England's famous prophet legend, Mother Shipton, predicted the great fire of London, the civil war, and the internet.

The entrance to the cave in Knaresborough in which according to legend Mother Shipton was born.Photo byBy chris 論 - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10558131

There is a myth of an ancient prophetess; some prophecies have come true, and others were only a prediction that, like many predictions throughout history, never came to fruition. However, later it came to tell that the prophet did not come true because another, not the true prophet, said it—a story.

Throughout history, many stories exist, as well as legends and myths; however, they all stemmed from something that held some truth, maybe not a reality as we may now know, but a fact in the times that it existed.

The story, legend, or myth of Mother Shipton maybe be just that, a story, yet some of her accurate predictions have come true, and things she said or eluded to were beyond her knowledge and, at the time, they might have seemed crazy or unrealistic.

Yet once they came to be, they made more sense. We in the modern age sometimes think that we invented skepticism, yet we did not. Who knows if witches and prophets exist? It is something we still wonder about today.

Mother Shipton was born Ursula Sontheil (with variations of spelling, Southill, Soothtell), in 1488, in a cave in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England, now known as Mother Shipton's cave.

It was a dark and stormy night, and the sounds of the demon came from the cave on the night she was born; hard to determine if that was true or if the storms were as bad as reported. Yet it is said when she was born, she did not cry but cackled, and as soon as she made a sound, the storm ceased.

Legend of her birth states that she was not a child of the earth but of a darker entity, born disfigured and ugly, with a big head, sunken cheeks, and twisted limbs. Agatha, her 15-year-old mother, never revealed this child's father, even when brought in front of the magistrate.

As a result, Agatha and Ursula were ostracized and lived in the cave for two years until Agatha was taken away by the abbot of Beverley and forced to join the Convent of the order of St. Bridget. Ursula was sent to a foster family. Never to be reunited.

Many believed and still believe the cave held magical powers, and then it was discovered that the high level of mineral count in the water would turn objects left in the water to stone, a natural phenomenon. After Ursula went to live with her foster family, it was reported that strange occurrences kept happening with the child.

It was written her adopted mother left the child's home when she was 2 or 3 and came home to an open door. The sound of wailing was described as ¨a thousand cats in consort¨ Ursula was eventually found naked and cackling, perched on top of an iron bar where the pots were kept above the fireplace. It might be me, but it sounds like a story the mother made up because she was careless with the child, or maybe leaving a baby home alone was typical in the 1480s.

As a child, it was reported that Ursula spent a lot of time alone, learning herbs and flowers; she had a special connection with nature and spent a lot of time thinking. Many say this could have been the beginning of when her visions began. There are also reports that she was often made fun of; this could have been why she was alone most of her childhood.

As she grew up, the mocking slowly ceased; it was rumored that strange occurrences happened to those who mocked her, so the mocking stopped. When Ursula became an adult, her study of herbs was helpful in the towns, and she became a famous healer and herbalist, which led her to meet her future husband, Toby Shipton.

The couple never had children, but were happy; rumors spread that she bewitched him. After Toby died in 1514, the townspeople blamed her for his death, and Mother Shipton had enough and moved into the cave where she was born.

Mother Shipton still worked as an herbalist, and it was upon moving to the cave that her predictions of the future were revealed, first starting to tell prophecies about those in town. When they came true, she began to describe what she saw about the monarchy at the time and the world. Mother Shipton even caught the attention of Henry VIII; in a letter, he referred to ¨the witch of york¨. Not all her prophecies have come true, the most famous one being in 1881:

“The world unto an end shall come. In eighteen hundred and eighty-one.”

It also came to be that she did not make that prediction; author Charles Hindley made it up, and he admitted his error. It is also reported that she never published anything during her life. Whether or not Mother Shipton said the following will always be a mystery, a legend.

Some say the poems are from diaries she kept when she was alive. Mother Shipton died in 1561, and it was reported that her book of prophets was published in 1641, by Joanne Walker. With that being said, whether or not they are the true prophets of Mother Shipton, many have come true.

Her most famous prophecies were that she predicted the great fire of London in 1665 and that she predicted the internet, stating:

¨Around the world, men's thoughts will fly. Quick as the twinkling of an eye."

The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, and even the US civil war.

The states shall lock in fiercest strife. And seek to take each other's life. When north shall thus divide the south

She has also predicted things that have not happened and those that are happening now.

Of what shall be in future time. For in those wondrous far off days. The women shall adopt a craze. And cut off all their locks of hair. To dress like men and trousers wear. They'll ride astride with brazen brow. As witches do on broomsticks now. Then love shall die and marriage cease. And nations wane as babes decrease. The wives shall fondle cats and dogs.

The link to her entire poem is located here.