Lyr Req: Montrose (Steeleye Span)

Subject: ADD: Montrose (Steeleye Span)
From: Reiver 2
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 07:29 PM

Well, I might as well throw in my 40 or so verses and choruses. Reiver 1 and I learned "Montrose" from listening to Steeleye Span and this is the way we heard it. It's one of my favorite songs, and despite it's length, is not monotonous as it uses 3 different melodies with key changes and Steeleye Span insert several instrumental interludes. I've indicated them by inserting ********** where they're used. The song is pretty accurate in telling the true story of one of Scotland's great heroes, and a man that that can rightfully be admired. When in Scotland I picked up a copy of Nigel Trantor's book, "Montrose." It's actually two full length books, "The Young Montrose" and "The Captain General." I brought it home, set it on the shelf, and only began reading it a few days ago! [I'm only on p. 93!] Here's how we sang the song:

MONTROSE

When James the King, to assert the Crown,
With Bishops and pen, from London town,
And the sword could ne'er bring Scotland down.

Where the cauld nor'wind creeps through the dawn,
The dolmen drones on a winter's morn,
The fourth Earl's only son was born.

And he grew strong, and he grew stern,
From books and knowledge he would learn,
Ans so to Glasgow he must turn.

For truth and valor he was named,
For bowmanship he was acclaimed,
And the silver arrow he did gain.

First through France, then to London town,
This nobel youth did proudly ride,
With his good bow strapped on behind.

**********

Then his King's favor he had sought,
But slander brought it all to naught,
To Scotland he's fled back from Court.

But new King Charles, so ill advised,
By Hamilton and Laud, likewise,
Scotland they betrayed by lies.

With Papacy and bad intent
A new Prayer Book to Scotland sent,
To control the tax was His intent.

********** Key change and new melody

Paupers raged around St. Giles,
Against the Kings judgement,
But Montrose spoke above them all,
The people's love to win.

So Jamie joined the Covenant;
For war they did prepare,
And he rode forth to Huntley's house
But found no welcome there.

So the gay red Gordon ribbons
They chased around the land,
Until at Inverary
Lord Huntley signed his bands.

So Montrose rode to Aberdeen
Where the Covenant held sway.
Dismayed, the King ar Berwick, [Berreck]
A truce was signed that day.

But the grim Geneva Ministers
put Montrose in a cell,
And there he thought to serve Scotland,
And serve the King as well.

Meanwhile, down south in England,
The Civil War began,
So Montrose rode to London town
To parley with the King.

For a thousand men he pleaded,
To save his fair Scotland,
But he went home a General
Without a single man.

********** [key change]

The giant MacDonald, Alisdair,
With sixteen-hundred men,
From Ireland sailed to join Montrose
And plunder Campbell's glen.

Montrose's small united force
Of Gaelic men did lour,
Against seven-thousand Covenant
On the field of Tippermure.

CHO: I'll serve thee in such noble ways,
    Was never heard heard before.
    I'll crown and deck thee all with bays
    And love thee more and more.

With stones and bows the screaming clans
Put Covenant to flight.
That Sabbath day at Tippermuir
Was sich a bloody sight.

Then marching north to Aberdeen
Where treasure could be found,
The soldiers fought for bounty there,
While James fought for the Crown.

CHO: I'll serve thee in such noble ways
    Was never heard before;
    I'll crown and deck thee all with bays
    And love thee more and more.

His army now, three-thousand strong,
He was resolved to go,
To seek the Campbell in his lair
Through all the winter snow,

'King Campbell' sailed from his castle strang
As Montrose' pipes drew near.
No refuge from the Lord on earth,
No pity for Campbells here.

CHO: I'll serve thee in such noble ways,
    Was never heard before;
    I'll crown and deck thee all with bays
    And love thee more and more.

With the Campbell lands all wasted
Montrose was forced to guess
To fight Argyll or Seaforth
On the road to Inverness,

It came to pass that Campbell's might
Was smashed on Lochiel's shore,
And the terror of Clan Diarmid
Would haunt the glens no more.

At Auldearn, Alford, and Kilsyth,
The Royal Standard shown.
As Alexander, he did reign,
And he did reign alone.

Now Montrose entered Glasgow,
With Scotland at his feet,
But the power could not be broken,
Of the Minister elite.

