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Historic Jacobite and anti-Jacobite alternative verses[edit]

Around 1745, anti-Jacobite sentiment was captured in a verse appended to the song, with a prayer for the success of Field Marshal George Wade‘s army then assembling at Newcastle. These words attained some short-term use, although they did not appear in the published version in the October 1745 Gentleman’s Magazine. This verse was first documented as an occasional addition to the original anthem by Richard Clark in 1822,^[36] and was also mentioned in a later article on the song, published by the Gentleman’s Magazine in October 1836. Therein, it is presented as an “additional verse… though being of temporary application only… stored in the memory of an old friend… who was born in the very year 1745, and was thus the associate of those who heard it first sung”, the lyrics given being:

Lord, grant that Marshal Wade,
May by thy mighty aid,
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
and like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush,
God save the King.

The 1836 article and other sources make it clear that this verse was not used soon after 1745, and certainly before the song became accepted as the British national anthem in the 1780s and 1790s.^[37][38] It was included as an integral part of the song in the Oxford Book of Eighteenth-Century Verse of 1926, although erroneously referencing the “fourth verse” to the Gentleman’s Magazine article of 1745.^[39]

On the opposing side, Jacobite beliefs were demonstrated in an alternative verse used during the same period:^[40]

God bless the prince, I pray,
God bless the prince, I pray,
Charlie I mean;
That Scotland we may see
Freed from vile Presbyt’ry,
Both George and his Feckie,
Ever so, Amen.

In May 1800, following an attempt to assassinate King George III at London’s Drury Lane theatre, playwright Richard Sheridan immediately composed an additional verse, which was sung from the stage the same night:^[41][42]

From every latent foe
From the assassin’s blow
God save the King
O’er him Thine arm extend
For Britain’s sake defend
Our father, king, and friend
God save the King!