> Folk Music > Songs > The Laird of Logie

The Laird of Logie / Young Logie

[ Roud 81 / Song Subject MAS1073 ; Child 182 ; G/D 2:247 ; Ballad Index C182 ; Mudcat 81214 ; trad.]

David Herd: Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc., First Volume Alexander Keith: Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads and Ballad Airs Emily Lyle, Kaye McAlpine, Anne Dhu McLucas: The Song Repertoire of Amelia and Jane Harris Sir Walter Scott: Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

Bandoggs with Chris Coe in lead sang Laird Logie in 1978 on their eponymous Transatlantic / Leader Tradition album Bandoggs. They noted:

Laird Logie and Hind Horn are both ballads with a more optimistic ending than most, although in the former a somewhat ruthless heroine makes a scapegoat of the innocent gaoler in order to engineer the escape of her lover from prison.

Ewan MacColl sang The Laird o’ Logie in 1982 on his and Peggy Seeger’s Blackthorne album Blood & Roses Vol. 3. He noted:

The events described in this short ballad occurred in August 1592, when Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, was found guilty of having conspired to kidnap King James VI of Scotland at the palace of Falkland. Wemyss of Logie, who is generally cited as a central character in the ballad, was among the other conspirators found guilty and sentenced to death. On the same night that the sentence was passed, he was rescued by his mistress, a Danish waiting-woman of the Queen’s bed-chamber. In our version of the ballad, Logie has been abandoned in favour of Andrew Stewart, Laird of Ochiltree, who was an active partisan of Bothwell.

Katherine Campbell sang The Laird of Logie, accompanied by Mairi Campbell on fiddle, in 2004 on her CD The Songs of Amelia and Jane Harris which is a companion to the book The Song Repertoire of Amelia and Jane Harris, edited by Emily Lyle (2002). Her album’s notes commented:

The ballad is based on an incident in the court of James VI that took place in 1592. John Wemyss, the young laird of Logie in North Fife, was a gentleman servant of the king’s chamber and was apparently a great favourite of both King James and his queen and was involved in a relationship with Margaret, the queen’s marie. The queen’s marie (i.e. lady in waiting) was, in this case, Margaret Twynlace who attended Queen Anne when she came to Scotland from Denmark in May 1590. In the Harris version of the ballad (The Laird of Logie: Child 182) the young Laird of Logie is imprisoned by the king for the apparently minor indiscretion of ‘stealing a kiss from the queen’s marie’ as in the first stanza.

The offence for which Logie was locked up in August of 1592 was, in fact, more serious than stealing a kiss. He was said to have had an involvement with Francis Stewart, the Earl of Bothwell and cousin to the king who had ‘conspired the apprehension of the king’s person’ while James had been residing at Falkland palace in June of the same year.

In the ballad, when Lady Margaret hears that her young Logie has been detained, she comes down the stair crying to the queen. […] The queen goes to the king, bur he refuses her pleas for clemency. Lady Margaret again pleads with the queen who ‘counterfeits the kings’s hand’ in a message which she sends with the kings’s glove to ‘Pitcairn’s wa’s’ as authority for the freeing of Logie. The king, looking over his castle wall, sees Young Logie, the queen admits her part in the venture and Young Logie is pardoned.

There is no historical evidence the queen was involved in the deception. Lady Margaret is reported to have herself gone to the guard during the night with a request that she was to take Logie to the king. Instead she enabled him to escape from a window. She and John Wemyss, younger Laird of Logie, were later married.

Lyrics

Ewan MacColl sings The Laird o’ Logie

Listen, good people to my tale,
Listen to what I tell to thee;
The King has ta’en a poor prisoner
The wanton Laird o’ Ochiltree.

When news of it cam’ tae the Queen,
She sighed and said richt mournfully:
O whit will come o’ Lady Margret
Wha bears sic love for Ochiltree?

The Queen she’s gane intil the King
And louted low doon til her knee;
I never asked a boon but noo;
O spare the life o’ Ochiltree.

