"It Was A' For Our Rightful King" (or "It was All For Our Rightful King") is a traditional Jacobite song. The words were written by

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...

and published in 1796. It is set to an older tune "Mally Stewart". It was included in the 1817 collection ''

Jacobite Relics ''Jacobite Relics'' is a two volume collection of songs related to Jacobitism and Jacobite risings, compiled by the Scottish poet and novelist James Hogg on commission from the Highland Society of London in 1817. Most of the songs in the collectio ...

''. Although dating from after the main period of Jacobite activity, it became a

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object ...

during the nostalgic Jacobite era of the nineteenth century. It describes a Scottish supporter of King James taking up arms in support of the cause, going to

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

to fight and thereafter going into exile after the failure of the campaign in Ireland.Bold .347

References

Bibliography

* Bold, Alan. ''A Burns Companion''. Springer, 2016. * Carruthers, Gerard & Kidd, Colin. ''Literature and Union: Scottish Texts, British Contexts''. Oxford University Press, 2018. * Gregory, David E. ''Victorian Songhunters: The Recovery and Editing of English Vernacular Ballads and Folk Lyrics, 1820–1883''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. Jacobite songs 1796 songs 18th-century songs Scottish songs Songs about kings Robert Burns Cultural depictions of James II of England {{song-stub