The Buggery Act 1533

In 1533 Parliament passed Act - 25 Henry 8, Chapter 6 which begins "Forasmuch as there is not yet sufficient and condign punishment appointed and limited by the due course of the Laws of this Realm, for the detestable and abominable Vice of Buggery committed with mankind or beast", and goes on to define it as a felony punishable by hanging until dead.

The statute was re-enacted in 1536, 1539, and 1541 under Henry VIII.

It was repealed in the first Parliament of Edward VI, along with all the new felonies established by Henry, but re-enacted in 1548.

It was repealed in 1553 with Mary's succession.

It was re-enacted by Queen Elizabeth I in 1563 and became the charter for all subsequent criminalisation in the English-speaking world. In England only a few executions are known during the two centuries that follow.

The English preferred not to mention the matter as William Blackstone says in his Commentaries , (1765-69), the crime is "not to be named among Christians". However, a series of polemical pamphlets, such as John Dunton's The He-Strumpets , (1707), and the anonymous Satan's Harvest Home , (1749), began to stir up public opinion against the homosexual subculture that flourished in large towns.

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Last altered 21st. August, 1999