Humpty Dumpty... was a cannon?

Brian G Turner

Brian G Turner

Fantasist & Futurist
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I never knew this - until someone from Colchester pointed it out to me last week. :)


Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again!

Humpty Dumpty was a powerful cannon during the English Civil War (1642-49). It was mounted on top of the St. Mary’s at the Wall Church in Colchester defending the city against siege in the summer of 1648. (Although Colchester was a Parliamentarian stronghold, it was captured by the Royalists who held it for 11 weeks.) The church tower was hit by the enemy and the top of the tower was blown off, sending “Humpty” tumbling to the ground. Naturally the King’s men* tried to mend him but in vain.
* The “men” would have been infantry, and “horses” the cavalry troops (Ed: OR, the carriages to move it).
– From the East Anglia Tourist Board in England
 
Read that somewhere or other a while ago. It's a nice story, excepting that the English Civil War was a bit like Alien Versus Predator (Whoever Wins, We Lose).
 
TDZ, the rhyme's about it breaking. Obviously if it hadn't been made of egg, it would've been fine.
 
That's true -- I suppose it was a cautionary tale. And, for what it's worth, I've never heard of another cannon made of egg, so I guess it worked.
 
Every time someone comes up with a wonderful insight, someone else has to go and spoil it with facts!

;)
 
Indeed. :)
Funnily enough, when I was at school, one year they put on a musical based on Humpty Dumpty in the Civil War which had HD being some sort of pontoon bridge or siege engine in the siege of a castle. Now I think about it, so far as I know, the Civil War tactic with castles wasn't medieval siege engine it was undermining the walls or battering with cannon.
 
Parson said:
Every time someone comes up with a wonderful insight, someone else has to go and spoil it with facts!

;)
Click to expand...

I don't know about you, but a lot of my cherished youthful beliefs/great mysterious stories that I was told as 'true'....have in fact been rigorously debunked!

From 19th Century British tourists 'timeslipping' back to the time of Marie Antoinette for a few moments, to the mystery of the Bermuda triangle...
 
Well, that was fun.

No riddle me this. My favorite to Mother gooses, to read to my kids. I seems to, clearly, be a satire on some historical, military boondoggle; but which?

Oh, The grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men;
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.

And when they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only half-way up,
They were neither up nor down.
 
Flanders, I think. Late 18th century, ish. Marching about in the fog to, er, limited operational effectiveness.
 
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