You’ve probably been listening to this song your entire life and not understood a) why it’s a Christmas song and b) who the heck King Wenceslas was and what kingdom did he rule.

Let’s start with second things first.

First of all, Wenceslaus I wasn’t a king. He was a duke of Bohemia (now Czechia), the equivalent of a prince. He lived in the 900s – he might be the best known person of the 10th century by default.

Most of what we know about him is legend – there aren’t a whole lot of documents remaining from 1,100 years ago. But apparently, as the song indicates, he went around providing comfort for the impoverished in his realm.

Wenceslaus was supposedly murdered by his younger brother, whose name – believe it or not – was Boleslaus the Cruel. They didn’t fool around with names back then.

Later in the 9th century, the Holy Roman Emperor posthumously crowned Wenceslaus, who also was made a saint by the Catholic Church.

As for the song, the feast of Stephen is the second of the 12 days of Christmas, a day honoring  one of the first Christian martyrs, 

The Wenceslaus legend hung around throughout the centuries. In the 1850s, a British hymn writer put lyrics to a 13th century melody, dropped the u from his name, and, voila, “Good King Wenceslas.”

It’s not one of my favorite holiday songs and I can’t name a definitive version. So here is a version I found on YouTube by the Irish Rovers.