"The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (Roud 664, Laws J5) is a folk song written in the 1830s by an unknown balladeer from the British Isles, perhaps with Irish sympathies.
The earliest known version of the tune is in William Christie's Tradition Ballad Airs, Volume 2 (1881), but there is another tune, of Irish origin. There is an obvious difficulty in identifying the narrator's voice. It is a conversation between Napoleon's son (Napoleon II, 1811–1832, named King of Rome by his father upon birth) and his mother (Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, Napoleon's second wife, whom he married after divorcing Joséphine de Beauharnais).[citation needed] The sentiment is sympathetic to Napoleon but is also patriotic. Napoleon was defeated because he failed to beware of the 'bonny bunch of roses' - England, Scotland and Ireland whose unity cannot be broken.