A reader shares the history of God Save the Queen (or God Save the King), as it was back then.

Alan Davidson writes of a version of God Save the King in 1745 referring to Marshal Wade but this does not disprove the Jacobite origin of the anthem.

For example, the New Statesman website states: "Ironically, God Save The Queen (or, as was more usual until 1837, God Save The King), was originally a Jacobite drinking song, sung in secret in the years after 1688 by those loyal to the exiled Stuart dynasty.

Fifty years later, what had started as a Scottish “traitor's’” song was rediscovered and repurposed in praise of the Georgian monarchy."

Mr Davidson claims that: "Of course history records that more Scots were on the government side than supported Bonnie Prince Charlie", though the truth of this would take some demonstrating. On the other hand, Samuel Johnson said: "If England were fairly polled, the present King would be sent away to-night and his adherents hanged tomorrow."

J Alan Smith

Albany Court, Epping