in Northern Ireland.
As to moving the events to Swansea, it appears from the three Bodleian broadsides, which predate Tanner (1862-1950), that you were to substitute any barracks name you could make into two syllables and the "blooming rose" is equally non-differentiating.
In broadsides Harding B 11(2071) and Harding B 11(2072) she's "the blooming rose of England"; in Peacock "she appeared to be some goddess." - BS
File: Pea547
===
NAME: Lass That Loved a Sailor, The: see When I Was Young; also Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: EM075)
===
NAME: Lass with the Bonny Brown Hair, The: see The Maid with the Bonny Brown Hair (File: HHH024)
===
NAME: Lassie Lives by Yonder Burn, A
DESCRIPTION: "A lassie lives by yonder burn, That jinks about the seggins, And aft she gies her sheep a turn, To feed amang the bracken." The singer promises that he would "row her in my plaidie" if she would "woo wi' me." He must leave but hopes to return to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: courting separation
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 229-231, "A Lassie Lives by Yonder Burn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6121
File: FVS229
===
NAME: Lassie wi' the Yellow Coatie
DESCRIPTION: "Lassie wi' the yellow coatie, Will ye wed a muirlan' Jockie? Lassie wi' the yellow coatie, Will ye busk an' gang wi' me?" The singer admits to poverty, but promises to work hard and be true. He warns: "Time is precious, dinna lose it."
AUTHOR: James Duff ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, p. 198, "Lassie wi' the Yellow Coatie" (1 text)
Roud #2582
File: FVS198
===
NAME: Last Farewell, The (The Lover's Return)
DESCRIPTION: "So at last you have come back Since time at last has set you free...." The singer recalls his old love for the other -- but concludes that it is all over now: "No, no, you must not take my hand; God never gives us back our youth...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: love separation return age infidelity
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Randolph 761, "The Last Farewell" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 495,496 "The Last Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 761A)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 152-153, "And So You Have Come Back to Me" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 33-34, "Too Late" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3590
File: R761
===
NAME: Last Fierce Charge, The [Laws A17]
DESCRIPTION: Two soldiers, boy and man, are about to ride into battle (at Fredericksburg?). Each asks the other to write to his home should he die. Both are killed; no letter is sent to mother or sweetheart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1863 (February 7, 1863 edition of Harper's Weekly)
KEYWORDS: war battle death farewell Civilwar
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 17, 1775 - Battle of Bunker Hill (fought on Breed's Hill, and won by the British, though at heavy cost)
Dec 13, 1862 - Battle of Fredericksburg. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, well-positioned and entrenched,  easily throws back the assault of Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Potomac
July 1-3, 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac holds off Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
June 25, 1876 - Battle of the Little Bighorn. Lt. Colonel George A. Custer (who had been a Major General during the Civil War) is killed, along with the entire force of cavalry (five companies with somewhat over 250 men) with him.
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (16 citations)
Laws A17, "The Last Fierce Charge (The Battle of Fredericksburg, Custer's Last Charge)"
GreigDuncan1 105, "The Two Soldiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden, pp. 383-387, "The Last Fierce Charge" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Randolph 234, "That Last Fierce Fight" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fuson, pp. 94-96, "The Soldier Boy with Curly Hair" (1 text)
Eddy 139, "The Last Fierce Charge" (2 texts)
Dean, pp. 14-16, "The Charge at Fredricksburg" (1 text)
BrownII 231, "The Last Fierce Charge" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Peacock, pp. 1004-1006, "The Last Great Charge" (1 text, 1 tune, a conflate version)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 156-157, "Balaclava" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 118, "The Battle of Fredericksburg" (1 text)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 86-87, "The Last Fierce Charge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 295, "The Last Fierce Charge" (1 text)
FSCatskills 14, "The Battle of Gettysburg" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 45, "Custer's Last Charge" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 692, LASTFIER
Roud #629
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Soldier's Letter" (plot)
cf. "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (plot)
cf. "Custer's Last Charge (I)" (subject)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Two Soldiers
Fight at Bunker Hill
The Last Fierce Charge of the French at Waterloo
NOTES: As the list of song titles shows, this piece could be particularized to deal with almost any battle (as, indeed, Belden has a text called "Fight at Bunker Hill," after the Revolutionary War battle. This, however, is historically impossible; the Americans weren't doing any charging at Bunker Hill. In any case, the "Bunker Hill" text never mentions that battle).
Since, however, the second-earliest (and perhaps least famous) event commemorated was the Battle of Fredericksburg, it seems quite likely that the song was originally about that conflict.
Phillips Barry had two texts credited to Virginia F. Townsend -- but even if this is accurate, it may apply only to an adaption; both were "Gettysburg" texts. - RBW
Creighton-Maritime names this "Balaclava" -- I assume the name the singer assigned -- though that is never mentioned in the ballad; Creighton also has a fragment naming the battle as Waterloo, referenced as in ms. as "The Last Great Charge." - BS
Jim Dixon recently pointed out to me a publication that may be the original. It was found in the February 7, 1863 edition of _Harper's Weekly_. It is titled "At Fredericksburg," and signed L.C.M. There is no tune (unless "L.C.M." is a reference to the meter -- the song does fit the standard definition of Common Meter and at least on definition of Long Meter, sometimes abbreviated LCM). The fact that it appeared just a couple of months after Fredericksburg would seem to imply that it was indeed inspired by that battle.
It is very similar to some of the traditional versions. Despite the title, there is absolutely no explicit reference to Fredericksburg, although the circumstances fit (the Union soldiers charge up a hill and take dreadful casualties). This lack of specificity no doubt made it easier to adapt the song to other circumstances.
File: LA17
===
NAME: Last Friday Evening: see I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening) (File: Beld194)
===
NAME: Last Gold Dollar, The: see My Last Gold Dollar (File: R671)
===
NAME: Last Good-Bye: see The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted) (File: Beld212)
===
NAME: Last Letter, The
DESCRIPTION: "Dear love here's a letter It's the last one I'll send For my love's correspondings will soon be at end."  He dies with the letter unfinished. She dies from grief when she gets the letter. Now "they dwells each together in a bright home above"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1921 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: love parting reunion death
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 101, "Lovely Annie" (1 text)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 180-181, "The Unfinished Letter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1967
RECORDINGS:
George Riley, "The Last Letter" (Conqueror 7742, 1931)
File: GrMa101
===
NAME: Last Longhorn, The
DESCRIPTION: "An aged longhorn bovine lay dying on the river...." As the bull says it does not wish to live alone, the cowboy watches the passing of their era. The bull dies. The cowboy rides off; "His horse stepped in a dog hole and fell and broke his spine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 ("The Cattleman")
KEYWORDS: cowboy animal death
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fife-Cowboy/West 115, "The Last Longhorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8015
RECORDINGS:
Carl T. Sprague, "The Last Longhorn" (Victor V-40197, 1930; Mongomery Ward M-4467, 1934; on MakeMe, WhenIWas1)
NOTES: The dating of the Fifes' version is rather strange; the final verse says that the cowboys' "glory has departed in 1889," but earlier it said that the last comrades of the longhorn "were embalmed to feed the boys who were a-fighting Spain" (placing the song after 1898). Since the cow also refers to the 1880s as "some nineteen summers past," the correct date in the final verse is probably 1899.
The longhorn cow was rugged and strong, but stubborn and perhaps not the best source of meat. Thus, after the closing of the frontier in the late eighteenth century, it was supplanted by domestic breeds. Hence this song. - RBW
File: FCW115
===
NAME: Last Moments of Robert Emmet, The: see Bold Robert Emmett (File: PGa032)
===
NAME: Last Month of the Year: see What Month Was Jesus Born In? (File: CNFM245)
===
NAME: Last of the Wooden Walls
DESCRIPTION: "Here Atlantic's foam-wreaths float In aqua-floral tribute to a ship submerged." The unnamed ship's activities are recalled, the men aboard mentioned; we are told of the tears shed when her journeys ended
AUTHOR: Harry R. Burton
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Harrington, Poems of Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: ship nonballad hunting
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, pp. 142-143, "Last of the Wooden Walls" (1 text)
NOTES: Yes, this is as, um, aqua-floral as it looks. Really, it doesn't belong in the Index. But I've done everything else in Ryan/Small; leaving out one of many irrelevant poems because it's irrelevant is rather pointless.
