The Grand Old Duke of York
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The Grand Old Duke of York is a children's nursery rhyme, which, in its most common version, is:
The grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men.
He marched them up to the top of the hill
And he marched them down again.
And when they were up, they were up;
And when they were down, they were down.
But when they were only halfway up,
They were neither up nor down!
Frequently, the audience is asked to "act out" the rhyme by standing up, sitting down, and standing halfway up at the appropriate points in the verse. It is usually sung to the tune of "A-Hunting We Will Go."
Origins
The nursery rhyme is usually said to be based upon the events of the brief invasion of Flanders by Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, the second son of King George III and Commander-in-Chief of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1793, a painstakingly-prepared attack on the northern conquests of the French Republic was led by the Duke himself. He won a small cavalry victory at Beaumont (April 1794) only to be heavily defeated at Turcoing in May and recalled to England.
The 'Grand Old Duke' was appointed Field Marshal in 1795 and Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in 1798. Despite a disastrous attack on the Dutch island of Walcheren (1799) and allegations in 1809 that his mistress Mary Anne Clarke used her influence to buy officer commissions, the Duke returned to his command in 1811 and played a great part as a backscene administrator in organising the Duke of Wellington's victories in the Peninsular War. He became heir presumptive to the throne in 1820, but predeceased his elder brother King George IV in 1827.
However, an alternative derivation is that the rhyme relates the story of Richard, Duke of York at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460. Richard's army, some 8,000 strong, was awaiting reinforcements at "the top of the hill" at Sandal Castle in Wakefield (the castle was built on top of a Norman motte). He was surrounded by Lancastrian forces some three times that number, but nonetheless chose to sally forth ("...marched them down again") to fight. Richard died in a pitched battle at Wakefield Green, together with between one third and one half of his army; several other Yorkist nobles were killed, and others were captured and later executed (including Richard's son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland and Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury). The severed heads of the dead nobles were displayed in public in York.