The Famous Flower of Serving-Men or The Lady Turned Serving-Man (Child 106,[1] Roud 199) is a traditional English language folk song and murder ballad.
It was written by the prolific balladeer, Laurence Price, and published in July 1656, under the title of The famous Flower of Serving-Men.
It lasted in the mouths of ordinary people for three hundred years: what a tribute to the work of any writer, leave alone the obscure Laurence Price.
The original has twenty-eight verses and a fairy-tale ending: “And then for fear of further strife, / he took Sweet William to be his Wife: / The like before was never seen, / A Serving-man to be a Queen”.
– Roy Palmer, A Book of British Ballads[3]A woman's husband and child are killed by agents of her mother (or, sometimes, stepmother).