CHO: I'll serve thee in such noble ways,
    Was never heard before;
    I'll crown and deck thee all with bays
    And love thee more and more.

But soon the year of miracles,
Like the slowly setting sun,
Was passing, now, before his eyes.
All he could do was done.

At Philliphaugh and Carbisdale
Bold fortune did turn cold.
MacLeod, the Devil's advocate,
Sold James for oats and gold.

Cho: I'll serve thee in such noble ways,
    Was never heard before;
    I'll crown and deck thee all with bays,
    And love thee more and more.

********** [key change]

The Judges passed their cruel sentence;
Traitors laughed and jeered.
He stood alone in stately calm
And spoke quite unafeared,

"Nail my head on yonder tower,
Give eve'ry town a limb,
And God, who made, will gather them.
I go from you, to Him."

As he turned from out the hall,
Clouds left the sky.
To battle he had never walked
More proudly than to die,

They set him high upon a cart.
The hangman rode below.
There stood the Whig and West Country lords,
In balcony and bow.

They brought him to the Water Gate;
He looked so great and high.
So noble was his manly frame,
So clear his steadfast eye.

**********

The rebel rout forebore to shout,
And each man held his breath,
Full well they knew a hero's soul
Was face to face with death.

**********

For loving Scotland and his King,
He went to death that morn.
A shudder ran across the sky;
The word of death was borne.

CHO [twice]: I'll serve thee in such noble ways,
             Was never heard before;
             I'll crown and deck thee all with bays,
             And love thee more and more.

There is much factual material in the song, which as an historian, is one of the reasons I like the song so much. Alistair Mac Donald, truly a giant of a man, did bring troops from his native Ireland to fight under Montrose. The Chief of Clan McLeod did accept gold plus bags of oats for informing on Montrose. Montrose did speak those words, or words of that ilk, from the scaffold. The stark lyrics are powerful, but do not convey the power and beauty of the song. The changes in melody, key changes, etc. add more than mere words can express. I'm SO glad to see this thread on the Mudcat forum.

Reiver 2

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Montrose (Steeleye Span)
From: Reiver 2
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 04:59 PM

A "few" more words regarding Montrose. Some verses of the song are based on a "love poem" that Montrose, himself, wrote to his wife, Magdalen. Theirs had been a somwhat rocky relationship for some time, as she wanted Montrose to spend more time at home with his family while he could not desist from activities that prevented this. Beginning with the words, "Dear lady and only love," and ending the first stanza, ''I'll never love thee more," he continues, trying to explain why he cannot be the homebody she wants him to be and pleads for her understanding of why he can't: "Like Alexander I will reign, and I will reign alone." After pleading, "If thou wilt prove faithful then, and constant of thy word, I'll make thee glorious by my pen and famous by my sword," he concludes with the lines used in the CHO: stanza of the song, "I'll serve the in such noble ways/ Was never heard before;/ I'll crown and deck thee all with bays/ And love thee more and more." The entire long poem is posted by Jim Dixon in a previous post to this thread.

The stanzas in the song about riding to London to see the King, pleading for "a thousand men" and being made a general but sent back "without a single man," is not exactly right. The King at the time was not in London, but in York campaigning in the English civil war. Montrose had received a promise from Lord Antrim, "the handsome, brainless chief of the Irish MacDonalds" to send him an army of "ten-thousand men." This was no doubt due to the fact that prominent among those opposing Montrose were the Campbells, the old enemies of clan MacDonald. King Charles did appoint Montrose a Major-General but could only spare 100 horsemen to go with him back to Scotland. [Not quite the "not a single man" of the song.] With such an inadequate force, he could not return. Instead, with two companions he slipped back into Scotland and soon after received word that the MacDonald force from Ireland had finally landed in Scotland. It was not the promised 10,000 men, but instead a force of barely over 1,000, under the leadership of Antrim's son Alisdair who, at 7 ft. tall was, indeed, a "giant" of a man.

