The Bonny Bunch of Roses
Traditional
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- [Traditional]
- Language
- English
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This is a historical song of the end of the Napoleonic era sung between Napoleon's son, The Duke of Reichstadt, and his mother, the Empress Mary Louise, after Napoleon's death. The young Napoleon promises that he will capture "the bonny bunch of roses", namely, Great Britain. Mary Louise tells her son about his father's disaster in Russia and warns him not to follow Napoleon to his grave. In fact, the young duke died in 1832 at the age of 21 from tuberculosis.
Because of the song's pro-Napoleon sentiments, it is generally thought to be of Irish origins as the Irish had suffered from British oppression in the 18th and 19th centuries, although it was popular throughout the British isles, and has been found in Canada and the United States. It is collected as number 664 in the Roud Folksong Index. - Licensing
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