The Grand Old Duke of York

Historical Frame - Origins of the Story

From the illustrations that tend to accompany this nursery rhyme throughout the years, it seems clear The Grand Old Duke of York refers to some form of military battle and/or figure. A brief comment in The Macmillan Encyclopedia (2001) that said Frederick Augustus Duke of York “…is remembered in a well-known nursery rhyme as ‘the grand old duke of York’.” Whether it can ever be proven that this is correct or not, this encyclopedia dared to connect this particular duke of York and the nursery rhyme directly.

According to The Columbia Encyclopedia (2001), Frederick Augustus Duke of York, second son to George III of England, led two unsuccessful campaigns in the French Revolutionary Wars.

The Market House Books Dictionary of British History (1987), the British got involved in 1793 when France invaded the Austrian Netherlands thus threatening England’s security off its coast. This source mentions ”…the duke of York began an abortive campaign in Flanders, which dragged on until the British, retreating into Germany, were evacuated from Bremen in March 1795.”

The Macmillan Encyclopedia (2001) article had also mentioned Frederick Augustus became a field marshal in 1795 and commander in chief of the army in 1798 “despite his incompetence in the field.” Furthermore, in 1799, that same source says he lead “another disastrous expedition to the Netherlands.”

Determining the actual location of that battle in the Low Countries, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, became a quest. The 1799 battle lost by Frederick Augustus took place in an area to the north of Belgium called Flanders, and as if to lend a little more credibility to this, The Macmillan Encyclopedia (2001), in fact, goes on to describe this area as, “the scene of many battles during its history.”

information on the topography of the region was located in The Oxford Paperback Encyclopedia (1998) says, “much of the Netherlands and small parts of Belgium are in fact below sea level.” The Penguin Encyclopedia of Places (1971) concurs,

In the North is the low, sandy area of Flanders and the Campine (in Flemish, Kempen) with an almost straight coast fringed by a narrow belt of dunes 65 Km (40 m) long. Highest point 694 m (2276 ft.) (p 97-8).

However, Larousse Encyclopedia of World Geography (1964) differs in its description of the area when it states,

The Flemish landscape is anything but uniform. In the hilly regions between (the) Scheldt (River) and the Dendre (River) the countryside remains open with strip-like fields (p 71).

. However, from all the reading done on the subject, it is clear thatFlanders had seen fighting during both World Wars and decided to pursue that angle. In a site copyrighted in 1997 by Gail Dodd, a native of Australia, who in her desire to commemorate the memory of her grandfather and others who fought in World War I, traveled the famous “Western Front” with her husband and two expert guides. What we were reading was in fact the journal she kept of her experiences, and in one entry we came upon the following information,

After landing in Calais, we travel south-east (sic) through St. Omar to Cassel. Here we will stop for a breather and stretch our legs along the cobbled streets, walking to the top of Mount Cassel.

Armed with this information on Mount Cassel may explain why the rhyme mentions a hill. Granted, Frederick Augustus was probably not a total failure during his army career, but the people of England who learned of his failures in battles during the French Revolution would have been upset with his performance and many of these rhymes were commentaries originated by the common folk of an area. That would explain why the “old” or “grand” duke of York is illustrated as less than competent in the lines in the rhyme. It seems having the soldiers climb the hill or descend it simply resulted in an absurd change of position and not in any war victories.