Gin ye had asked for hoose or land
I’d freely gie them a’ to thee,
But a’ the gowd in fair Scotland
Winna buy the life o’ Ochiltree.

The Queen she tripped doon the stair,
And doon she gaed richt mournfully;
A’ the gowd in fair Scotland
Winna buy the life o’ Ochiltree.

Lady Margaret tore her yellow hair,
And aye the saut tear blint her e’e;
I’ll tak’ a knife and end my life
And lie in the ground wi’ Ochiltree.

O na, na, na, then, said the Queen,
O haud your tongue, this maunna be!
I’ll set ye on a better way
To free the Laird o’ Ochiltree.

The Queen she slippit up the stair,
And up she gaed richt privilee;
And she has stolen the prison keys
And lowsed the Laird o’ Ochiltree.

She’s gi’en to him a purse o’ gowd
And anither o’ the white money;
She’s gi’en him twa pistols by his side
Says, Fire them baith when ye gang free.

When he cam’ tae the Queen’s window,
Whaten a joyfu’ cry gi’ed he!
He’s fired the pistols and he’s awa’,
The wanton Laird o’ Ochiltree.

The King he rose up in his bed,
O wha is this has waukened me?
I’ll pledge my lands and a’ my rents
It’s the wanton Laird o’ Ochiltree.

Then ca’ to me my jailers a’,
Ca’ them by thirty and by three!
I swear that e’er the clock strikes twal’
That hangit high they a’ shall be.

O na, na, na, then, cried the Queen,
Na, na, na, that cannae be!
Gin ye are gaun tae hang them a’
Ye maun, my love, begin wi’ me.

The tane was shippit at the pier o’ Leith,
Lady Margaret at the Queen’s ferry.
And she’s gotten a faither tae her bairn,
The wanton Laird o’ Ochiltree.

Katherine Campbell sings Young Logie

Pretty is the story I hae to tell,
Pretty is the praisin o itsel,
An pretty is the prisner oor king’s tane,
The rantin young laird o Logie.

Has he brunt? or has he slain?
Or has he done any injurie?
Oh no, no, he’s done nothing at all,
But stown a kiss frae the queen’s marie.

Ladie Margaret cam doon the stair,
Wringin her hands an tearin her hair;
Cryin, “Oh, that ever I to Scotland cam,
Aye to see Young Logie dee!”

“Had your tongue noo, Lady Margaret,
An a’ your weepin lat a bee!
For I’ll gae to the king my sell,
An plead for life to Young Logie.”

“First whan I to Scotland cam,
You promised to gie me askens three;
The first then o these askens is
Life for the young laird o Logie.”

“If you had asked house or lands,
They suld hae been at your command;
But the morn, ere I taste meat or drink,
High hanged sall Young Logie be.”

Lady Margaret cam doon the stair,
Wringin her hands an tearin her hair;
Cryin, “Oh, that ever I to Scotland cam,
A’ to see Young Logie dee!”

“Haud your tongue noo, Lady Margaret,
An a’ your weepin lat a bee!
For I’ll counterfiet the king’s hand-write,
An steal frae him his right-hand gloe,
An send them to Pitcairn’s wa’s,
A’ to lat Young Logie free.”

She counterfieted the king’s hand-write,
An stole frae him his richt hand gloe,
An sent them to Pitcairn’s wa’s,
A’ to let Young Logie free.

The king luikit owre his castle-wa,
Was luikin to see what he cald see:
“My life to wad an my land to pawn,
Yonder comes the young laird o Logie!”

“Pardon, oh pardon! my lord the king,
Aye I pray you pardon me;
For I counterfieted your hand-write,
An stole frae you your richt hand gloe,
An sent them to Pitcairn’s wa’s,
A’ to set Young Logie free.”

“If this had been done by laird or lord,
Or by baron of high degree,
I’se mak it sure, upon my word,
His life suld hae gane for Young Logie.

“But since it is my gracious queen,
A hearty pardon we will gie,
An for her sake we’ll free the loon,
The rantin young laird o Logie.”