Folk and Traditional Song Lyrics:
Sir Simon de Montfort

Sir Simon de Montfort

Sir Simon de Montfort

Sir Simon de Montford my subject shall bee
Once chief of all the great barons was hee
Yet fortune so cruelle this lord did abase
Now lost and forgotten are he and his race

  Ah me and ah me
  Ah me and ah me
  The rosebud and the briar

When the barons in arms did King Henry oppose
Sir Simon de Montford their leader they chose
A leader of courage undaunted was he
And ofttimes he made their enemies flee

At length in the battle on Eveshame Plain
The barons were routed and Montford was slain
Along with the nobles that fell at that tide
Was his eldest son Henry, who fought by his side

A baron's fair daughter stept forth in the night
To find her father who fell in that fight
And seeing young Henry where gasping he lay
Was moved with pity and brought him away

In secret she nurst him and swayed his pain
While he elsewhere was believed to be slain
At length his fair bride she consented to be
And this was thy mother, my pretty Bessie

Thus many long winters now have I been
The silly blind beggar of Bednan Green
And thus have you learned a secret from me
That ne'er had been known but for pretty Bessie

from the Laurel Music Reader, 1921
SOF