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Old King Cole was a merry old soul

And a merry old soul was he;

He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl

And he called for his fiddlers three.

Every fiddler he had a fiddle,

And a very fine fiddle had he;

Oh there's none so rare, as can compare

With King Cole and his fiddlers three

So runs a traditional nursery rhyme. In fact, there may have been a historical King Cole, or Ceol, who may have lived in the third century, and who was the eponymous founder of the city of Colchester in Essex, England. "Colchester" means "Cole's castle." He is one of the legendary rulers of Celtic Britain whose takes form the Matter of Britain. There may have been two rulers of that name in Colchester, a Coel Godhebog, or Cole the Magnificent; and Coel Hen, Cole the Old. Little definite is known of either monarch, or whether there were indeed two Coles, only one, or whether he is purely legendary. Another vein of legend links him to Cunobelinus, Shakespeare's Cymbeline

Colchester contains an old Roman quarry that is called "King Cole's Kitchen". Geoffrey of Monmouth claims that Cole was the father of Saint Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine. The word ceol means music in Gaelic, and this may be the origin of the rhyme about Cole and his fiddlers.

It is unlikely that the nursery rhyme was written before 1585, when Sir Walter Raleigh introduced tobacco into England. Since Cole reigned well before the introduction of tobacco, what he may have been smoking is also shrouded by the mists of history.