Uploaded May 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Four Maries / The Four Marys / Mary Mild / Mary Hamilton (Child No. 173) - Sung by Katherine Campbell on "The Songs of Amelia and Jane Harris - Scots Songs and Ballads From Perthshire Tradition" (2004).
Note by Kevin W.:
Based on Child 173 Version J, taken from the Harris Manuscript as sung by Amelia and Jane Harris in Perthshire, Scotland, in the middle of the 19th century.
Liner Notes:
This lovely ballad, often known by the title The Four Maries, has been widely popular in Scotland during the last couple of centuries. The twenty eight versions in Child make it the most popular in his collection (Child 173; GD 195) and Bronson included the Harris tune among twelve. Whether the ballad reflects a historical event associated with Mary Queen of Scots is by no means certain. When Mary Stuart was sent to France in 1548 at the age of five or six she had four companions of her own age all by the name of Mary and when she returned in 1561 the four Maries returned with her. They were named Fleming, Seaton, Livingstone and Beaton and some of these names are retained in the still popularly known verse:
Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
The nicht she’ll hae but three;
There was Mary Bethune and Mary Seaton,
An Mary Carmichael and me.
The story takes place in the court of Mary Stuart where the unfortunate heroine is one of the queen’s four maries (i.e. her ladies in waiting, coincidentally all named Mary). The young Mary (Hamilton) has fallen pregnant as she says:
Queen Mary’s bread it was sae sweet,
An her wine it was sae fine;
That I hae lien in a young man’s arms,
And I rued it aye sin syne.
In many versions the father is given as “the highest Stewart of all”, that is Henry Darnley, but this is unlikely. Mary gives birth to the babe who the queen “hears greetin sae sair,” but Mary says it is herself in pain from colic. However, they search high and low and “there they got the wee, wee babe, but its life was far awa.” Mary is summoned to Edinburgh where she is tried and the ballad ends as ‘the bonniest Mary amang them a’ was hanged upon a tree.” Historical evidence suggests that the actual event referred to was the murder of a child born to a French maidservant of Mary Queen of Scots, for which she and her lover, an apothecary to the queen, were executed in 1563 and not to any of her maids-of-honour (the “Queen’s Maries”).
Song transcription:
My mother was a proud, proud woman,
A proud, proud woman and a bold;
She sent me to Queen Marie's bour,
When scarcely eleven years old.
Queen Marie's bread it was sae sweet,
An her wine it was sae fine,
That I hae lien in a young man's arms,
An I rued it aye synsyne.
Queen Marie she cam doon the stair,
Wi the goud kamis in her hair:
'Oh whare oh whare is the wee wee babe
I heard greetin sae sair?'
'It's no a babe, a babie fair,
Nor ever intends to be;
But I mysel, wi a sair colic,
Was seek and like to dee.'
They socht the bed baith up an doon,
Frae the pillow to the straw,
An there they got the wee wee babe,
But its life was far awa.
[Go dress, go dress, Marie Hamilton,
Go dress and make you fine,
For you maun gang to Edinborough,
And stand up for your name.] *
'You'll no put on your dowie black,
Nor yet your dowie broun;
But you'll put on your ried, ried silk,
To shine through Edinborough toun.'
'Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
The nicht she'll hae but three;
There was Marie Bethune, an Marie Seaton,
An Marie Carmichael, an me.
'Ah, little did my mother ken,
The day she cradled me,
The lands that I sud travel in,
An the death that I suld dee.'
Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
The nicht she has but three;
For the bonniest Marie amang them a'
Was hanged upon a tree.
* This verse was incomplete in the Harris MS and has been reconstructed.
Four Maries / The Four Marys / Mary Mild / Mary Hamilton (Child No. 173) - Sung by Katherine Campbell on "The Songs of Amelia and Jane Harris - Scots Songs and Ballads From Perthshire Tradition" (2004).
Note by Kevin W.:
Based on Child 173 Version J, taken from the Harris Manuscript as sung by Amelia and Jane Harris in Perthshire, Scotland, in the middle of the 19th century.
Liner Notes:
This lovely ballad, often known by the title The Four Maries, has been widely popular in Scotland during the last couple of centuries. The twenty eight versions in Child make it the most popular in his collection (Child 173; GD 195) and Bronson included the Harris tune among twelve. Whether the ballad reflects a historical event associated with Mary Queen of Scots is by no means certain. When Mary Stuart was sent to France in 1548 at the age of five or six she had four companions of her own age all by the name of Mary and when she returned in 1561 the four Maries returned with her. They were named Fleming, Seaton, Livingstone and Beaton and some of these names are retained in the still popularly known verse:
Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
The nicht she’ll hae but three;
There was Mary Bethune and Mary Seaton,
An Mary Carmichael and me.
The story takes place in the court of Mary Stuart where the unfortunate heroine is one of the queen’s four maries (i.e. her ladies in waiting, coincidentally all named Mary). The young Mary (Hamilton) has fallen pregnant as she says:
Queen Mary’s bread it was sae sweet,
An her wine it was sae fine;
That I hae lien in a young man’s arms,
And I rued it aye sin syne.
In many versions the father is given as “the highest Stewart of all”, that is Henry Darnley, but this is unlikely. Mary gives birth to the babe who the queen “hears greetin sae sair,” but Mary says it is herself in pain from colic. However, they search high and low and “there they got the wee, wee babe, but its life was far awa.” Mary is summoned to Edinburgh where she is tried and the ballad ends as ‘the bonniest Mary amang them a’ was hanged upon a tree.” Historical evidence suggests that the actual event referred to was the murder of a child born to a French maidservant of Mary Queen of Scots, for which she and her lover, an apothecary to the queen, were executed in 1563 and not to any of her maids-of-honour (the “Queen’s Maries”).
Song transcription:
My mother was a proud, proud woman,
A proud, proud woman and a bold;
She sent me to Queen Marie's bour,
When scarcely eleven years old.
Queen Marie's bread it was sae sweet,
An her wine it was sae fine,
That I hae lien in a young man's arms,
An I rued it aye synsyne.
Queen Marie she cam doon the stair,
Wi the goud kamis in her hair:
'Oh whare oh whare is the wee wee babe
I heard greetin sae sair?'
'It's no a babe, a babie fair,
Nor ever intends to be;
But I mysel, wi a sair colic,
Was seek and like to dee.'
They socht the bed baith up an doon,
Frae the pillow to the straw,
An there they got the wee wee babe,
But its life was far awa.
[Go dress, go dress, Marie Hamilton,
Go dress and make you fine,
For you maun gang to Edinborough,
And stand up for your name.] *
'You'll no put on your dowie black,
Nor yet your dowie broun;
But you'll put on your ried, ried silk,
To shine through Edinborough toun.'
'Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
The nicht she'll hae but three;
There was Marie Bethune, an Marie Seaton,
An Marie Carmichael, an me.
'Ah, little did my mother ken,
The day she cradled me,
The lands that I sud travel in,
An the death that I suld dee.'
Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
The nicht she has but three;
For the bonniest Marie amang them a'
Was hanged upon a tree.
* This verse was incomplete in the Harris MS and has been reconstructed.
