charlies dead!

[Kay]

As called out to girls when their petticoats were showing,WHY??

[smudge]

Now that is a good question. Can't wait for the replies!

[SteveD]

The answer could be here: http://www.plateaupress.com.au/wfw/charley.htm OOOH VICAR!!

[Kay]

Thanx for that Steve! The nearest I got to this saying was, as King Charles 1st was beheaded,part of his lace collar was still attached to his head! OUCH!!!

[blanx]

Dates from beheading of Charles I, by Oliver Cromwell�s orders. After the event the King�s male friends and courtiers were invited to dip their hankerchiefs in his blood to have as a permanent keepsake of their sovereign. The executed King�s female supporters dipped an edge of their petticoat in the blood. Public shows of mourning were forbidden and those who open expressed Royalist views were liable to be punished. So, during the years of Puritanical rule, it became fashionable for former ladies of court to continue displaying a piece of petticoat under their skirts, showing rememberance of Charles I and delivering a mute insult to Cromwell., In company, these ladies would whisper to one another: �Charlie�s dead� � keeping his memory alive. Long after its purpose had been forgotten, it became the customery slang to tell a woman whose petticoat edge was showing that �Charlie�s dead�. Use of the phrase began to die out in the seventies.

[Kay]

Thanx Blanx! How on earth did you find that out?

[blanx]

Daily Mirror, yonks ago. It was a saying my Nan always used and I scanned the cutting for her then, and remembered I still had it on the computer.