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The Unlawful Games Act 1541 (33 Hen 8 c 9), sometimes referred to as the Suppression of Unlawful Games Act 1541,〔(1950) 48 Knight's Local Government and Magisterial Reports 177, 180 and 681 (), (1950) 85 Weekly Notes xvi ()〕 was an Act of the Parliament of England, designed to prohibit "Several new devised Games" that caused "the Decay of Archery".〔(duhaime.org: "Crazy Laws - English Style (1482-1541)" 9 Aug 2006 )〕 All Men under the Age of sixty Years "shall have Bows and Arrows for shooting". Men-Children between Seven "Years and Seventeen shall have a Bow and 2 Shafts". Men about Seventeen "Years of Age shall keep a Bow and 4 Arrows". The penalty for nonobservance was set at 6s.8d. Archery, which had been the key to Henry V's victory at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, had been required of the labourers, servants, artificers, or victuallers as early as 1388 (12 Ric 2, c.6) and 1409 (11 Hen IV, c.4), and again in An Act concerning shooting in Long Bows (3 Hen 8, c.3) and the Act for Maintenance of Archery (6 Hen 8, c.2), among others.〔(forbes.com: "Britain's Archery Mandate" (Underhill) 16 Jun 2010 )〕 In fact, the law of 1409 had as punishment six days' imprisonment; and reference is made herein to an act in the Parliament at Canterbury of Richard the Lionheart. John Warleman of St Mary Magdalen Oxford was prosecuted for fixing a game of ''Le Tenyse''. while the Tudor kings played on:〔(''Did you know that tennis was once illegal?'' St Luke's Church "Luke & Learn" 1 Jul 2004, Issue 5, p.2 )〕
So much of the Unlawful Games Act 1541 whereby any game of mere skill, such as bowling, coyting, cloyshcayls, half bowl, tennis, or the like, was declared an unlawful game, or which enacted any penalty for playing at any such game of skill as aforesaid, or which enacted any penalty for lacking bows or arrows, or for not making and continuing butts, or which regulated the making, selling, or using of bows and arrows, and also so much of the said Act as required the mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs, constables, and other head officers within every city, borough, and town within the Realm, to make search weekly, or at the farthest once a month, in all places where houses, alleys, plays, or places of dicing, carding or gaming were suspected to be had, kept and maintained, was repealed by section 1 of the Gaming Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict c 109). So much of the Unlawful Games Act 1541 as made it lawful for every master to license his or their servants, and for every nobleman and other having manors, lands, tenements or other yearly profits for term of life, in his own right or in his wife's right, to the yearly value of an hundred pounds or above, to command, appoint or license, by his or their discretion, his or their servants or family of his or their house or houses to play at cards, dice or tables, or any unlawful game, as therein more fully set forth, was repealed by section 1 of the Gaming Act 1845, which further enacted that no such commandment, appointment or licence was to avail any person to exempt him from the danger or penalty of playing at any unlawful game or in any common gaming house. Part of the Unlawful Games Act 1541 was repealed by section 4 of 3 Geo 4 c 41 and by the Statute Law Revision Act 1863. The Statute Law Revision Act 1948 repealed Sections 11 to 13, part of Section 8, and the preambulatory words "by reason therof Archerie ys sore decayed, and dayly is lyke to be more mynished..."〔(utexas.edu: "Statute Law Revision Act 1948" (11&12 Geo 6, c.62) )〕 Archery could not compete with the nefarious pursuits of cricket, dicing, and carding.〔(spectator.co.uk: "LEGAL COBWEBS" 16 SEPTEMBER 1948, Page 12 ) (RH Cecil)〕 The remainder of the whole Act was repealed by section 15 of, and Part I of Schedule 6 to, the Betting and Gaming Act 1960 (8 & 9 Eliz. 2, c.60).〔(lawcommission.justice.gov.uk: "Legal Curiosities: Fact or Fable?" March 2013 )〕〔("25 J. Crim. L. 149 (1961): The Betting and Gaming Act, 1960 )〕〔(nationalarchives.gov.uk: "Discussions leading to Betting and Gaming Act, 1960" )〕 The Act forbade all sport on Christmas Day with the exception of archery practice, meaning that footballers who played on Christmas Day before 1960, when the Football League routinely scheduled fixtures for 25 December, had technically broken the law.〔see e.g. 11 Hen 4, c.4; 12 Ric 2, c.6; and 7 Ric〕 ==Section 5== This is section 7 in Ruffhead's Edition. It was of a local character.〔The Statutes: Revised Edition. Volume I. Eyre and Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen. London. 1870. Page lxxiv.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Unlawful Games Act 1541」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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