Lord William, Sweet William or Lord Lundy (

Child A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person young ...

# 254,

Roud The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

# 106) is a traditional Scottish folk ballad telling how a pair of lovers, William and Janet, outwit her father, her bethrothed (by arrangement) and the priest in order to marry one other.

Francis James Child Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of ...

, ''English and Scottish Popular Ballads''
"Lord William", or "Lord Lundy"
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Synopsis

Lord William has a love affair with Janet, the only daughter of Lord Lundy, a Scottish nobleman. While William is away on a voyage of discovery, her father finds out about the romance and declares that she must marry another man, who, in some versions, is the heir to the English crown. Janet says that she will obey her father's orders but adds that she would rather die. In another version, Lord Lundy threatens to murder her if she refuses to go through with the marriage. When the wedding day arrives and the priest is about to read the matrimonial orders, Janet asks him to wait for one of her female friends to arrive. This makes the priest angry but his rebukes are cut short by the arrival of Sweet William dressed in his finest suit of armour declaring that he is the rightful groom and that the other man should step aside. Lord Lundy is furious but there is nothing that he can do and Janet and William are married.

References

Child Ballads Scottish folk songs {{Folk-song-stub