[Lee Stewart]

If you analyze the nursery lyrics, you’ll notice there is not a single mention of an egg. Historians have surmised that Humpty Dumpty was actually a cannon used during the English Civil War of 1642–1649, which the Royalists sat atop a wall surrounding the city of Colchester to ward off an attack from the Parliamentarians. In 1648, when the Parliamentarians sieged the city, the wall that Humpty was on was blown apart, and Humpty fell. Because of its size, none of the king’s horses and none of the king’s men were able to recover the cannon.