The phrase itself long-predates that publication, with Percy Scholes writing in The Oxford Companion to Music in 1938 that “God Save the King” was a watchword of the Royal Navy from as early as 1545, its call met with the response: “Long to reign over us.” The identity of the song’s author remains unknown, although earlier composers including John Bull, Thomas Ravenscroft, Henry Purcell and Henry Carey have all been nominated as possible candidates. The song was fist adopted as the UK and Commonwealth’s national anthem in September 1745 during the reign of George III, a year after its lyrics appeared in print for the first time in The Gentleman’s Magazine and its music was set down in ink in the pages of the Thesaurus Musicus anthology at a time when the spectre of Bonnie Prince Charlie loomed, threatening to reclaim the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland for the Stuarts. The latter phrasing will have been eerily unfamiliar to many, having not been sung on these shores since 1952 when the reign of Elizabeth’s father, George VI, came to an abrupt end.
In the hours immediately following the death of Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral on Thursday (8 September), the crowds gathering outside of Buckingham Palace in London came together to sing both “God Save the Queen” for the late sovereign and “God Save the King” for her eldest son and successor, the former Prince of Wales, now known as King Charles III.
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