Cam Ye O'er Frae France

Cam ye o'er frae France? is a Scots mocking^[1] folk song from the time of the Jacobite Revolution in the 18th century.

Background

After the death of Queen Anne the British crown passed on to George, the Elector of Hanover. In his entourage George I brought with him a number of German courtiers, including his mistress Melusine von der Schulenburg, whom he later created the Duchess of Kendal (known as the Goose) and his half-sister Sophia von Kielmansegg (commonly referred to as the Sow). George I's wife Sophia Dorothea of Celle remained in Hanover, imprisoned at Ahlden House after her affair with Philip Christoph von Königsmarck - the blade in the song. Another historic personality in the song is John Erskine, Earl of Mar (Bobbing John) who recruited in the Scottish Highlands for the Hanoverian cause. The nickname Geordie Whelps is a reference to the House of Welf, the original line of the House of Hanover.^[2]

Tune

Lyrics

Cam ye o'er frae France? Cam ye down by Lunnon?
Saw ye Geordie Whelps and his bonny woman?
Were ye at the place ca'd the Kittle Housie?
Saw ye Geordie's grace riding on a goosie?

Geordie, he's a man there is little doubt o't;
He's done a' he can, wha can do without it?
Down there came a blade linkin' like my lordie;
He wad drive a trade at the loom o' Geordie.

Though the claith were bad, blythly may we niffer;
Gin we get a wab, it makes little differ.
We hae tint our plaid, bannet, belt and swordie,
Ha's and mailins braid—but we hae a Geordie!

Jocky's gane to France and Montgomery's lady;
There they'll learn to dance: Madam, are ye ready?
They'll be back belyve belted, brisk and lordly;
Brawly may they thrive to dance a jig wi' Geordie!

Hey for Sandy Don! Hey for Cockolorum!
Hey for Bobbing John and his Highland Quorum!
Mony a sword and lance swings at Highland hurdie;
How they'll skip and dance o'er the bum o' Geordie!

(Repeat first verse)

Glossary

a, a' = adj all^[3]
bannet = n bonnet^[3]
belive = soon, immediately^[4]
belyve = quickly
blade = a person of weak, soft constitution from rapid overgrowth; Count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck of Sweden^[4]
blithe = adj festive; glad; happy; joyful. n gladly, happily.^[3]
Bobbing John = John Erskine, Earl of Mar.^[4] So called because he switched sides 6 times before his death.^[4]
bonny = pretty, beautiful, attractive^[3]
bonny woman = a woman of loose character
braid = broad
braw = adj fine; handsome; splendid; admirable; well-dressed; worthy^[3]
brawly = well^[5]
ca = v call^[3]
claith = cloth
cloth = George Augustus^[4]
cockalorum = a young cock, or little man with a high opinion of himself.^[4] Alexander Gordon, Marquis of Huntly^[4]
differ = n difference; dissent. v dissent.^[3]
Don = diminutive of Gordon (the last syllable).^[4]
frae = from^[3]
gane = gone
Geordie = diminutive of George.^[4] George I and/or George Augustus^[4]
Geordie's grace = His Grace King George I^[4]
gin = if, whether
goose = a goose; a prostitute^[4]
goosie = diminutive of goose; a pig; a fat and gross person; derisive nickname for the King's mistress; 'The Goose', Countess Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenburg, later Duchess of Kendal^[4]
ha = n hall; house; mansion.^[3]
ha's and mailins = houses and farmlands
hae = v have; take; credit (believe/think)^[3]
Highland hurdie = a Highland soldier^[4]
Highland quorum = either the hunting party on 27 August 1715 or the planning meeting on 3 September 1715^[4]
hurdie = buttock
Jocky = a Scotsman.^[4] James III^[4]
kittle = adj adept; ticklish; tricky; v arouse, enliven; tickle; perplex; tease; titillate^[3]
kittle housie = brothel;^[5] St. James's Palace^[4]
link = n skip; v walk smartly;^[3] to make love^[4]
linkin = tripping along
loom = a loom; a metaphor for female sexual organs^[4]
loom of Geordie = George I's former wife, Princess Sophia Dorothea of Celle^[4]
lordie = George I^[4]
Lunnon = London
mailing = a leased smallholding, a farm^[4]
mailings braid = broad farmlands^[4]
Montgomery = Sidney, Earl of Godolphin^[4]
Montgomery's lady = Queen Mary Beatrice of Modena, wife of James II and mother of James III^[4]
mony = adj many^[3]
niffer = haggle or exchange;^[5] to exchange, to barter with objects hidden in the fists^[4]
o'er = over; excessively; too^[3]
o't = of it^[4]
plaid = James III^[4]
Sandy = diminutive of Alexander.^[4]
Sandy Don = Major-General Alexander Gordon of Auchintoul^[4]
thrive = success^[3]
tint = lost;^[5] lost (past participle of tine = to lose)^[4]
to dance = to raise funds, to raise troops and prepare to fight. Compare the song To Auchindown, which has the lines: "We joined the dance, and kissed the lance, / And swore us foes to strangers."^[4]
to dance a jig with Geordie = To fight with George I.^[4]
trade = a business; an exchange or substitution^[4]
wab = web (or length) of cloth);^[5] a length of woven cloth from one loom^[4]
wad = n pledge, security; wager, bet; forfeit. adj wedded. v pledge; wager, bet; wed.^[3]
wha = pron who^[3]
whelp = a puppy; an ill-bred child; Guelph, a political faction (left over from the Middle Ages) to which the House of Hanover belonged.^[4] George I and/or George Augustus^[4]
[5]

