No collection of poems would be complete without at least one from the well-known and prolific author, Anonymous. And, in my estimation, anonymous never wrote a better poem than this delightful, insightful tale of the spiritually flexible Vicar of Bray, who prided himself with his ability to adapt his religious beliefs to the ever changing political climate that marked the tumultuous 67 years from the opening of the reign of Charles II and to death of George I.

I am always reluctant to provide too much information about historical characters, fearing that I will insult the intelligence of the reader. But I am going to assume that some readers are not well versed in this period of English history, and will thus provide a little historic background in hopes of enhancing the fun of reading this wonderful poem.

The Charles to which the opening passage refers is Charles II, who assumed the English throne at the age of 30 in 1660, after having spent his youth in exile during the rule of the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, who had had his father Charles I beheaded in 1649. Charles II was an avid supporter of the Church of England until a few days before his death, when he confessed to a priest and took his first and only Catholic communion.

Upon Charles' death in 1685, his brother James II assumed the throne. James was 53 at the time. He was a Catholic, having converted in 1668, to the great distress of his brother the King. His first wife, a protestant, bore him two daughters, Mary and Anne. Upon her death, he married an ardent Catholic, Mary of Modena. James' Catholicism was a constant source of trouble in Protestant England, but Mary of Modena appeared to be incapable of giving birth to a live child, so the English assumed that the throne would pass to James' Protestant daughter, Mary.

Just before James' death, however, Mary of Modena ostensibly gave birth to a young male, James Francis Edward Stuart, who later became known as the "Old Pretender." I say ostensibly because rumors abounded that some other woman's baby had been smuggled into the birthing chamber in order that a Catholic would inherit the throne. This is known as the "warming pan" legend. This birth threw the English Court and the nation into turmoil. Amid the fray, the Bishop of London and six prominent nobles secretly invited William of Orange ("William, our deliverer" in the poem) and his wife, James' Protestant daughter Mary, to come to England and take the throne by force, which they did, after James basically abandoned the fight and was allowed to go into exile in France.

William was a Presbyterian. He was adamantly anti-Catholic, which pleased the Anglicans, but he was not one of them, which weakened their enthusiasm a bit. Mary died childless of smallpox in 1694. William governed for eight more years, but was unpopular throughout this time.

When he died in 1702, Mary's sister Anne took the throne. She was an ardent Anglican. Indeed, she is known today as one of the most English of all the English monarchs. She died childless in 1714, and the English sent to Germany for the 54-year-old Elector of Hanover, who reluctantly moved to England and became King George I. His claim to the throne was that he was the great grandson of James I, who had assumed the English throne one hundred and eleven years earlier, in 1603 upon the death of Queen Elizabeth I.

George was unpopular. He spoke no English and cared little for the English people. As King, his natural affinity was with the Tories, but he distrusted the Tory leadership, knowing that many of them had secretly supported the Jacobite uprising in 1715, one year after he became King. The object of this uprising was to place James Stuart on the throne. It was led by the Old Pretender's son Charles Edward Stuart, the "Young Pretender." So George became tight with the Whigs, who were led by the deeply corrupt, but politically astute Prime Minister Robert Walpole. With that introduction, please enjoy this great old classic.