Second Succession Act - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Second Succession Act of Henry VIII's

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

reign was passed by the Parliament of England

Parliament of England

The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...

in June 1536, removing both Mary

Mary I of England

Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...

and Elizabeth

Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

from the line of the succession. The Act was formally titled "An Act concerning the Succession of the Crown". It is also known as the Succession to the Crown: Marriage Act 1536 (citation 28 Henry VIII c.7), or as the Act of Succession 1536. The Act followed the conviction and execution of Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...

, Elizabeth's mother, and superseded the First Succession Act, which had declared Henry's daughter Mary to be illegitimate and Elizabeth to be his legitimate heir. The new Act now declared Elizabeth to be a bastard also. As a result, Henry was left without any legitimate child to inherit the throne until his son Prince Edward

Edward VI of England

Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...

was born in October 1537.

The succession was subsequently changed by the Third Succession Act

Third Succession Act

The Third Succession Act of Henry VIII's reign was passed by the Parliament of England in July 1543, and returned both Mary and Elizabeth to the line of the succession behind Prince Edward....

(1543), which returned both Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession.

Because Henry had no legitimate offspring when the Act was passed, section 18 of it gave Henry "full and plenary power and authority" to choose who would succeed him if he died without an heir of his body, by naming his successor in letters patent

Letters patent

Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation...

or in his last Will

Will (law)

A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...

. The Act created several offences of high treason

High treason

High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...

connected with interrupting the succession to the throne of any person so chosen, or with saying that Henry's first two marriages (to the mothers of Mary and Elizabeth) had been valid or that his third marriage (to Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII. She succeeded Anne Boleyn as queen consort following the latter's execution for trumped up charges of high treason, incest and adultery in May 1536. She died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of...

) was invalid, or with saying that Mary and Elizabeth were legitimate or that Edward was not. The Act also required some of Henry's subjects to take an oath

Oath

An oath is either a statement of fact or a promise calling upon something or someone that the oath maker considers sacred, usually God, as a witness to the binding nature of the promise or the truth of the statement of fact. To swear is to take an oath, to make a solemn vow...

to uphold the Act, and made it treason to refuse to take the oath. Sanctuary was not available for people accused of treason under the Act, and—in addition to the death penalty—anyone convicted of treason by interrupting the succession to the throne was to forfeit their own claim to the throne (if any).

The Act also made it treason to criticise the death sentence passed against Thomas More

Thomas More

Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...

under the Treasons Act 1534

Treasons Act 1534

The Treasons Act 1534 was an Act passed by the Parliament of England in 1534, during the reign of King Henry VIII.This Act was passed after the Act of Supremacy 1534, which made the king the "Only Head of the Church of England on Earth." The 1534 Act made it treason, punishable by death, to...

.

Finally, the Act made it treason to attempt to repeal the Act. This did not prevent Henry himself from obtaining the repeal of the Act seven years later, by way of the Third Succession Act, which returned his two daughters into the line of succession to the throne.

See also