o Henry VIII. as seizing English ships under the pretext that they were
Portuguese. The king did not send Lord Charles Howard, as the ballad
states--Lord Charles was not born till twenty-five years afterwards--but
Sir Thomas and Sir Edward Howard set out against the pirate by Henry's
leave. They took two ships, not one, the meeting with Henry Hunt
(st. 18) being the ballad-maker's invention. Lord Charles's fraudulent
use of the 'white flag' in st. 37 is supported by Bishop Lesley's
partisan account of the engagement, written _c._ 1570. The time-scheme
of the ballad is unusually vague: it begins 'in midsummer-time,' and the
punitive expedition starts on 'the day before midsummer even'--_i.e._
June 19, which agrees with the chronicles. The fight takes place within
the week; but Lord Charles does not get home until December 29 (st. 71).
Hall's chronicle says that they returned on August 2.

Lord Charles Howard was created Earl of Nottingham in 1596; but the
adoption of this into the ballad (st. 78) dates only our text. It is
quite probable that it existed in a previous version with names and
facts more correctly stated.

SIR ANDREW BARTON

1.
As it befell in midsummer-time,
When birds sing sweetly on every tree,
Our noble king, King Henry the Eighth,
Over the river of Thames passed he.

2.
He was no sooner over the river,
Down in a forest to take the air,
But eighty merchants of London city
Came kneeling before King Henry there.

3.
'O ye are welcome, rich merchants,
Good sailors, welcome unto me!'
They swore by the rood they were sailors good,
But rich merchants they could not be.

4.
'To France nor Flanders dare we not pass,
Nor Bordeaux voyage we dare not fare,
And all for a false robber that lies on the seas,
And robs us of our merchant's-ware.'

5.
King Henry was stout, and he turned him about,
And swore by the Lord that was mickle of might;
'I thought he had not been in the world throughout
That durst have wrought England such unright.'

6.
But ever they sighed, and said, alas!
Unto King Henry this answer again;
'He is a proud Scot that will rob us all
If we were twenty ships and he but one.'

7.
The king looked over his left shoulder,
Amongst his lords and barons so free;
'Have I never a lord in all my realm
Will fetch yond traitor unto me?'

8.
'Yes, that dare I!' says my lord Charles H