<\/p>
This rhyme has existed in the form we know it for at least 200 years. But 2,000 years before you first sang it, your great-great-great-(add 80 more greats)-grandparents were doing almost the same thing.<\/p>\n
In Roman times<\/a> children would play a game, while singing and taunting each other, \u2018You\u2019ll be king if you do the right thing, and if you don\u2019t, you won\u2019t.\u2019 It\u2019s almost as catchy in the original Latin: \u2018Rex erit qui recte faciet, qui non faciet, non erit.\u2019<\/p>\n That\u2019s the Continental origin, but an alternative version surfaced on the other side of the Channel during the English Civil War. In 1651, a Scottish officer called John Cockburn was defending his fortress, Hume Castle, from Oliver Cromwell<\/a>\u2019s English invaders. Refusing to surrender, he sent them the following letter:<\/p>\n I William of the Wastle, Am now in my castle; And awe the dogs in the town, Shan\u2019t gar me gang down.<\/em><\/p>\n We don\u2019t know if Cockburn made this up himself or whether he was repeating well-known doggerel of the time. Either way, it didn\u2019t work: the castle walls were breached, and Cockburn and his men were forced to leave. But the rhyme outlasted his battlements, becoming popular and morphing into the one we know today. And so, in the British Isles at least, the English were the original dirty rascals to the Scottish king of the castle.<\/p>\n This question was answered by the QI Elves, and extracted from Funny You Should Ask \u2026 Again: More of Your Questions Answered by the QI Elves<\/em>, published by Faber & Faber at \u00a312.99:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n By Elinor Evans Published: Thursday, 14 October 2021 at 12:00 am This rhyme has existed in the form we know it for at least 200 years. But 2,000 years before you first sang it, your great-great-great-(add 80 more greats)-grandparents were doing almost the same thing. In Roman times children would play a game, while singing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":6352,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/10\/who-was-the-original-king-of-the-castle-and-who-was-the-dirty-rascal.jpg",2121,1414,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/10\/who-was-the-original-king-of-the-castle-and-who-was-the-dirty-rascal-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/10\/who-was-the-original-king-of-the-castle-and-who-was-the-dirty-rascal-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/10\/who-was-the-original-king-of-the-castle-and-who-was-the-dirty-rascal-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/10\/who-was-the-original-king-of-the-castle-and-who-was-the-dirty-rascal-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/10\/who-was-the-original-king-of-the-castle-and-who-was-the-dirty-rascal-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/10\/who-was-the-original-king-of-the-castle-and-who-was-the-dirty-rascal-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Elinor Evans Published: Thursday, 14 October 2021 at 12:00 am This rhyme has existed in the form we know it for at least 200 years. But 2,000 years before you first sang it, your great-great-great-(add 80 more greats)-grandparents were doing almost the same thing. In Roman times children would play a game, while singing…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/6351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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