Nursery Rhyme Origins - The Grand Old Duke

 So, I'd imagine many of us have sung this as a child, perhaps making the actions of marching up and down hills along with it as is dictated in many a playground... but who was the Grand Old Duke of York, and why did he do all this marching?

Firstly, in case you don't know it, here's the rhyme.

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.

In looking into the origins of this rhyme, I was expecting to stumble over a theory or two about who this Duke of York might be, and in truth that much is true - there are quite a few! However, what I also found was a list of variations which seem to be older than the Duke of York version, the oldest of which (according once again to our friend James Halliwell-Phillips) actually spoke of "The King of France with forty thousand men," who "came upon a hill and so came downe againe"This is quoted in the satire "Pigges Coranto, or Newes from the north" which was written in 1640. The song which includes it is labelled "Old Tarlton's Song.Tarlton, from what I can discover, was a "Clown" or comedic writer from the mid-fifteen hundreds although Halliwell-Phillips claims that he didn't actually write some of the tracts he is known for. He was, however, very well esteemed and considered a great wit!

Another version of this rhyme is that which includes the Dutch commander Maurice of Orange. It loosely translates to :

The hero prince Maurice 

came with a hundred thousand men 

with them he went up the hill and also down again

This version, however, is most likely to be a direct copy of the English version, and likely originated in it's English form. So, bearing in mind that originally this rhyme was not about a "Grand old Duke", let's ponder who might be being referred to in the modern version of the rhyme. Firstly, we have no clues about the date it was recorded, with the first complete version being found in 1913's Mother Goose (by Arthur Racken). Opie and Opie, however state that there is a version which references a Duke of York recorded in 1890 but is not the complete version we know now.

From here on in, the answer seems to come down to speculation. Could it be an early reference to Richard, Duke of York (1411–1460) who died during the war of the roses atop the Bailey of a Motte and Bailey castle with 8000 men? This theory seems unlikely due to the fact that this song was likely not written for another hundred or so years, and the details of the early versions don't match up.

More likely, this rhyme speaks of a battle during the French revolutionary wars. After the French Revolution, war broke out all over Europe with France, under it's revolutionary government. This conflict is perhaps too much to go into here, but suffice to say that during this skirmish, England launched what was to be known as the Flanders campaign. Flanders, in northern France, is well-known for being a very flat country, but with the exception of Cassel, a small town built up on a Hill. The leader of this campaign was Prince Frederick (d. 1827) who was Duke of York at the time, and whose campaign ended in defeat and the humiliation of being recalled to England. In this case then, the term "grand old Duke" could have been satirical or sarcastically spoken, rather than respectfully and with reverence. As stated above, however, this is mere speculation, and this modern version of the rhyme could in fact be one of many Dukes of York.

Sources:

Opie, Iona Archibald, and Peter Opie, The Oxford Dictionary Of Nursery Rhymes, 1st edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997)
PIGGE, Pigges Corantoe, Or Newes From The North. [A Political Satire.], 1st edn (London, 1642)
"Pigges Corantoe, Or, Nevves From The North. - LUNA: Folger Digital Image Collection", Luna.Folger.Edu, 2017 <http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/detail/FOLGERCM1~6~6~163446~109948:Pigges-corantoe,-or,-Nevves-from-th> [accessed 27 April 2017]
"Tarlton's Jests, And News Out Of Purgatory: : Halliwell-Phillipps, J. O. (James Orchard), 1820-1889, Ed : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive", Internet Archive, 2017