Mary Hamilton - Source of The Ballad

Source of The Ballad

Most versions of the song are set in Edinburgh, but Joan Baez sets her version, which is probably the best known, in Glasgow, ending with these lyrics (in translation):

Last night there were four Marys;

Tonight there'll be but three:

There was Mary Beaton and Mary Seton

And Mary Carmichael and Me.

This verse suggests that Mary Hamilton was one of the famous "Four Marys" chosen by Mary of Guise (1515–1560), queen consort of James V, King of Scots, to be companions to her daughter – the infant Mary Stuart, called Mary, Queen of Scots (1542–1587) – who succeeded her father shortly after her birth. Yet none of the real four Marys was a Hamilton, they were actually Mary Beaton, Mary Seton, Mary Fleming, and Mary Livingston.

In many versions of the song, the queen is called "the auld Queen", suggesting that she is middle-aged or older. The reign of Mary, Queen of Scots, began when she only six days old in 1542 and ended with her abdication in 1567 at the age of twenty-five, which might make young Mary and her spouse, king consort Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, unlikely grist for the tale. However, "the auld Queen," as a colloquial term, may refer to precedence rather than age, in whcih case, she should not be ruled out, nor should another possible Queen of Scots three generations earlier, Mary of Guelders (1434–1463), consort to James II of Scotland.

Another historical incident, in 1719, involving one Mary Hamilton (Maria Danilovna Gamentova, died 1719) that occurred not in Scotland – by which time the Hanovers had succeeded the Stuarts – but in Russia. In this case, Mary was a lady-in-waiting to Catherine I of Russia (1684–1727) and the mistress of Tsar Peter the Great and his aide-de-camp Ivan Orlov. In 1717, it was discovered that she had had two abortions, and had drowned her third infant after birth. On 14 March 1719, she was decapitated for infanticide in St. Petersburg. It was rumoured that the sentence was so severe, because the Tsar suspected that his own paternity was involved. Mary's head was preserved and displayed in the Kunstkamera, a palace holding natural and scientific "curiosities". At that time, Charles Wogan was in Russia on a mission for James Francis Edward Stuart, and through him news of the incident might have reached Scotland.

Since ballads of different times about different people are often recycled, many scholars speculate that the Russian story, including the name "Mary Hamilton", may have fused with the original song, which may itself have been a fusion of other earlier ballads.

The ballad was catalogued by Francis James Child as Child Ballad # 173.