This should not be confused with the various other poems about the decline of sailing ships, several of which share similar titles. - RBW
File: RySm172
===
NAME: Last Parting of Burns and Bonnie Jean
DESCRIPTION: "Come near to me, Jean, come close to my side... That the widow's God may soften the road For my helpless bairns and thee, O."  Burns bids farewell. After he dies, she kisses his cold lips and takes a lock of his hair. Burns is buried and widely mourned
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Rennie ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: death burial separation
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1759-1796 - life of Robert Burns
1788 - Burns marries Jean Armour (1767-1834)
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 356, "Last Parting of Burns and Bonnie Jean" (1 text)
Roud #5606
File: Ord356
===
NAME: Last Rose of Summer, The
DESCRIPTION: "'Tis the last rose of summer, left blooming alone, All her lovely companions are faded and gone." The singer promises not to leave this flower even when other flowers are "scentless and dead": "Oh! Who would inhabit this bleak world alone!"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore
EARLIEST_DATE: 1852
KEYWORDS: flowers love nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
DT, LASTROSE*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 378-379, "The Last Rose of Summer" (1 text)
Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #487, p. 818, "The Last Rose of Summer" (by Thomas Moore)
Roud #13861
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Castle Hyde" (tune)
cf. "Bells of Shandon" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
The Groves of Blarney (File: OCon033) (per Hoagland in the notes to "Castle Hyde")
Castle Hyde (Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 254-255)
NOTES: Dr. William Mahar claims this is one of the six most popular songs of the Civil War era. I've no idea what his evidence for this was; I've never seen it mentioned in any Civil War history.
This is another of Moore's pieces that was very popular in print (Granger's Index to Poetry has 15 references to it) but which seems to have had little vogue in tradition. - RBW
File: DTlastro
===
NAME: Last Serenade, The
DESCRIPTION: "I am under your window tonight, love, Giving you my last serenade." The singer says he must leave the girl. "But in the days that are to come we may then be joined in heart.... Serenade, serenade, I am giving you my last serenade."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation farewell
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 742, "The Last Serenade" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7396
File: R742
===
NAME: Last Speech and Dying Words of the Auld Kirk of Turriff, The
DESCRIPTION: On Halloween the singer rides by the old church and overhears a meeting of testifying spirits. The church testifies about its history, including forced conversion "to Presbetrie." He hopes the new church will "strive to end as I began ... Pure Orthodox"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: religious ghost
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan3 692, "The Last Speech and Dying Words of the Auld Kirk of Turriff" (1 text)
Roud #6114
NOTES: GreigDuncan3: "The poem relates to the building of the new parish church of Turiff in 1794." - BS
File: GrD3692
===
NAME: Last Token, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come press to your heart this last token, Though 'tis neither silver nor gold, 'Twill remind you of words you have spoken Too fondly to ever be told. When I'm far away a-sleeping... Your first love you'll never forget."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love death
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 739, "The Last Token" (1 fragment)
Roud #7395
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Rosewood Casket"
NOTES: I'm sure this is a fragment of something longer. It may even be elsewhere in the Index. But Randolph's fragment is so short that I can't identify it. - RBW
File: R739
===
NAME: Last Voyage of the Veteran, The
DESCRIPTION: The captain and ten crewmen "perished in the ocean." A tug was sent out to salvage the Veteran "but the wind it blew so heavy and caused the sea to roar And caused the poor sailors to roll on a lee shore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 29, 1874 - The barque Veteran is wrecked in a storm outside Fraserburgh Harbour [about 40 miles north of Aberdeen] (source: GreigDuncan1)
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan1 33, "The Last Voyage of the Veteran" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3805
File: GrD1033
===
NAME: Last Winter Was a Hard One
DESCRIPTION: Two Irish women lament the hard times. Neither woman's husband could find a job, and both families suffered. They curse the Italians who have arrived to take Irish jobs. They look forward to better times when their husbands find work
AUTHOR: Words: Jim O'Neil / Music: Jack Conroy
EARLIEST_DATE: 1880 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: work poverty unemployment foreigner hardtimes
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Dean, pp. 89-90, "When McGuinness Gets a Job" (1 text)
FSCatskills 98, "Last Winter Was a Hard One" (1 text+fragments, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 111-112,248, "Last Winter Was a Hard One" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LASTWNTR*
Roud #4607
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Longshoreman's Strike (The Poor Man's Family)" (theme)
NOTES: The sheet music to this is "respectfully dedicated to comptroller John Kelly." John Kelly (1822-1886) was a New York politician. A one-time representative, the _Dictionary of American Biography_ credits him with running Tammany Hall 1873-1882. Thus he would be the chief politician responsible for municipal employment.
See one version of "When McGuinness Gets a Job" [Sheet Music: digital id sm1880 11975], published in New York in 1880, at the Library of Congress American Memory site. - BS
File: FSC098
===
NAME: Last Words of William Shackleford, Executed in Pittsboro, Chatham Co, March 28, 1890: see William S. Shackleford (File: BrII293)
===
NAME: Last Year Was a Fine Crap Year: see Whoa Back, Buck (File: LxU067)
===
NAME: Late Battle in the West
DESCRIPTION: Another account of the conquest of Vicksburg by Union troops. The focus is mostly on General Grant: "Oh bully for our chief... Old Jeff is getting scared, Grant's getting bolder... Three cheers for Grant, and the Union forever!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 1862 - Union general Ulysses S. Grant begins his Vicksburg campaign. His first four attempts to reach the city fail
Apr 16, 1863 - Porter's gunboats run past Vicksburg, opening the way for Grant's final successful campaign
May 12-17, 1863 - Grant fights a series of minor battles which bring him to the defences of Vicksburg
May 22, 1863 - Grant's attempt to take Vicksburg by storm is a bloody failure. The Union army settles down to a siege
July 4, 1863 - Lt. General Pemberton surrenders Vicksburg
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, pp. 371-372, "Late Battle in the West" (1 text)
Roud #7764
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Vicksburg" (subject)
cf. "Victorious March" (subject)
NOTES: Every historical event in this song is described in the notes to "Victorious March"; see the notes to this song.
Although this is surely a composed song, the informant almost certainly had it from oral tradition. This shows in the names of the officers. He mentions, in addition to Grant, three generals: MacPherson (James B. McPherson, 1828-1864, one of Grant's corps commanders), Logan (John A. Logan, 1826-1886, a division commander), and "McClellan."
George B. McClellan, former commander of the Army of the Potomac, of course did not serve at Vicksburg. The reference, I think, must be to John A. McClernand (1812-1900), a politician who had become one of Grant's corps commanders in exchange for raising many of the troops used in the expedition. He was not particularly competent, and would later be relieved. - RBW
File: Beld371
===
NAME: Late Last Night When Willie Came Home (Way Downtown)
DESCRIPTION: "Late last night when Willie came home Heard a mighty rapping on the door... Willie don't you rap no more." The song then veers to floating verses. Chorus:  "Oh me, oh my, what's gonna become of me I's downtown, fooling around No one to stand for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: drink prison nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 166, "Late Last Night When Willie Came Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
MWheeler, p. 87-89, "Come On, My Pink, an' Tell Me What You Think" (1 text, 1 tune, consisting of many floating verses -- the first, e.g., comes from "Little Pink" --  but which overall seems closest to this)
Handy/Silverman-Blues, pp. 58-59, "Ever After On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7691
RECORDINGS:
Frank Blevins, "Late Last Night when Willie Came Home" (Columbia, 1927; unissued)
Uncle Dave Macon w. Sam McGee, "Late Last Night When My Willie Come Home" (Vocalion 5095, 1926; on RoughWays2)
Poplin Family, "Hammer Ring" (on Poplin01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Late Last Night When Willie Came Home" (on NLCR02)
Louise Foreacre, "Last Last Night" (on Stonemans01)
Doc Watson, Clint Howard & Fred Price, "Way Down Town" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Late Last Night When My Willie Came Home
NOTES: It's hard to tell if the Handy text "Ever After On" belongs here. Certainly they derive from the same roots; the Handy text begins "Late last night when my baby come home I heard a mighty knocking on my door... Told him Baby don't you knock no more." The chorus runs, "But I'll love my baby till the seas run dry... Oh ain't it hard... To love a man that don't love you." 
