Treason Act 1351


The Treason Act 1351 is an act of the Parliament of England where, according to William Blackstone, common law treason offences were enumerated and no new offences were 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, better known as "Lord Haw-Haw", in 1945 for collaborating with Germany in World War II.
The act is still in force in the United Kingdom. It is also still in force in some former British colonies, including New South Wales. Like other laws of the time, it was written in Norman French.
The act is the origin of the definition of Treason laws in [the United States|treason in the United States]. Joseph Story wrote in his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States that:

Origin

Until 1351 treason was defined by the common law. The king's judges gradually expanded the scope of treason under the pretext that any "assortment of royal power", by which was meant doing anything which only the king could legally do, was considered treason – even hunting deer in the king's forests. When in 1348, Sir John Gerberge of Royston was convicted of treason for falsely imprisoning William de Boletisford and taking his horse, until he paid him £90, the barons compelled Edward III to agree to an Act of Parliament to restrict the definition of treason to definite limits.
Joseph Story wrote: "This statute has ever since remained the pole star of English jurisprudence upon this subject." Although some of the treason statutes enacted between 1352 and 1640 lost their importance over time, notably those of Henry VIII regarding his supremacy, 25 Edw 3 was the law in force cited by judges during the reign of Charles I. When Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford was charged with high treason his attorney argued "the statute ever makes the Treason", insisting Strafford had not committed treason by the statute 25 Edw. 3. Despite an accusation of common law treason, since Treason by statute could not be proven, the House of Commons passed a bill of attainder against Strafford, who was subsequently executed, over the objections of the king.

Content

The act distinguished two varieties of treason: high treason and petty treason, the first being disloyalty to the Sovereign, and the second being disloyalty to a subject. The practical distinction was the consequence of being convicted: for a high treason, the penalty was death by hanging, drawing and quartering or drawing and burning, and the traitor's property would escheat to the Crown; in the case of a petty treason the penalty was drawing and hanging without quartering, or burning without drawing; and property escheated only to the traitor's immediate lord.
The forfeiture provisions were repealed by the Forfeiture Act 1870, and the penalty was reduced to life imprisonment by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
A person was guilty of high treason under the act if they:
  • "compassed or imagined" the death of the king, his wife or his eldest son and heir ;
  • violated the king's companion, the king's eldest daughter if she was unmarried or the wife of the king's eldest son and heir ;
  • levied war against the king in his realm;
  • adhered to the king's enemies in his realm, giving them aid and comfort in his realm or elsewhere;
  • counterfeited the Great Seal or the Privy Seal ; death penalty abolished in 1832; reduced to felony in 1861 );
  • counterfeited English coinage or imported counterfeit English coinage ;
  • killed the Chancellor, Treasurer, one of the king's justices, a justice in eyre, an assize judge, and "all other Justices", while they are performing their offices.
The penalty for counterfeiting coins was the same as for petty treason. The offence had previously been called petty treason, before the Act elevated it to high treason.
Under the act petty treason was the murder of one's lawful superior: that is if a servant killed his master or his master's wife, a wife killed her husband or a clergyman killed his prelate. This offence was abolished in 1828.
The act originally envisaged that further forms of treason would arise that would not be covered by the act, so it legislated for this possibility. The words from "et pr ceo q plusurs auts cases de semblable treson" onwards have been translated as:

The act in Scotland

Following the union of England and Scotland by the Acts of Union 1707, Scotland continued to have its own treason laws until the Treason Act 1708 abolished Scottish treason law and extended English treason law to Scotland. This act also made it treason to counterfeit the Great Seal of Scotland, and to kill the Scottish Lords of Session and Lords of Justiciary. However while in England and Ireland forgery of the seal of Great Britain ceased to be treason under the Forgery Act 1861, this act did not apply to Scotland. Also, forging the Scottish seal is still treason in Scotland, but has not been treason in England or Ireland since 1861.
The 1351 act still applies in Scotland today, and is a reserved matter which the Scottish Parliament has no power to modify.

Interpretation

Although the first kind of treason is described as "compassing", the offence does not consist of purely thinking. A subsequent clause which requires that an "overt act" must also be proven has been held by judges to apply to all kinds of treason.
Adhering to "enemies" does not include adhering to rebels or pirates.
During the trial of Roger Casement, who in 1916 was accused of collaborating with Germany during World War I, the defence argued that the Act applied only to activities carried out on British soil, while Casement had committed the acts of collaboration outside Britain. However, closer reading of the originally unpunctuated medieval document allowed for a broader interpretation, leading to the accusation by his supporters that Casement was "hanged by a comma". The court decided that a comma should be read in the text, crucially widening the sense so that "in the realm or elsewhere" meant where acts were done and not just where the "King's enemies" might be.

Subsequent developments

The Treason Act 1535 expanded the definition of treason to include forgery of the king's signet or sign-manual, which Sir Geoffrey Elton argued was demanded by administrative methods new since this act.

Repeals

The clauses about forgery and counterfeiting were repealed in 1830 and 1832. The clause beginning "et pr ceo q plusurs" was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1948. The clause beginning "Et si per cas" was repealed by the Criminal Law Act 1967 and the Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967.
The act was repealed in Ireland on 16 May 1983, and in New Zealand on 1 January 1962.