who was the grand old duke of york

[tluesley]

i know it was some old king- but which

[FredPuli]

Indeed they did Abigail. The Duke was sent to the Netherlands during the Napoleonic Wars. The campaign there was a complete disaster achieving absolutely nothing of benefit. An early highlight was prompted by the British government's obsession with getting control of Ostend and Dunkirk. To this end the Duke was ordered to take his army on a long march to besiege Dunkirk. Unfortunately when he got there he found that nobody had provided any equipment for a siege. It didn't matter much.Within a fortnight an allied army nearby had suffered a defeat and York's position became untenable anyway so he retreated straight back to where he'd started without once engaging the enemy or starting on the task for which he was sent.This was in August 1793. The rhyme about a French King was suited to making mock of this debacle. It had added point when the country is considered. The region is notably free of hills; such as there are in the Netherlands and Flanders are hardly worthy of the name but no doubt the Duke found one to ascend, such was the incompetence displayed in other parts of the enterprise ! In the 1830s a column 120 feet high was erected ,'by public subscription', to his memory, near the Mall in London; much of the funding came from automatic deductions from each soldier's pay "voluntarily paid"(!). It was said to have been built so high to keep the Duke beyond the reach of his creditors!

[anthomson]

I had always assumed this was about Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and father of Edward IV. If I remember correctly he was killed by the Lancasterians during the battle of Wakefield (The War of the Roses) and his head displayed at the gates of York ( later to be retrieved by his son Edward IV ) . Don't know which is the true origin of the rhyme - but my Duke of York certainly sounds more interesting. http://www.overtown.sgt.btinternet.co.uk/Sandal/sa
ndal-battle-1.htm

[emandvee]

When I was at school the Grand old Duke of York was James the second, when Charles the second-his brother- was alive. James later became James two and was the father of Anne and Mary.