The rest, like the version in Wheeler, is fairly standard for a traditional blues: Verses unrelated except in their sorrowful feeling, and borrowed from all over. I initially listed it as a separate song based on the notes in Handy/Silverman, which imply multiple versions in Odum and Johnson. But I suspect those are actually versions of "Late Last Night." - RBW
File: CSW166
===
NAME: Late One Night: see Bad Lee Brown (Little Sadie) [Laws I8] (File: LI08)
===
NAME: Lather and Shave: see The Love-of-God Shave (Lather and Shave) [Laws Q15] (File: LQ15)
===
NAME: Lauchie
DESCRIPTION: Lauchie comes from the Highlands looking for work and enlists. "She always wore her ruffled shirt and clean was shaved" and made a fine impression on the Major. She becomes a drill sergeant. She leaves the army when the war ends.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing humorous soldier
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan3 530, "Lauchie" (2 texts)
Roud #6009
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Tullochgorum" (tune, per GreigDuncan3)
cf. "The Soldier Maid" (plot)
cf. "The Banks o' Skene" (plot)
cf. "The Drum Major (The Female Drummer)" (plot)
NOTES: GreigDuncan3 530A mixes 12 sung verses and three spoken lines by the recruiter or master sergeant and responses, primarily by the heroine. All the actors are made out to be fools. For example, having made drill sergeant, she says, "O Neil, Neil, if I was known you for a leer, I was believe you, but you was in the bad habit of crying 'Amashew,' ['Here'] whether you was hear or not, for that I will mark you down absent." 
While the recruiter recognizes Lauchie from home, "a soldier she was made," and others think "she's a braw lad." 
GreigDuncan3 530B is a fragment of one-and-a-half verses with no spoken lines. - BS
File: GrD3520
===
NAME: Laughing Song
DESCRIPTION: "As I was coming 'round the corner, I heard some people say, Here comes a dandy darky; here he comes this way. His heel is like a snowplow, And his mouth is like a trap, And when he open it gently you will see a fearful gap." Chorus is mostly laughing
AUTHOR: George W. Johnson
EARLIEST_DATE: 1894
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad Black(s)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 171, "Laughing Song" (1 fragmentary excerpt)
Roud #6352
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough" (chorus)
NOTES: Greenleaf/Mansfield replaces the "dandy darky" reference by "laughing jackass" and uses elipses to give the impression that the chorus is just "Ha, ha ha ha ha ha, ha, ha, ha, Ha, ha," etc.
Johnson's chorus is
Then I laugh ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha,
I couldn't stop my laughing ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha,
Ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha,
I couldn't stop my laughing ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Johnson's sheet music and recording were an immediate hit "selling tens of thousands of records by 1894 alone" per "The Ragtime Ephemeralist" site.  The text is on on the Archeophone Records site recording of the month for February 2002.
This song is sometimes confused with another laughing chorus song, Cal Stewart's 1901 "I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough." - BS
File: GrMa171
===
NAME: Laundry Song, A
DESCRIPTION: "I used to work in the kitchen And wash the pans and crocks, But now I work in the laundry And wash the stinking socks." Brought up well, the singer falls in with a bad crowd, and stands guard during a robbery. The others escape; he ends in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: trial punishment crime work prisoner clothes
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Gardner/Chickering 148, "A Laundry Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GC148 (Partial)
Roud #3674
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "No More Shall I Work in the Factory" (lyrics)
NOTES: The informant from whom this song was collected said that he did not know where he learned the song -- but he was "a boy of fifteen in the Detention Home, Detroit." One suspects he or someone he knew composed it, based on something like "No More Shall I Work in the Factory." - RBW
File: GC148
===
NAME: Laurel Hill
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls sailing from Ireland to fight Napoleon with Wellington. He fights in Spain and all the way to Waterloo. At last her returns to find his love bewailing his death. He reveals himself to her; they settle down. He praises Wellington
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion Napoleon soldier
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1809 - Wellington takes command in the Peninsula (to 1814)
1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
SHenry H8, pp. 311-312, "Laurel Hill/Kyle's Flowery Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 193, "Laurel Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LAURLHIL
Roud #2917
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Burns and His Highland Mary" [Laws O34] (tune)
NOTES: The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Sweet Laurel Hill" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
File: HHH008
===
NAME: Lavender Blue
DESCRIPTION: "Lavender's blue, dilly, dilly..." Singer tells his lady  that she must love him because he loves her. He tells of a vale where young man and maid have lain together, and suggests that they might do the same, and that she might love him (and also his dog)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1685 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: courting sex love dog colors
FOUND_IN: Britain US(NE)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Linscott, pp. 229-230, "Lavender's Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 299, "Lavender's blue, diddle, diddle" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #137, p. 113, "(Lavender blue and rosemary green)"
Silber-FSWB, p. 158, "Lavender Blue" (1 text)
DT, LAVNDER2
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #140, "Lavender's Blue" (1 text)
Roud #3483
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(56a), "Diddle, diddle" or "The Kind Country Lovers ("Lavenders green, didle, didle"), F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clark (London), 1674-1679
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Diddle, Diddle (Or The Kind Country Lovers)
NOTES: When I was four years old, I thought this song was stupid. Forty-five years later, I see no reason to change my mind. - PJS
Hard to argue that point based on the versions that I've heard, but the broadside version in the Digital Tradition hints that there is at least a little more going on behind the scenes. Linscott explains that the song, "of English origin, is connected with the amusements of Twelfth Night and refers to the choosing of the king and queen of the festivities."
