The ballad tells the story of Thomas Stukely, an English gentleman who dies in the battle of the Three Kings of Barbary. He is a wealthy clothier's son who gains the hand of an alderman's daughter by the name of Curtis. When her father dies, he spends £100 a day on drinks with his friends, and sells the blocks of tin that old Curtis had used to pave his yard. Bankrupt, he goes to Italy, and begins spending time with a rich woman there. While in Italy, he gets news of the Battle of Three Kings between the King of Portugal, Sebastian I, the deposed Morccan Sultan, Abu Abdallah Mohammed II, and the new Moroccan Sultan, Abd Al-Malik I. Stukely decides to go to Northern Morocco to fight in the battle for the Christian King Sebastian, and a number of gallants follow him into battle. All three kings and 120,000 soldiers die in the battle, including Stukely. As he dies, Stukely regrets having brought so many of his friends to death in the battle, and also asks his wife to forgive him for all the wrongs he has done to her. After death, he is pardoned and honored, and a monument is built on his grave.