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40 Unusual Laws in History

Tim Flight November 14, 2019 27 min

Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822 - Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals — A donkey appears in court during the trial of Bill Burns, prosecuted for animal cruelty in 1822, in a painting by P. Mathews, 1838. Wikimedia Commons

38. English law used to force everyone to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night

The Gunpowder Plot Conspirators, who planned to blow James I to smithereens, engraved by Crispijn de Passe the Elder, Netherlands, 1605. Wikimedia Commons

Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in order to kill King James I. As Catholics, Fawkes and his gang didn’t want Protestant James as king. The plot, therefore, represented high treason. In the January following November 5, 1605, Parliament passed a law demanding people celebrate the plot’s failure. The Observance of 5th November Act 1605 demanded people celebrate the anniversary ‘with unfeigned thankfulness… for all ages to come’. If you weren’t happy about James’s deliverance, you were a traitor, too! Parliament repealed the Act in 1859, but most British people celebrate Guy Fawkes Night anyway.

Written by

Tim Flight

I am a freelance historical and literary writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. I read for a funded PhD in English at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and graduated in 2016. I am a former lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. My publications include peer-reviewed articles in academic publications, and pieces in mainstream magazines such as History Today and Fortean Times. For more information, please see www.drflight.co.uk

40 Unusual Laws in History

38. English law used to force everyone to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night

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