The real problem may be that the version most people know comes from a Disney film. - RBW
File: FSWB158A
===
NAME: Lavender Cowboy, The
DESCRIPTION: "He was only a lavender cowboy, The hairs on his chest were two." Troubled by dreams, the boy tries all sorts of worthless hair nostrums. At last he "battled for Red Nellie's honor... He died with his six-guns a-blazing And only two hairs on his chest."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Ewen Hail)
KEYWORDS: death dream cowboy fight
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Fife-Cowboy/West 39, "The Lavender Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 30, "The Lavender Cowboy" (1 text)
DT, LAVCOWBY
Roud #11213
RECORDINGS:
 Vernon Dalhart, "The Lavender Cowboy" (Bluebird B-8229, 1939)
Ewen Hail, "Lavendar Cowboy" (Brunswick 141, 1927; Brunswick 433, 1930)
NOTES: Vernon Dalhart recorded this song in 1938 in an ill-fated comeback on Bluebird, only to see the song blacklisted. - RBW
File: FCW039
===
NAME: Lavender Girl
DESCRIPTION: "Wen the sun climbs over the hills And the skylark sings so merrily, Then I my little basket fill And trudge away to the village cheerily." The girl sells lavender to "keep my mother, myself, and my brother"; she cries, "Come and buy my lavender."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: commerce home mother family orphan
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 245, "Lavender Girl" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Lavender Girl" (source notes only)
Roud #15774
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Blooming Lavender" (theme)
File: Br3245
===
NAME: Lavender's Blue: see Lavender Blue (File: FSWB158A)
===
NAME: Lavender's Blue, Diddle, Diddle: see Lavender Blue (File: FSWB158A)
===
NAME: Lawland Lass, The: see The Highland Lad and Lawland Lass (File: GrD1123)
===
NAME: Lawlands o' Holland, The: see The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)
===
NAME: Lawson Murder, The (Charlie Lawson) [Laws F35]
DESCRIPTION: Charlie Lawson goes mad on a Christmas evening and shoots first his wife and then, despite their pleas, his six children. He prepares them for burial, bids goodbye, and kills himself also. The family is buried in a common grave
AUTHOR: Wiley Morris? Walter "Kid" Smith?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, The Carolina Buddies)
KEYWORDS: murder family burial suicide madness children
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 25, 1929 - 43-year-old Charles D. Lawson shoots his family and himself
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws F35, "The Lawson Murder (Charlie Lawson)"
Warner 114, "The Lawson Family Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 298, "The Lawson Murder" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Darling-NAS, pp. 206-207, "The Lawson Murder" (1 text)
DT 729, LAWSNMRD
Roud #697
RECORDINGS:
[Walter "Kid" Smith and the] Carolina Buddies, "Murder of the Lawson Family" (Conqueror 15537, 1930)
Spencer Moore with Everett Blevins, "The Lawson Murder" (on LomaxCD1705)
The Morris Brothers, "The Story of Charlie Lawson" (Bluebird B-7903, c. 1938)
E. R. Nance Singers, "The Lawson Murder" (Brunswick 542, 1931)
Glen Neaves, "The Death of the Lawson Family" (on Persis1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dark Knight" (plot)
cf. "William Beadle" (plot)
NOTES: As is typical of songs from the early era of recorded music, the authorship of this is uncertain. D. K. Wilgus credits this to Wiley Morris of the Morris Brothers. But Richard Dress informs me that Walter "Kid" Smith of the Carolina Buddies also claimed to have written it -- and, of course, his recording came first; the Morris recording actually postdates the first field collection (Brown).
Whoever wrote it sure came out with it fast, since the song was released only months after the murder.
It has become quite popular with bluegrass performers in recent years, starting with the Stanley Brothers. - RBW
File: LF35
===
NAME: Lawyer and Nell, The
DESCRIPTION: A lawyer seduces his housekeeper. She has him wish the Devil would take him if he does not marry her. He deserts her for a lady. She conspires with a chimney-sweep to play the Devil and threaten to take him. They marry. She reveals the plot. He is happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1826 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1089)); 18C (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(180b)
KEYWORDS: marriage seduction bargaining promise disguise trick humorous lawyer servant Devil
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan2 308, "The Lawyer and Nell" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #555
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(180b), "The Politick Maid of Suffolk" or "The Young Lawyer Out-witted ("Come young men and maidens"), unknown, 18C; also Harding B 1(97), "The Politick Maid of Suffolk" or "The Lawyer Outwitted"; Harding B 25(1089), "The Lawyer and Nell" ("You lads and you lasses draw near")
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Kate and Her Horns [Laws N22]" (plot)
cf. "The Jealous Husband Outwitted" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Well Done Nell
There Was a Noble Lawyer
NOTES: GreigDuncan2 entries are incomplete; broadside Bodleian Harding B 1(97) is the basis for the description. - BS
File: GrD2308
===
NAME: Lawyer Outwitted, The [Laws N26]
DESCRIPTION: A squire's son loves a lawyer's daughter. He disguises himself to ask the lawyer's advice on how to get married against a father's wishes. The lawyer gives detailed advice, which the children follow. Presented with a fait accompli, he blesses the union
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1764 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 3(14a))
KEYWORDS: lawyer courting disguise marriage trick
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws N26, "The Lawyer Outwitted"
SharpAp 68, "The Councillor's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 37, "The Councillor's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 24, "Rich Counsellor" (1 text, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN2078, "Of a rich Counsellor I write"
DT 455, LAWYROUT
Roud #188
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(14a), "The Crafty Lover" or "The Lawyer Outwitted," W. and C. Dicey (London), 1736-1763; also Harding B 4(52), "The Crafty Lover" or "The Lawyer-Out-Witted"
SAME_TUNE:
I'll Love Thee More and More (per broadsides Bodleian Douce Ballads 3(14a), Bodleian Harding B 4(52))
File: LN26
===
NAME: Lay Dis Body Down: see I Know Moonlight (File: San451)
===
NAME: Lay Down Body: see I Know Moonlight (File: San451)
===
NAME: Lay Me Down: see Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)
===
NAME: Lay of Oliver Gogarty, The
DESCRIPTION: Senator and doctor Oliver St John Gogarty is asked at home by a lady in a Rolls-Royce to make a house call for a sick man. In the car he is abducted by rebel "masked ruffians" but escapes to the safety of the Civic Guard
AUTHOR: William Dawson (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: abduction escape patriotic doctor police IRA
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jan 12, 1923 - "[Free State] Senator Oliver St. John Gogarty [1878-1957] ... escaped from his IRA captors by swimming the Liffey." (source: _Chapters of Dublin History_ on the eircom site)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 16, "The Lay of Oliver Gogarty" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OLcM016
===
NAME: Lay Out, Tack Sheets and Haul: see Paddy, Get Back (File: Doe054)
===
NAME: Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom: see Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)
===
NAME: Lay This Body Down: see I Know Moonlight (File: San451)
===
NAME: Lazarus (I)
DESCRIPTION: "There was a man in ancient times" who dressed and ate well "And spent his day in sinning." Lazarus comes to his door to beg, but is turned away. Lazarus dies and is taken to heaven; the rich man dies, goes to Hell, begs mercy, and is lectured
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection); + 1889 (JAFL2)
KEYWORDS: religious poverty punishment Hell
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Bronson 56, "Dives and Lazarus" (13 versions, of which #10, #11, and #12 are this piece and #9, a tune with no text, might be)
BrownII 210, "Dives and Lazarus I" (1 text)
Davis-Ballads 14, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text, listed as "Dives and Lazarus" but clearly this piece; 1 tune, entitled "Lazarus and Dives, or The Rich Man Dives") {Bronson's #11}
SharpAp 84, "Lazarus" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6566
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" [Child 56] (subject) and references there
NOTES: Jesus's story of the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31 (the Lazarus of John 11, 12 is unrelated).
It's worth remembering that this is not something that actually happened in the Bible; rather, it is a story Jesus told as a warning. Thus this is a warning about a warning. (At least one version, the Tennessee text of J. C. Jarnigan, makes this explicit.)
Bronson lists this song with "Dives and Lazarus," but in an appendix, and it appears to be a separate song; in this judgment Belden concurs. It has at least two key features: The introductory line about the man in ancient times, and the lack of mention of Dives/Diverus. - RBW
File: C056A
===
NAME: Lazarus (II): see The Little Family [Laws H7] (File: LH07)
===
NAME: Lazarus and Dives, or The Rich Man Dives: see Lazarus (I) (File: C056A)
===
NAME: Lazarus and the Rich Man
DESCRIPTION: The singer urges all people to listen as he relates how Lazarus suffered and the rich man ignored him. Indeed, the rich man enjoyed Lazarus's sufferings. Now the rich man is in torment; the listeners are urged to turn to God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible death warning
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 661, "Lazarus and the Rich Man" (1 text)
Roud #7582
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" [Child 56] (subject) and references there
cf. "The Rich Man and the Poor Man" (theme)
NOTES: Jesus's story of the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31 (the Lazarus of John 11, 12 is unrelated).
