| Short Title: | Royal Assent by Commission Act 1541[1] |
| Parliament: | Parliament of England |
| Long Title: | An Act concerning the Attainder of the late Queen Catherine and her Complices.[2] The Bill of Atteynder of Mestres Katherin Hawarde late Quene of England, and divers other personnes her complices.[3] |
| Type: | Act |
| Year: | 1541 |
| Citation: | 33 Hen. 8. c. 21 |
| Royal Assent: | 1 April 1542 |
| Repealing Legislation: | Royal Assent Act 1967 |
| Status: | Repealed |
The Royal Assent by Commission Act 1541 (33 Hen. 8. c. 21) was an Act of the Parliament of England, passed in 1542,[4] which attainted Queen Catherine Howard for adultery, thereby authorising her execution. It also provided that all of Queen Catherine's assets were to be forfeited to the Crown while also creating a new method in which royal assent could be granted to legislation.
Queen Catherine was to be convicted by bill of attainder, rather than by ordinary prosecution in a court of law. However, until 1542 royal assent could be granted only by the king in person, at a ceremony in which the whole text of the bill would be read aloud. King Henry decided that "the repetition of so grievous a Story and the recital of so infamous a Crime" in his presence "might reopen a Wound already closing in the Royal Bosom".[5] To avoid this, Parliament inserted a clause in the bill of attainder, which provided that royal assent could be granted by commissioners appointed for the purpose, instead of by the king in person. Initially used sparingly, the new procedure gradually became used more often until it became the usual way. The last monarch to grant royal assent in person was Queen Victoria in 1854.[6]
The act was repealed by section 2(2) of the Royal Assent Act 1967 (c. 23), which however preserved the Commissioners' role.
This act was repealed for the Republic of Ireland by sections 2(1) and 3(1) of, and Part 2 of Schedule 2 to the Statute Law Revision Act 2007.
The 1541 act was more than an act of attainder, however. It also made it high treason for any person who married the King (or his successors) to conceal from the monarch their previous sexual history. It became treason for any third party to conceal such knowledge for longer than 20 days after the marriage, or to incite another to have "carnal knowledge" of the queen consort, or of the wife of the monarch's son, or for the queen or princess to incite somebody to do so. These provisions were repealed by the section 2 of the Treason Act 1547 (1 Edw. 6. c. 12).