Three Blind Mice: An Innocent Children’s Rhyme?

Or a bloody tale from the English Reformation?

The rhyme of Three Blind Mice began with Henry VIII. It’s a well known part of English history: The Reformation. King Henry, second monarch of the Tudor dynasty, wanted a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He was desperate for a male heir and, after many years of marriage, Catherine had only given birth to one surviving heir — Mary. Plus he was lusting after his new prospective wife, the ill fated, Ann Boleyn.

He used the pretext that Catherine had previously, and briefly, been married to his elder brother, Arthur, who died unexpectedly when still very young. Henry not only took his brother’s birthright of the English throne but also his wife. Rather belatedly, Henry suddenly declared that it was forbidden in the Bible for him to lay with his brother’s wife and his punishment was to be denied a male heir.

The Catholic Church, namely Pope Clement VII, disagreed on the grounds that Catherine had sworn that her first marriage had never been consummated. Therefore there was no scriptural impedance to their marriage.

An enraged Henry took advantage of the new Protestant faith that was sweeping Europe and nailed his…