It's worth remembering that this is not something that actually happened in the Bible; rather, it is a story Jesus told as a warning. Thus this is a warning about a warning. - RBW
File: R661
===
NAME: Lazy (Young) Man, The: see The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn [Laws H13] (File: LH13)
===
NAME: Lazy Club, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer complains about his lethargic family: "My wife is such a lazy Turk, she will not do a bit of work." "My eldest daughter's just as bad; I really think she's lazy-mad." And so on, through son, servant, even dog -- leaving him to pay their debts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1848 (Elton's Song Book)
KEYWORDS: work money
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
FSCatskills 107, "The Lazy Club" (1 short traditional text plus part of a broadside version, 1 tune)
ST FSC107 (Partial)
File: FSC107
===
NAME: Lazy Farmer Boy, A: see The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn [Laws H13] (File: LH13)
===
NAME: Lazy Harry's (Five Miles from Gundagai)
DESCRIPTION: The workers set out for Sydney, but upon reaching Lazy Harry's, stop for a drink. And "the girl who served the poison, she winked at Bill and I, So we camped at Lazy Harry's on the road to Gundagai." The men revel until their money is used up.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: drink money rambling
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 253-255, "On the Road to Gungagai" (1 text)
DT, GUNDAGI2*
Roud #10726
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Lazy Harry's (Five Miles from Gundagai)" (on JGreenway01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Jacksons" (plot, lyrics, portions of tune)
cf. "Jog Along Till Shearing" (theme)
NOTES: Gundagai was a town of no particular account in itself. Its position at the midpoint of the Sydney-Melbourne road has, however, made it the setting for many folk songs. - RBW
File: DTgundag
===
NAME: Lazy Mary (She Won't Get Up)
DESCRIPTION: The mother calls the girl, but she "won't get up, she won't get up, she won't get up today." The mother makes various offers to entice the girl; she refuses each one. Finally a young man is offered, and the girl rises.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914
KEYWORDS: dialog humorous mother family courting
FOUND_IN: US(MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 396, "She Won't Get Up" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 110, pp. 225-226, "What Will You Give Me If I Get Up?" (1 text)
Linscott, pp. 31-33, "Lazy Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R396 (Full)
Roud #6561
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (theme)
File: R396
===
NAME: Lazy Old River: see Powder River (I - Lazy River) (File: FCW061)
===
NAME: Le Bal Chez Boule (Boule's Ball): see Bal Chez Boule, Le (Boule's Ball) (File: FJ108)
===
NAME: Le Sergent: see Sergent, Le (File: FMB060)
===
NAME: Le Vieux Soulard Et Sa Femme: see My Good Old Man (File: R426)
===
NAME: Lead Her Up and Down (Rosa Becky Diner, Old Betsy Lina)
DESCRIPTION: "Lead her up and down, Rosa Betsy Lina (x3) And I want you to be my darling." "Wheel and turn the old brass lantern..." "Swing corners all, Rosa Betsy Lina..." "All promenade...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Texas Folklore Society)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 552, "Lead Her Up and Down" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Roud #7679
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Rosa Betsy Lina
Rosa-becka-lina
Betsy Larkin (?)
File: R552
===
NAME: Lead Me to the Rock Higher and High: see Lead Me to the Rock Higher Than I (File: Solmttrh)
===
NAME: Lead Me to the Rock Higher Than I
DESCRIPTION: "Won't you lead me to the rock, (Higher and Higher/Higher than I) (x3), Shelter in the time of storm." "My mother is a rock...." "King Jesus is a rock...." "My God is a rock...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1991 (Sing Out! Volume 35, #4)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 35, #4 (1991), p. 15, "Lead Me To the Rock Higher and High" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Obviously a church hymn, but reportedly widespread enough that it perhaps deserves inclusion in the index. The Sing Out! version was collected by Guy Carawan from Janie Hunter, who gave him at least one other unusual song, "Barney McCabe." - RBW
File: Solmttrh
===
NAME: Lean on the Lord's Side
DESCRIPTION: "Wai', poor Daniel, He lean on the Lord's side. Say, Daniel rock the lion's joy (=jaw). Lean on the Lord's side. (Say) the golden chain to ease him down...." "The silver spade to dig his grave."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious animal
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 100, "Lean on the Lord's Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12058
NOTES: Allen/Ware/Garrison call this a variant of "Who Is on the Lord's Side," but the tunes are different and there are only a few lines in common; Roud and I both split.
Allen/Ware/Garrison give the second line as "Daniel rock the lion's jaw," which they link with the story of Samson (who tore a lion to pieces; Judges 14:5fff). I suspect that should be "Daniel LOCK the lion's jaw." The whole point of Daniel, chapter 6, is that God shut the jaws of the lions. - RBW
File: AWG100
===
NAME: Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
DESCRIPTION: Gospel song, with chorus "Leaning on the everlasting arms." The rest is a combination of confidence in Jesus, comfort at being in fellowship with Jesus, and simple anticipation
AUTHOR: E. A. Hoffman and A. J. Showalter
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Darling-NAS, pp. 260-261, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" (1 text)
DT, LEANARMS*
RECORDINGS:
Irene Spain Family, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" (OKeh 45322, 1929)
NOTES: At first glance, and even at second glance, this looks like just another gospel song. I don't know of any reason to think it's any more traditional than any other church hymn. But it has achieved a certain popularity with folk revival singers, so it's here. - RBW
File: DarNS260
===
NAME: Learmont Grove: see The Banished Lover (The Parish of Dunboe) (File: HHH023)
===
NAME: Leather Breeches
DESCRIPTION: "I went down town And I wore my leather breeches. I couldn't see the people For looking at the peaches." "I went down town And I got a pound of butter; I come home drunk And I throwed it in the gutter."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink clothes food
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 322, "Leather Breeches" (1 short text)
Roud #15748
NOTES: A fiddler's mnemonic for Leather Britches? It's not possible to tell from Brown. - RBW
File: Br3322
===
NAME: Leather Britches: see The Old Leather Breeches (File: MCB232)
===
NAME: Leatherwing Bat: see The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat) (File: K295)
===
NAME: Leave for Texas, Leave for Tennessee: see T for Texas (Blue Yodel #1) (File: LoF152A)
===
NAME: Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her
DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Leave her, Johnny, leave her... And it's time for us to leave her." Tells of the troubles on the voyage and of what Johnny can hope for as the ship arrives in port. Some versions have a chorus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Robinson)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor separation return
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,SW) Ireland Australia Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (16 citations)
Doerflinger, pp. 89-90, "Time for Us to Leave Her (Leave Her, Johnny)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 48-49, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone, pp. 135-136, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord, pp. 119-121, "Leave Her, Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 99-100, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 293-298, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (5 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 218-221]
Sharp-EFC, II-III, pp.3-4, "Leave Her Johnny" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 86-87, "Time to Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 46-47, "Leave Her, Jollies, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 412, "Leave Her, Bullies, Leave Her" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text, which is this song, is very short; the "B" text is "Across the Western Ocean")
Scott-BoA, pp. 135-137, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, p. 233, ("Leave Her, Johnny") (1 text)
SHenry H96, p. 96, "It's Time for Us to Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment, short enough that it could be this or "Across the Western Ocean")
Silber-FSWB, p. 97, "Leave Her, Johnny" (1 text)
DT, LEAVEHER* LEAVHER2*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). A fragment called "Tis Time for Us to Leave Her" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917.
