The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter

"The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter" is an English ballad, collected by Francis James Child as Child Ballad 110.

Synopsis

A knight persuades a shepherd's daughter to give him her virginity. Afterward she chases after him to the royal court, on foot while he is on horseback, and demands marriage. He attempts to bribe her, but she insists he must marry her or be executed. After the marriage it is revealed, either by the woman herself or by Billy Blin, that she is in fact the daughter of royalty or high nobility; it may also be revealed that the man is a noble instead of a mere knight.

Motifs

Her pursuit of the knight on foot while he is on horseback also appears in Child Ballad 63, "Child Waters", where it fits a very different plot. The motif is very similar to that of the loathly lady, particularly the variant found in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale".

Lise et Mainfroi, a 1740 French imitation of this ballad, has an actual shepherdess as the heroine; she announces at the altar that she is satisfied without the wedding, and the king and his court must persuade her to agree.

See also

• "The Wylie Wife of the Hie Toun Hie"

Recordings

Steeleye Span recorded a version as "Royal Forester" on their Below the Salt studio album in 1972.

There are various versions in the Argo Records series of ballads by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, The Long Harvest record 4.

Other recorded versions are by The Young Tradition on the album So Cheerfully Round (entitled "Knight William") and by Dave Burland on the album Dave Burland (entitled "Earl Richard").