> Steeleye Span > Songs > They Called Her Babylon (The Siege of Lathom House)

They Called Her Babylon (The Siege of Lathom House)

[Steeleye Span / Ken Nicol]

Sung by Ken Nicol on Steeleye Span's CD They Called Her Babylon and their video The 35th Anniversary World Tour 2004. He said in the CD sleeve notes:

Lathom House is situated in Lancashire, and in the year of 1643 was the one Royalist stronghold left in the country that hadn't been seized by Cromwell's Parliamentarians.

In June of that year, James Stanley, the seventh Earl of Derby, heeded the King's command and left Lathom House, taking with him an army of fighting men. They headed for the Isle of Man with the intention of stopping Scottish forces en route for England in their support for Cromwell. He left his house in charge of his intrepid wife, Charlotte de la Tremoville.

The enemy now looked upon this house as their own, and it was decided that Lathom House must be surrendered. One Puritan minister at Wigan preached the following sermon against Lady Derby upon a text from Jeremiah:

Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about; all ye that bend the bow shoot at her; spare no arrows; for she has sinned against the Lord. (Jeremiah 50.14)

When a commission was obtained by the Parliamentarians to seize Latham House, and this was made known to Lady Derby, in great secrecy she proceeded to furnish herself with men, arms and ammunition. With considerable determination and unflinching loyalty to her husband and to the king, against all odds, she successfully resisted and held back the aggressors until their shameful retreat in the month of May 1644.

Lyrics

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