Although it cannot be dated with any certainty this ballad addresses concerns that were at issue during late February and early March. Following the readmission of the secluded MPs in February, parliament ordered the republication of the Solemn League and Covenant on 5 March, more as a challenge to Monck than an attempt to win over presbyterian suport. On the Covenant, see also L'titi' Caledonic', which is slightly cynical about the effect of renewing the Covenant as a promise to the king.

    Internal evidence suggests that the ballad appeared before the king's return was at all certain since its concerns bear directly on the terms of the Restoration settlement. At issue is the dilemma facing those who felt their loyalties divided between religious principles and a return of monarchy. The ballad is delivered in the voice of an old covenanting soldier who claims to have fought in the parliamentary army of the Earl of Essex for the protestant cause against the perceived catholicism of Charles I. Essex had died in 1646, three years after parliament issued the Solemn League and Covenant on 5 Sept 1643. Although it is less likely that the title refers specifically to the Scottish National Covenant, which had been declared in defense of presbyterianism in 1638, both documents contain clauses mentioned in the ballad. Signatories to the Scottish National Covenant declared themselves to be against the falling off of religion and to be equally determined to stop the threat of "popish religion" (Gardiner, Constitutional Documents, p. 62) while at the same time protesting and promising "that we shall defend [the King's] person and authority with our goods, bodies, and lives, in the defence of Christ His evangel...against all enemies within this realm or without" (ibid, p. 57). Following the inconclusive battles of the first year of the civil war, and the failure of negotiations during the summer of 1643, parliament issued the Solemn League and Covenant largely in order to secure Scottish support by guarenteeing a national church without bishops, thereby seeking to keep the support of the presbyterians. Signatories were called upon to defend the reformed church, to extirpate popery and prelacy, to discover plots, to defend the union of the kingdoms, to assist all working to these ends, and to endeavour to preserve "the rights and privileges of Parliament, and the liberties of the kingdom, and to preserve and defend the King's Majesty's person and authority" (ibid, p. 188).

    The first part of this ballad recalls these declarations of loyalty to the king by way of defending those who fought for the protestant cause. The second part continues this defense by way of carefully distinguishing Charles II from his father, and making the case for suporting his return.

    In terms of printing evidence, the publisher Charles Tyus ¹ only appears to have become active during 1660, publishing broadside ballads throughout that year on contemporary events, including J. W.'s The Royall Oak, which also makes use of the same initial woodcut of a mounted king preceded by two mounted pages, and T. R.'s The Royall Subjects Joy, both included here. Tyus also issued two ballads on Prince Henry's death (to be found at GU 65 and GU 290), and A Warning For all such as desire to Sleep upon the Grass (GU 375) dated 1664. ²