Not Quite Henry: The Real Story Behind Greensleeves

Ever since I visited Hampton Court Palace in Surrey, England, I have been fascinated by King Henry VIII, or more specifically the story of his 6 wives. So I thought it was fitting that my first piece on Harmonies of History should be on the topic of something I have loved since childhood: British Monarchs. And who better to feature than King Henry VIII, one of the most famous Kings of England, and the supposed author of Greensleeves?

When people think of the traditional English folk song, Greensleeves, they think of a great Tudor love story: a lovesick Henry writing a romantic ballad for his true love, Anne Boleyn; a romance for the ages. It's as equally romantic as it is historically improbable.

In truth, a Mr. Richard Jones registered a song at the London Stationers’ Company, a song called A Newe Northen Dittye of ye Ladye Greene Sleves. In 1584, a slightly different version appeared in Clement Robinson’s book, A Handful of Pleasant Delights. It appeared under the name, A New Courtly Sonnet of the Lady Green Sleeves, which today we would recognize as the song Greensleeves. About 20 years later in 1602, Shakespeare referenced it by name in his play, “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” indicating it was very much in vogue. Throughout the ensuing decades, the tune was used by other musicians as a base to write their own lyrics so that they could then sell it as a new ballad. This use made the tune a true Elizabethan icon.

So how do we know that it wasn’t written by King Henry VIII? The answers lie in the music. Greensleeves is based on two chord progressions, which are chords played in a specific order, the passamezzo antico and its sister, the romanesco. These two chord progressions were developed in Italy for lute music and were really popular during the Italian Renaissance; people liked these progressions because it was easy to improvise melodies over them. But these Italian music trends didn’t make it to England until well after King Henry VIII had been laid to rest in 1547.

So how did these trends make it to England? Italian musicians started to migrate from all over Italy to what some called “Britannia.” In particular, Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder came to England in 1562 from Bologna, Italy and brought his Italian music style with him. He became quite close to Queen Elizabeth I because he was a spy for her. During his time in England he popularized many different forms of Italian music in the Elizabethan court. He inspired people like Nicholas Yonge, who wrote Music Transalpina, a translation of Italian madrigals, secular music for typically 6-8 voices with no refrain, into English. Here is an example of a beautiful madrigal that would have been heard during this time period:

In summary:

Greensleeves uses musical styles that weren’t popular in England until after Henry VIII died.
The Italian influence on English music didn’t take hold until the 1560s.
The song doesn’t appear in any records until 1580.

Portrait of Anne Boleyn - Queen of England as the second wife of King Henry VIII.

Plate 16 from Syntagma Musicum De Organographia (Vol. 2) by Michael Praetorius, printed in 1619 in Wolfenbüttel. This detailed illustration showcases a variety of early 17th-century plucked instruments, including the Paduanische Theorba, Testudo Theorbata, Chor Laute, Quinterna, Mandörgen, Sechs Chörichte Chor Zitter, Klein Englisch Zitterlein, and Klein Geig (or Posche).

As unromantic as it might be, Greensleeves was not written in the early 1500’s by King Henry VIII. It was written by Richard Jones in 1580, a little-known Elizabethan musician, not a king chasing romance. It’s crazy that today we can still hear Greensleeves constantly in pop culture adapted into a variety of arrangements spanning many eras of history, from the classic Victorian Christmas carol, “What Child is This?” to the hit Broadway musical, Six. It was also a summertime staple for ice cream truck jingles during the mid-century in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK. I think it's safe to say that Richard Jones would be very surprised to see his little ballad still going strong almost five centuries later.