The Burghers of Calais

by Marriott Edgar
Illustrations by John Hassall

Soldiers doing their knitting

Edward III's siege of Calais during the Hundred Years' War lasted many months. Starvation forced the townsfolk to surrender and Edward said they would be spared if six Burghers of Calais would volunteer to be hung. Eustache de Saint Pierre was the first to heroically volunteer and five other burghers then stood by him.

(Marriott Edgar has twelve burghers in this poem, and links them with the side of a football team, which presumably includes a reserve player.)

It were after the Battle of Crecy,
The foe all lay dead on the ground,
And King Edward went out with his soldiers
To clean up the places around.

The first place they came to were Calais,
Where t' burghers all stood in a row,
And when Edward told them to surrender
They told Edward where he could go.

Said he, "I'll beleaguer this city,
I'll teach them to flout their new King,
Then he told all his lads to get camp-stools
And sit round the place in a ring.

Now the burghers knew nowt about Crecy,
They laughed when they saw Edward's plan,
And thinking their side were still winning,
They shrugged and said, "San fairy Ann".***

But they found at the end of a fortnight
That things wasn't looking so nice,
With nowt going out but the pigeons,
And nowt coming in but the mice.

For the soldiers sat round on their camp-stools,
And never a foot did they stir,
But passed their time doing their knitting,
And crosswords, and things like that there.

The burghers began to get desperate
Wi' t' food supply sinking so low,
For they'd nowt left but dry bread and water,
Or what they called in French "pang" and "oh"

They stuck it all autumn and winter,
But when at last spring came around
They was bothered, bewitched and beleaguered,
And cods' heads was tenpence a pound.

So they hung a white flag on the ramparts
To show they was sick of this 'ere,
And the soldiers, who'd finished their knitting,
All stood up and gave them a cheer.

Rushing through gate

When King Edward heard they had surrendered
He said to them, in their own tongue,
"You've kept me here all football season,
And twelve of you's got to be hung."

Then up stood the Lord Mayor of Calais,
"I'll make one" he gallantly cried,
Then he called to his friends on the Council
To make up the rest of the side.

When the townspeople heard of the hanging
They rushed in a crowd through the gate,
They was all weeping tears of compassion,
And hoping they wasn't too late.

With ropes round their necks the twelve heroes
Stood proudly awaiting their doom,
Till the hangman at last crooked his finger
And coaxingly said to them, "Come."

At that moment good Queen Phillippa
Ran out of her bower and said,
"Oh, do have some mercy, my husband;
Oh don't be so spiteful, dear Ted."

Then down on her knee-joints before them
She flopped, and in accents that rang,
Said, "Please, Edward, just to oblige me,
You can't let these poor burghers hang."

The King was so touched with her pleading,
He lifted his wife by the hand
And he gave her all twelve as a keepsake
And peace once again reigned in the land.

***

The reference 'San Fairy Ann' (Ca ne Fait Rien: 'It doesn't matter') was a more common term when Edgar wrote this poem in the 1930's than it is today. It might have been coined by British servicemen as they struggled to make sense of the language when crossing France in the First World War. The term has been kept alive through the 1965 English comic movie 'San Ferry Ann' and Paul McCartney's lyrics 'San Ferry Anne', written for his 1976 album Wings at the Speed of Sound.

While you're here ...

Here's another little story from 1965, which might not make sense unless you were alive around that time.

😄

Bob Hill and his new wife, Betty, are honeymooning in Europe - Transylvania in fact. They are driving along a rather deserted country road. It is late, raining very hard and Bob can barely see ten feet in front of the car.

Suddenly the car skids out of control! Bob attempts to control the car, but to no avail. The car swerves and smashes into a tree. Moments later, Bob shakes his head to clear the fog. Dazed, he looks over at the passenger seat and sees his new wife unconscious, with her head bleeding. Despite the rain and unfamiliar countryside, Bob knows he has to carry her to the nearest phone. Bob carefully picks his wife up and begins trudging down the road.

After a short while, he sees a light. He heads towards the light, which is coming from an old, large house. He approaches the door and knocks. A minute passes then Igor, the butler, opens the door. Bob immediately blurts, "Hello, my name is Bob Hill, and this is my wife, Betty. We've been hurt. Can I please use your phone?"

"I'm sorry," replies the butler, "but we don't have a phone. But my master is a doctor. Come in and I will get him." Bob brings his wife in. An elegant man comes down the stairs. "I'm afraid my assistant may have misled you. I am not a medical doctor I am a scientist. However, it is many miles to the nearest clinic, and I have had basic medical training. I will see what I can do. Igor, bring them down to the laboratory."

With that, Igor picks up Betty and carries her downstairs, with Bob following closely. Igor places Betty on a table in the lab. Bob collapses from exhaustion and his own injuries, so Igor places Bob on an adjoining table. After a brief examination, Igor's master looks worried. "Things are serious, Igor. Prepare a transfusion." Igor and his master work feverishly, but to no avail. Bob and Betty Hill are no more. The Hills' deaths upset the scientist greatly. Wearily, he climbs the steps to his conservatory, which houses his pipe organ. For it is here that he has always found solace. He begins to play, and a stirring, almost haunting melody fills the house.

Meanwhile, Igor is still in the lab tidying up. As the music fills the lab, his eyes catch movement, and he notices the fingers on Betty Hill's hand twitch. Stunned, he watches as Bob's arm begins to rise! He is further amazed as Betty sits straight up! Unable to contain himself, he dashes up the stairs to the conservatory. He bursts in and exclaims:

"Master! Master! . . . The Hills are alive with the sound of music!"

For younger readers, "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music" was the first line of a song from the 1965 movie "Sound of Music".