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The Death of Queen Jane

[ Roud 77 ; Master title: The Death of Queen Jane ; Child 170 ; G/D 3:693 ; Ballad Index C170 ; QueenJane at Old Songs ; VWML HAM/5/33/7 , SBG/5/76 ; DT QUENJANE , QUENJAN2 ; Mudcat 17304 ; words trad.; music of some versions by Dáithí Sproule]

F.J. Child: English and Scottish Popular Ballads Nick Dow: Southern Songster Kathy Henderson with Frankie Armstrong and Sandra Kerr: My Song Is My Own Alexander Keith: Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads and Ballad Airs John Morrish: The Folk Handbook John Jacob Niles: (The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles Cecil J. Sharp: One Hundred English Folksongs Ralph Vaughan Williams and A.L. Lloyd: Penguin Book of English Folk Songs Mike Yates: Traveller’s Joy

F.J. Child catalogued the ballad The Death of Queen Jane as #170, and he included both English and Scottish versions. It was also printed in Ralph Vaughan Williams and A.L. Lloyd’s Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.

Douglas Kennedy sang The Death of Queen Jane to Jean Ritchie and George Pickow in London. This recording was included in 1959 on the Folkways anthology Field Trip England. Ritchie and Pickow noted:

Many singers of this song, especially those in rural Scotland, will take oath that every word of it is true, and certainly it makes a dramatic tale. History, however, relates that Queen Jane died twelve days after giving birth to her son in a natural way. From a news point of view, one can readily understand that the broadsheet proclaiming that the Queen had her right side cut open would be a far better seller than it would be if the minstrel-author had kept to the facts. This ballad is popular in England, Scotland, and has several beautiful and heartrending American variants. It is sung here by the Director of the English Folk Song and Dance Society, a position he has held since the death of its founder, Cecil Sharp. Douglas Kennedy is a member of a great singing family, the Kennedys of Scotland.

Cyril Tawney sang Queen Jane in 1969 on his Polydor album of traditional ballads from Devon and Cornwall, The Outlandish Knight. He noted:

Collected by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould from Samuel Fone, Blackdown, Mary Tavy, Devon, March 1893 [VWML SBG/5/76] . No text of this is preserved in Baring-Gould’s manuscripts, and had he not sent it to Professor Child for publication in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Fone’s words would have been completely lost. According to history the birth of King Henry the Eighth’s son Prince Edward (later Edward the Sixth) on 12 October 1537 was a natural one although his mother, Jane Seymour, died twelve days later. There was a strong rumour at the time, however, that it had been found necessary to cut the baby out of its mother’s side and that Queen Jane died as a consequence. The traditional ballad, very popular in Scotland as well as Devon, Somerset and Dorset, supports the legend.

Dave and Toni Arthur sang The Death of Queen Jane in 1969 on their Topic album The Lark in the Morning. Their sleeve notes comment:

On 12 October 1537, Jane Seymour presented Henry VIII with a son, later to become Edward VI. The birth was quite natural, but through bad nursing the Queen died twelve days later. Ballad writers of the day, obviously more concerned with drama than fact, ascribed her death to a Caesarean operation. This myth was perpetuated in the Charles Laughton film The Private Life of Henry the Eight.

The earliest record of the song seems to be the broadside, The Lamentation of Queen Jane, licensed in 1560. Francis Child printed nine versions in his English and Scottish Popular Ballads, and it has remained a constant countryside favourite for some four hundred years. It is known in America too. A version collected from an Irish girl in Kentucky begins:

Jane was a neighbour for six months or more,

which shows how the words may be jumbled in oral tradition.

Dáithí Sproule composed his own melody for The Death of Queen Jane in 1971. His version was first recorded by the Bothy Band, with Mícheál Ó Domhnaill on vocals, live in Paris in 1978 for their album Afterhours, and his website notes nearly 20 recordings by other artists.

Sheena Wellington sang The Death of Queen Jane to Dáithí Sproule melody in 1986 on her Dunkeld album Kerelaw. She noted:

The compelling voice of Maureen Jelks, of Forfar, introduced me to this version of the poignant ballad.

Helen Bonchek Schneyer sang The Death of Queen Jane in 1992 on her Straight Arrow album Somber, Sacred and Silly.

