God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save The Queen.
Send her victorious, 
Happy and glorious, 
Long to reign over us:
God save The Queen. 

O Lord our God, arise,
Scatter our enemies, 
And make them fall; 
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks; 
On thee our hopes we fix: 
God save us all. 

Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour,
Long may she reign.
May she defend our laws, 
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice, 
God save The Queen. 

Not in this land alone,
But be God's mercies known,
From shore to shore!
Lord make the nations see,
That men should brothers be,
And form one family,
The wide world over.

From every latent foe,
From the assassins blow,
God save the Queen!
O'er her thine arm extend,
For Britain's sake defend,
Our mother, prince, and friend,
God save the Queen!

-------------------------

United Kingdom
"God Save the Queen"

Words by:unknown
Music by:unknown
In use since:1745

"God Save the Queen" (or "God Save the King", depending on the gender of the
ruling monarch) was a patriotic song first publicly performed in London in 1745
after the king, George II defeated the Jacobite claimant to the throne, "Bonnie
Prince Charlie. The song came to be referred to as the National Anthem from the
beginning of the nineteenth century.

The words and tune are anonymous, and may date back to the seventeenth century.
There are various claimants to authorship of both the words and tune, the words
can be found as early as 1545, when the watchword at night was "God save the
King", the reply was "Long to reign over us." The authorship of the melody has
been claimed by many, including John Bull (the author of the earliest piece of
music that resembles the work), Henry Carey, Henry Purcell, and Joseph Haydn
(although he probably borrowed the tune upon hearing it in London.)

There is no authorised version of the National Anthem as the words are a matter
of tradition; the anthem has also never been officially declared as the
national anthem of the country, the royal anthem (as this technically is) is
used as the national anthem as a matter of tradition. The words used are those
sung in 1745, substituting 'Queen' for 'King' where appropriate. On official
(and most other) occassions, the first verse only is sung, on a small number of
occassions, the third verse is heard as well; very rarely is the second verse
heard due to its militaristic nature. There exist many other verses, some
dating as far back as the first three verses, but the first three are what can
best be represented as the "standard" British national anthem.

The British tune has since become one of the world's most recognizable anthems,
and has has been used in other countries - as European visitors to Britain in
the eighteenth century noticed the advantage of a country possessing such a
recognised musical symbol - including Germany, Russia, Switzerland, the United
States (where use of the tune continued after independence), and even today by
Liechtenstein and as the royal anthem of Norway. (One might say that because of
this fact, that the United Kingdom was the creator of the concept of a
"national anthem".) Some 140 composers, including Beethoven, Haydn and Brahms,
have used the tune in their compositions.

"God Save the Queen" also serves as the royal anthem for most Commonwealth
countries, such as Australia and Canada. (Governor-generals of Commonwealth
countries usually have bits and pieces of the national anthem strung together
played as their anthem.)

Special thanks to:Artakorn Jarusriwanna for providing me with the sheet music.

Also used in:Turks_and_Caicos_Islands, Virgin_Islands_(U.K.).

See also: New_Zealand, Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman_Islands, Cornwall, England,
Falkland_Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Isle_of_Man, Northern_Ireland,
Scotland, Monserrat, Pitcairn_Island, St._Helena, Wales, Sealand.
