Talk:God Save the King/Archive 3

"To sing with heart and voice" vs. "With heart and voice to sing"
The article currently shows the last two lines of the final verse as "With heart and voice to sing/God Save the King" whereas under a female monarch it was "To sing with heart and voice/God save the Queen." Several reliable sources indicate it was "With heart and voice to sing" under previous male monarchs, however most sources that have covered this since Elizabeth's death indicate that it will still be "To sing with heart and voice." The Sun says otherwise, but I believe it's a depracated source as unreliable. Do we know yet what the lyric will be at this point? Or do we just have to wait for it to be performed at an official performance or something? The Royal Family website says "To sing with heart and voice" as of right now. Smartyllama (talk) 15:04, 9 September 2022 (UTC)


 * I have a 1911 hymnbook in front of me as I type, open at the National Anthem. It very clearly says "To sing with heart and voice / God save the king". (The Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer; Longmans, 1911)
 * Is there any actual evidence of "With heart and voice to sing" other than speculation based on the rhyme with king? That is not the rhyming scheme though. The first verse has victorious/glorious/over us, and the verse in question has laws/cause/voice -- admittedly not a perfect rhyme. Simon Kershaw (talk) 08:32, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

FWIW, the version sung at Queen Elizabeth's funeral (by, among others, the royal family) was very clearly "To sing with heart and voice". Fluppeteer (talk) 11:46, 19 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Versions using "with heart and voice to sing" can be found in Spring-time with the poets (1866) and English Minstrelsie: A National Monument of English Song (1895). Historian Jeffrey Richards also uses the variation in his Imperialism and Music: Britain, 1876-1953 (2001). According to A Dictionary of Hymnology (1892), the very first version to include a third verse was printed in Gentlemen's Magazine in 1745 and in that version, the sixth line of the stanza is given as "to sing with heart and voice", but when the stanza was included in the Thesaurus Musicus, it was changed to "with heart and voice to sing", with author G.A. Crawford remarking that "this curious alteration is probably due to the engraver". gobonobo  + c 12:49, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

Standard version in the United Kingdom
If the second para is "omitted since the late 19th century." Why then are we still adding the second para and yet calling it the "Standard version". This is causing unnecessary confusion. I suggest to rename the header appropriately or drop the second para from this section and move it to some other appropriate section. Venkat TL (talk) 11:04, 19 September 2022 (UTC)


 * This section - "Standard version in the United Kingdom" - is quite broken now. The text several times mentions "the middle verse" and "the three verses", but yet at the beginning of the section, there are only two verses. Indefatigable (talk) 15:39, 6 October 2022 (UTC)

I don’t feel that it’s in my place to recommend a solution because I’m from the USA, but I’d like to agree that the way the "lyrics" section is written doesn’t make sense. I know the lyrics to the first and third verses and I came to this article to try to find the lyrics to the second verse, mainly just because I couldn’t remember three of the last four lines of that verse. I found the lyrics to that verse aren’t here, but the article has multiple references to the "three verses" discussed above and similar. From looking at the edit history, it appears that one particular user was very vehement about removing the second verse on the basis that it isn’t supposed to be performed these days—presumably because, like the third verse of our national anthem, its lyrics are somewhat impolitic. The editor who was vehement about deleting those lyrics was aggressive in deleting them but apparently couldn’t be bothered to edit further to conform the rest of the text to those changes. (My question, if I were British, would be: Is that verse part of "God Save the King," regardless of whether it is actually performed? If it is, I would argue it belongs in the article, perhaps with an explanation about why it isn’t sung. Consider that "The Star-Spangled Banner" has four verses, but only the first one is generally performed—I’d wager 99 percent of Americans don’t know the lyrics to the other three verses (I do!) and that more than 80 percent don’t know there are multiple verses—yet all four verses are nonetheless part of the anthem and thus are set out in that article.) 1995hoo (talk) 20:38, 8 October 2022 (UTC)

Will this page be renamed when Charles becomes king?
Queen Elizabeth II will die. Death is inevitable and will get to her too. When she dies, Charles will become king, and thus, the anthem's lyrics will be changed. Will this page also be renamed? 62.165.228.198 (talk) 17:32, 31 August 2022 (UTC)


 * Yes, this page will be renamed (among many other rather more far-reaching changes). But until that happens, there's not really a lot of point in discussing it. GrindtXX (talk) 18:25, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

This has happened. NowIOnlyWantATriumph (talk) 17:35, 8 September 2022 (UTC)

