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This ballad was entered in the Stationers' Register in 1624. The title is alternatively
spelled Chevy Chace. The ballad is generally thought to describe the Battle of Otterburn.
Some of the verses correspond to the that battle, but not all. The Battle of Otterburn took
place in 1388. At that Battle Henry Percy (Hotspur) was captured, not killed. He was
killed in 1403 in an uprising against Henry IV.
According to Child another possibility is the border warfare between a Percy and a
Douglas in 1435 or 1436. Henry Percy of Northumberland made a raid into Scotland with
4,000 men. He was met by William Douglas, Earl of Angus at Piperden. There were great
losses on each side, but the Scots prevailed.
This ballad is a variant of Child Ballad #162 (The Hunting of the Cheviot).
The Hunting of the Cheviot was old and popular as early as the middle of the sixteenth
century. It appears in The Complaynt of Scotland (1549). On one published copy of the
ballad Rychard Sheale, who described himself as a minstrel living at Tamworth, claims to
have written the ballad. Child finds his claim "preposterous in the extreme."
Versions of the ballad were printed repeatedly on broadsides throughout the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. It was said to be the favorite ballad of the common people. The
tune was also used for numerous other ballads.
A footnote of interest: Ben Johnson is quoted as saying he would rather have been the
author of Chevy Chase than all of his works.
For a complete list of Child Ballads at this site see Francis J. Child Ballads.
Except for the last verse, these lyrics are from Digital Tradition. They are from Songs of
Northern England by Stokoe. They include only 33 verses. There are 63 verses in Child's
version, and One Hundred Songs of England says there are 68. I have added the last verse
from Songs of England (which is the same as Child's except for spelling) to these lyrics.
LYRICS
God prosper long our noble king,
Our lives and safeties all!
A woeful hunting once there did
In Chevy Chase befall.