"The Famous Flower of Serving Men" is Literature/{{Child Ballad|s}} #106, with two sharply divergent stories.

In both variants, the heroine's mother sent knights to murder the heroine's husband and sometimes baby. The heroine dresses herself as a man and goes to court, where she works for the king.

In Francis Child's version, and many others, one day when the king is hunting, she laments her fate, and a servant who overhears her tell the king.

In others, the king goes hunting, chases a milk-white hind, and is led to the grave. There, the husband's ghost laments his wife's fate, and so the king hears of it.

In both variants, the king then executes her mother and marries her.

Child's variant [[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch106.htm here]]. One of the other type is [[http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiFLRSERV2;ttFLRSERV2;ttFLWSERV2.html here]].
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!!Tropes included
* BlueBlood: The heroine, which underscores her fall
* DeathOfAChild: In some variants, the heroine's baby is killed along with her husband.
* DueToTheDead: She buries the husband and baby by herself
-->''They left me nought to dig his grave but the bloody sword that slew my babe\\
All alone the grave I made, and all alone the tears I shed\\
And all alone the bell I rang, and all alone the psalm I sang''
* EvilMatriarch
** WickedStepmother: Some variants try the alteration. Given that the meter doesn't take it, it's a bit obvious.
* ExactEavesdropping: The king himself doesn't overhear her lament, but it's very convenient what she complains of.
* FallenOnHardTimesJob: As a chamberlain
** Important to note that "chamberlain" has two distinct meanings, one of them being basically the male equivalent of chamber''maid'' and one of them being "high government official." The two meanings are not ''entirely'' unrelated, but it's specifically the first that's intended here.
* FollowTheWhiteRabbit: Chasing a deer brings him to the grave.
* ImportantHaircut: Part of the SweetPollyOliver
* TheMarvelousDeer: The guide in one version -- he starts to fear it will harm him before he finds the grave.
* MeaningfulRename
-->''Wherefore in hast I chang'd my name\\
From Fair Elise to Sweet William.''
* OurGhostsAreDifferent
* RagsToRoyalty: The heroine.
* SecondLove: The king, to the heroine.
* SweetPollyOliver
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