by Catherine Lear

Created on: September 19, 2011   Last Updated: September 20, 2011

Who was it that said the law was an ass? Whoever it was, he got it spot on with that saying because in England we have some very strange laws indeed.

Many years ago England had a very good army and in that army were very good Archers, they were considered elite soldiers and it is said that when the Archers of England loosed there arrows the day turned into night such was the volume of arrows loosed at the enemy. How do you think they became so good at archery? The reason was that a law was passed that every boy had to practise for at least 2 hours a day under the unlikely supervision of the clergy. To the more modern person this might seem a stage law but the longbow was a fearsome weapon on the medieval battlefield and one that took quite a long time to master, but the battles that were won by the English with these archers were considerable so in this instance maybe the law was not an ass.

However, whomever the person was thought that breaking a hardboiled egg at the sharp end was an offence can be described as daft as a brush. Nevertheless, that what exactly what happened in Edward VI day and that law gave the perpetrator 24 hours in the village stocks.

Now most of us love Christmas don’t we, even if we don’t believe in God we do enjoy everything that comes with Christmas, for Christmas is a time to enjoy ourselves to eat Christmassy things like mince pies and drinking mulled wine. Well a certain Oliver Cromwell who became the Lord Protector of England decreed that the eating of mince pies on Christmas day was against the Law as it was not the puritan thing to do. You could do anything else on Christmas day but it seemed that eating Christmas mince pies was a mortal sin.

Now who would hang a bed out of the window? Well it seems that quite a few people in old England did this so a law was passed to make the hanging of a bed out of your window an offence. I would not even try to hang my bed out of the window; for a start my windows are far too small to even contemplate hanging it out, what a weird and wonderful law that was.

Now this one is a good one. The offence of committing suicide is a capital offence. What were they going to do after you were dead? Dig you up put you on trial, then find you guilty, and then hang you. I know they did this with Oliver Cromwell when he died but that law was bordering on the ridiculous.

Now this law is a more modern one seeing as its do with cars. Did you know that a man in England could urinate in public

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