The Grand Old Duke of York
Encyclopedia
‘The Grand Old Duke of York’ (also sung as The Noble Duke of York) is an English
children's nursery rhyme
, often performed as an action song. The Duke of the title has been argued to be a number of the holders of that office, particularly Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany
(1763–1827) and its lyrics have become proverbial for futile action. It has a Roud Folk Song Index
number of 742.
Frequently, the audience is asked to "act out" the rhyme by standing up, sitting down, and standing halfway up at the appropriate points in the verse.
Sometimes the audience may be asked not to say various words in the poem, for example; they may be asked not to say 'up' and 'down'. The idea is to catch out the participants.
's Mother Goose in 1913. Prior to that a number of alternatives have been found including a note that in Warwickshire in 1892 the song was sung of both the Duke of York and the King of France; from 1894 that it was sung of Napoleon. The oldest version of the song that survives is from 1642, under the title 'Old Tarlton's song', attributed to the stage clown Richard Tarlton
(1530–1588) with the lyrics:
As a result the argument has been made that it may have been a common satirical verse that was adapted as appropriate and, because it was recorded in roughly the modern form, has become fixed on the Duke of York.
Candidates for the duke in question include:
Apart from the ducal title in the song and the events of their lives there is no external evidence to link the rhyme to any of these candidates, but attribution becomes more likely the closer they are in date to our first evidence that the rhyme was being sung.
organizations. The song is repeated with the actions, getting faster each time.
The nursery rhyme was also featured as a 24-second bridge between tracks on the 1968 album Every One Of Us
by Eric Burdon and The Animals. It was retitled "Uppers and Downers" as a possible reference to the drug culture of that time period, but the poem itself was not altered.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
children's nursery rhyme
Nursery rhyme
The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
, often performed as an action song. The Duke of the title has been argued to be a number of the holders of that office, particularly Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany
The Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany was a member of the Hanoverian and British Royal Family, the second eldest child, and second son, of King George III...
(1763–1827) and its lyrics have become proverbial for futile action. It has a Roud Folk Song Index
Roud Folk Song Index
The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of 300,000 references to over 21,600 songs that have been collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world...
number of 742.
Lyrics
The most common modern version is:Oh, The grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men;
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.
And when they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only half-way up,
They were neither up nor down.
Frequently, the audience is asked to "act out" the rhyme by standing up, sitting down, and standing halfway up at the appropriate points in the verse.
Sometimes the audience may be asked not to say various words in the poem, for example; they may be asked not to say 'up' and 'down'. The idea is to catch out the participants.
Origins
Like many popular nursery rhymes the origins of the song have been much debated and remain unclear. Unusually the rhyme clearly refers to a historical person and debates have tended to circulate around identifying which Duke is being referred to in the lyrics. The lyrics were not printed in their modern form until relatively recently, in Arthur RackhamArthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham was an English book illustrator.-Biography:Rackham was born in London as one of 12 children. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office and began studying part-time at the Lambeth School of Art.In 1892 he left his job and started working for The...
's Mother Goose in 1913. Prior to that a number of alternatives have been found including a note that in Warwickshire in 1892 the song was sung of both the Duke of York and the King of France; from 1894 that it was sung of Napoleon. The oldest version of the song that survives is from 1642, under the title 'Old Tarlton's song', attributed to the stage clown Richard Tarlton
Richard Tarlton
Richard Tarlton , an English actor, was the most famous clown of his era.His birthplace is unknown, but reports of over a century later give it as Condover in Shropshire, with a later move to Ilford in Essex...
(1530–1588) with the lyrics:
The King of France with forty thousand men,
Came up a hill and so came downe againe.
As a result the argument has been made that it may have been a common satirical verse that was adapted as appropriate and, because it was recorded in roughly the modern form, has become fixed on the Duke of York.
Candidates for the duke in question include:
- Richard, Duke of York
Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of YorkRichard Plantagenêt, 3rd Duke of York, 6th Earl of March, 4th Earl of Cambridge, and 7th Earl of Ulster, conventionally called Richard of York was a leading English magnate, great-grandson of King Edward III...
