Who was Dick Whittington and what was the fairy tale about him?

Answer 1

Sir Richard Whittington was a wealthy British merchant and politician in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. He was most famous for serving 4 terms as Lord Mayor of London, and eventually became a Member of Parliament. His competence, integrity and philanthropy are legendary; he was highly respected and even beloved. His will directed that his fortune be used to form the Charity of Sir Richard Whittington; the Charity is still in existence, and continues to help people in need of assistance. Sometime in the 16th century, a folk tale (not a fairy tale) developed that was undoubtedly based in part on Whittington. In the story, a poor orphaned youth named Dick Whittington rises from poverty to become Lord Mayor of London. The story begins with the impoverished Dick traveling to London, where he is befriended by a rich merchant named Mr. Fitzwarren. Dick uses a penny he has earned to purchase a cat to drive away the rats in his room; Dick's cat eventually winds up being sold to the King of Barbary for a huge fortune, to rid his palace of mice. The fabulously wealthy Dick Whittington becomes a business partner of Mr. Fitzwarren, marries Mr. Fitzwarren's daughter Alice, and is elected to 3 terms as Lord Mayor of London. (The actual Sir Richard Whittington was never impoverished, having been born into a prosperous family; but his wife's maiden name was Alice Fitzwarren.) Beginning in the 17th century, the story Dick Whittington and His Cat began a long series of highly popular public versions. It was included in several published story collections; it was performed as staged plays, pantomimes, and even puppet shows. Some people get the mistaken notion that the story is a fairy tale, probably because it was published in Joseph Jacobs' 1890 story collection English Fairy Tales. Jacobs himself acknowleged that the majority of stories in his 6 books using the "fairy tale" title were not actually Fairy Tales; he collected folk tales, beast tales, cumulative tales, sagas, legends, drolls, fables, nonsense yarns, and even a few fairy tales.