The First Succession Act of Henry VIII's reign was passed by the Parliament of England in March 1534. The Act was formally titled the Succession to the Crown Act 1533 (citation 25 Hen 8 c 22), or the Act of Succession 1533; it is often dated as 1534, as it was passed in that calendar year. However, the legal calendar in use at that time dated the beginning of the year as March 25, and so considered the Act as being in 1533.
The Act made then yet unborn Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry VIII by Anne Boleyn, the true successor to the Crown by declaring Princess Mary, daughter of the King by Catherine of Aragon, a bastard. The Act also required all subjects, if commanded, to swear an oath to recognize this Act as well as the King's supremacy. Under the Treasons Act 1534 anyone who refused to take the oath was subject to a charge of treason. This happened to Sir Thomas More, who refused to swear the oath because it acknowledged the anti-Papal powers of Parliament in matters of religion.
The Act was later altered by the Second Succession Act, which made Elizabeth illegitimate, and the Third Succession Act, which returned both sisters to the line of succession.
The currently applicable legislation is the Act of Settlement 1701.
Famous quotes containing the words succession and/or act:
“The usual derivation of the word Metaphysics is not to be sustained ... the science is supposed to take its name from its superiority to physics. The truth is, that Aristotle’s treatise on Morals is next in succession to his Book of Physics.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“The soul, which is the first principle of life, is not a body, but the act of a body; just as heat, which is the principle of calefaction, is not a body, but an act of a body.”
—Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274)