“The Grand Old Duke of York” is an English children’s nursery rhyme, the lyrics of which have become proverbial for futile action. It is almost certainly an offshoot from a song referred to in 1640 as “Old Tarlton’s Song” after the stage clown Richard Tarlton
English actor and clown of the Elizabethan era. (1530–1588), which featured King Henry IV of France’s assembly of an army of 40,000 men for some unknown purpose in 1620. The earliest print version of that rhyme appears in King Pippin’s Delight (c. 1780).[1]
A modern version of the rhyme is:[2]
Oh the Grand old Duke of York
He had ten thousand men
He marched them up to the top of the hill
And he marched them down again
And when they were up they were up
And when they were down they were down
And when they were only halfway up
They were neither up nor down.
The eponymous Duke of York has been argued to be a number of the bearers of that title, and others including Napoleon, but in particular Prince Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany (1763–1827), commander of the British army in Flanders from 1793 until 1795, despite there being no event in his military career resembling the jingle.[3][4] Other suggested candidates, based only on their ducal titles and military background are:
- Richard, Duke of York (1411–1460), who was defeated at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460. Richard’s army, some 8,000 strong, was waiting for reinforcements at Sandal Castle in Wakefield when he was surrounded by a much larger Lancastrian force. He chose to sally forth to fight, and was killed in a pitched battle at Wakefield Green, together with between one third and one half of his army.[5]
- 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.[6]
