Mary was referred to as Mary I daughter of Henry VIII and sister to Elizabeth. At that time Henry was married to Catherine of Aragon and they had one child, Mary. If you know your history, it was Henry VIII who rebelled against the Catholic Church in order to divorce and marry Anne Boleyn. When Henry Died, Mary ascended the throne and tried to make England Catholic again, so in effect she went “quite contrary” to England’s wishes. She was being referred to as a gardener in the rhyme. Silver bells, cockle shells are all symbolic of torture devices used at the time.
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Rock a bye baby, is with reference to the events of the Glorious Revolution where the baby is symbolic of the son of King James II of England. The prince was believed to be the child of someone else smuggled into the birthing room to ensure a Roman Catholic heir. The wind in the rhyme refers to the protestant forces blowing in from the Netherlands and the doomed cradle was the royal House of Stuart. The earliest record of this rhyme in print also came with a footnote saying: “This may serve as a warning to the Proud and Ambitious, who climb so high that they generally fall at last”.
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Three Blind Mice written in 1805 was another reference to Bloody Mary’s reign. The three blind mice was believed to be the three Protestant bishops, Hugh latimer, Nicholas Radley and The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Crammer who had conspired to overthrow Mary but were Unsuccessful. Mary had them burnt at the stake.
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