The Tudors in Nursery Rhymes

Looking at the life and times of the Tudor Monarchs as depicted in Nursery Rhymes. With thanks to: Iona & Peter Opie's The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book; Albert Jack's Pop Goes the Weasel; The Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter...and wikipedia. I'm showing more text on the slides than i'd actually use in practice when presenting this so that you have the detail.

Since uploading the deck i've seen a couple of theories that Sing a Song of Sixpence is about Henry VII and his wife Elizabeth of York, rather than Henry VIII.

1. THE TUDORS in
NURSERY RHYMES

2. ‘England was economically
healthier, more expansive &
more optimistic under the
Tudors than at any time in a
thousand years’ John Guy, Historian

3. The period is also captured
in popular memory via
Nursery Rhymes

4. These slides put the history
& the rhymes together

5. WHO WERE THE TUDORS?

6. WHO WERE THE TUDORS?
•Tudor period: 1485-1603 in England & Wales
•Tudor monarchs: Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I & Elizabeth I
•Economic prosperity through woollen exports - but rising population &
a widening gap between rich and poor
•Henry VII restored fortunes after the War of the Roses
•Henry VIII raised large amounts of revenue by dissolution of the
monasteries but wars with France & Scotland used up a lot of that cash
•The establishment of the Church of England & the break with Rome
•Good Queen Bess, Armada, Sir Francis Drake, Shakespeare & Marlowe
Henry VII

7. WHAT ARE NURSERY RHYMES?
•Refers to traditional songs & poems
•We now think of them as mainly for young children but they
weren’t always intended that way
•At certain periods people could be prosecuted for overtly talking
about political events
•Began to be recorded in English plays from mid-16
th
Century
•First printed collections date from 1744
•The term ‘Nursery Rhyme’ has only been used since 19
th
Century
•In North America often called ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’

8. Let’s look at some Rhymes.
First, about the life and
times of Henry VIII

9. JACK & GILL
•Earliest illustration (1765) has 2 boys: Jack & Gill (not Jill!)
•One theory is they are Cardinal Wolsey & Louis D’Orleans who negotiated
the marriage of Henry’s sister, 18 yr old Mary Tudor & the 52 yr old Louis
XII in 1514 as part of a peace treaty between England & France
•Louis XII died 3 months later apparently from over exertion in bed…
•Louis D’Orleans died a year later
•Wolsey, who had immense power, fell into disfavour with Henry VIII when
he failed to annul the marriage with Catherine of Aragon
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after

10. OLD MOTHER HUBBARD
•First published in 1805, one reading of this has Cardinal
Wolsey as Old Mother Hubbard & the cupboard is the church
•The dog is Henry VIII and the bone is the annulment he was
seeking from Catherine of Aragon
•Wolsey was unsuccessful and it was eventually Thomas
Cranmer who achieved the desired result
Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard,
To give the poor dog a bone;
When she came there,
The cupboard was bare,
And so the poor dog had none

11. SING A SONG OF SIXPENCE
•One theory has the King as Henry VIII, the Queen as
Catherine of Aragon and the maid as Anne Boleyn
•Blackbirds were churchmen eager to impress the
king for reward and status
•The last blackbird was Thomas Cromwell who
fabricated the plot which led to Anne’s beheading.
Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
Wasn't that a dainty dish,
To set before the king?
The king was in his counting house,
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird
And pecked off her nose

12. LITTLE JACK HORNER
Little Jack Horner
Sat in the corner,
Eating a Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said 'What a good boy am I!'
•Thomas Horner, Steward to the last abbot of Glastonbury, before the dissolution of the
monasteries under Henry VIII
•The Abbot sent Horner to London with a huge Christmas pie within which was hidden the
deeds to a number of manors – meant to dissuade the king from dissolving Glastonbury
•Horner extracted the deeds to a property in Somerset and took ownership of it!
•The King dissolved Glastonbury anyway… had the Abbot hung, drawn & quartered after
a trial for treason… and one of the jurors was Horner!

13. Now Mary 1
st
, daughter of
Henry & Catherine of Aragon

14. MARY MARY
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row
•Or, it’s Mary Queen of Scots who sought refuge in England with Elizabeth 1
st

•She was put under house arrest and constant scrutiny (How does your garden grow)
•Silver bells & cockleshells were symbols of Catholic rites, pretty maids were nuns…
•Possibly Mary 1
st
, daughter of Henry VIII & Catherine of Aragon, who set about
reversing all that her father & Edward VI had done and re-introduced Catholicism
•Silver bells & cockle shells were torture devices, maids were guillotines
•The garden reference was a taunt that she had failed to produce an heir

15. 3 BLIND MICE
Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
See how they run. See how they run.
They all ran after the farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice?
•Version 1
st
published 1609
•Thought to be about Mary 1
st
who spent much of her time at her estates in
Norfolk, Suffolk & Essex rather than at Court, hence ‘the farmer’s wife’
•The 3 mice are protestant bishops that she tortured & executed
•Ridley, Latimer & Cranmer – the Oxford Martyrs
•They had all supported Henry VIII’s son, Edward VI

16. Finally, Elizabeth I, daughter
of Henry & Anne Boleyn

17. RAIN RAIN GO AWAY
Rain rain go away,
Come again another day.
Little Johnny wants to play;
Rain, rain, go to Spain,
Never show your face again!
•Thought to refer to the Spanish Armada during the reign of Elizabeth I
•During this period there was constant rivalry between England & Spain
culminating in many Spanish galleons being sent to attack England
•This attempt failed, partly due to nimbler English ships but also by the
stormy weather, which scattered the Armada fleet

18. PUSSYCAT PUSSYCAT
"Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?"
"I've been up to London to visit the Queen."
"Pussycat, pussycat, what did you dare?"
"I frightened a little mouse under her chair"
•Allegedly one of Queen Elizabeth’s staff had an old cat which roamed
throughout one of the castles
•On one occasion the cat went underneath the throne and the cat's tail
brushed against the Queen's foot, startling her
•But 'Good Queen Bess' had a sense of humour and declared that the cat
may wander through the throne room on condition it kept it free of mice!

19. RIDE A COCK HORSE
Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
To see a fine lady upon a white horse
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
She shall have music wherever she goes
•Elizabeth I is the ‘fine lady’ who travelled to Banbury to see the new huge stone
cross which had just been erected
•'bells on her toes' refers to a shoe fashion at the time
•Banbury is at the top of a steep hill & to help carriages up the steep incline a
white cock horse (a large stallion) was made available
•When the Queen's carriage attempted to go up the hill apparently a wheel broke
and the Queen chose to mount the cock horse to reach the Banbury cross
•The people of the town provided minstrels to accompany her

20. THANK YOU!