Recordings & Info 186. Kinmont Willie
[There are four recordings of this ballad listed in the Child Collection.]
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 4013: Kinmont Willie (15 Listings)
Alternative Titles
Kinmount Willie
Traditional Ballad Index: Kinmont Willie [Child 186]
NAME: Hobie Noble [Child 189]
NAME: Kinmont Willie [Child 186]
DESCRIPTION: Kinmont Willie, a notorious raider, comes to the border under a truce, with few men at his back, and is treacherously taken by a large force under Lord Scroop and others. He is imprisoned as a raider, but finally rescued
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: betrayal prison rescue borderballad
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Apr 13, 1596 - Rescue of William Armstrong of Kinmouth (Kinmont Willie) from the castle at Carlisle
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Child 186, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Bronson 186, "Kinmont Willie" (1 version)
Leach, pp. 504-509, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
OBB 137, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
PBB 56, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Gummere, pp. 116-122+327-328, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 108-114, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
DT, KINMWILL
Roud #4013
NOTES: Kinmont Willie was a real person, and he caused a major border incident at a time when James VI of Scotland was really trying to stay on good terms with Elizabeth I of England, since he wanted to succeed her.
According to Roaslin Mitchison, _A History of Scotland_ (second edition), p. 158, "In 1597 [her date; Child's extensive note says 1596] there was the international incident of Kinmont Willie. The English broke Border law by capturing him at a day of truce, and refused from personal animosity to the Scottish Warden, Buccleuch, to hand him back. Buccleuch then rescued him from Carlisle castle. The subsequent outbreak of diplomatic huffiness was resolved by a joing English and Scottish commission."
This was typical of the problems of the time: The governments wanted peace, but the borderers wanted to keep on looting. - RBW
Child Collection; Child Ballad 186: Kinmont Willie
Child-- Artist-- Title-- Album-- Year-- Length-- Have
186 Andrew Calhoun Kinmont Willie Telfer's Cows: Folk Ballads from Scotland 2003 6:37 Yes
186 Max Dunbar Kinmont Willie Songs and Ballads of the Scottish Wars, 1290-1745 1956 5:27 Yes
186 Ross Kennedy Kinmont Willie Fyre and Sworde - Songs of the Border Reivers 2000 5:30 Yes
186 Willie Beattie Kinmont Willie Up in the North and Down in the South - Songs and Music from the Mike Yates Collection 1964-2000 2001 No