Acts of Parliament of 1563: Criminalizing Egyptians and “An Act against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcraft” (1563) [HISTORICAL Chapter 3, page 151]. The Acts of Parliament in 1563 were twofold, and the criminalization of Egyptians dates back to 1531. In the first two statues of 1531, Tudor legislatures attempted to define the legal identity of Egyptian people as going from place to place, using crafty means to deceive people, like fortune telling (Morgan). At first, they were treated with suspicion, and then legislators passed an act allowing for the confiscation of their goods and their banishment from England if they did not leave within a certain number of days (Morgan). Fast forward to 1563, The 1563 Acts of Parliament included a statue that considered those who disguised themselves as vagabonds or called themselves Egyptians as felons. They lost their land (Morgan). Additionally, the 1563 Witchcraft Act formally criminalized witchcraft and even imposed the death penalty. This was largely due to the anti-catholic sentiment that witchcraft presented (Brennen). The legislators’ suspicions that Egyptians were fortune-tellers perhaps played into the law against witchcraft.  

In Orlando, after staying with the gypsies for a while, Orlando “told them she must sail to England the very next day” (Woolf 151). This chapter presents the lives of gypsies at the time, moving from place to place and being criminalized out of England. Woolf, through the changing time periods in Orlando, is able to present the prejudices of different groups of people. It is interesting that this is the first time that I am hearing of these specific Acts of Parliament. In this sense, the novel opened my eyes to a key element of history that is overlooked. (276). 

Brennen, Lewis. “Parliaments, Politics and People Seminar: The Political and Religious Origins of the 1563 Witchcraft Act.” The History of Parliament, 1 Nov. 2019, https://thehistoryofparliament.wordpress.com/2019/11/05/parliaments-poli...

Morgan, J. E. “‘Counterfeit Egyptians’: The Construction and Implementation of a Criminal Identity in Early Modern England.” Romani Studies, 26(2), 105-128. 2016. https://doi.org/10.3828/rs.2016.7

Woolf, Virginia. Orlando. Mariner Books, 1956.