High Treason Act 1534
| Year | 1534 |
(26 Hen. 8) C A P. XIII.
'FOrasmuch as it is most necessary, both for common Policy and Duty of Subjects, above all Thingsto prohibit, provide, restrain and extinct all manner of shameful Slanders, Perils or imminent Danger or Dangers, which might grow, happen or rise to their Sovereign Lord the King, the Queen, or their Heirs, which when they be heard, seen or understood, cannot be but odible, and also abhorred of all those sorts that be true and loving Subjects, if in any Point they may do, or shall touch the King, his Queen, their Heirs or Successors, upon which dependeth the whole Unity, and universal Weal of this Realm, without providing wherefore too great a Scope of unreasonable Liberty should be given to all cankard and traiterous Hearts, Willers and Workers of the same; and also the King's loving Subjects should not declare unto their Sovereign Lord now being, which unto them hath been, and is most entirely both beloved and esteemed, their undoubted Sincerity and Truth.'
II. Be it therefore enacted by the Assent and Consent of our Sovereign Lord the King, and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, that if any Person or Persons, after the first Day ofFebruary next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by Words or Writing, or by Craft imagine, invent, practise or attempt any bodily Harm to be done or committed to the King's most Royal Person, the Queen's or their Heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their Dignity, Title or Name of their Royal Estates, or slanderously and maliciously publish and pronounce, by express Writing or Words, that the King our Sovereign Lord should be Heretick, Schismatick, Tyrant, Infidel or Usurper of the Crown, or rebelliously do detain, keep or withold from our said Sovereign Lord, his Heirs or Successors, any of his or their Castles, Fortresses, Fortilesses or Holds within this Realm, or in any other the King's Dominions or Marches, or rebelliously detain, keep or withhold from the King's said Highness, his Heirs or Successors, or any of his or their Ships, Ordinances, Artillery or other Munitions or Fortifications of War, and do not humbly render and give up to our said Sovereign Lord, his Heirs or Successors, or to such...
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