Ray Driscoll sang The Death of Queen Jane in a recording made by Gwylim Davies in April 1996 that was included in 2008 on his posthumous album Wild, Wild Berry. Gwylim Davies noted:

The Death of Queen Jane (Roud 77, Child 170)—a rare song these days in the tradition. It tells the story of Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife, who died in 1537 a fortnight after giving birth to their son Edward. The song suggests that the baby was delivered by Caesarean section, but there is no historical evidence to support this. Ray learned this version from an itinerant farm worker in Hanwood, whom he called Harry Civil, although it seems that the nickname ‘Civil’ was ironic as Harry was usually far from civil.

Isla St Clair sang Queen Jane in 2000 on her Highland Classics album Royal Lovers & Scandals. She noted:

King Henry the Eighth of England loved his third wife, Jane Seymour, dearly. Her pregnancy with the long awaited heir to the throne was a difficult one and Jane died in childbirth, after the decision had been made to cut out the infant Prince Edward from her belly. The ballad dates from the sixteenth century.

Ron Coe sang The Death of Queen Jane in 2005 on the Dorset half of the Forest Tracks album Folk Songs From Hampshire and Dorset. Paul Marsh noted:

The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs p.31. From Marina Russell, Upwey, 1907 [VWML HAM/5/33/7] .

This song is a re-working of historical fact. Jane Seymour, whose family seat was Marwell Hall, nr. Winchester, became the third wife of Henry VIII in 1536. They married in secret at Marwell 11 days after Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife, was beheaded. Jane died in 1537, twelve days after giving birth to Henry’s only son, who later became Edward VI. Marwell is also believed to be linked with a tragedy, the story of which is told in The Mistletoe Bough, a song about a young bride who hides in a linen chest during a game of hide and seek. She is discovered, some time later by her distraught husband, to have died from suffocation.

Duncan Willimson of Ladybanks, Fife, sang Queen Jane to Mike Yates on 3 September 2001. This recording was included in 2002 on the Kyloe album of songs, stories and ballads from Scottish Travellers, Travellers’ Tales Volume 2. Mike Yates noted:

Child 170 The Death of Queen Jane. Greig/Duncan 693. Sharp 32. Sharp/Appalachians 32.

The following note is attached to the Greig/Duncan versions. The reference is to Jane Seymour, queen of Henry VIII, and the birth of Prince Edward. She died twelve days after the birth; and it seems “there was a belief that severe surgery had been required” (Child3.372-3), though for that there is no good authority, and the story of the ballad is really without foundation.”

Nevertheless, over the years many singers have believed the story to be true. In 1917 Cecil Sharp noted a version of the ballad from a singer in Kentucky who, having been told by Sharp that it was based on fact, replied, “There now, I always said it must be true because it is so beautiful.”

Other Recordings: Bascom Lamar Lunsford (North Carolina, USA) - Smithsonian-Folkways SFCD 40082. Archie Sturgill (Virginia, USA) - Smithsonian-Folkways SFCD 40097.

Martin Graebe sang Queen Jane at the Golden Fleece in Stroud in the early 2000s. This recording was included in 2005 on the Musical Traditions anthology Songs From the Golden Fleece: A Song Tradition Today. Rod Stradling noted:

Taken down by Sabine Baring-Gould from Sam Fone of Mary Tavy, 28 March 1893 [VWML SBG/5/76] . I found this text in the Personal Copy Manuscript (K3 p7 No395). Fone said that there were more verses but he could not remember them. SBG makes reference to Bell p.113. This song was published in Folk Song Journal (JFSS 3, 1907). On a slip of paper inserted into the page in the manuscript is a note (probably a draft for a publication):

A story circulated through England and was credited by Sir John Hayward, that the physicians asked King Henry when the time approached for the birth of a child by Queen Jane the one or the other of the two lives must be sacrificed; whereupon the King said: “Save the child, as for a wife I can get nay other that I like.” The story, however is not true. Although Queen Jane did die a few days after the birth of Edward on 12 October, that is to say 24 Octoberh, this was not due to any operation. However the fancy that there was and that the Queen’s life was sacrificed was very prevalent and forms the subject of a ballad sung to this day among the peasantry.

Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick recorded Death of Queen Jane for their 2006 album Straws in the Wind. Carthy noted:

Something about Jane Seymour surely got its hooks into the collective imagination because, apart from Death of Queen Jane, there aren’t many songs this sympathetic to actual (as opposed to storybook) royalty. Neither is there a great deal of good feelings towards Henry VIII: he’s very much on the sidelines. The song has her dying in the immediate aftermath of birth of her son—which of course makes for the starkest drama—but in fact she died twelve days afterwards: the idea of the [Caesarean] section to assist the birth is not, I think, supported by history.

Karine Polwart sang The Death of Queen Jane in 2007 on her CD Fairest Floo’er and in 2017 on A Pocket of Wind Resistance. According to Jill Rogoff, the tune she used and her slighly adapted text is from John Jacob Niles (The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, #50, pp. 271-275); he collected both the melody and a text in Whitesburg, Kentucky on 8 July 1932 from Aunt Beth Holcolm.

Cath and Phil Tyler sang Death of Queen Jane in 2008 on their album Dumb Supper.

Jon Boden sang The Death of Queen Jane on 24 October 2010 (the anniversary of Jane Seymour’s death) in his project A Folk Song a Day, using Dáithí Sproule’s tune. He noted in his blog:

I learnt it from the Bothy Band, although it’s an English song through and through and it’s unusual to come across a sympathetic characterisation of Henry VIII.

Jess and Richard Arrowsmith sang The Death of Queen Jane in 2012 on their CD Customs & Exercise. They noted:

Jane Seymour was the third wife of Henry VIII and died twelve days after the birth of her only child, Edward VI, in October 1537. Henry remained single for two years after her death, and she is the only one of his six wives that he was eventually buried with. Versions of the ballad (Child #170) appear as early as 1612. Most, including this one, imply that she gave birth by caesarian section although this is not believed to be historically accurate.

Martin Simpson sang The Death of Queen Jane in 2013 on the second CD of the deluxe issue of his Topic album Vagrant Stanzas. He noted:

The Death of Queen Jane (Child 170), tells of Jane Seymour, wife of Henry VIII, who gave birth to Prince Edward on 12 October 1537. Jane Seymour actually delivered Edward by natural birth but died twelve days later as a result of poor care. I seem to have had this tune onboard for a very long time. The words are in The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs and were collected from Mrs Russell of Upwey Dorset in 1907.

Robyn Stapleton sang Queen Jeanie in 2015 on the Macmath Collective’s album of songs collected by William Macmath (1848–1922), Macmath: The Silent Page. They noted:

This extraordinary song about the death of Queen Jeanie is thought to be about Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VIII. The song was given by Mary Cochrane of Abbey-yard, Crossmichael, Castle Douglas.

Tannara sang Queen Jane in 2016 on their album Trig. They noted:

The 170^th Ballad published by James Frances Child in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Originating from England, it’s believed to refer to the death of King Henry VIII’s wife Jane Seymour.

Lyrics

Douglas Kennedy sings The Death of Queen Jane

Queen Jane was in labour for six days or more;
Till her women got tired and wished it were o’er.

“Good women, good women, good women if you be,
Will you send for King Henery, for King Henery I must see.”

King Henery was a-sent for and King Henery did come home,
For to meet with Queen Jane. “My Love, your eyes do look so dim.”

“King Henery, King Henery, King Henery if you be,
If you’ll have my right side opened you’ll find my dear baby.”

“Queen Jane, my Love, Queen Jane, my Love, such a thing was never known.
If you have your right side opened you will lose your dear baby.”

“Will you build your love a castle, and dig down so deep,
For to bury my body and christen my dear baby?”

King Henery went a-mourning and so did his men,
And so did his dear baby, for Queen Jane did dyen.

How wide was the mourning, how wide were the bands,
How yellow, yellow were the flamboys they carried in their hands.

There was fiddling, there was dancing on the day the babe was born,
While the royal Queen Jane, beloved, lay cold as a stone.

Martin Graebe sings Queen Jane

Queen Jane O! Queen Jane O! What a lady was she!
And she was in labour six weeks and a day.

Queen Jane she was in labour for six weeks and more,
’Til the women grew so weary that they fain would give o’er.

“O women! O women! Good women if ye be,
Pray send for King Henry and bring him to me.”

King Henry was sent for, he came in all speed
In a gown of red velvet from the heel to his head

King Henry was sent for, and to her he came;
“Dear Lady! Fair Lady! your eyes they look so dim.”

“King Henry! King Henry! If kind you would be,
Pray send for a good doctor and bring him to me.”