Roud #354
RECORDINGS:
 Leander Macumber, "Leave Her Johnny, Leave Her" (on NovaScotia1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Across the Western Ocean" (floating lyrics; tune)
NOTES: According to Walton/Grimm/Murdock, this shanty was saved for the last duty of a voyage: Pumping out a ship after she reached port and was unloaded. Since the sailors wanted to get ashore, this was considered a particularly unpleasant task -- hence this song, about getting away from the work. - RBW
File: Doe089
===
NAME: Leave Her, Jollies, Leave Her: see Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her (File: Doe089)
===
NAME: Leave Me Alone
DESCRIPTION: I hev a roustabout for my manÑ Livin' with a white man for a sham, Oh, leave me alone, Leave me alone, I'd like you much better if you'd leave me alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 593, [no title] (1 text)
File: DMRF593A
===
NAME: Leaves of Life, The: see The Seven Virgins (The Leaves of Life) (File: OBB111)
===
NAME: Leaves So Green, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer, who "never loved to tread" populated areas, asks that his body, when he dies, be taken "to some green lonely spot, Where none with careless steps shall tread." He recalls the flowers and birds, and can rest most easily among them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: burial flowers bird nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H719, p. 63, "The Leaves So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13332
File: HHH719
===
NAME: Leaving Erin
DESCRIPTION: "Farewell Erin, I now must leave you for to cross the raging main." The singer is leaving Ireland for America even though his parents have lived in Ireland since Brian Boru. He misses his family's graves, and hopes the Irish will come home for vengeance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: Ireland emigration home revenge
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Apr 23, 1014 - Battle of Clontarf. Brian Boru defeats a combined force of Vikings and rebels from Leinster, but dies in the battle
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, pp. 109-110, "Leaving Erin" (1 text)
Roud #9577
NOTES: Since this song mentions starvation only briefly, it appears it does not date from the potato famines but rather from one or another of the periods when landlords were squeezing tenants off their properties. It does not mention the Fenians by name, so perhaps it is early. I wouldn't bet too much on that, though. - RBW
File: Dean109
===
NAME: Leaving Home: see Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)
===
NAME: Leaving of Liverpool
DESCRIPTION: The singer is preparing to sail from Liverpool. He bids farewell to the city and most especially to his sweetheart. He describes the difficult conditions he will face aboard the Davy Crockett under Captain Burgess
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (Doerflinger)
KEYWORDS: sailor parting abuse
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Doerflinger, pp. 104-105, "The Leaving of Liverpool" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 97, "The Leaving of Liverpool" (1 text)
DT, LEAVLIV1*
Roud #9435
NOTES: Despite the beauty of this song, it seems to have survived only in the single copy published by Doerflinger, which gave rise to all the pop/folk recordings.
Although the song refers to the ship as the "Davy Crockett," there was never (according to Octavius T. Howe and Frederick G. Matthews, _American Clipper Ships 1833-1858_ Volume I, p. 126) a clipper by that name; the ship was called the _David Crockett._ She was launched in late 1853. Designed for the Liverpool-to-New-York trade, she was transferred to the San Francisco route in 1857.According to Basil Lubbock, _The Down Easters: American Deep-water Sailing Ships 1869-1929_, p. 46, she "could hardly have been improved upon as a Cape Horner, being possessed not only of unusual speed and strength but of good carrying capacity."
She was also famous for her fast voyages, a tribute partly to her design but mostly to the harshness of her masters.
John A. Burgess took command of the ship in 1860, having previously commanded the _Governor Morton_  and the _Monarch of the Seas_. Burgess, according to Lubbock, p. 28, ÒBurgess was not only a navigator of exceptional reputation, but one of those seamen who deligheed in the art of driving a ship under sail. Though a strict disciplinarian, he would allow no bucko methods, and was one of those rare master-men who were never known to swear or use bad language. His mates, Griffiths and Conrad,  were men of the same type, who could get work out of an indifferent or vicious crew without using belaying-pins or knuckle-dusters."
Lubbock, pp. 266-267, gives a catalog of the _Crockett's_ trips around the Horn -- a total of 25 from 1857 to 1983. Burgess took command on her fourth voyage (1860), and captained 13 trips before his death; his mate John Anderson finished that trip and commanded the next two.
Burgess was on his way home to San Francisco to retire when he was washed overboard in 1874. According to Lubbock, p. 28, he was attempting to remove wreckage, a task he took upon himself rather than risk a crewman's life.
The _Crockett_ did not become an easier ship after his death. The June 2006 issue of _American History_ magazine has an article by Steve Wilson on impressment  ("crimping," in American terms) on the American West Coast. It notes that one Andreas Stork in 1882 sued second mate Jesse Millais of the _Crockett_ for abuse -- and won! Given that sailors were expected to face harsh treatment, conditions on the _Crockett_ must have been bad indeed.
Based on Lubbock's list of voyages, the _Crockett_ made only one trip in 1882 and a last voyage in 1883. I wonder if the Stork suit didn't hasten her retirement from the route.
According to Lubbock, p. 49, the _Crockett_ was converted to a coal barge in 1890 and wrecked in 1899. - RBW
File: Doe104
===
NAME: Leaving of Merasheen, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer remembers life on the "little isle of Merasheen down in Placentia Bay" and mourns having to leave it. "Those days are gone forever now and so is Merasheen."
AUTHOR: Ernie Wilson
EARLIEST_DATE: 1975 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: homesickness home parting lament nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 65, "The Leaving of Merasheen" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: "The Resettlement Program was carried out in Newfoundland during Joseph Smallwood's government [1950s to 1970s].... Its aim was to relocate ... coastal communities to larger centers where they would find better job opportunities and public facilities such as hospitals and schools.... When the smoke had finally cleared over three hundred communities had been completely closed down and those that remained were tombstones marking the passing of a large and noble part of our history."
See "The Blow Below the Belt" for another resettlement song - BS
Joey Smallwood began his career as a radio broadcaster, and used his position to push Newfoundland into Confederation with Canada; according to Craig Brown, e.d, _The Illustrated History of Canada_, p. 374, "Mainland prosperity, urged by Joey Smallwood... won out against the proud penury of independence."
But Smallwood, who went from broadcaster to Newfoundland premier and led the province for more than twenty years, by the late Fifties was turning to "increasingly illiberal one-man rule" (p. 491). The result of his policy was complaints like these. - RBW
File: LeBe065
===
NAME: Leaving Old England
DESCRIPTION: The singer is sadly leaving England, and asks for his mother's blessing as he departs. He regrets leaving home, but poverty forces him away. He comments on England's social system that is so hard on the poor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1954
KEYWORDS: emigration family political mother
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 55-56, "Leaving Old England" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Meredith amd Anderson suggest that this might be the ancestor of "Botany Bay"; the tunes are similar. There is, however, no firm evidence of this. - RBW
File: MA055
===
NAME: Lee's Ferry
DESCRIPTION: "Come all you roving cowboys, bound on these western plains... We'll go back home again... We'll cross over Lee's Ferry, oh, and go back home this year." The cowhands  agree that they will go home, but they grow old without ever returning
AUTHOR: Romaine Lowdermilk
EARLIEST_DATE: 1967
KEYWORDS: cowboy home travel age
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 37, "Lees' Ferry" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19] (character of John D. Lee)
NOTES: Lee's Ferry (named for Mormon pioneer John D. Lee) was at one time the only way to cross the Colorado River in Arizona. The region north and west of the river (the "Arizona Strip"), surrounded on two sides by river, and with desert to the west and hills to the north, was decent cattle country but very isolated. Hence this song.
For more about John D. Lee, very little of it good, see the notes to "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19]. - RBW
File: Ohr047
===
NAME: Lee's Hoochie
DESCRIPTION: A soldier visits "Miss Lee" in Seoul, and contracts a venereal disease. He advises it is better to avoid Lee's hoochie than to have "Old Smoky," his penis, blue.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy disease sex warning
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1950-1953 - Korean War
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cray, pp. 407-409, "Lee's Hoochie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10409
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (tune)
NOTES: This song, for which there seem to be no direct antecedents, dates from the Korean War. - EC
File: EM407
===
NAME: Leeboy's Lassie, The: see Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)
===
NAME: Leesome Brand [Child 15]
DESCRIPTION: Leesome Brand impregnates his love. When her time comes she has him  take her riding, then  go hunt, sparing the white hind. He returns to find her and his son dead. He laments his knife and sheath. His mother gives him St. Paul's blood to revive them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1827 (Motherwell)
KEYWORDS: love pregnancy death hunting resurrection
FOUND_IN: FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Child 15, "Leesome Brand" (2 texts)
GreigDuncan2 335, "Lishen Brand" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 90-96, "Leesome Brand" (2 texts)
OBB 56, "Leesome Brand, or, The Sheath and the Knife" (1 text)
PBB 52, "Leesome Brand" (1 text)
DBuchan 43, "Leesome Brand" (1 text)
Roud #3301
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sheathe and Knife" [Child 16] (lyrics about the "sheathe and knife")
File: C015
===
NAME: Left Jim and I Alone: see Orphan's Lament (Two Little Children, Left Jim and I Alone) (File: BrII150)
===
NAME: Leg of Mutton Went Over to France, A
DESCRIPTION: "A leg of mutton went over to France ... The ladies did sing and the gentlemen dance." Anyway, a man dies, a doctor looks in his head and finds a spring in which 39 salmon are learning to sing, with a pool for young salmon to go to school.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1918 (Journal of Folk-Song Society, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: France humorous nonsense talltale wordplay
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Peacock, p. 14, "A Leg of Mutton Went Over to France" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 357, "As I was walking o'er little Moorfields" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #244, p. 155, "(As I was walkin o'er little Moorfields)"
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 49, "As I Was Going to Banbury" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2423
NOTES: The ending floats: "perhaps you think I ... lie", "If you want any more ...", even if entire verses don't.
