Most all the Nursery Rhymes were political satire in England in the 18th and 19 centuries. If you know UK history you can see the parallels with the rhymes.

I looked on Wikipedia. It had this to say about its origins. "The first publication of this rhyme was written by Thomas Ravenscroft in 1609. The original lyrics are: Three Blinde Mice, three Blinde Mice, Dame Iulian, Dame Iulian, The Miller and his merry olde Wife, shee scrapte her tripe licke thou the knife. The modern words are: Three blind mice. Three blind mice. See how they run. See how they run. They all ran after the farmer's wife She cut off their tails with a carving knife. Did you ever see such a thing in your life As three blind mice. There is an urban legend that this musical round was written earlier and refers to Queen Mary I of England executing three Protestant bishops. The earliest lyrics do not talk about directly killing the three blind mice and are dated after Queen Mary died, however, "she scrapte her tripe licke thou the knife" implies they were prepared and consumed if not a reference to tasting the blood of a slain adversary." This I found on another site. It quotes the origin as above (an origin which seems to be doubted by the author of the Wiki article) The origin of the words to the Three blind mice rhyme are based in English history. The 'farmer's wife' refers to the daughter of King Henry VIII, Queen Mary I. Mary was a staunch Catholic and her violent persecution of Protestants led to the nickname of 'Bloody Mary'. The reference to 'farmer's wife' in Three blind mice refers to the massive estates which she, and her husband King Philip of Spain, possessed. The 'three blind mice' were three noblemen who adhered to the Protestant faith who were convicted of plotting against the Queen - she did not have them dismembered and blinded as inferred in Three blind mice - but she did have them burnt at the stake! ----- Wiki answers gives the names of the 3 martyrs: nicholas ridley, thomas cranmer were 2 of the 3 martyrs burned in oxford in 1555 (latimer was surname of third) The third was Hugh Latimer ------ So, there you have it. It seems that many people, at least think it is, like many other rhymes, of political origin. But that cannot be proved.

http://www.poetry-online.org/limericks.htm

My husband wouldn't let me sing "Ring Around the Rosie" to my daughter because he said it stemmed from the Black Plague. After researching it, I don't believe that is true because it seemed to come along later in time.