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More specifically, the Penal laws were a set of laws which punished nonconformism in the United Kingdom.

1 English statutes on religious nonconformity

In English history, penal law refers to a specific series of laws that sought to uphold the establishment of the Church of England against Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics, by imposing various forfeitures, civil penalties, and civil disabilities upon these dissenters. Some examples of these laws are:

• the law of praemunire
• the series of Test Acts
• the Conventicle Act
• the Five Mile Act
• the Occasional Conformity Act (1711)
• the Act of Uniformity

While some of the Penal Laws were much older, they took their most drastic shape during the reign of Charles IICharles II ( 29 May 1630 6 February 1685) was the King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 30 January 1649 de jure or 29 May 1660 de facto until his death. Charles II's father, Charles I, had been executed in 1649 following the English Civil War; the mo, when they became known as the Clarendon Code, after Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of ClarendonEdward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon ( February 18, 1609 December 9, 1674), English historian and statesman. Hyde was the third son of Henry Hyde of Dinton, Wiltshire, a member of a family for some time established at Norbury, Cheshire. He entered Magdalen, their author.

2 In Irish history

In IrelandThe island of Ireland ire in Irish, Airlann in Ulster Scots) is the third-largest island in Europe. It lies on the west side of the Irish Sea, close to the island of Great Britain. It is composed of the Republic of Ireland in the south and Northern Irelan these laws were also in force, where they had a pronounced effect, disenfranchising the majority of the Irish population who were Roman Catholic or Presbyterian in favour of the much smaller established Church of IrelandThe Church of Ireland which is part of the Anglican Communion, is the largest Protestant church on the island of Ireland, and the second largest Protestant denomination in Northern Ireland. History The Church of Ireland would trace its origins to the anci. Though the laws also affected the major religious faith, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, in the area of the island later to become Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is the smallest of the Home Nations of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland lies in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It covers 14,139 square kilometres (5,459 square miles), and has a populati, its principal victim was the Roman Catholic ChurchThe Roman Catholic Church (often called simply the Catholic Church, but see Catholicism for other meanings of the term "Catholic Church") is a worldwide body of Christians in full communion with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, and subscribing to the beliefs, which was the religion of over three quarters of the people on the island, and the faith of the overwhelming majority of the mere Irish (in contemporary English, 'mere' meant 'pure' or 'fully').

Among the discriminations faced by victims of the Penal Laws were:

• Exclusion from membership in either the Irish Parliament or the British Parliament;
• Exclusion from voting;
• Severe property restrictions, notably
  • the ability of any member of the Church of Ireland to seize property from any Catholic, without compensation;
  • the ability of any landlord to raise rents without restriction, and to evict at will.

The Penal Laws were gradually repealed at the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth century.