(1411–1460), who was defeated at the Battle of WakefieldBattle of WakefieldThe Battle of Wakefield took place at Sandal Magna near Wakefield, in West Yorkshire in Northern England, on 30 December 1460. It was a major battle of the Wars of the Roses...
on 30 December 1460. Richard's army, some 8,000 strong, was awaiting reinforcements at Sandal CastleSandal CastleSandal Castle is a ruined medieval castle in Sandal Magna, a suburb of the city of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, overlooking the River Calder. It was the site of royal intrigue, the opening of one of William Shakespeare's plays, and was the source for a common children's nursery rhyme.-The...
in WakefieldWakefieldWakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
(the castle was built on top of a NormanNorman architectureAbout|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
motteMotte-and-baileyA motte-and-bailey is a form of castle, with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade...
). He was surrounded by LancastrianHouse of LancasterThe House of Lancaster was a branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. It was one of the opposing factions involved in the Wars of the Roses, an intermittent civil war which affected England and Wales during the 15th century...
forces some three times that number, but chose to sally forth to fight. Richard died in a pitched battle at Wakefield Green, together with between one third and one half of his army. - James IIJames II of EnglandJames II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
(1633–1701), formerly Duke of York , who in 1688 marched his troops to Salisbury PlainSalisbury PlainSalisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in central southern England covering . It is part of the Southern England Chalk Formation and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, with a little in Hampshire. The plain is famous for its rich archaeology, including Stonehenge, one of England's best known...
to resist the invasion from his son-in-law William of OrangeWilliam III of EnglandWilliam III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
, only to retreat and disperse them as his support began to evaporate. - The most common attribution is to Prince Frederick, Duke of York and AlbanyPrince Frederick, Duke of York and AlbanyThe Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany was a member of the Hanoverian and British Royal Family, the second eldest child, and second son, of King George III...
(1763–1827), the second son of King George IIIGeorge III of the United KingdomGeorge III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
and Commander-in-ChiefCommander-in-ChiefA commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...
of the British ArmyBritish ArmyThe British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
during the French Revolutionary WarsFrench Revolutionary WarsThe French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
and the Napoleonic WarsNapoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. His one field command of significance was the Flanders CampaignFlanders CampaignThis feature refers to the conflict that took place during the Wars of the French Revolution 1792–1801.For the Low Countries campaigns of the War of the Grand Alliance 1688–97 see Nine Years' War...
of 1793–4, which resulted in the heavy defeat at the Battle of Tourcoing (1794)Battle of Tourcoing (1794)The Battle of Tourcoing was fought near the town of Tourcoing, just north of Lille in northeastern France on 18 May 1794 and resulted in the victory of the French under Major-Generals Joseph Souham and Jean Moreau over the British under the Duke of York and the Austrians under General the Prince of...
, followed by his recall to England. Flanders has something of a reputation for being flat, the specific location of the "hill" in the nursery rhyme has been attributed to be the town of Cassel which is built on a hill which rises 176 metres (about 570 feet) above the otherwise flat lands of FlandersFlandersFlanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
in northern France.
Apart from the ducal title in the song and the events of their lives there is no external evidence to link the rhyme to any of these candidates, but attribution becomes more likely the closer they are in date to our first evidence that the rhyme was being sung.
Song
‘The Grand Old Duke of York’ is also sung to the tune of ‘A Hunting We Will Go’. It is used as an action song within many ScoutingScouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....
organizations. The song is repeated with the actions, getting faster each time.
The nursery rhyme was also featured as a 24-second bridge between tracks on the 1968 album Every One Of Us
Every One of Us
Every One Of Us is an album released in 1968 by Eric Burdon & The Animals. It was the second of three albums released by the group in the United States in that year...
by Eric Burdon and The Animals. It was retitled "Uppers and Downers" as a possible reference to the drug culture of that time period, but the poem itself was not altered.