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Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state. A person who commits treason is known in law as a traitor.
In English law, the benefit of clergy was originally a provision by which clergymen accused of a crime could claim that they were outside the jurisdiction of the secular courts and be tried instead in an ecclesiastical court under canon law. The ecclesiastical courts were generally seen as being more lenient in their prosecutions and punishments, and defendants made many efforts to claim clergy status, often on questionable or fraudulent grounds.
Under the law of the United Kingdom, high treason is the crime of disloyalty to the Crown. Offences constituting high treason include plotting the murder of the sovereign; committing adultery with the sovereign's consort, with the sovereign's eldest unmarried daughter, or with the wife of the heir to the throne; levying war against the sovereign and adhering to the sovereign's enemies, giving them aid or comfort; and attempting to undermine the lawfully established line of succession. Several other crimes have historically been categorised as high treason, including counterfeiting money and being a Catholic priest.
The privilege of peerage is the body of special privileges belonging to members of the British peerage. It is distinct from parliamentary privilege, which applies only to those peers serving in the House of Lords and the members of the House of Commons, while Parliament is in session and forty days before and after a parliamentary session.
The "Bloody Code" was a series of laws in England, Wales and Ireland in the 18th and early 19th centuries which mandated the death penalty for a wide range of crimes. It was not referred to by this name in its own time; the name was given later owing to the sharply increased number of people given the death penalty, even for crimes considered minor by 21st century standards.
Misprision of treason is an offence found in many common law jurisdictions around the world, having been inherited from English law. It is committed by someone who knows a treason is being or is about to be committed but does not report it to a proper authority.
The Treason Act 1351 is an Act of the Parliament of England wherethrough, according to William Blackstone, common law treason offences were enumerated and no new offences were, by statute, created. It is one of the earliest English statutes still in force, although it has been very significantly amended. It was extended to Ireland in 1495 and to Scotland in 1708. The Act was passed at Westminster in the Hilary term of 1351, in the 25th year of the reign of Edward III and was entitled "A Declaration which Offences shall be adjudged Treason". It was passed to clarify precisely what was treason, as the definition under common law had been expanded rapidly by the courts until its scope was controversially wide. The Act was last used to prosecute William Joyce in 1945 for collaborating with Germany in World War II.
Mayhem is a common law criminal offense consisting of the intentional maiming of another person.
Misprision in English law describes certain kinds of offence. Writers on criminal law usually divide misprision into two kinds: negative and positive.
The Treason Act 1814 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which modified the penalty for high treason for male convicts.
The Treason Act 1695 is an Act of the Parliament of England which laid down rules of evidence and procedure in high treason trials. It was passed by the English Parliament but was extended to cover Scotland in 1708 and Ireland in 1821. Some of it is still in force today.
The Treason Act 1790 was an Act of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain which abolished burning at the stake as the penalty for women convicted of high treason, petty treason and abetting, procuring or counselling petty treason, and replaced it with drawing and hanging.
To be hanged, drawn and quartered became a statutory penalty for men convicted of high treason in the Kingdom of England from 1352 under King Edward III (1327–1377), although similar rituals are recorded during the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272). The convicted traitor was fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where he was then hanged, emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded, and quartered. His remains would then often be displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge, to serve as a warning of the fate of traitors. For reasons of public decency, women convicted of high treason were instead burned at the stake.
The Treason Act 1553 was an Act of the Parliament of England.
The Benefit of Clergy Act 1496, formally referred to as the Act 12 Hen. 7 c. 7, was an Act of the Parliament of England, passed during the reign of Henry VII of England. Its long title was "An Act to make some Offences Petty Treason." It abolished benefit of clergy for petty treason.
The Treason Act 1397 was an Act of the Parliament of England. It was supplemented by six other Acts. The seven Acts together dealt with high treason.
The first signs of the modern distinction between criminal and civil proceedings were during the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The earliest criminal trials had very little, if any, settled law to apply. However, the civil delictual law was highly developed and consistent in its operation.
The Poisoning Act 1530 was an Act of the Parliament of England. Its long title was "An Act for Poisoning." It made it high treason to murder someone with poison, and instead of the usual punishment for treason it imposed death by boiling. It was repealed by the Treason Act 1547.
In England, burning was a legal punishment inflicted on women found guilty of high treason, petty treason, and heresy. Over a period of several centuries, female convicts were publicly burnt at the stake, sometimes alive, for a range of activities including coining and mariticide.
Certain former courts of England and Wales have been abolished or merged into or with other courts, and certain other courts of England and Wales have fallen into disuse.
References
Footnotes
- ↑ Section 1 (repealing the previous statute) and section 2 (assimilating the offence to murder).
- ↑ 9 Geo.4 c. 31, sections 1 and 3.
- ↑ Hale p. 380
- ↑ "Commentaries on the Laws of England, William Blackstone, Book 4 chapter 6". Archived from the original on 2 October 2011. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
- ↑ Treason Act 1790
- ↑ Commentaries on the Laws of England, William Blackstone, Book 4 chapter 14
- ↑ Benefit of Clergy Act 1496 (12 Hen. 7 c. 7)
Bibliography
- Hale's History of Pleas of the Crown (1800 ed.) vol. 1, chapter XXIX (from Google Books).
- Hawkin's Treatise of Pleas of the Crown (1824 ed.) vol.1, chapter XIV (from Google Books).
- East's Treatise of Pleas of the Crown (1806 Ed) vol.1, Chapter V, Part VII (sections 98 to 104) (pp 336–339) (from Google Books).
- Coke's Institutes (1797 Ed.), Part 3, Chapter 2 (pp 19 to 36) (from Google Books).
- Chitty's Practical Treatise on Criminal Law (1819 Ed.), vol.3, paragraphs 742 to 745 (pp 176 to 179) (preliminary notes) and paragraphs 779 to 781 (pp 211–214) (specimen indictments) (from Google Books).
- Blackstone's Commentaries (1867 ed.), Book 4, Chapter 14, paragraphs 203 and 204 (See also 1791 ed. pages 202 to 204 and the 1825 ed. – the commentary in footnotes differs) (from Google Books).
- J.G. Bellamy, The Law of Treason in England in the Later Middle Ages, CUP, (2004 ed.), Appendix II (from Google Books).
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