Humpty Dumpty - The Truth?

I had a reason for asking about Humpty Dumpty in my previous entry.

“In days of old when knights were bold” so to speak, news of what was happening in the land was carried by messengers to various towns and villages, much the same as the ballads sung by minstrels. People were then able to know what was going on with the monarch and court, the political situation, whether there was plague and also what battles had taken place and what factions were siding with each other.

Very few people were literate and, of course, there were no newspapers, so current events were spread by word of mouth. That is why so many nursery rhymes have hidden meanings, far removed from what we think of today.

We have always known, in our lifetimes, Humpy Dumpty as an egg. Well, that is not what he originally was.

There are about three candidates for the role. One was King Charles 1 who certainly had a great fall, literally lost his head and could obviously not be put back together. I have chosen to tell you here about the origin of the rhyme which seems most likely.

The English Civil War, when the Royalists fought the Roundheads lasted from 1642-1651. One siege took place at Colchester in Essex. Colchester was held on behalf of King Charles 1 by Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle. These men and their troops had taken it back from the Roundheads and were defending it with all their might.

Thomas Fairfax leading the Parliamentarians (Roundheads) encircled Colchester determined to regain it and thus the siege began.

A Street in Colchester

The Royalists almost succeeded in their fight to retain Colchester because they had a “weapon of mass destruction” - a huge cannon called Humpty Dumpty. This cannon was placed at the top of the tower of the church of St.Mary-at-the Walls and there, for eleven weeks, this mighty weapon rained cannon balls at the enemy.

The gunner was a soldier named One-Eyed Thompson and, one-eyed or not his aim was excellent and extremely accurate.  However, there came a day when the church tower was blown apart by the opposing army and Humpty Dumpty went crashing to the ground outside the city wall where it became embedded in the deep boggy ground. The King’s cavalry (the King’s Horses) and the infantry (The King’s Men) tried frantically to retrieve, to pull it clear,  in the hopes that they could get it firing again. They failed in their attempts and because of the want of their cannon they were defeated by Halifax and his troops.

St. Mary's Church with rebuilt tower

You see, there is only one verse to the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty we know today, the only one that appears in books. However, there were two other verses which preceded the lines we know so well:-

In sixteen hundred and forty-eight
When England suffered the pains of state,
The Roundheads laid siege to Colchester town
Where the King’s men still fought for the crown.

There One-Eyed Thompson stood on the wall,
A gunner with deadliest aim of all.
From St. Mary’s Tower his cannon he fired,
Humpty Dumpty was its name.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the King's horses and all the King's men
Could not put Humpty Dumpty together again.

When the Roundheads returned to their homes, they taught their children to recite the tale of their victory and thus word spread throughout the Kingdom of the defeat that King Charles's army had suffered. 

As the centuries passed, the two first verses got forgotten or left out until we have what we know today.

So, why is Humpty always shown as an egg? That was to happen  very much later. Not, in fact, until Lewis Carroll wrote “Through The Looking Glass” in 1871. In the book Alice engages in conversation with Humpty Dumpty whilst he is sitting on a wall. Now, whether Lewis Carroll knew about the origins of Humpty is not know, but if he did, he could hardly have Alice talking to a gun and also, by that time, Humpty Dumpty had become a nickname for a short, stout person.  He consulted with John Tenniel who was his illustrator.

Tenniel pondered on the matter. He wanted to come up with something that, once broken, could never be put together again. Of course, if you drop a fresh egg onto a hard surface you get a mess. You also get something that can never be mended.

Thus it was agreed that Humpty should be an egg and Tenniel added short arms and legs. Our friend Humpty has remained that iconic figure ever since.

Now, you will never think of Humpty in the same light will you? However, let us not disillusion our children and grandchildren. There is enough fighting and bloodshed still going on in the world. Let them keep their innocence. Let Humpty always and forever remain an egg.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this entry as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

The information in this posting has been researched in books but is written here in my own words. Acknowledgement to A. Jack.

Tags: Blogplugs, Humpty-Dumpty, Royalists, Roundheads, Colchester, Siege, Lewis-Caroll, John -Tenniel