Four Marys
| "Mary Hamilton" or, "The Fower Maries" |
|
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Published | 16th Century |
| Genre | Child Ballad |
| Writer(s) | Anonymous |
"Mary Hamilton," or "The Fower Maries" ("The Four Marys"), is a common name for a well-known sixteenth-century ballad from Scotland based on an apparently fictional incident about a lady-in-waiting to a Queen of Scotland. It is Child Ballad 173 and Roud 79.
In all versions of the song, Mary Hamilton is a personal attendant to the Queen of Scots, but precisely which queen is not specified. She becomes pregnant by the Queen's husband, the King of Scots, which results in the birth of a baby. Mary kills the infant – in some versions by casting it out to sea or drowning, and in others by exposure. The crime is seen and she is convicted. The ballad recounts Mary's thoughts about her life and her impending death in a first-person narrative.
Most versions of the song are set in Edinburgh, but Joan Baez sets her version, which is probably the best known, in Glasgow, ending with these lyrics:
This verse suggests that Mary Hamilton was one of the famous "Four Marys" chosen by Mary of Guise (1515–1560), queen consort of James V, King of Scots, to be companions to her daughter – the infant Mary Stuart, called Mary, Queen of Scots (1542–1587) – who succeeded her father shortly after her birth. Yet none of the real four Marys was a Hamilton, they were actually Mary Beaton, Mary Seton, Mary Fleming, and Mary Livingston.
In many versions of the song, the queen is called "the auld Queen", suggesting that she is middle-aged or older. The reign of Mary, Queen of Scots, began when she was only six days old in 1542 and ended with her abdication in 1567 at the age of twenty-five, which might make young Mary and her spouse, king consort Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, unlikely grist for the tale. However, "the auld Queen," as a colloquial term, may refer to precedence rather than age, in which case, she should not be ruled out, nor should another possible Queen of Scots three generations earlier, Mary of Guelders (1434–1463), consort to James II of Scotland.
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