See also

For a more in depth explanation of the background of this song, please see

The Players

Royalty

House of Tudor (Extreme Background)

House of Stuart

House of Hanover

Scotland

• Major-General Alexander Gordon of Auchintool a.k.a. "Sandy Don "
• Alexander Gordon, 2nd Duke of Gordon a.k.a. "Cockalorum", from the traditional nickname of the head of the Gordon clan, "Cock o' the North"
• John Erskine, Earl of Mar a.k.a. "Bobbing John"

England

• Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, KG, PC (15 June 1645 – 15 September 1712) "Mr. Montgomery" was the pseudonym of Godolphin, who had been until 1688 the devoted Chamberlain of Mary of Modena.^[4]

More Background

England

• Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658)
• Church of England
  • The low church British Whig Party
  • The high church Anglican Tories
• Parliament of England
  • Royalists (Cavaliers), supporters of Charles I
  • English Parliamentarians (Roundheads)
• The Catholic Church in England and Wales

Scotland

• The Church of Scotland
• The Parliament of Scotland
  • The Cavaliers, or Royalists, supporters of Charles I
    • Lead by James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose "the Great Montrose" (25 October 1612 – 21 May 1650)
    • The Jacobites
  • The Presbyterian Covenanters in Scotland, who had controlled Scotland since 1639 and allied with the English Parliament
• Highland Clearances

Ireland

• Parliament of Ireland (1297 – 1800)
• Patriot Parliament (7 May 1689 – 20 July 1689)

The Stakes

• The political rights of the Parliament of England
  • Episcopalian rule of the church by the monarch
• Freedom of religion, History of Freedom of religion in the United Kingdom
• The Wars of Religion
• The English Reformation (1533)
• Royal prerogative
• The Gunpowder Plot (1605), a.k.a. the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason
• The Thirty Years' War(1618–1648)
• Petition of Right (1628)
• The The Divine Right of Kings, and the Personal rule of Charles I, 1629–1640
• Wars of the Three Kingdoms Scotland, England and Ireland (1639 – 1651)
  • The Scottish Bishops' Wars (1639, 1640)
    • Civil War in Scotland
    • National Covenant (1581; 1590; 1596)
    • First Bishops' War (1639)
    • Treaty of Berwick (18 June 1639)
    • Second Bishops' War (1640)
    • Solemn League and Covenant (1643)
    • Montrose's defeat and death (21 May 1650)
  • The English Civil War (1642–1651)
    • The Short Parliament (13 April – 5 May 1640)
    • First Civil War (1642 – 1645)
    • The Long Parliament (3 November 1640 – 16 March 1660)
  • The Siege of Oxford in 1646
    • Second Civil War (1648 – 1649)
    • Pride's Purge of December 1648
    • Commonwealth of England, or the English Interregnum (1649 – 1653)
      • "Rump Parliament" (1649 – 1653)
    • Third Civil War (1649 – 1651)
    • The Protectorate (1653 – 1659)
    • Poor Relief Act 1662 a.k.a. Settlement Act or, more honestly, the Settlement and Removal Act
  • The Irish Confederate Wars (1641 – 1653)
    • The Plot (October 1641)
    • Irish Rebellion of 1641 (1641 – 1642)
    • The Confederates' War or Eleven Years' War (1642 – 1648)
  • The execution of the Three Kingdoms' monarch, Charles I, by the English parliament (30 January 1649)
    • The Cromwellian War (1649 – April 1653)
    • Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652
    • Guerrilla War (1653 – 1659)
    • Act of Settlement 1662
• The restoration of the English monarchy (1660)
• The Test Acts
  • Corporation Act (1661)
  • 1673 Act
  • Popish Plot (1678 – 1681)
  • 1678 Act
• Exclusion Crisis (1678 – 1681)
  • The Exclusion Bill (15 May 1679 – 1681)
• The English Bill of Rights 1689
• The Act of Settlement 1701, which states that the monarch was forbidden to be Catholic or to marry a Catholic (extant)
• The War of the Grand Alliance on mainland Europe
• The Revolution of 1688
• Convention Parliament of England (1689)
• The Williamite War in Ireland a.k.a. Jacobite War in Ireland, the Williamite–Jacobite War in Ireland and in Irish Cogadh an Dá Rí, "the War of the Two Kings" (12 March 1689 – 3 October 1691)
  • Legislation by the Patriot Parliament
    • Declaratory Act
    • Act of Recognition
    • Liberty of Conscience
    • Bill of attainder
    • Repeal of the 1652 Cromwellian land settlement
    • Repeal of the Act of Settlement 1662
    • Battle of the Boyne (July 1690)
• The Dundee's rising in Scotland
• Nine Years' War (1688 – 1697) a.k.a. (1688–97) – often called the War of the Grand Alliance, the War of the Palatine Succession, or the War of the League of Augsburg^[6]

References

External links

• "Cam Ye O'er Frae France" on YouTube