The Third Succession Act of King Henry VIII's reign, passed by the Parliament of England, returned his daughters Mary and Elizabeth to the line of the succession behind their half-brother Edward. Born in 1537, Edward was the son of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour, and heir apparent to the throne.
The Act did not have a title in the modern sense. It is formally cited as 35 Hen. 8 c. 1 (meaning the first Act passed in the 35th year of Henry VIII's reign), and referred to by historians as the Succession to the Crown Act 1543 or the Act of Succession 1543.[1] The royal assent was given to this bill in the spring of 1544 at the conclusion of the 1544 parliament, but until 1793 acts were dated to the beginning of the session of Parliament in which they were passed, in this case in January 1544; prior to 1750 the change of the legal year in Great Britain was on 25 March, as such the Act is also often dated 1544. Henry VIII used statutes to make the adjustments to the succession that his complicated matrimonial history necessitated. The first Act (25 Hen. 8 c. 22) declared Mary illegitimate as a consequence of the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. The second (28 Hen. 8 c. 7) after Anne Boleyn's execution declared both Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate and vested the succession in any future offspring of Henry's new wife, Jane Seymour.
Relationship to First and Second Succession Acts
The Third Succession Act superseded the First Succession Act (1533) and the Second Succession Act (1536), whose effects had been to declare bastards Henry's daughters Mary and Elizabeth, and to remove them from succession to the throne.[2][3] This new act returned both Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession behind Edward, any potential children of Edward, and any potential children of Henry by his then wife, Catherine Parr, or any future wife Henry might have.
With the 1536 Act, Henry VIII was authorised to dispose of the Crown by letters patent or by will, in default of any legitimate heirs after Mary and Elizabeth. Mary and Elizabeth, who had both been declared illegitimate and incapable to inherit, were not restored to legitimacy in the 1543/44 Act; they were only restored to succession of the Crown (with several provisos stipulated in his will of 1547, such as they could not marry without the Privy Council's approval). This meant that the place in the succession of Mary and Elizabeth remained doubtful.
Historical effect
Edward VI's "Devise for the Succession"
The Treason Act 1547 made it high treason to interrupt the line of succession to the throne established by the Act of Succession. Edward VI meant to bypass this Act in his "Devise for the Succession", issued as letters patent on 21June 1553, in which he named Lady Jane Grey as his successor.[4][5] Prevailing over Lady Jane Grey, Mary ascended the throne under the terms of the Third Succession Act.
Edward VI was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was the first English monarch to be raised as a Protestant. During his reign, the realm was governed by a regency council because Edward never reached maturity. The council was first led by his uncle Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset (1547–1549), and then by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland (1550–1553).
Mary I, also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain and the Habsburg dominions as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, King Henry VIII. Her attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament, but during her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions.
The House of Tudor was an English and Welsh dynasty that held the throne of England from 1485 to 1603. They descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd, a Welsh noble family, and Catherine of Valois. The Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of England and the Lordship of Ireland for 118 years with five monarchs: Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. The Tudors succeeded the House of Plantagenet as rulers of the Kingdom of England, and were succeeded by the Scottish House of Stuart. The first Tudor monarch, Henry VII, descended through his mother from the House of Beaufort, a legitimised branch of the English royal House of Lancaster, a cadet house of the Plantagenets. The Tudor family rose to power and started the Tudor period in the wake of the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), which left the main House of Lancaster extinct in the male line.
Katherine Seymour, Countess of Hertford was a younger sister of Lady Jane Grey.
The history of the English penny from 1485 to 1603 covers the period of the House of Tudor up to the death of Elizabeth I without an heir. The Tudor era saw the debasement of the penny under Henry VIII and Edward VI, with Elizabeth I's reign overseeing the recovery of the silver quality. Under the Tudors, the penny decreased in size.
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, 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 Acts of Supremacy are two acts passed by the Parliament of England in the 16th century that established the English monarchs as the head of the Church of England; two similar laws were passed by the Parliament of Ireland establishing the English monarchs as the head of the Church of Ireland. The 1534 Act declared King Henry VIII and his successors as the Supreme Head of the Church, replacing the Pope. This first Act was repealed during the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I. The 1558 Act declared Queen Elizabeth I and her successors the Supreme Governor of the Church, a title that the British monarch still holds.
Succession to the British throne is determined by descent, sex, legitimacy, and religion. Under common law, the Crown is inherited by a sovereign's children or by a childless sovereign's nearest collateral line. The Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701 restrict succession to the throne to the legitimate Protestant descendants of Sophia of Hanover who are in "communion with the Church of England". Spouses of Catholics were disqualified from 1689 until the law was amended in 2015. Protestant descendants of those excluded for being Roman Catholics are eligible.
Sir Ralph Sadler or Sadleir PC, Knight banneret was an English statesman, who served Henry VIII as Privy Councillor, Secretary of State and ambassador to Scotland. Sadler went on to serve Edward VI. Having signed the device settling the crown on Jane Grey in 1553, he was obliged to retire to his estates during the reign of Mary I. Sadler was restored to royal favour during the reign of Elizabeth I, serving as a Privy Councillor and once again participating in Anglo-Scottish diplomacy. He was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in May 1568.
The Treasons Act 1571 was an Act of the Parliament of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It restored the provisions of the Treasons Act 1534, which had been passed by Parliament during the reign of her father, King Henry VIII, and then repealed by the Treason Act 1547 at the beginning of the reign of her half-brother, King Edward VI.
Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, was an English noblewoman. She was the second child and eldest daughter of King Henry VIII's younger sister, Princess Mary, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. She was the mother of Lady Jane Grey, de facto Queen of England and Ireland for nine days, as well as Lady Katherine Grey and Lady Mary Grey.
William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, 1st Baron Herbert of CardiffKG PC was a Welsh Tudor period nobleman, politician, and courtier.
Lady Jane Grey, also known as Lady Jane Dudley after her marriage and as the "Nine Days' Queen", was an English noblewoman who claimed the throne of England and Ireland from 10 to 19 July 1553.
The Crown of Ireland Act 1542 is an Act that was passed by the Parliament of Ireland on 18 June 1542, which created the title of "King of Ireland" for monarchs of England and their successors; previous monarchs had ruled Ireland as Lords of Ireland. The first monarch to hold the title was King Henry VIII of England.
The Second Succession Act or the Succession to the Crown Act 1536 was legislation passed by the Parliament of England in June 1536, during the reign of Henry VIII.
Events from the 1540s in England.
Anne Bourchier was the suo jure7th Baroness Bourchier, suo jureLady Lovayne, and Baroness Parr of Kendal. She was the first wife of William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, Earl of Essex, and the sister-in-law of Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII of England.
The Tudors of Penmynydd were a noble and aristocratic family, connected with the village of Penmynydd in Anglesey, North Wales, who were very influential in Welsh politics. From this family arose Sir Owen Tudor and thereby the Tudor dynasty, that ruled the Kingdom of England from 1485 to 1603. The Tudor dynasty ended in the early 17th century with the death of Elizabeth I.
Royal Succession bills and acts are laws or pieces of proposed legislation to determine the legal line of succession to the Monarchy of the United Kingdom.
The will of King Henry VIII of England was a significant constitutional document, or set of contested documents created in the 1530s and 1540s, affecting English and Scottish politics for the rest of the 16th century. In conjunction with legislation passed by the English Parliament, it was supposed to have a regulative effect in deciding the succession to the three following monarchs of the House of Tudor, the three legitimate and illegitimate children of King Henry VIII. Its actual legal and constitutional status was much debated; and arguably the House of Stuart's succession to the English throne after Elizabeth I did not respect Henry's wishes.
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