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Strange law facts

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Strange law facts

Strange law facts

  • One 19th century British law stipulated that those who successfully committed suicide would be executed. Of course, it was later withdrawn due to a lack of candidates.

  • Determined to keep a stranglehold on England, King William passed laws to uphold his rule. One law stated that if a Norman soldier was slain, the feudal Lord of his killer had five days to seize him or pay the King 46 marks of silver. If the Lord was unable to pay, the hundred hapless denizens who lived closest to the killing had to fork out.

  • Different historical eras call for different laws, but some just seem universally weird. How about the one that stipulates if you break a boiled egg at the sharp end, you’ll be sentenced to 24 hours in the village stock? Or a Scottish law that deems it illegal to be drunk in possession of a cow?

  • During medieval England, it was once illegal to stand near the monarch when not wearing socks. It was also illegal to place a postage stamp with the image of the monarch upside down.

  • Some bizarre historical laws technically still exist today. For example, men urinating in public can be arrested for indecency. But there is an exception, according to an unaltered Hackney Carriage Law. It states the deed must be done on the rear wheel of the gent’s motor vehicle, with his right hand touching the car.

  • A law dating back to the middle ages states that every Englishman over 14 should practice the art of killing with a longbow, for two hours every week and under church supervision. At this time there was no standing army and the church was the only centralised instrument of bureaucracy.

  • The Welsh are named in several laws. In Chester, they can be shot if seen inside the city walls – but only after midnight. Similarly in Hereford, Welshmen can be killed in the Cathedral close - except on Sundays. And Scots beware too – it is permitted to kill a Scot if spotted in York after dark.

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