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The Death of Queen Jane

from On a Green Growing Tree by Alice Dillon

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about

Inside Llewyn Davis, a Coen Brothers film set during the folk revival of the 1960s, introduced me to this song. The tune was beautiful, but I wasn't happy with how the film's version omitted the full story, so I collated different verses across the song's many variations and whittled them down to the final eleven. A fictionalised account of the birth of Edward VI and the death of his mother Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII, the most important thing for me to convey is the deep love Henry feels for his dying wife and his grief when she does so. Notorious for his many wives, Jane Seymour was reputedly the one he loved the most, even requesting to be buried alongside her when he died ten years later.

lyrics

Queen Jane lay in labour for nine days or more,
Tilll her women grew so tired, they had quite given her o'er,
They had quite given her o'er.

"Good women, good women, good women as you be,
Will you open my right side and find my baby?
And find my baby?"

"Oh no," cried the midwives, "that's a thing that can never be,
We will call on King Henry and hear what he may say,
And hear what he may say."

King Henry was sent for, King Henry he did come,
Saying "What does ail you, my sweet love? Your eyes they look so dim.
Your eyes they look so dim."

"King Henry, King Henry, will you do one thing for me?
Will you open my right side and find my baby?
And find my baby?"

"Oh no," cried King Henry, "that's a thing that I could never do.
If I lose the flower of England, I shall lose the branch too,
I shall lose the branch too."

The surgeon was sent for, he came with all speed,
In a gown of black velvet from the heel to the head,
From the heel to the head.

He gave her rich caudle, but the death sleep slept she,
Then her right side was opened and the babe was set free,
And the babe was set free.

There was fiddling and dancing on the day the babe was born,
But the flower of fair England lay cold as a stone,
Lay cold as a stone.

They mourned in the kitchen, they mourned in the hall,
But royal King Henry mourned longest of all,
Mourned longest of all.

credits

from On a Green Growing Tree, released August 16, 2016

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Alice Dillon image

Alice Dillon Edinburgh, UK

A folk and traditional singer and guitarist based in Edinburgh. I was a semi-finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award 2016.
YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCs3dne0FG_83URM_QLbux5A
Website: alicedillonfolk.wordpress.com
Peerie Faeries: peeriefaeries.wordpress.com ... more

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