No. 174: Earl Bothwell
[There are no known US or Canadian versions of this ballad.]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (Found at the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A
5. Endnotes
6. Additions and Corrections
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 174. Earl Bothwell
A. Roud No. 4004: Earl Bothwell (3 Listings)
2. Sheet Music: 174. Earl Bothwell (Bronson's gives no music examples)
3. English and Other Versions (Including Child version A with additional notes)]
Child's Narrative: 174. Earl Bothwell
A. 'Earle Bodwell,' Percy Manuscript, p. 272; Hales and Furnivall, II, 260.
Printed in Percy's Reliques, with changes, 1765, II, 197, 'The Murder of the King of Scots;' with some restorations of the original readings, 1794, II, 200.
This ballad represents, 8, 13, that the murder of Darnley was done in revenge for his complicity in the murder of Riccio; in which there may be as much truth as this, that the queen's resentment of Darnley's participation in that horrible transaction may have been operative in inducing her assent such assent as she gave to the conspiracy against the life of her husband.
2. Darnley came to Scotland in February, 1565 (being then but just turned of nineteen), not sent for, but very possibly with some hope of pleasing his cousin, 'the queen [dowager] of France,' to whom he was married in the following July. His inglorious career was closed in February, 1567.
5. On the fatal evening of the ninth of March, 1566, Riccio was sitting in the queen's cabinet with his cap on; "and this sight was perhaps the more offensive that a few Scotsmen of good rank seem to have been in attendance as domestics."[1]
6. The ballad should not be greatly in excess as to the number of the daggers, since Riccio had fifty-six [fifty-two] wounds.
7. After Riccio had been dragged out of the queen's cabinet, Darnley fell to charging the queen with change in her ways with him since "yon fellow Davie fell in credit and familiarity" with her. In answer to his reproaches and interpellations her Majesty said to him that he was to blame for all the shame that was done to her; "for the which I shall never be your wife nor lie with you, nor shall never like well till I gar you have as sore a heart as I have presently."[2]
9-14. A large quantity of powder was fired in the room below that in which "the worthy king" slept, but the body of Darnley and that of his servant were found lying at a considerable distance from the house, without any marks of having been subject to the explosion. One theory of the circumstances was that the two had been strangled in their beds, and removed before the train was lighted, another account is that Darnley, who would naturally hear some stir in the house, made his escape with his page, but "was intercepted and strangled after a desperate resistance, his cries for mercy being heard by some women in the nearest house."[3] Bothwell, though the author of all these proceedings and personally superintending the execution of them, did not openly appear.
It will be observed that King James says that his father [Manuscript mother] was hanged on a tree, in 'King James and Brown,' No 180, 82.
Bothwell and Huntly, who by virtue of their offices had apartments in the palace, not being in sympathy with the conspirators, are said in the Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 90, to have broken through a window, in fear of their lives, and to have let themselves down by a cord. Bothwell, as the champion of the queen against the confederate lords, might naturally be supposed by the minstrel to take a personal interest in revenging Riccio.
15, 16. The Regent Murray is here described as 'bitterly banishing' Mary, wherefore she durst not remain in Scotland, but fled to England. The queen escaped from Lochleven Castle on the second of May, 1568, and took refuge in England on the sixteenth. We must suppose the ballad to have been made not long after.
Translated by Bodmer, II, 51, from Percy's Reliques.
Footnotes:
1. Bedford and Randolph to the Council, Wright's Queen Elizabeth, etc., p. 227; Burton, History of Scotland, IV, 145.
2. Ruthven's Relation, p. 30 f, London, 1699.
3. The Historie of King James the Sext, p. 6; Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 105 f; Tytler's History, VII, 83.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
This ballad represents the murder of Darnley as done in revenge for his complicity in the murder of Riccio The Regent Murray is described as "banishing" Queen Mary, whereupon she fled to England. Mary escaped from Lochleven Castle on the second of May, 1568, and took refuge in England on the sixteenth. We must suppose the ballad to have been made not long after.
Child's Ballad Text
'Earle Bodwell'- Version A; Child 174 Earl Bothwell
'Earle Bodwell,' Percy Manuscript, p. 272; Hales and Furnivall, II, 260.
1 Woe worth thee, woe worth thee, false Scottlande!
Ffor thou hast euer wrought by a sleight;
For the worthyest prince that euer was borne,
You hanged vnder a cloud by night.
2 The Queene of France a letter wrote,
And sealed itt with hart and ringe,
And bade him come Scottland within,
And shee wold marry him and crowne him king.
3 To be a king, itt is a pleasant thing,
To bee a prince vnto a peere;
But you haue heard, and so haue I too,
A man may well by gold to deere.
4 There was an Italyan in that place,
Was as wel beloued as euer was hee;
Lord David was his name,
Chamberlaine vnto the queene was hee.
5 Ffor if the king had risen forth of his place,
He wold haue sitt him downe in the cheare,
And tho itt beseemed him not soe well,
Altho the king had beene present there.
6 Some lords in Scottland waxed wonderous wroth,
And quarrelld with him for the nonce;
I shall you tell how itt beffell,
Twelue daggers were in him all att once.
7 When this queene see the chamberlaine was slaine,
For him her cheeks shee did weete,
And made a vow for a twelue month and a day
The king and shee wold not come in one sheete.
8 Then some of the lords of Scottland waxed wrothe,
And made their vow vehementlye,
'For death of the queenes chamberlaine
The king himselfe he shall dye.'
9 They strowed his chamber ouer with gunpowder,
And layd greene rushes in his way;
Ffor the traitors thought that night
The worthy king for to betray.
10 To bedd the worthy king made him bowne,
To take his rest, that was his desire;
He was no sooner cast on sleepe,
But his chamber was on a blasing fyer.
11 Vp he lope, and a glasse window broke,
He had thirty foote for to fall;
Lord Bodwell kept a priuy wach
Vnderneath his castle-wall:
'Who haue wee heere?' sayd Lord Bodwell;
'Answer me, now I doe call.'
12 'King Henery the Eighth my vnckle was;
Some pitty show for his sweet sake!
Ah, Lord Bodwell, I know thee well;
Some pitty on me I pray thee take!'
13 'I'le pitty thee as much,' he sayd,
'And as much favor I'le show to thee
As thou had on the queene's chamberlaine
That day thou deemedst him to dye.'
14 Through halls and towers this king they ledd,
Through castles and towers that were hye,
Through an arbor into an orchard,
And there hanged him in a peare tree.
15 When the gouernor of Scottland he heard tell
That the worthye king he was slaine,
He hath banished the queene soe bitterlye
That in Scottland shee dare not remaine.
16 But shee is fled into merry England,
And Scottland to a side hath laine,
And through the Queene of Englands good grace
Now in England shee doth remaine.
End-Notes
62. noncett, with tt blotted out. (?) Furnivall.
64, 73. 12.
103. sleepee.
112. 30.
121. 8th.
131. Partly pared away. Furnivall.
162. to aside
Additions and Corrections
The following entry in the Stationers' Registers may refer to this ballad: "24 March, 1579, Thomas Gosson. Receaved of him for a ballad concerninge the murder of the late Kinge of Scottes." Arber, II, 349.