Every Christmas, carol singers sing the song of Good King Wenceslas. But who was he? This is the story …

The carol

According to the lyrics “Good King Wenceslas last looked out on the Feast of Stephen”, the king and his page face the snowy weather to give alms to a poor peasant. Along the way the page is about to give up the struggle against the cold weather, but is enabled to continue by following the king’s footprints through the deep snow. The song was published in 1853, and with its strong tune and lyrics has been a favourite ever since, but few know the story behind it.

The writer

The song was penned by the Rev John Mason Neale (1818-1866) who was an Anglican priest. He was named after the Puritan cleric John Mason (1645-94), who he was descended from. However, he was not a Puritan himself but prefered the Anglo-Catholic tradition, and he was very interested in old Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. He also loved poetry. When he was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, he won the Seatonian prize for religious poetry many times. He was ordained in 1842, and spent the last twenty years of his life as a warden of Sackville College, which were almshouses for retired poor men at East Grinstead in West Sussex in southern England. He translated a number of hymns and liturgies from Latin and Greek into English. Two songs he translated are still popular at Christmas time today – the Advent hymn “O come, O come, Emmanuel” which he translated from Latin, and “Good King Wenceslas”.

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