His father died when he was 12 and, as he was not old enough to become Duke until he was 18, his mother took control of the land as regent. Wenceslas' father was the Duke of Bohemia and a Christian but it's thought that his mother might have been a pre-Christian/pagan. In fact the real story of King Wenceslas (907-935) is rather gory! The story in the carol was probably completely made up to reflect the view that you should be charitable at Christmas. The story in the carol is about the King (or Duke) of Bohemia (an area in Central Europe which is now part of Czechia) from over 1000 years ago, seeing peasants, on Boxing Day, from his castle and taking food and wood to them. It was written in the town of East Grinstead, in the county of West Sussex, at Sackville College where he was staying at the time. This carol was written in 1853 by John Mason Neale to a traditional folk tune (which had been used as a Spring carol for several hundred years!). Sing along to I Saw Three Ships! (on a different site)Īnd where they sailed those ships all three? The most common lyrics used today are about Mary and Jesus traveling to Bethlehem. However, since the Middle Ages, when it was first written, there have been many different lyrics with different Bible characters being on the ships. In the original version of the carol, the Three Ships were the ones taking the supposed skulls of the wise men to Cologne cathedral in Germany.
The tune of this carol is a traditional English folk song and the words of this carol (of which there are several versions) were written by wandering minstrels as they traveled through the country. On this page, there are some of the stories behind the carols below.
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