The Laird O Logie or The Laird Of Logie is
Child ballad
The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as '' ...
number 182.
Synopsis
Young Logie (or Ochiltrie) is imprisoned, to hang. May Margaret comes to court to plead for his life. She is unable to win a pardon but steals some token or a forged pardon (and sometimes a weapon), sometimes with the queen's aid. With these, she frees Young Logie—the man she loves, or the father of her baby, depending on the variant.
Commentary
The ballad is based on historical events in Scotland in 1592. The king is
James VI of Scotland
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...
and Young Logie is
John Wemyss, the
Laird
Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...
of
Logie in North
Fife
Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...
. The offense for which he was imprisoned, unlike the stolen kiss claimed in some variants, was involvement with the
Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell
Francis may refer to:
People
*Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome
*Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
*Francis (surname)
Places
*Rural Mu ...
in an attempt to kidnap the king.
Margaret Vinstarr
Margaret Vinstarr (fl. 1590–1600), was a Danish or German courtier in Scotland to Anne of Denmark commemorated by the ballad " The Laird o Logie" for rescuing her imprisoned lover.
A gentlewoman at the Scottish court of Anne of Denmark
Margare ...
was one of the servants of
Anne of Denmark
Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and Eng ...
, a Danish maid of honour, and succeeded in rescuing Logie from a prison in
Dalkeith Palace. They later married.
[''Calendar State Papers Scotland'', vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 750-3.]
See also
*
Geordie
Geordie () is a nickname for a person from the Tyneside area of North East England, and the dialect used by its inhabitants, also known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English. There are different definitions of what constitute ...
External links
Many variants
References
Child Ballads
James VI and I
Scottish folk songs
Logie
Fife
Year of song unknown
{{Folk-song-stub