Opie-Oxford2: "[Moorfields] would be an appropriate setting for a nonsense song, for in 1675 the Old Bethlem Hospital was moved to Moorfields from Bishops Gate Without." - BS
I suspect the "As I Was Going to Banbury" version is a compound of two different items. As, however, it appears to exist only in the version Cecil Sharp collected from Emma Sister, there seems no need to create a separate item for it. The ending is this song; it merely starts with the verse "As I was going to Banbury, Ri fol lat-i-tee O...." - RBW
File: Pea014
===
NAME: Legacy
DESCRIPTION: "When in death I shall calm recline O bear my heart my mistress dear, Bid her not shed one tear of sorrow To sully a heart so brilliant and light; But balmy drops of the red grape borrow To bathe the relict from morn till night."
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Moore
EARLIEST_DATE: 1808 (Missouri Harmony)
KEYWORDS: death drink religious
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, p. 155, "Legacy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: San155A
===
NAME: Legend of Pot Sunk Ann, The
DESCRIPTION: Baron Keith and Ann Crawford marry and have a son. King Edward of England, pursuing the Scottish crown, visits them. He falls in love with Ann. Ann dreams of trouble. Her gipsy advisor tells her to flee. In a storm she tries to cross a stream but drowns.
AUTHOR: William Lillie (source: GreigDuncan2)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: drowning dream storm England Scotland wife royalty
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greig #56, pp. 1-2, "The Legend of Pot Sunk Ann" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 343, "The Legend of Pot Sunk Ann" (1 texts plus an additional stanza on p. 586)
Roud #5871
NOTES: Greig: "Pot Sunken, as it is now most commonly called, is a deep sluggish pool in the bend of the river Ugie almost immediately below Inverugie Castle." The Baron's castle, Ravenscraig, is nearby. 
The English king here is Edward I and the time the period following the death of Margaret, in 1290, Edward's support of John Balliol as King of Scotland, and his 1296 attack of Scotland. The ballad has Edward ready to divorce Eleanor in order to marry Ann but Eleanor would have already died in 1290. (Source for dates: Earle, "The Plantagenets (Edward I 1272-1307)" in _The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England_, ed. Fraser (London, 1975)) - BS
Eleanor of Castile did indeed die in 1290, the same year as Margaret the Maid of Norway (for background on this, see "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child 58]). But Edward I did remarry (to Margaret daughter of Philip III of France) in 1299. By the time John Balliol had been pushed aside (for this, see the notes to "Gude Wallace" [Child 157]), Edward would theoretically have been in position to divorce another wife. And he was still capable of siring children -- he and Margaret had three. And he was certainly in Scotland many times in his later years!
And yet, such evidence as we have makes Edward pretty faithful to his wives. According to Mike Ashley, _British Kings and Queens_, Barnes & Noble, 2000 (originally published as _The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens_, 1998), p. 589, there is only one report of an illegitimate child, and that "suspect." B. Wilkinson, _The Later Middle Ages in England, 1216-1485_, Longmans, 1969 (I use the 1980 paperback edition), p. 83, declares him a "dutiful husband." So I think this must be labelled simply fiction. - RBW
File: GrD2343
===
NAME: Legend of the Rosie Belle Teeneau: see The Rosie Belle Teeneau (File: WGM158)
===
NAME: Legion of the Rearguard, The
DESCRIPTION: "Up the republic, they raise their battle cry, Pearse and McDermott will pray for you on high, Eager and ready, for the love of you they die." The soldiers for the Republic die proud, bloody deaths to accomplish an unstated goal
AUTHOR: J. O'Sheehan
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (copyright, according to the Clancy/Makem songbook)
KEYWORDS: Ireland political soldier death nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, LGNREAR
NOTES: Why is it that the Irish nut cases get all the good songs?
After the 1916 rebellion, the Irish people finally turned truly nationalist. And, after World War I, Michael Collins and others turned up the heat so much that the British, after repression failed (see the notes, e.g., to "The Bold Black and Tan"), gave up and started negotiating.
The result was the Anglo-Irish Treaty (for which see, in particular, "The Irish Free State"). This would have turned Ireland into a British Dominion (a nearly-independent state; Canada was the prototype). But there were two things in the Treaty that were objectionable: The Irish still owed nominal allegiance to the British crown, and Ireland was to be partitioned between Ulster and the Free State, according to a boundary to be determined.
Rationally, it was a fair agreement for Ireland; it was not George V and the current generation of the royal family who had oppressed them, but Elizabeth I (no descendants), Oliver Cromwell (repudiated by the English), William of Orange (not the ancestor of the current dynasty), and David Lloyd George, who wouldn't hold power much longer. And, had the boundary commission worked, Ireland would have gotten rid of those ungovernable Ulstermen that gave England almost as much trouble as they gave Dublin.
But the war with Britain had been fought by the IRA and other, even more secret and terrorist, forces, and they wanted complete independence. When Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins brought home the Treaty, Eamon de Valera (head of state and chief hard liner) rejected it. The Dail, the Irish parliament, however, went against him and -- despite being composed entirely of Sinn Fein members -- voted for it by a narrow margin. The national election which followed showed strong support for it; even the pro-Republican historian Calton Younger's statistics (_Ireland's Civil War_, pp. 313-314) make it appear that only 22% of the voters voted to reject the Treaty.
But 22% is more than enough for an insurgency. The IRA was split into pro- and anti-treaty factions. Speaking very loosely, the anti-treaty forces were concentrated in the south and west, with Cork their chief center (hence, presumably, the song's reference to the martial tramp of the Republicans being heard "from Cork to Donegal"). The anti-treaty forces promptly went to war against the pro-Treaty provisional government.
The insurgents scored one and only one real success: On August 22, 1922, they succeeded in killing Michael Collins, the effective head of the government. (For this, and much additional background, see the notes to "General Michael Collins").
It was the ultimate in pyrrhic victories. Collins had started his career as a terrorist, but he was also a realist and a genius. He might have managed to control the rebellion with relatively slight loss of life and liberty. Without him, the new government, headed by William Cosgrave, Kevin O'Higgins, and Collins's former Chief of Staff Richard Mulcahy, turned Ireland into a temporary police state; the Dail gave them emergency powers, and they set up military tribunals and indeed engaged in arbitrary executions; the rebels were explicitly denied prisoner of war status. (See Robert Kee, _Ourselves Alone_, being volume III of _The Green Flag_, pp. 168-169). What should have been a noble cause got off to a dreadful start. But it suppressed the rebellion.
This song -- the only thing I've ever encountered by O'Sheehan -- seems to have played its part. In 1923, Eamon de Valera, whose refusal to accept the Treaty had contributed to much to causing the Irish Civil War, finally gave in and urged the anti-treaty forces to lay down their arms. And he addressed them as "Soldiers of the Republic, Legion of the Rearguard" (Kee, p 175; see also p. 170). They were so-called because they had once been (and hoped to be again) the vanguard of Irish independence, but now were fighting a rearguard action to keep the dream alive.