Two other comments on the song: Montrose was an outstanding archer, or bowman, and as a young man had received two "silver arrow" awards.
He was finally taken prisoner with some involvement of Assynt, "a young chieftain of the MacLeods." Assynt always maintained that he handed Montrose over to the authorities as the act of a man doing his duty as a loyal subject of the government in power. Others, believed the story that was also current at the time that the rather poor young MacLeod and his wife knowing that there was reward money available took Montrose into their home, feigning friendship, only to secretly turn him over to his enemies. Thus the line, "sold James for oats and gold." That claim admittedly makes for the better story. John Prebble, in his fine history of Scotland, "The Lion of the North" [the Lion being in reference to Scotland, not to Montrose] puts the reward at "25 thousand Pounds Scots, part of which was paid in oatmeal." Prebble gives no source for the amount.

There is an excellent, short biography called, simply, "Montrose" by C.V. Wedgwood. My comments on this thread are based largely on Wedgwood and Prebble.

Reiver 2

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Montrose (Steeleye Span)
From: GUEST,Allan
Date: 19 Jun 10 - 04:48 AM

"The song is pretty accurate in telling the true story of one of Scotland's great heroes,"

Montrose is most famous for changing sides (ie he was originally a Covenanting general who switched back to the royalist cause at least partly for personal reasons) and invading Scotland several times. Firstly with English troops, then with a mixture of Irish troops and disaffected MacDonalds,then eventually with Scandinavian troops. Only his second attempt had any success but his string of victories took place whilst the main Scottish government army was out of the country occupying northern England. Montrose had once occupied Aberdeen as a Covenanting general. The city was fundametally royalist. Yet when he reoccupied it now as a Royalist general he let his Irish troops run amok for three days in an orgy of slaughter. During the same campaign the MacDonald bards boasted about killing 900 Campbells in Argyll without a sword being lifted in defence. It is easy to think about the romantic idea of the Campbell chief fleeing in his boat down the loch escaping from Montrose's allies - but who remembers the hundreds of ordinary Campbell non-combatants butchered in cold blood. Admittedly Montrose wasn't invovled in the Argyll atrocities himself but several of Montrose's own victories were marked by butchery in the aftermath of the battle. He had little active support within mainland Scotland and when the returning Scottish army caught up with him at Selkirk he made a pig's ear of it and fled Philiphaugh leaving many of the Irish (both troops and camp followers) to be slughtered on the spot by a vengeful Scottish government army. I think anyone really studying their history would be hard pressed to truly think of Montrose as one of Scotland's great heroes. He came to be despised by many during his own lifetime; was then glorified by what itself became an oppressive and unpopular Restoration regime within Scotland; then was glamourised by later romantic writers like Scott. Great national heroes tend to be involved in great national struggles. Hence the likes of Wallace, Bruce and Sir James Douglas etc can easily be dsecribed as great national heroes. I don't think any of the generals involved in the butchery of Scotland's civil wars in the 17thC could really be described as great heroes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Montrose (Steeleye Span)
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 08:05 PM

A most interesting thread, concerning one of my favorite songs ... I don't have much to add, except my appreciation for the historical information above!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Montrose (Steeleye Span)
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Apr 13 - 02:02 AM

It's not paupers or robbers, but RIOTERS who either raged, or more likely, RANGED (meaning wandered over a large area) around St. Giles.

It was at St. Giles cathedral in Edinburgh that a reading from the new Episcopalian book of prayer triggered a riot. Specifically, it was Jenny Geddes throwing a stool at the head of the Dean of Edinburgh, John Hannah, that began the riot, and, in some sense, led to the whole of the English Civil War.

These lyrics are a hoot. Some of the best misheard lines on the 'net. My personal fav is from "Hotel California" : "...she got a Mercedes bends" like she drove it off a bridge into deep water and came up too fast or something, but "a new fair buck or "showed James the road somehow" are tied for second place.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Montrose (Steeleye Span)
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Apr 13 - 02:48 AM

Small clarification: while it was definitely rioters who ranged around St.Giles, on the extant recordings, it certainly sounds like Tim Hart sings "paupers". This is historically inaccurate, as the riots that started at St. Giles certainly did not involve only the poor, but extended throughout Scottish society.

The song is filled with indirection, however, so Tim may have meant to sing "paupers" as a clever reference to Saint Giles, who was the patron saint of paupers. He may have used "paupers" as a synecdoche for the St.Giles congregation as a whole, and possibly as a veiled reference to the economic disparity between Calvinism and the Catholic Church.