ANDREW BATAN ^^^
(Bob Coltman)

Cold falls the snow in midwinter,
King Henry's mad as a bee,
I will pull down that lawless man
That stands between the seas and me.

Then God forbid, says Henry Hunt,
He has the strength of five,
I was Sir Andrew's prisoner once.
He'll never be taken alive.

I will have him and I must have him
And I must have him soon,
Now go and take Sir Andrew Batan
Whether by sun or moon.

Sir Andrew Batan looked low on the sea,
He looked to the topmast high,
He looked and he seen Sir Henry Hunt
Come a-sailing under the sky.

What English dog comes barking here,
What peddler with his pie?
I'm admiral of this Portygal sea,
No captain passes me by.

Now the first shot that Sir Henry shot
It like to won the day,
But the first shot that Sir Andrew shot
It carried their mast away.

Now when the ships come closer in
They struck with a dreadful sound,
Says Andrew Batan to the Gordon boy,
Go let my beams fall down.

But Horsley shot and Harroway shot
And Henry Hunt shot too,
And every arrow that they shot
It pierced Sir Andrew through.

Fight on, fight on, cries Andrew Batan,
I am not nearly slain,
I'll just lie down and bleed a bit
Then rise and fight again.

But Henry Hunt took sword in hand
And cut off Andrew's head,
Then he run on home to King Henry
To show him Batan was dead.

When the King saw Andrew's deathly head
He wept like a man insane,
Oh, such a hero as this was,
I rue that he ever was slain.

But we shall on a progress go
Both here and westerly,
To honor the soul of Andrew Batan,
There's nary another like he.

(Sir Andrew Barton, No. 167)
        Andrew and his brothers Robert and John Barton were all men of note in Scotland's naval history. After a Portuguese squadron seized one of John's richly laden merchant ships in 1476, the brothers applied to the Scottish crown for letters of reprisal which permitted them to prey on Portuguese shipping-the richest in the world at the time because the Portuguese had just found out where India was and had its sumptuous trade all to themselves. Thereafter there was nothing but trouble; the Bartons got excited about the fun and profit of piracy and took it up as a career. Thirty years later they were still at it, which the King of Portugal thought was a little excessive.
        The King of Scots, for his part, wasn't terribly bothered, and would as lief have overlooked the whole thing, but in 1511 things came to a head. King Henry VIII, then two years on the throne and with all his marital adventures still ahead, felt he must do something to justify his job, else why have a king? To unstrain the Portuguese and Scottish relationship, Henry set a plot afoot against Barton, who was admittedly taking his part very freely. By now he was even seizing English cargoes and excusing himself by saying they were Portuguese.         One of the Howard family, chronicles differ which, was sent to sea on an expedition sanctioned by Henry but declared to be private so as to stave off political repercussion. Barton was a hero to many of his countrymen, and England could not afford much trouble with Scotland (that's why Henry makes such a to-do in the last two verses). Barton valiantly fought to the last, drumming his men to a charge while dying of his wounds. But Howard captured his ship Lion, and his bark Jenny Pirwyn, and brought them back to London with Barton's head and such of his crew as were still alive.
        The King of Scots sent asking redress for Barton's slaughter. But Henry refused on grounds that since Barton was a pirate it was no breach of the peace if an English private citizen happened to strike up a quarrel with him on the high seas and, alas, kill him. Regrettable, of course, but ... The two kings, as kings do, settled it amicably between themselves, though a great many Scots stayed unhappy. Child notes that Henry Martyn (No. 250), a weaker and less interesting ballad, "must have sprung from the ashes of Andrew Barton." [BC]

@outlaw @pirate
Child #167
filename[ ANDBART2
SOF


Son of Child CD Track 7