In the long run, of course, de Valera would succeed in "freeing" the 26 counties; Ireland is no longer a British dominion. But it would surely have been a lot easier  had he pursued a political solution.
Besides de Valera, the song mentions:
Pearse - Padraig Pearse, the leader of the 1916 uprising, who was executed in that year; see in particular the notes to "The Boys from County Cork."
McDermott - Sean McDermott, another executed in the aftermath of the Easter Rising; he was one of those who joined Pearse in organizing the rebellion. According to Michael Foy and Brian Barton, _The Easter Rising_, p. 4, he and Tom Clarke were "the key figures who, in the years before 1916, shaped the policies of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.Ó Still in his early thirties at the time of the rising, he had suffered from polio in his late twenties, and could barely shuffle along with a cane or walking stick. I wonder if he may not have been offered as an example precisely *because* he was a cripple whom the British executed anyway.
"Wolfe Love" - This is what the Clancy Brothers record as the text, but I have to think this is an error of some sort. Certainly the reference is to (Theobald) Wolfe Tone, who helped inspire the 1798 rebellion and tried to win French support in the years before that; for his activities and his condemnation by the British, see e.g. the notes to "The Shan Van Voght."
Emmett - Robert Emmet (the usual spelling), whose 1803 attempt at rebellion was a complete botch but who inspired many songs; see e.g. the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet."
I doubt this song is actually traditional; I think the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem (violent nationalists all) picked it up because of their political beliefs rather than its historic status. But since they recorded it, it perhaps deserves an Index entry. - RBW
File: DTlgnrea
===
NAME: Lehigh Valley, The
DESCRIPTION: A stranger explains he is hunting the city slicker who stole his girlfriend Nelly "if it takes till Judgment Day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1882 (As "The Tramp's Lament" in Edward Harrigan's play "Squatter Sovereignty")
KEYWORDS: bawdy parody love seduction elopement hobo
FOUND_IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Cray, pp. 198-200, "The Lehigh Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 272-274, "The Lehigh Valley" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
JHJohnson, pp. 16-18, "Down in the Lehigh Valley" (1 text, bowdlerized)
DT, LEHIGH*
Roud #9389
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight?" (plot)
cf. "The Tramp's Story" (plot)
NOTES: According to Vance Randolph, this is a parody of  Harrigan's "The Tramp's Lament." - EC
For additional thoughts on this point, see "The Tramp's Story" (the name the Index uses for the Harrigan song)
The details of this song apparently vary widely (though some of this may be due to editorial tampering). The final two lines, "I'll hunt the runt that swiped my cunt, If it takes till judgement day," seem however to be absolutely diagnostic. - RBW
File: EM198
===
NAME: Leinster Lass, The: see The SS Leinster Lass (File: HHH808)
===
NAME: Lenora
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I left to make a fortune, in the glowing West, Then I returned at least to marry the one that I loved best, I had made a half a million in a mine of gold...." "Lenora, darling, I think of you only... Lenora, love me as I love you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage gold
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 790, "Lenora" (1 short text)
Roud #7420
File: R790
===
NAME: Leo Frank and Mary Phagan: see Mary Phagan [Laws F20] (File: LF20)
===
NAME: Leprechaun, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a leprechaun and laughs anticipating a purse of gold. He grabs the leprechaun to claim the purse but is tricked into releasing the leprechaun. The singer laughs to think how he had been fooled.
AUTHOR: Robert Dwyer Joyce (1830-1883) (source: Hoagland)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968 (recording, Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman)
KEYWORDS: trick gold supernatural
FOUND_IN: Ireland 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 527, "The Leprahaun" 
Roud #5274
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman, "The Leprechaun" (on Voice14)
NOTES: The trick: singer is told that the [non-existant] lady by his side has the purse in her hand. - BS
Robert Dwyer Joyce is also credited with the Irish political songs "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" and "The Boys of Wexford" in this index. - RBW
File: RcTLepr
===
NAME: Les Darcy
DESCRIPTION: The singer mourns for Les Darcy. He recalls "how he beats, Simply eats them, Every Saturday night." "(The Yanks) called him a skiter, but he proved himself a fighter, (so they killed him, down in Memphis), Tennessee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: fight Australia death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 24, 1917 - Death of Les Darcy in Memphis, Tennessee
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 218-219, "Les Darcy" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Les Darcy" (on JGreenway01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Les Darcy" (plot, subject)
NOTES: Les Darcy was an Australian boxer of whom great things were expected. He did not live long, and so his major bouts were few, but the Australians made him one of their great heroes. When he died in 1917, the Americans gave the cause of death as pneumonia; Australians claim he was poisoned.
Two songs about Darcy are found in the tradition; this one, based on "Way Down in Tennessee," begins, "In Maitland cemet'ry (or "Way down in Tennessee") lies poor Les Darcy...." It has been surmised that this one was written by P.F. Collins (under the pseudonym "Percy the Poet"). The piece seems to have truly entered oral tradition, however; Fahey reports collecting it twice, and his text differs significantly from that used by John Greenway.
The other, more literary, Les Darcy song has eight lines per stanza and begins "We all get a craving to roam, Far from home, o'er the foam...."  - RBW
File: FaE218
===
NAME: Les Reeder
DESCRIPTION: Les Reeder's mother begs him not to work on Sundays. He tells her he won't any more after this one last time. Needless to say, he's killed on the skidway by a log.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: lumbering logger death work mother
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 63, "Les Reeder" (1 text)
Roud #4053
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dream of the Miner's Child" (theme)
NOTES: [Beck reports,] "Logs were skidded to the skidway, where they were piled to be hauled to the rollways or to the narrow-gauge railroads." - PJS
This song is item dC34 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Be063
===
NAME: Lescraigie
DESCRIPTION: Pretty Peggie is advised to prepare the cot, "For the fair-haired laddie will be here." "He winna lie in the kitchen... But he'll lie in your bed, Peggie, And you in his airms twa." With the harvest done, Sandy Fraser is coming to take her away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love courting harvest
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 285, "Lescraigie" (1 text)
Roud #3940
File: Ord285
===
NAME: Leslie Allen
DESCRIPTION: Leslie Allen comes to Black Brook from Moncton. He wanders from town one day and a search team of "three hundred men and two bloodhounds" follow his tracks "but the search was unavailing" He is never found.
AUTHOR: Michael Whelan "the poet of the Renous" (Manny/Wilson)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: manhunt
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Manny/Wilson 29, "Leslie Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi029 (Partial)
Roud #9188
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Barbara Allen" (tune)
NOTES: Black Brook is a tributary of the Main Southwest Miramichi River in New Brunswick.
Manny/Wilson: A true story of Leslie Allen, a lost hunter. - BS
File: MaWi029
===
NAME: Let Go the Peak Halyards
DESCRIPTION: "Let go the peak halyards, Let go the peak halyards, My knuckles are caught in the falls. LET GO!" (last line shouted)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: sailor
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Shay-SeaSongs, p. 125, (no title) (1 fragment)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Let Go the Reef Tackle" (form)
NOTES: Shay apparently thinks this a fragment of something. To me, it looks more like a curse -- and quite possibly cleaned up.
As a wild speculation, Don Nichols repeated a story Stan Hugill is is said to have told a story about a sailor who stuttered but was able to sing clearly. DoN recalled the story as follows:
There was a sailor... up the mast who was in obvious distress.  He kept trying to tell what was wrong, and the stuttering got in the way.  From the deck, the bosun cries "For God's
sake man -- *sing* it!".  So, from the mast comes:
Slack off your reefy tackles
reefy tackles, reefy tackles.
Slack off your reefy tackles,
Me Bollocks are Yammed!
No words in common with this piece, of course, but the *feeling* sure sounds familiar. That song occurs in the Index as "Let Go the Reef Tackle," but with a much-cleaned-up feel. - RBW
File: ShaS125B
===