Broadside ballad entitled 'The Sons of Albion'

Commentary

Verse 1 begins: 'Ye sons of Albion bind up your arms, / To quell the rebel band'. There are directions for these lyrics to be sung to the tune 'Britain's sons never were afraid'. This sheet was published by James Lindsay of 9 King Street, Glasgow. Lindsay worked from these premises during the 1850s.

It was during this period that there was an unstable balance of power between France and Britain, which was being acted out on the Iberian Peninsula. What had started in the late 1820s as a strong Franco-British alliance for mutual gain in Spain and Portugal was, by this time, soured by suspicion and ambition. As a result, Britain lost much of the political influence it had gained in Spain and suffered continual military defeats there. There are other broadsides in the National Library of Scotland's collection which deal with Franco-British politics during this period.

This style of text, with its implicit political propaganda, would not only have made for compelling entertainment, but would also perhaps have stimulated political thought, reasoning and debate.

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