I was wondering what would happen to him if he did this in England. All swans are still property of the Crown. I certainly wouldn’t try it with Henry VIII on the throne.
My supposed 11th Great-Grandfather Thomas Fiennes, 9th Baron Dacre, was hung at Tyburn in 1541 while Henry VIII was still Monarch. Fiennes, and a bunch of other fellows had decided one night to poach on the land of an English politician. While on their escapade, they ran into the landowner's gamekeepers, and one of those gamekeepers was fatally wounded in the altercation. He was also a member of the jury that convicted Anne Boleyn.
I say he's my "supposed" Great-Grandfather, because you're relying on other people's hints on Ancestry.com, so it's anybody's guess if it's true or not.