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Updated 08/26/2014

 


The White Cockade

The White Cockade is a traditional Scottish tune that celebrates the attempt by “Bonnie Prince Charlie” to reclaim the throne of Britain for the House of Stuart.   After James II was deposed in 1688 and replaced by his daughter Mary II, ruling jointly with her husband and first cousin (James's nephew) William III, the Stuarts lived in exile, occasionally attempting to regain the throne. The strongholds of Jacobitism were parts of the Scottish Highlands and North-Eastern lowlands, Ireland, and parts of Northern England (mostly within the counties of Northumberland and Lancashire). Significant support also existed in Wales and South-West England.

The Jacobites believed that parliamentary interference with monarchical succession was illegal. Catholics also hoped the Stuarts would end recusancy. In Scotland, the Jacobite cause became entangled in the last throes of the warrior clan system.

During the 1745 Jacobite uprising, the Bonnie Prince is said to have plucked a white rose and placed it on his bonnet as a symbol of rebellion.    Jacobite Troops had no formal uniform; the white cockade on a blue bonnet became their emblem.

The white rose was the symbol of the House of York.  Traditionally the origins of the emblem are said to go back to Edmund of Langley in the fourteenth century, the first Duke of York and the founder of the House of York as a cadet branch of the then ruling House of Plantagenet.  The actual symbolism behind the rose has religious connotations as it represents the Virgin Mary, who was often called the Mystical Rose of Heaven. The Yorkist rose is white in color, because in Christian liturgical symbolism, white is the symbol of light, typifying innocence and purity, joy and glory.

"White Rose Day" is celebrated on 10 June, the anniversary of the birth of James III and VIII in 1688.


The famous Scottish poet Robert Burns recalled the scene with a line of lyrics he set to the tune in 1790:

Lyrics

Burns Original

Chorus
O, he's a ranting, roving lad!
He is a brisk an' a bonie lad!
Betide what may, I will be wed,
And follow the boy wi' the White Cockade!

My love was born in Aberdeen,
The boniest lad that e'er was seen;
But now he makes our hearts fu' sad -
He takes the field wi' his White Cockade.

Chorus

I'll sell my rock, my reel, my tow,
My guid gray mare and hawkit cow,
To buy mysel a tartan plaid,
To follow the boy wi' the White Cockade.

 

Standard English Translation 

Chorus
O, he is a ranting, roving lad!
He is a brisk and a handsome lad!
Come what may, I will be wed,
And follow the boy with the White Cockade!

My love was born in Aberdeen,
The handsomest lad that ever was seen;
But now he makes our hearts full sad -
He takes the field with his White Cockade.

Chorus

I will sell my distaff, my spinning reel, my flax,
My good gray mare and white-faced cow,
To buy myself a tartan plaid,
To follow the boy with the White Cockade.