William and Mary, George and Anne

DESCRIPTION: "William and Mary, George and Anne, Four such children had never a man; They put their father to flight and shame, And called their brother a shocking bad name."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: royalty brother sister children father
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1688-1689 - The "Glorious Revolution" overthrows the Catholic James II and VII and replaces him with his son-in-law William III and daughter Mary II
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 529, "William and Mary, George and Anne" (1 text )
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #218, p. 147, "(William and Mary, George and Anne)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 61, "William and Mary, George and Anne" (1 text)
Roud #20091
NOTES [251 words]: For once, there is absolutely no question about the references in this item. Mary is Mary II, the elder daughter of King James II and VII of England and Scotland, who was Protestant. William is her husband, William of Orange, James II's nephew, who became William III; they were joint monarchs from the time they overthrew James II in 1689 until Mary died in 1694. Then William was sole king until he in turn died in 1702. He was succeeded by Queen Anne, James II's second daughter. Her husband was George of Denmark, who was not a member of the British royal family; unlike William, he never became King. The song's "father" is of course James II. The "brother" is James the Old Pretender, who would have been James III had he succeeded. He was the half-brother of Mary and Anne, born after James II turned Catholic, and many in England were afraid of a Catholic king. So James the Old Pretender, although is there is no real doubt about his legitimacy, was formally declared illegitimate and passed over in the succession. Hence the line about a "shocking bad name." The "bad name" was "bastard."
For more on this complex situation, see the notes to "The Vicar of Bray."
The incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 297, since she could not hallucinate an absurd meaning for this piece, instead hallucinated an absurd connection to a verse of "The Battle of Falkirk Muir." But it is self-evident that they do not fit the same tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OO2529

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