Quick, quick, change it, no time to waste, chop chop! StrexcorpEmployee (talk) 17:39, 8 September 2022 (UTC)
 * The only objection I could see, as I write this, is that we should have waited for an official announcement of the change (e.g. the possibility they would like to play the song at her funeral still under the "God Save the Queen" title). But "God Save the King" is the original title of the song. So there's that. Zzyzx11 (talk) 18:00, 8 September 2022 (UTC)
 * What if the ruler is non-binary though? 98.148.77.27 (talk) 18:54, 8 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Yup. It's well past time for gender-neutral words. BilCat (talk) 20:45, 8 September 2022 (UTC)
 * And religion-neutral too. Since "monarch" is two syllables, "Save the Monarch" would work. BilCat (talk) 20:47, 8 September 2022 (UTC)
 * If Charles III were non-binary, we would have heard something about the change in the anthem from royal/government authorities. We are not a forum to discuss academic hypotheticals. Szmenderowiecki (talk) 21:52, 8 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I wasn't. I was being sarcastic. I could care less what other countries do, except for those colonies not yet free of England's bloody yoke and butchers' apron. BilCat (talk) 22:33, 8 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I know, but I just wanted to cut short any talk page drama. Szmenderowiecki (talk) 23:26, 8 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Ok, and I agree. BilCat (talk) 23:39, 8 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Maybe now is the time, with a New Monarch on the throne, to compose a New National Anthem, with new music and new words. There are numerous anthems around the world, with far more appropriate words and tunes; the Australian and Welsh anthems being two of note. You may not understand the Words of the Welsh National Anthem, but as a schoolboy, I sang it in school and at Rugby Matches.  It's a powerful song and one I always enjoy hearing and singing, even though I'm English and don't speak Welsh. 81.103.20.178 (talk) 14:53, 9 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I concur. 204.116.209.210 (talk) 16:14, 26 October 2022 (UTC)
 * @98.148.77.27 what if the ruler is not a human .. come on, guys we'll sort that out when/if it happens 62.28.66.178 (talk) 20:29, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

File Issue
Whenever I try to play the anthem either on here or on the article for the UK, the audio sample reads, 'No compatible source was found for this media.' This started happening after the death of Elizabeth II when the anthem's lyrics changed due to the Monarch's gender changing. I don't know if this is an issue with my computer or an issue at large. I think that somebody changed the file's title and accidentally rendered it incompatible. Joesom333 (talk) 02:07, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

Orphaned references in God Save the King
I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of God Save the King's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "National Anthem": From Timeline of GB News:  From Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau:  

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 13:03, 12 February 2023 (UTC)

French origin?
This page on ouest-france claims a French origin to the song: https://www.ouest-france.fr/leditiondusoir/2018-05-15/quelle-est-lorigine-de-lhymne-britannique-god-save-the-queen-75a8d461-efbe-47f9-be26-fd59bdb2c7da It's not well sourced, but neither is the article here. It says Handel heard it while in France, and brought it to the UK after. There is a wikipedia article which seems to be the same song Domine_salvum_fac_regem but with a latin title, not french. That page mentions this song as being inspired by that one, but again no sources. 178.139.170.133 (talk) 18:09, 5 March 2023 (UTC)

Update Citation
The current British Royal Family website for the national anthem is an archive and takes a long time to load. I suggest adding the current, on-archived one at https://www.royal.uk/national-anthem. StrawWord298944 (talk) 19:58, 27 April 2023 (UTC)


 * @StrawWord298944 - Which citation is it? i.e. What number is it? DDMS123 (talk) 20:08, 27 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Sorry for taking so long to reply, I’ve been away for a few days. Number 22. It can be found at the end of the lyrics for the anthem under the section “Use in the United Kingdom”. StrawWord298944 (talk) 19:39, 29 April 2023 (UTC)
 * @StrawWord298944 - When I click on citation 22, it goes straight to the royal.uk website. For me, it's not an archive. DDMS123 (talk) 20:56, 29 April 2023 (UTC)
 * It wasn't n22, it was n1 that was the problem. I've fixed it (I hope). GrindtXX (talk) 21:11, 29 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I was in a haste and saw a citation that said "royal.uk" and "The National Anthem". StrawWord298944 (talk) 19:57, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

Minor suggestion
"when British monarch is female" - it should say "when *the* British monarch is female". I can't edit it myself because this page is protected. Thanks 83.29.39.253 (talk) 16:50, 7 May 2023 (UTC)


 * ✅ DDMS123 (talk) 19:05, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

"National anthem of Tokelau" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_anthem_of_Tokelau&redirect=no National anthem of Tokelau] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. estar8806 (talk) ★ 23:22, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

"God Save The King-Emperor" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=God_Save_The_King-Emperor&redirect=no God Save The King-Emperor] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. estar8806 (talk) ★ 23:23, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

"God Save the King-Emperor" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=God_Save_the_King-Emperor&redirect=no God Save the King-Emperor] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. estar8806 (talk) ★ 23:24, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

Dieu sauve le Roi
in French sources, Lully is said to be the source of this piece, composing it after king Louis XIV successfully was liberated through surgery from an anal fistula. 115.77.107.2 (talk) 04:41, 18 January 2024 (UTC)