Johnie Armstrong [Child 169]

DESCRIPTION: Johnie Armstrong "had nither lands nor rents," but "kept eight score men in his hall" by raiding. The king summons Armstrong to court. Armstrong comes; the king orders his execution. Armstrong instead dies fighting. His young son vows revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1658; a song with this name was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: outlaw royalty punishment execution battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1530 - James V of Scotland puts down the Armstrongs
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber,Hebr))
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Child 169, "Johnie Armstrong" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #6, #7}
Bronson 169, "Johnie Armstrong" (10 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 169, "Jhnnie Armstong" (2 versions: #3, #7)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 31-36, "Johnie Armstrang" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution,pp. 331-334, "John Armstong's Last Good-night" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 56-61, "Johnnie Armstrong" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 475-477, "Johnie Armstrong" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 240, "Johnie Armstrong" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 89, "Johnie Armstrong" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 127-129+329, "Johnie Armstrong" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 106, "Johnie Armstrong" (1 text)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 153-158, "Johnie Armstrong" (1 text, from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 355-358, "Johnie Armstrang"; pp. 358-359, "Johnnie Armstrong's Last Goodnight" (2 texts)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 22, "Johnie Armstrong" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 101-103, "Johnie Armstrong" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1503, "Is there never a man in all Scotland"
DT 169, JARMSTR1 JARMSTR2
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 74-78 "Johnnie Armstrong" (1 text, 1 tune) {the text is Child's C, which goes with Bronson's #3, but the tune looks more like Bronson's #2}
Roud #76
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, S.302.b.2(064), "John Armstrong's Last Farewell," unknown, after 1700
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Parting Glass" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Fare Thou Well Bonny Gilt Knock Hall (per broadside NLScotland, S.302.b.2(064))
NOTES [688 words]: Several English texts claim that Armstrong lived in Westmoreland, and raided the Scots. This is, of course, not true; he was a Scot. But neither side had much use for such an outlaw.
Magnusson, p. 303, summarizes the story of "an expedition which King James V made in 1530, when he descended in force on the lawless debatable border lands of the West Marches, which had been the cause of endless contention between Scotland and England. His main target was the notorious border reiver (raider) Johnnie Armstrong of Gilknockie... [T]he Armstrongs of Liddesdale had been a law unto themselves for many years; they were said to have boasted that they acknowledged the authority of neither the King of Scots nor the King of England.
"[This ballad] claims that the king enticed Armstrong to a peace-meeting at Caerlenrig with fifty unarmed followers and then broke his word by having them arrested... Johnnie Armstrong and most of his accomplices were taken otside and summarily hanged. Half a dozen were spared."
Magnusson adds that the incident became the subject of an award-winning 1965 play, John Arden's "Armstrong's Last Goodnight: An Exercise in Diplomacy."
Similarly, Perry, p. 206, "After he had expelled teh Douglasses and confiscated Tantallon, the young King of Scots [James V] set about restoring law and order.... The King captured and hanged the notorious outlaw Johnny Armstrong, who for years had terrorized villagers on both sides of the Border, swearing he recognized neither the King of England nor the King of Scotland."
James V took care of Johnny Armstrong, but not the Armstrongs as a whole; in the next reign, Mary Stewart had to send the Earl of Bothwell to try to suppress them -- and they nearly killed him (Stedall, pp. 158-159).
The Armstrongs were typical of a border phenomenon of the sixteenth century, as the great border lords (the Percies and Nevilles on the English side, the Douglases on the Scots) were brought to heel by the central government: Since there were no great lords to manage the areas, more and more ruffians arose.
"Tynedale and Redesdale had become almost uncontrollable districts where lawlessness was endemic and on a grand scale. As elsewhere there was an upper level of gentry families, but beneath this layer the tenantry had formed tightly knit family groups known as 'surnames' with subdivisions called 'graynes.' This society was very similar in nature and operation to the clans and septs of the Highlands, and, as in that region, was the consequence of the failure of government to impose its authority. In Tyndale the main 'surnames' were Charlton, Dodd, Milburn, and Robson, while in Redesdale the leading groups were Dunn, Hall, Hedley, Potts, and Reed. Across the border in Teviotdale and Liddesdale an identical and parallel development had taken place which had given rise to 'surnames' such as Armstrong, Elliot, Graham, and Nixon" (Lomas, p. 66).
Lomas goes on to explain, "Socially, the unit above the family was the 'grayne,' each with its own chosen headman who represented his group in its dealings with the landlord and, when required, with the law courts; and was their leader in illegal activities. These were of three main sorts: blackmail (extorting protection money), reiving (stealing animals), and kidnapping (for ransom)."
Izaak Walton's Compeat Angler refers to this tune (Chapter II), although in a strange list mixing folk songs ("Johnny Armstrong," "Chevy Chase") and art songs ("As at Noon Dulcina Rested," "Phyllida Flouts Me"). According Chambers, p. 181, the Complaynt of Scotland mentions a "Ihonne ermstrangis dance," which might well refer to the same Johnie Armstrong but probably is not the same song. For the Complaynt of Scotland citation, Complaynt, p. lxxxix.
Rollins, p. 113, has two seventeenth century citations, the first of which might be and the second of which almost certainly is this: #1300, "John Armstrongs last good night, &c.," March 26, 1658, Francis Grove; and #1301, "John Armsestrongs last good night," March 1, 1675, no printer listed, but linked to this song beause it's in Roxburghe Ballads VI, 604. - RBW
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File: C169

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