From the final verse of the Old English nursery rhyme,

The Dame made a curtesy.
The Dog made a bow.
The Dame said, ?Your Servant.?
The Dog said, ?Bow wow.?

This rhyme has a crossdressing element. It is widely believed to be a satire spread by wandering minstrels, a method of political cartooning for common people in the days when most were illiterate and too poor to afford printed materials anyway. King Henry VIII was colorful, to put it mildly, making him an easy target of this political commentary of the 16th century.

The first verse of Old Mother Hubbard goes

Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard
To get her poor dog a bone
But when she got there
The cupboard was bare
And so the poor dog had none.

This rhyme satirized the embassage of Cardinal Wolsey (a crossdressing Old Mother Hubbard, the Dame) to Rome (the cupboard) to see Pope Clement VII to request an annulment (the bone) of the marriage of King Henry VIII (the dog) to his Queen Catherine of Aragon (The Infanta, princess daughter of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, who together later ruled a unified Spain) so the Henry could marry Anne Boleyn. The journey failed (the cupboard was bare) and so the poor dog had none.

The army of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (nephew of Catherine) had captured the pope. In that circumstance, the pope would endanger his own life if he decided in favor of Henry and against Catherine, Charles, Ferdinand, and Isabella. Wolsey died on the way to see Henry. Henry rebelled against the pope and the Church, establishing his own church with his own bishop to annul his marriage to Catherine and to bless his marriage to Anne. Anne died three years later, beheaded at Henry?s order, but not before giving birth to Henry?s greatest child and successor, Queen Elizabeth I. Henry became obese and died of weight related diseases and complications aggravated by his personal excesses. And then the wandering minstrels sang in his ?honor?,

Robin the Bobbin?
Big Bellied Ben
Ate more meat than fourscore men.
He ate the church.
He ate the steeple.
He ate the priests.
He ate the people.