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The Battle of Bothwell Bridge

[ Roud 337 ; Child 206 ; Ballad Index C206 ; DT BOTHWBRD ; trad.]

James Kinsley: The Oxford Book of Ballads Sir Walter Scott: Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

Max Dunbar sang The Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1959 on his Folkways album Songs and Ballads of the Scottish Wars 1290-1745. He noted:

Cromwell has come and gone, Charles II has been restored to his father’s crown, and the strife between the Reform Church in Scotland and the Church of England continues. By 1679, the date of the battles of Loudoun Hill and Bothwell Bridge, things were going against the Whig, or Covenanter, side. Loudoun Hill, however was a Covenant victory, and resulted in the flight from the field of the great Claverhouse, known to the Whigs as “Bloody Clavers”. Bothwell Bridge saw the fortunes reversed.

James Graham of Claverhouse, better known as “Bonnie Dundee”, was a staunch Stuart supporter and Tory. A first class military commander, fierce and decisive, his persecution of the Whigs gave rise to a legendary reputation described as follows by Sir Walter Scott: “The Whigs … conceived him to be impassive to their bullets, and that he had sold himself, for temporal greatness, to the seducer of mankind. It is still believed that a cup of wine, presented to him by his butler, changed into clotted blood; and that, when he plunged his feet into cold water, their touch caused it to boil. The steed, which bore him, was supposed to be the gift of Satan; and precipices are shown, where a fox could hardly keep his feet, down which the infernal charger conveyed him safely, in pursuit of the wanderers.”

After Loudoun Hill, the only battle which Claverhouse lost, the Covenanters were in possession of the west of Scotland. A Tory army gathered again in the east, part of it forced into the Royalist cause by Charles II, who put James Duke of Monmouth at the head of it. Monmouth was inclined to make peace if possible, and in fact Charles’s instructions to him offered a peaceful settlement. In the early part of the engagement, however, while the Royalists were still taking up position, dissension arose in the ranks of the Covenanters while they were considering the King’s proposals, with disastrous results. All this is recorded in the ballad; the ballad goes beyond history, however, in ascribing the death of Monmouth to Claverhouse’s intrigue. Claverhouse’s cornet, another Graham, referred to in the twelfth verse, was killed at the battle of Loudoun Hill. Earlstoun was a Gordon.

Lyrics

Max Dunbar sings The Battle of Bothwell Bridge

O Billie, Billie, bonny Billie,
Will ye gae to the wood wi’ me?
We’ll ca’ our horse hame masterless,
An’ gar them trow slain men are we.

O no, O no, says Earlstoun,
For that’s the thing that mauna be;
For I am sworn to Bothwell Hill,
Where I maun either gae or die.

O Earlstoun rose in the morning,
An’ mounted by the break o’ day;
An’ he has joined our Scottish lads,
As they were marching out the way.

Now farewell, father, and farewell mother,
An’ fare ye weel my sisters three;
An’ fare ye weel, my Earlstoun,
For thee again I’ll never see.

So they’re awa’ to Bothwell Hill,
An’ waly they rade bonnily:
When the Duke o’ Monmouth saw them come,
He went to view their company.

Ye’re welcome, lads, the Monmouth said,
Ye’re welcome, brave Scots lads, to me;
And sae are ye, brave Earlstoun,
The foremost o’ your company.

But yield your weapons ane an’ a’;
O yield your weapons, lads, to me;
For gin ye’ll yield your weapons up,
Ye’se gae hame to your country.

O, out then spake a Lennox lad,
And waly he spake bonnily:
I winna yield my weapons up,
To you nor nae man that I see.

Then he set up the flag o’ red,
A’ set about wi’ bonny blue;
Since ye’ll no cease, and be at peace,
See that ye stand by ither true.

They stell’d their cannons on the height,
An’ shower’d their shot down in the howe;
An’ beat our Scots lads even down,
Thick they lay slain on every knowe.

As e’er ye saw the rain down fa’,
Or yet the arrow frae the bow;
Sae our Scottish lads fell even down,
An’ they lay slain on every knowe.

O hold your hand, the Monmouth cried,
Gie quarters to yon men for me!
But wicked Claver’se swore an aith,
His Cornet’s death revenged sud be.

O hold your hand, then Monmouth cried,
If onything ye’ll do for me;
Hold up your hand, you cursed Graeme,
Else a rebel to our King ye’ll be!

Then wicked Claver’se turned about,
I wot an angry man was he;
And he has lifted up his hat,
An’ cried, God bless his Majesty!

Then he’s awa’ to London town,
Aye e’en as fast as he can dree;
Fause witness he has wi’ him taen,
And taen Monmouth’s head free his body.

Alang the brae, beyond the brig,
Mony brave men lies cauld an’ still;
But lang we’ll mind, and sair we’ll rue
The bloody battle o’ Bothwell Hill.