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HISTORICAL REFERENCES: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 [168 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.
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
Bibliography

Chambers: E. K. Chambers, English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1945, 1947
Complaynt: James A. H. Murray, editor, The Complaynt of Scotland, volume I (Introduction plus Chapters I-XIII), Early English Text Society, 1872 (I use the 1906 reprint; the Complaynt was published in 1549)
Rollins: Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard)

Last updated in version 5.3
File: C169

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