The doctor he was sent for and he came in all speed,
In a gown of black velvet from his heel to his head.

The doctor he was sent for and to her he came,
“Dear Lady! Fair Lady! Your labour it is vain.”

“O Doctor! Dear Doctor! If kind you would be,
Pray open my right side and free my baby.”

“O no!” cried King Henry “that never can be.
I’d rather lose the branches than the top of the tree.”

The doctor gave her a caudle, and the death sleep slept she,
And he opened her right side and he freed her baby.

The babe it was christened and put out and nursed,
But the royal Queen Jane she lay dead in the dust.

Martin Carthy sings Death of Queen Jane

Queen Jane lay in labour full nine days or more
Till the women were so tired, they could stay no longer there,
Till the women were so tired, they could stay no longer there.

“Good women, good women, good women as ye be,
Do you open up my right side to find my baby,
Do you open up my right side and find my baby.”

“O no,” says the women, “that never may be,
We will send for King Henry we will hear what he say,
We will send for King Henry and hear what he say.”

King Henry was sent, for King Henry he did come:
“What do ail you, my lady, for your eyes look so dim?
What do ail you, my lady, your eyes look so dim?”

“King Henry, King Henry, will you do one thing for me?
Will you open up my right side and find my baby?
Will you open up my right side and find my baby?”

“O no,” says King Henry, “it’s a thing I’ll never do.
If I lose the flower of England, I shall lose the branch too,
If I lose the flower of England, I’ll lose the branch too.”

King Henry went mourning, and so did his men,
And so did the dear baby, Queen Jane did die then,
And so did the dear baby, Queen Jane did die then.

How deep was their mourning, how black were the bands,
How yellow, yellow were the flamboys that they carried in their hands,
How yellow, yellow were the flamboys they carried in their hands.

There was fiddling, there was dancing on the day the babe was born,
But poor Queen Jane beloved lay cold as any stone,
But poor Queen Jane beloved lay cold as any stone.

Robyn Stapleton sings Queen Jeanie

Queen Jeanie lay in labour six days and more
Till all her good women were forced to gie her o’er
With weeping and wailing, lamenting full sore
That the fair flower o England would flourish no more

“O women, dear women, good women you be
O send for my mother to come and see me”
Her mother was sent for and instantly came
Knelt down by the bedside where Jeannie did lay

“O Mother, dear Mother, if Mother you be
O send for my father to come and see me”
Her father was sent for and instantly came
Knelt down by the bedside where Jeannie did lay

“O Father, dear Father, if Father you be
O send for my Henry to come and see me”
King Henry was sent for and instantly came
Knelt down by the bedside where Jeannie did lay

“O Henry, dear Henry, if Henry you be
O send for the doctor to come and see me”
The doctor was sent for and instantly came
Knelt down by the bedside where Jeannie did lay

“O Doctor, dear Doctor, if Doctor you be
Open my left side and let my babe free”
Her left side was opened the young prince was found
“O Doctor dear Doctor lay me to the ground”

Her bones were all broken and laid at her feet
Her body was blessed with ointment so sweet
And ay as they wept they wrung their hands sore
That the fair floo’er of England will flourish no more

Tannara sing Queen Jane

Queen Jane lay in labour full six days or more,
Till the women grew weary and the midwives gave o’er.

They sent for King Henry to come with great speed
To be with Queen Jane in her hour of need.

King Henry came to her and he sat by her side.
Sing, “What ails thee my Jeannie? What ails thee my bride?”

“O Henry, O Henry, do this one thing for me
Rip open my right side and find my baby.”

“O Jeannie, O Jeannie, that never will do.
It would lease thy sweet life and thy young baby too.”

Well, she wept and she wailed til she fell into a swoon
And her right side was opened, and her baby was found.

Well, the baby was christened the very next day
While his poor dead mother a-mouldering lay.

Six men went before her and four more travelled on
While loyal King Henry stood mourning alone.

Well, he wept and he wailed until he was sore,
Saying, “The flower of all England will flourish no more.”

He sat by the river with his head in his hands,
Saying, “My merry England is a sorrowful land.”

Acknowledgements

Lyrics taken from The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, ed. Ralph Vaughan Williams and A.L. Lloyd, Penguin, 1959:31, and adapted to the actual singing of Martin Carthy by Garry Gillard.

Thanks to Lisa Richardson for the information on Dáithí Sproule’s tune.