The King of England and his Three Sons
| The King of England and his Three Sons | |
|---|---|
The Castle of Melvales (by John D. Batten) | |
| Folk tale | |
| Name | The King of England and his Three Sons |
| Also known as | An Old King and His Three Sons of England |
| Aarne–Thompson grouping | ATU 551 |
| Mythology | Romani |
| Country | England |
The King of England and his Three Sons is a Romani fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in More English Fairy Tales. He listed as his source Francis Hindes Groome's In Gypsy Tents, where the informant was John Roberts, a Welsh Roma. It deals with a prince and his brothers sent on a quest to find a remedy for their father; the cadet prince journeys on until only he finds the remedy from a princess in a distant land, and is betrayed by his elder brothers upon returning with the object; the princess then goes after the one that stole the remedy from her castle.
The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 551, "The Water of Life".