5 most ridiculous laws in history

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Taxes on light and air, the prohibition of women's crying, as well as the persecution of football players.

1. Law on the prohibition of women's crying at funerals, Roman Republic, 449 BC. NS

Until 449 BC NS. women, unlike men, not only were not forbidden to shed tears, but were also strongly ordered.

The more sobbing Roman women there were at the funeral, the more respected the deceased was considered to be. When important bumps were buried, relatives hired professional mourners 1.

2., for the image. These ladies screamed, hysterical, howled "But who did you leave us for?" in Latin and scratched their faces, showing respect for the status of the deceased.

The mourning profession has become quite popular. Firstly, in Rome it was not very good with the rights of women to work, and for some such occupation was the only way to earn money. Secondly, there was a demand: the Romans adopted the fashion for mourners from the Greeks.

However, by 449 BC. NS. the mourners, who turned every funeral into a booth, got the Romans so bad that they introduced into the "Laws of the Twelve Tables" (the first and main source of the law of Ancient Rome) a decree banning women's tears at funerals.

Women should not tear their faces with their nails during funerals; nor should they utter loud screams, mourning the dead.

Laws of Twelve Tables, Table X, "Sacred Law"

The ban extended to all women, not necessarily professionals. Of course, it was observed so-so, because you cannot figure out every cousin who burst into tears, and the law enforcement agencies of Rome had more important things to do. Nevertheless, the law banning crying at funerals lasted, apparently, until 27 BC. NS. And there, and the "Twelve Tables" was canceled, and the republic was changed to an empire.

2. Law on the forced departure of women from home, Roman Republic, 451 BC. NS

Here's another interesting fact about the hard part of women in the Roman Republic.

The Romans from at least 451 BC. NS. there was a legal concept of occupatio - the acquisition of ownership of an ownerless thing. What you owned for a certain period became yours. This practice has migrated into modern jurisprudence under the name “acquisitive prescription”.

For example, you found a shovel, picked it up - and if the owner did not come for it within a specified period (about a year), then take it for yourself. The same right allowed the Romans, without unnecessary litigation, to share trophies of war, objects of hunting, fishing and poultry farming, abandoned and lost objects and livestock, abandoned homes, and so on.

There was just one problem: the occupatio was also extended to women. Because they could not vote in the Roman Republic and were not considered citizens, although they enjoyed a certain freedom.

Therefore, when a woman cohabited with a man in his house (this is important) for a year, she became his wife and … his property.

However, a loophole was mentioned in the Laws of the Twelve Tables.

Any woman who does not want to be married by a man must be absent three consecutive nights every year from his house and thus annually terminate the ownership.

Laws of twelve tables, Table VI, "Law of Property".

The woman spent three nights in a row not at home, the counter was reset, and she again became a free person, and not her husband's belonging.

Later (about 300 BC), Roman law nevertheless made concessions to women, and lawyers added 1.

2. K. W. Weeber. Alltag im Alten Rom: ein Lexikon

3. V. Maxim. Memorable deeds and sayings II 9, 2. such useful things as divorce, division of property and marriage contract into laws. This led to the fact that the Romans were less likely to marry. The law itself was in effect until 27 BC. NS.

3. Law prohibiting pretending to be a witch, England, 1736

At all times, witches and sorcerers have had a very tense relationship with the law. Somewhere for witchcraft they were simply fined, somewhere they were excommunicated, and sometimes they were burned at the stake.

In England, since 1542, witchcraft was a capital offense. The last witch in the country was burned in 1727 (pre-doused with resin and rolled around the city of Dornoch in a barrel). Her name was Janet Horn, and she was accused of having crooked arms and legs for her daughter. And this is a sure sign that the mother rode the child on horseback to the Sabbath.

Time passed, progress and enlightenment swept the planet, and in 1735 parliament passed a law on witchcraft. Witchcraft ceased to be considered a crime and was declared simply an immoral act. In general, they decided not to burn anyone else and confine themselves to administrative offices.

But what the new law implied criminal responsibility was for pretending to be a witch.

If you are a real witch, then this is not very good, of course, but in principle, normal. And if you claim that you are a witch, but you are not, then prepare yourself for imprisonment.

The law was canceled only in 1951. The latter was convicted of him in 1944, a woman named Jane York, who claimed that she was a medium and could summon the spirits of the dead. She could not prove it and was fined five pounds and sent to prison for three years, but was released early for good behavior.

