The Ballad History of the Reigns of the Later Tudors

Ballads about events which happened during the reigns of the later Tudors are far more numerous than those which relate to the reigns of their predecessors. They fall naturally into three classes. There are a few traditional ballads, probably handed down by word of mouth, committed to writing much later, and generally not printed till the eighteenth or nineteenth century. The authors of these are unknown; in the shape in which we possess them they may be the work of more than one hand; in many cases it is certain that they have been pieced together and reshaped by modern editors.