Sunday 16 January 2011

'King Monmouth', From Lyme Regis to Tower Hill






Choruses from The Ballad of King Monmouth, by Francis Turner Palgrave (1871).

Fear not, my child, though the days be dark,
  Never fear, he will come again,
With the long brown hair, and the banner blue,
  King Monmouth and all his men!

Fear not, my child, though he come with few,
  Alone will he come again;
God with him, and his right hand more strong
  Than a thousand thousand men!

Yet weep not, my child, though the dead be dead,
  And the wounded rise not again!
For they are with God who for England fought,
  And they bore them as Englishmen.

Then weep not, my child, though the days be dark,
  Fear not; He will come again,
With Arthur and Harold and good Saint George,
  King Monmouth and all his men!


Palgrave comments in his notes: "The belief, which this poem represents, that 'King Monmouth', as he was called in the West, would return, lasted long. He landed in Lyme Bay, June 11, 1685, between the Cobb (Harbour-pier) and the beginning of the Ware cliffs".

Map of Monmouth Rebellion 

Judge Jeffreys and the Bloody Assizes

1 comment:

  1. Thanks, this was lovely. I am a direct descendant of a Monmouth Rebel - William Crabb - who the family believe was hanged at Ilchester.

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