"The Gudeman of Ballangeich": rambles in the afterlife of James V

A popular dramatist of the day, William Murray, was quick to exploit Scott's stories about James V, and his "The Cramond Brig; or the Gudeman o' Ballangeich" was performed in Edinburgh in 1828 (Murray n.d.), although Murray was lazy enough to adapt a century-old English "king in disguise play" about Henry II (which, in turn, was based on a traditional ballad [Dodsley 1737]) and give it Scottish trappings, rather than produce his own plot. Whatever genuinely old stories had survived were now being submerged by literary tinkering like Scott's and Murray's, exploiting the catchy name "Gudeman of Ballangeich." But it took time for the name to become established. An effusive 1835 account of James tells of him riding in disguise "through the country in search of adventures, or on visits to distant mistresses" in the course of the "singular career of frolic and adventure in which he delighted to indulge" (Chambers 1835, vol. 3, 219)--but although he is called the Gudeman, Ballangeich is not mentioned. However, the work by James Paterson in which tales about the disguised James reached their apogee highlights Ballangeich stories (Paterson 1861). The Dictionary of National Biography says of Paterson, rather stuffily, "His works are not characterised by literary merit, and are popular rather than scholarly," and it is true there is a cobbled-together feel to his account of James, drawn together from traditions and historical sources.

Paterson and Scott are worlds apart in literary talent, and their treatments of James in disguise also differ in another respect. Scott had been interested in the Gudeman of Ballangeich for the romantic aura of a king in disguise, and never mentioned that he was known as the king of the commons or the poor man's king. Paterson, on the other hand, was a man who had been active in radical politics and, as well as the romance of the tales, he empathised with a king who sought the company of common folk and stuck up for their interests. As a royal hero for an age moving slowly towards democracy, "the king of commons" had some potential, and this aspect of his character was stressed by late some nineteenth-century historians (Burton 1873, vol. 3, 184). As late as 1911 an academic historian could write "Of all Scottish kings except Robert I, James V would appear to have been the most popular. The very designations under which his subjects spoke of him attest to the general affection. He was 'the king of the commons,' 'the Gaberlunzie king,' 'the red tod [fox].'" He assumed disguises to mingle with his people both to ascertain their wishes and gratify his love of adventure. He loved justice and was courageous, and thus he "possessed in special degree the gifts that have perpetuated the image of certain kings in the memory of their people" (Brown 1911, vol. 1, 317). The following year, on the quatercentenary of James's birth, a newspaper celebrated the event under the headline "The Poor Man's King" (Evening Times, Glasgow, 10 April 1912).