Nursery Rhyme With A History

A vast majority of the nursery rhymes sung by generations of children

, have an actual historical incident as their basis.

A lot of the words of nursery rhymes were actual messages that the children sang, in an apparently innocent manner. In reality, many of the lyrics were spoofs about royalty and the political events of the day. Open and direct dissent would have quickly led to severe punishment and oftentimes death. However, how could the authorities inflict punishment on the kids for singing a simple song? Or course, the children were unaware of the true significance of the words.

Let's consider just one nursery rhyme.

Three blind mice, three blind mice,

See how they run, see how they run,

They all ran after the farmer's wife,

Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,

Did you ever see such a thing in your life,

As three blind mice?

At first it sounds like a blameless song, even though there is a supposedly cruel act on the part of the farmer's wife.

Has anybody actually seen blind mice in real life, (apart from new-borns), let only three of them? They simply couldn't survive in the real world. So what was behind the lyrics of this nursery rhyme?

Being a staunch Catholic, the 'farmer's wife', Queen Mary I, the daughter of King Henry VII, believed it was her God-appointed right to violently persecute the Protestants of the day.

So harsh was her persecution of the Protestants, the Queen earned herself the nickname of 'Bloody Mary'. The title 'farmer's wife' referred to the huge estates which she and her husband, King Philip of Spain, were owners. The three blind mice related to three noblemen who refused to convert to Catholicism and give up their Protestant beliefs. They were also convicted of having plotted against the Queen.

It is thought the blindness in the rhyme was a reference relating to the stubbornness of the three men and the blindness of their ways. However, the 'cutting off of tails', was in fact being burned at the stake, not a disfigurement'.

by: lynthomas

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