On Monday I introduced the song The Fower Maries and shared some of the historical back story to this song. Today I want to introduce another version of the song that tells us more of the story. Indeed there is something profound about the number of versions of this song and the different characters and places that it seems to be connected to. In a small way it reflects the development of folk song as an oral tradition to the times when that oral tradition also becomes a written one.

Today’s version is arguably the most famous. This is the song that Joan Baez sang in the early 1960’s.

We start off with the news that Mary Hamilton has given birth to a baby by the King.

Word is to the kitchen gone, and word is to the Hall
And word is up to Madam the Queen, and that’s the worst of all
That Mary Hamilton has borne a babe
To the highest Stuart of all

These opening words give a flavour of the speed of the news as it rushes through the palace. There is also a hint that Mary Hamilton has been viewed with suspicion over her ‘involvement’ with the King. The news isn’t just that Mary Hamilton has given birth, but she has given birth to a baby and the King is seriously involved.

Mary I of Scotland

Immediately we hit against the historical question. Which King and which Queen? On Monday I shared my belief that the Queen in this song is almost certainly Mary. However we hit problems with this belief. When Mary went to France she was 16 years old in 1558. Her husband became King of France in 1559. However he died in 1560. Added to this, King Francis II of France was most definitely not a Stuart. It appears very unlikely that King in the song is young Francis.

When Mary returned to Scotland she married Henry, Lord Darnley in July 1565. Henry was most definitely a Stuart and this is perhaps the closest link to any historical truth in relation to the song. We also arrive at the heart of the swirling royal and political intrigue that hangs over this song and the fate of the poor narrator of the song.

Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and soon to be proclaimed King of Scotland was, by all accounts, a rather pompous, vain fellow. He was determined to get his hands on the throne of Scotland for himself and sought long and hard to persuade Mary to grant the crown matrimonial which would have given Henry the throne in the event of Mary dying childless.

Soon a plot was hatched to deprive Mary of her throne and her life.  Essentially the plot surrounds one of Mary’s advisers, an Italian David Rizzio. Rizzio from Turin was appointed as her secretary in 1564 with responsibility for diplomacy with France. Henry Stuart was said to be very jealous of the nature of the friendship that existed between Mary and Rizzio. There were rumours that Rizzio had got Mary pregnant.

Henry Stuart, vain and pompous sought to have Rizzio murdered and sought to cause distress and perhaps death of the child and of Mary herself. In March 1566 a group of men stormed the Queen’s chambers at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh and demanded that Mary release Rizzio to them. Mary, who was seven months pregnant with James VII, refused. The men threatened Mary with guns and tore Rizzio away. He was later stabbed many times and quickly buried.

The murder of David Rizzio.

One gets a sense of the turbulence and unrest surrounding Mary at this time. I am of the belief that the emotion of this incident, and indeed, the whole life of Mary, filtered its way into what became The Fower Maries.

Returning to the song, the Queen has come to poor Mary and perhaps surprisingly questions her not on the truth or otherwise of relations between her and the Queen’s husband but rather on the fate of the child. The Queen says:

Oh rise, arise Mary Hamilton 
Arise and tell to me
What thou hast done with thy wee babe 
I saw and heard weep by thee

I put him in a tiny boat
And cast him out to sea
That he might sink or he might swim
But he’d never come back to me

And yet sadly, it is not that surprising. Infanticide was tragically quite common around europe at this time, especially by poorer unmarried mothers.  Indeed in next door England an Infanticide Act was introduced in 1624 with

the mere fact that single women had tried to conceal the death of their babies was considered proof of murder under the Infanticide Act of 1624.  here

The next verses offer the surprising invitation for Mary to accompany the Queen to a wedding in Glasgow. When they get to Glasgow it seems that news about Mary has reached the Lord Provost (Mayor).
          

You can see the links between the stories of Mary Hamilton in Russia and the other Mary connected with Mary, Queen of Scots. Although nearly two hundred years apart the similarities in the stories are very interesting. What is also interesting is at about the time of the execution of Mary Hamilton for infanticide, someone connected with James Francis Edward Stuart, the son of the deposed King James (VII of Scotland, II of England), a irishman named Sir Charles Wogan was travelling in Russia, trying to gain support from the Tsar for James Stuart to become King of Great Britain and Ireland. This is complete speculation but it is possible that news of Mary Hamilton, the Hamiltons being a very famous Scottish family that had moved to Russia to serve the Tsars, was brought to Wogan, who shared the news back home.


The nature and diversity of this song offers I believe, a small window into two aspects. One is in the nature of the development of folk song itself. Francis James Child recorded 28 versions of this song, all of which can be assessed here. The song sweeps through history from the cobbled streets of Edinburgh and Glasgow through to the vast wealth of the Russian Tsar. Each version offering difference in understanding, some subtle, some hugely different.


The other is my personal belief that this song is the song of Mary, Queen of Scots. The grief that it beautifully tells seems too beautiful to be completely attached to someone who has killed a baby. Rather I believe the song speaks of the pain and grief of Mary’s life and of her death. 

The death mask of Mary Queen of Scots.