Queen Mary's Men (New Year's Eve Carol)

DESCRIPTION: "This is good New Year's Even-night, We are all Queen Mary's men, And we've come here to claim our right, And that's before Our Lady." The singers travel the town asking for gifts of food. The offer good wishes for the residents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: food carol
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #152, p. 1, "Queen Mary's Men" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 641, "We Are A' Queen Mary's Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 200, "Queen Mary's Men" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 406-407, "Fragment of the Hagmena Song" (1 text)
DT, MARYMEN
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 167-169, ("This night it is guid New'r E'en's night")
Roud #4584
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Besuthian" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Orkney New Year's Eve Carol
NOTES [203 words]: This song seems to be known mostly in the north of Scotland, where Catholicism held on long after the Reformation, so the refernce to "Our Lady" probably does not indicate an early date.
The reference to "Queen Mary" is not very helpful in dating. Counting backward, queens of Britain named Mary were:
Mary of Teck, wife of George V (1867-1953)
Mary II Stewart, wife of William III (joint monarchy; reigned 1689-1694; born 1662)
Mary of Modena, second wife of James II (1658-1718); if she were meant, this would be an overtly political song, which seems unlikely
Queens Mary of England after 1400 were:
Mary I, queen regnant 1553-1558 (1516-1558)
Queens Mary of Scotland after 1500 were:
Mary Stewart/Stuart, queen regnant 1542-1567 (1542-1587)
Mary of Guise, wife of James V and mother of Mary Stuart (1515-1560; she was de facto or de jure Governor of Scotland for much of the last decade and a half of her life)
Mary of Gueldres, wife of James II (died 1463)
All of these save Mary II were Catholic (well, I'm not sure about Mary of Teck, but she's presumably too late, since she became queen in the year Greig/Duncan collected the song), but few of them are convincing candidates for the Queen Mary of the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MSNR200

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