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A-Z Blogging Challenge: G is for...Georgie Porgie

George Villiers - The Face of an Angel
'Georgie Porgie pudding and pie 
Kissed the girls and made them cry
When the boys came out to play,
Georgie Porgie ran away.'

Georgie Porgie was actually George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628). Villiers was a lover of King James I and was described by him as having 'the face of and angel' but his good looks also appealed to the ladies of the time.

George Villiers' most notable affair was with Anne of Austria who was married to Louis XIII at the time and was therefore the Queen of France. This affair could have been disastrous but, because of his relationship with King James, the affair was overlooked. Because he got away with so much he was unpopular with both commoners and courtiers and eventually, when his personal and political scheming began to get out of hand, parliament stepped in and stopped the king from intervening further.

Reference to the romance between George Villiers and the Queen of France can be found in Alexander Dumas' 'The Three Muskateers'.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Wow, Denise, these nursery rhymes certainly have interesting stories behind them, don't they?
7 April 2012 at 04:05
Luana Krause said…
Awesome theme! I love nursery rhymes and I've always wondered where they came from. So that's who Georgie Porgie came from...

Georgie is one of my favorite rhymes. I love the sound of "georgie porgy".
7 April 2012 at 04:37
Ophelia London said…
Huh. Who knew. I love learning things while thinking about cupcakes. Cute blog. Just hoppin' by A - Z!
7 April 2012 at 16:29
Anonymous said…
wow- learn something new everyday!
7 April 2012 at 18:59
Rosalind Adam said…
Fascinating. I've always loved nursery rhymes. I know about the history of some of them but didn't know about Georgie Porgie.
A to Z of Nostalgia
8 April 2012 at 18:47
Anita said…
Thanks for a really informative post :)
9 April 2012 at 00:50
Denise said…
Thanks for your lovely comments everyone!

The longer the challenge goes on the more I'm getting into the history of these nursery rhymes. It's fascinating!

Hope you're all enjoying the challenge :-)
9 April 2012 at 14:21
Anonymous said…
I just read the Three Musketeers with a student, so the name sounded familiar. Had no idea he was the man behind Georgie Porgie, though!
11 April 2012 at 17:50
Anonymous said…
I just read the Three Musketeers with a student, so the name sounded familiar. Had no idea he was the man behind Georgie Porgie, though!
11 April 2012 at 17:50
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