For that matter, the law was not the most elaborate. But it would be a great help in the fight against superstitions and would certainly reduce the popularity of programs like "The Battle of Psychics".

4. Law for the payment of tax on windows, England, 1696

Once the king of England, Ireland and Scotland, William III of Orange, decided that the treasury was empty, and was going to introduce new levies. And since he was a progressive king, he decided to make the taxes progressive, so that the amount depended on the welfare of the payer.

There was only one thing: the idea of an income tax in England at that time (1696) was new and did not really fit the economic system of that time, because citizens had the right not to disclose their income to the state.

Wilhelm found a graceful, as it seemed to him, solution. He glanced around the interior in Kensington Palace and reasoned sensibly: the rich live in houses with a bunch of windows, and the poor huddle in huts with one hole in the wall, covered with a bull's bubble so that the light can pass through. Let's introduce a tax on windows, His Majesty decided.

At first, the plan really worked.

The window tax was unobtrusive, easy to calculate, and understandable. After Great Britain it was taken over by other countries: France and Spain. Later, economist Adam Smith, in his book A Study on the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, called the tax effective because collectors did not have to go to the owners to calculate who should pay how much. You can also look at the facade from the street.

Strongly poor people, as well as dairies and dairies, were exempted from this fee. But the middle class did not want to pay and called the window office “a tax on light and air”, daylight robbery (English “rob in broad daylight” or “steal daylight”).

And all sorts of clever people began to simply brick up the windows in their houses in order to save money. And to build new buildings without windows at all.

Naturally, all this badly affected the well-being of urban residents. They began to suffer from a lack of fresh air and sunlight, and dampness grew in the premises. Only in 1851 the tax was abolished.

This is why there are so many buildings in the UK with brick windows.

5. Football Prohibition Law, England, 1540

Medieval English football appeared at least in 1303 (the first mention of the game dates back to this time). And then he was much more brutal entertainment 1. F. P. Magoun. Football in Medieval England and Middle ‑ English literature / The American Historical Review

2. than you might have guessed.

Instead of a ball - a pork bladder filled with dry peas. It was allowed to play with hands and feet. It was allowed to beat opponents, drop them, arrange hand-to-hand combat (sometimes using improvised means) and even injure other players. The only rule is to bring the ball to a predetermined area. The number of participants could reach hundreds or more. The match easily turned into a street pogrom, which is not dreamed of by today's fans.

English chroniclers mentioned 1. F. P. Magoun. Football in Medieval England and Middle ‑ English literature / The American Historical Review

2. that many football players had broken arms and legs after matches, knocked out teeth and eyes, and bruised cheeks. Sometimes the players died altogether.

Here it is, a sport for real men. There was no judge, a dispute arose with the enemy - smash that head.

Modern dollar millionaires, running across the field for a ball and almost falling down picturesquely, with their pitiful attempts would have caused only a grin in the football players of medieval England.

English kings at various times tried to ban football with varying success. Tried it 1. Orejan, Jaime. Football / Soccer: History and Tactics

2. to do both Edward II, and Edward III, and Richard II. The reason for the dislike of the crowned persons for football was the same all the time. Recruits were required to equip the royal armed forces with archers, and there were not enough candidates: one had a broken arm, the other had a leg - they had played out.

The well-known Henry VIII also managed to compete with this sport. In his youth, the king was an avid athlete 1. J. Orejan. Football / Soccer: History and Tactics

2. and played a lot of football, even ordered especially fashionable boots (in dry weather they weighed about a kilogram, and when wet, all two). But later, His Majesty got tired of this, and in 1548 he banned the ball game on pain of prison or even execution. Not only footballers were punished, but also the owners of the fields on which the game was taking place. Football was outlawed and called a “plebeian game” because of the destruction and pogroms inflicted by the players.

Naturally, this did not stop people from continuing to play it, only away from the sheriffs. The severity of English laws in those days was compensated by the non-obligation of their execution due to the carelessness of the law enforcement officers.

The footballers run fast, it was not easy to arrest the violators.

The ban on football was lifted in Scotland by 1592 and in England in 1603. However, the sport had a bad reputation and the persecution of the game ended 1. J. Orejan. Football / Soccer: History and Tactics

2. only by the 19th century, when the rules began to look more like modern ones.