God Save The Queen - Origins

Mystery and romance surround Britain's National Anthem. It was never written or composed as such. It just grew out of the people. It is first mentioned in the 16th century. But its text (first in Latin) has frequently been changed and added to.

Britons express loyalty to their country not with an exciting marching song or a martial hymn, but a humble prayer for the health, long life and prosperity of their King or Queen. No wonder that the National Anthem's most essential words stem from the Bible. Three times in Holy Scripture occurs the phrase "God save the King."

Nobody is certain who composed the anthem and wrote its final words. By 1545, "God save the King" had become a watchword of the British navy, to be responded to by "Long to reign over us." However, an old prayer, appointed by the Church for the anniversary of the Gun Powder Plot (November 5th, 1605), may well be the original source of part of its second verse. This ancient supplication contains the lines: "Scatter our enemies... assuage their malice and confound their devices."

No doubt, the anthem is a combination of such loyal phrases brought together at a moment of grave national crisis-though which is still a matter of controversy. Obviously, for the people to ask God to save their king implied that his life was endangered. That is why one tradition ascribes the origin of the hymn to 1688, "when the Prince of Orange was hovering over the coast," threatening the ruling dynasty. This claim says it was written as a Latin Chorus for the private Catholic Chapel of James II. Concerned with their monarch's fate, soon people sang it in London's playhouses and the streets.

Various composers have been credited with its original tune. It belonged to a Christmas carol, for instance, first published in 1611. Best-known (and least likely) claim to authorship of the British anthem is that of the man who wrote the original "Sally in our Alley," Henry Carey, son of the Marquis of Halifax. This unfortunate man, who ended his life by his own hand, is said to have written and sung it first at a London tavern dinner-party he gave in 1740 to celebrate Admiral Vernon's victory at Portobello the year before. Others attribute both words and music to a Dr John Bull, once a choirboy at the Chapel Royal of Elizabeth I and later its organist. Indeed, his tune, still preserved in the early manuscript of a copyist dating back to 1619, is similar to our present "God save the Queen." It certainly would be a pleasing coincidence if a man whose name was to become a symbol of Britain would be the author of the nation's anthem.

It seems we owe the modern "God save the Queen" to no one man or composer. Its music is the development of airs extant long before the actual song. It had become a popular folk tune by the 17th century. Our first concrete record of its actual use belongs to the stage and 1745, when it was sung at two concerts in London's Drury Lane and Covent Garden theaters. Again it was in a national crisis. Scotland had risen in favor of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Marshal Wade was in the North to put down the rebellion. "God save the King," appropriately expressed the English people's fervor, imploring divine help for their reigning monarch. A special verse, added and later discarded, went:

Lord, grant that Marshal Wade

May by Thy mighty aid

Victory bring.

May he sedition hush

And like a torrent rush

Rebellious Scots to crush!

God save the King.

Thanks to Mrs Ann Wade for a correction on the above verse (hush instead of crush)

From this emergency on, the anthem became the nation's most patriotic song, whose simplicity and sincerity took it to people's hearts. Soon it was sung on all patriotic occasions.

It did not take long for other nations to appropriate the tune. This typical and original English air was used, at some time or other, by at least 12 other countries, including the United States and Germany. It is certainly the world's best-known melody.

The story is told that when, during World War I on the Western front, English Tommies, on the spur of the moment, sang the anthem, American and German soldiers came out of their trenches and joined in with their own words. Each group recognized in it a hymn of their own: hailing the Kaiser in his "garland of victory" or "America." Composers, too, admired the tune enough to incorporate it in their own works - in Haydn's "Emperor's Hymn" and Brahms' "Triumphal Song." Beethoven was so deeply moved by it that he published seven variations on its theme and wrote in his diary: "I must show the English what a blessing they have in "JGod save the King."

The song's cosmopolitan character led to some confusion at a concert at a European resort attended by many English visitors. In Weber's "Jubilee Overture," they recognized the National Anthem, and many immediately stood up - to the bewilderment of their continental hosts. As the tune wove in and out they bobbed up and sat down, puzzled and unsure of what to think and to do. The mechanical reproduction of music, so popular in the later years of the 19th century, led to all kinds of peculiar gadgets. Queen Victoria was delighted, when, it is said, on her Jubilee in 1887, an ingenious inventor presented her with a bustle. It contained an automatic music box which played the National Anthem whenever the wearer sat down!