"The Grand Old Duke of York" is an English children's nursery rhyme, often performed as an action song. The eponymous duke has been argued to be a number of the bearers of that title, particularly Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (1763–1827), and its lyrics (where the duke marches ten thousand soldiers up and down a hill for no apparent reason) have become proverbial for futile action. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 742. "The Grand Old Duke of York" is also sung to the tune of "A-Hunting We Will Go".

The oldest version of the song that survives is from 1642, under the title 'Old Tarlton's song', attributed to the stage clown Richard Tarlton (1530–1588). The lyrics of this version were referring to a King of France instead of a Duke.

Words

thumb|[[Portrait of Prince Frederick, Duke of York|Portrait of the Duke of York by Thomas Lawrence. The song is often associated with the Duke of York and the Flanders Campaign of the 1790s.]]

A modern version is:

Origins

thumb|Richard Tarlton in the 1580s with his pipe and tabor

Like many popular nursery rhymes the origins of the song have been much debated and remain unclear. Unusually the rhyme clearly refers to a historical person and debates have tended to circulate around identifying which Duke is being referred to in the lyrics. Prior to that a number of alternatives have been found including a note that in Warwickshire in 1892 the song was sung of both the Duke of York and the King of France; from 1894 that it was sung of Napoleon.

  • James II (1633–1701), formerly Duke of York, who in 1688 marched his troops to Salisbury Plain to resist the invasion from his son-in-law William of Orange, only to retreat and disperse them as his support began to evaporate.
  • The most common attribution is to Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (1763–1827), the second son of King George III and Commander-in-Chief of the British Army during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Flanders having something of a reputation for being flat, the specific location of the "hill" in the nursery rhyme has been suggested to be the town of Cassel, which is built on a hill which rises 176 metres (about 570 feet) above the flat lands of French Flanders in northern France.

{| cellpadding="5"

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De held prins Maurits kwam<br />

met honderdduizend man<br />

daar ging hij mee de heuvel op<br />

en ook weer naar benee<br />

en was 'ie bovenan<br />

dan was 'ie niet benee<br />

en was 'ie halverwege<br />

was 'ie boven noch benee

|

The hero Prince Maurice came<br />

with a hundred thousand men<br />

with them he went up the hill<br />

and also down again<br />

and when he was up<br />

then he wasn't down<br />

and when he was half-way<br />

he was neither up nor down

|}

In February 2022, parodies of the nursery rhyme appeared, referencing the then Duke of York, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's reported £12 million out-of-court settlement with Virginia Giuffre. Then in May there were further references to the nursery rhyme in the satirical single "Prince Andrew Is a Sweaty Nonce" by the musician Kunt and the Gang.

References