John Strachan of Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, sang The Royal Forester on 16 July 1951 to Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson. This recording was later released on the anthology The Child Ballads 2. Hamish Henderson and Ewan McVicar noted:
Rape presented as violent seduction occurs alarmingly often in the old ballads. Here the rapist knows that the king will give the girl justice against him and tries to fob her off with a foreign pronunciation of his name, but she knows how to name him in Scots. He rides away, but she reaches the king’s door before him. He is single and is obliged to marry her, but ironically she proves to be of higher parentage than him. The vigour and jollity of John’s refrain highlights the ballad’s lack of moral censure at the knight’s action and its respect for the girl’s determination.
Emily Sparkes sang this song as Sweet William in Rattlesden, Suffolk in 1958/59 and Charlie Carver sang it in the Gardeners’ Arms in Tostock in 1960. Both versions were included on the Veteran anthology of traditional music making from Mid-Suffolk Many a Good Horseman. John Howson noted in the album’s booklet:
This is a rare ballad usually known as The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter. It has been noted down in most corners of England and all over Scotland where it sometimes called The Forester or Lord or Earl Richard, Lithgow or Richmond. The story line is usually that a knight persuades a shepherd’s daughter to give up her maidenhead. She chases after him to the King’s court, she on foot and he on horseback, and demands marriage. He attempts to bribe her but is threatened with execution if he doesn’t marry her. Often the story then reveals that she is herself of higher status. Although both Emily Sparkes and Charlie Carver’s versions have slightly muddled story lines it is remarkable that these are the only traces of the song to have been collected in Suffolk. Furthermore there seems to be only one other actual recording of it from England; that made by Peter Kennedy of Louise Holmes from Herefordshire.
John Roberts and Tony Barrand sang The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter in 1971 on their first album, Spencer the Rover Is Alive and Well. They noted:
This ballad is the sole representative here of those which professor Child considered great enough to include in his collection. Our version escaped across the water to the Maritime Provinces of Canada, where it was collected by Helen Creighton as late as 1954. It lacks the “happy ending” often found in other variants, where the wronged maiden turns out to be a lady far richer than the knight who seduced her.
Steeleye Span recorded The Royal Forester in 1972 for their fourth LP Below the Salt, which was the first album of their longest-living “classic” line-up with Tim Hart, Bob Johnson, Rick Kemp, Peter Knight, and Maddy Prior. The sleeve notes commented cryptically:
Subtitled “The Aboriculturist Meets Superwoman”. From the singing of John Strachan. The first English text appeared in Anchovy Ram’s elementary drum tutor Half Way to Para-diddle, published in 1293. Although a faithful translation of the original Latin, there is still scholarly dispute as to the spelling of the name ‘Erwilian’ and over the use of the word ‘leylan’.
From: https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/theknightandtheshepherdsdaughter.html
As previously mentioned, there's a long tradition of folk songs where men deflower young maidens and then run. The Royal Forester falls into that category, but what makes it a cut above the norm is that, intead of just passively bemoaning her fate, she refuses to take it lying down. Um. So to speak. Instead, she chases him and CATCHES him. I love:
"She's belted up her petticoat
And followed with all her force."
Yeah! And also:
“The water, it's too deep, my love,
I'm afraid you cannot wade.”
But afore he'd ridden his horse well in
She was on the other side.
Bloody well right! It's just cool because of how it bucks the trend--there isn't much of a feminist tradition here. Can't say as I understand what's meant by “Erwilian, that's a Latin word, but Willy is your name,” though. Wuh?
As in all songs of this genre, the moral, if any, is inscrutable. Although our heroine does achieve what would at the time have been considered "satisfaction," it hardly seems satisfactory--that someone as high-powered as she is should have to marry this obvious loser. It's difficult to imagine that this is going to be a particularly happy union. And the fact that the song ENDS with "She's the Earl of Airlie's daughter, and he's the blacksmith's son" seems like it ought to be in some way significant. Is the idea supposed to be that she got a raw deal, being nobility but ending up married to a commoner? Or--after the manner of ancient Chinese miscellanies--is it just a matter of the song saying "this is what happened" without passing any judgment one way or the other? Am I projecting too much?
From: http://inchoatia.blogspot.com/2005/05/steeleye-span-royal-forester.html
