A British patriotic song, “Rule, Britannia!” first came into print in the 1740 poem “Rule, Britannia” by James Thomson. It was set to music by Thomas Arne in the same year. Originally, the song was to be the final song of Thomas Arne’s masque called “Alfred.” The masque is about Alfred the Great. It makes more sense when one thinks not only about the name of the masque but the song title in the terms of Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886 and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899.

“Alfred” was first performed at Cliveden, the country home of Frederick, Prince of Wales on 1 August 1740. It was meant to commemorate the accession of Frederick’s grandfather George I and the birthday of the Princess Augusta. It was co-written by Jame Thomson and David Mallet.

This version is taken from The Works of James Thomson by James Thomson, Published 1763, Vol II, p. 191, which includes the entire text of Alfred.

When Britain first, at Heaven’s command
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sung this strain:

“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”

The nations, not so blest as thee,
Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall;
While thou shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all.

“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”

Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful, from each foreign stroke;
As the loud blast that tears the skies,
Serves but to root thy native oak.

“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”

Thee haughty tyrants ne’er shall tame:
All their attempts to bend thee down,
Will but arouse thy generous flame;
But work their woe, and thy renown.

“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”

To thee belongs the rural reign;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine:
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every shore it circles thine.

“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”

The Muses, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy coast repair;
Blest Isle! With matchless beauty crown’d,
And manly hearts to guard the fair.

“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”

“Rule, Britannia!” developed a life of its own, separate from the masque where it initially found its footing. When it was first heard in London in 1745, it became instantly popular.

Have a listen:

Thomas Arne – Rule Britannia! – Tenor: Edmund Barham

British Patriot Song: Rule Britannia

‘Rule Britannia’ – Original 1740 Version of the song

Handel quoted it in his Occasional Oratorio in the following year, using the first phrase as part of the Act II soprano aria, “Prophetic visions strike my eye”, when the soprano sings it at the words “War shall cease, welcome peace!” [Scholes, Percy A (1970). The Oxford Companion to Music (tenth ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 898.]. Soon, the Jacobites took up the anthem to suit their own cause. [Pittock, Murray G. H (1994). Poetry and Jacobite Politics in Eighteenth-Century Britain and Ireland. Cambridge University Press. p. 83.]

In 2000, David Armitage claimed the the song was a lasting expression of the conception of Britain and the British Empire as we think of it during the 18th and 19th centuries. “He equates the song with Bolingbroke‘s On the Idea of a Patriot King (1738), also written for the private circle of Frederick, Prince of Wales, in which Bolingbroke had “raised the spectre of permanent standing armies that might be turned against the British people rather than their enemies”. [Armitage, David (2000). The Ideological Origins of the British Empire. Cambridge University Press. p. 185.] “Hence British naval power could be equated with civil liberty, since an island nation with a strong navy to defend it could afford to dispense with a standing army which, since the time of Cromwell, was seen as a threat and a source of tyranny.”

“At the time it appeared, the song was not a celebration of an existing state of naval affairs, but an exhortation. Although the Dutch Republic, which in the 17th century presented a major challenge to English sea power, was obviously past its peak by 1745, Britain did not yet “rule the waves”, although, since it was written during the War of Jenkins’ Ear, it could be argued that the words referred to the alleged Spanish aggression against British merchant vessels that caused the war. The time was still to come when the Royal Navy would be an unchallenged dominant force on the oceans. The jesting lyrics of the mid-18th century would assume a material and patriotic significance by the end of the 19th century.” [Wikipedia]

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