The Watersons: Joy, Health, Love and Peace

Joy, health, love, and peace be all here in this place
By your leave we will sing concerning our king

Joy, health, love, and peace be all here in this place
By your leave we will sing concerning our king

Our king is well dressed in the silks of the best
In ribbons so rare, no king can compare

Our king is well dressed in the silks of the best
With the ribbons so rare, no king can compare

We have travelled many miles over hedges and stiles
In search of our king, unto you we bring

We have travelled many miles over hedges and stiles
In search of our king, unto you we bring

We have powder and shot to conquer the lot
We have cannon and ball to conquer them all

Old Christmas is past, Twelfth Night is the last,
And we bid you adieu, great joy to the new

Now Christmas is past, Twelfth Night is the last,
And we bid you adieu, great joy to the new

Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick recorded The Wren in 1969 for their duo album Prince Heathen. Carthy noted: Collected by Andy Nisbet, formerly of Swansea University, from two old ladies in Pembrokeshire.

Steeleye Span with Martin Carthy sang it as The King on Steeleye's second album Please to See the King. The record's sleeve notes said:
The wren traditionally symbolised winter and the robin summer. On [St Stephen's Day] in Pembrokeshire, where the song was collected, a wren was hunted and killed to symbolise the death of winter and then placed in a garlanded box and taken from door to door. At each house this song was sung and the occupants asked to pay to see the dead wren with the words “Please to see the King.”

From Mainly Norfolk, of course.