The Treasons Act 1571 (13 Eliz.1 c.1) was an Act of the

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised t ...

during the reign of

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

. It restored the provisions of the

Treasons Act 1534 The Treasons Act 1534 ( 26 Hen. 8. c. 13) was an Act of the Parliament of England passed in 1534, during the reign of King Henry VIII. Background This Act was passed after the Act of Supremacy 1534, which made the king the " Only Head of the Chu ...

, which had been passed by Parliament during the reign of her father,

King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disag ...

, and then repealed by the

Treason Act 1547 The Treason Act 1547 (1 Ed. 6 c.12) was an Act of the Parliament of England. It is mainly notable for being the first instance of the rule that two witnesses are needed to prove a charge of treason, a rule which still exists today in the United ...

at the beginning of the reign of her half-brother,

King Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour ...

The Act

It became

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

to intend bodily harm to the Queen, or to levy war against her, or incite others to levy war against her, or to say that she ought not to enjoy the Crown, or publish in writing that she is a heretic, tyrant or usurper, or to claim a right to the Crown or usurp it during the Queen's life, or to assert that somebody else has the right of succession to the throne, or to say that the laws enacted by Parliament do not govern the succession to the throne.

Legacy

The Act was repealed on 28 July 1863 by the

Statute Law Revision Act 1863 The Statute Law Revision Act 1863 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was intended, in particular, to facilitate the preparation of a revised edition of the statutes. The enactments which were repealed (whether for the whole ...

. However until 1967 it remained treason under the

Succession to the Crown Act 1707 The Succession to the Crown Act 1707 (6 Ann c 41) is an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of Great Britain. It is still partly in force in Great Britain. The Act was passed at a time when Parliament was anxious to ensure the succession of a P ...

to say that Parliament could not control the succession to the Crown. Some of the wording of section V. of the Treasons Act of 1571 has drawn attention for its description of the legal line of succession. In the twenty-first century, academic scholarship and proponents of the Oxfordian theory of Shakespearean authorship noted the departure of the terms "heirs of the body" to the introduction of the phrase "natural issue" to refer to the line of succession, or Queen's heir to the throne: Proponents contend this wording meant that any illegitimate child, or "natural issue", born to Queen Elizabeth I, would then be legal successor to the monarchy. As of 2016, scholarship continues to debate the implications of the change in the legal language, but agree its inclusion in the Act was meant to prevent a crisis of succession.

References

External links

Treasons Act 1570

Danby Pickering Danby Pickering ( fl. 1769) was an English legal writer. Biography Born circa 1716 (christened 17 March that year),Parish records the son of Danby Pickering of Hatton Garden, Middlesex by his wife Mary (née Horson), Pickering was admitted, on 28 ...

, The

Statutes at Large ''Statutes at Large'' is the name given to published collections or series of legislative Acts in a number of jurisdictions. The expression "statutes at large" was first used in the edition of Barker published in 1587. England and Great Britain ...

, 1763, vol. 6, pp. 257 (from

Google Book Search Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

) *Regnier, Thomas. "Did Tudor Succession Law Permit Royal Bastards to Inherit the Crown?" 2012-2013. ''Brief Chronicles'' IV

pp. 39–58. *Tanner, J.D. Tudor Constitutional Documents, A.D. 1485-1603. 1922. University of Cambridge Press, London. pp. 413–417. ''Internet Archive,'

1570 in law 1570 in England Acts of the Parliament of England (1485–1603) Treason in England {{statute-stub

The Act

Legacy

See also

References

External links