Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface to the Sixteenth Edition
- Preface to The Seventeenth Edition
- Preface to the Eighteenth Edition
- Contents
- Index of cases
- Index to the principal statutes
- List of principal books cited
- BOOK I GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
- BOOK II DEFINITIONS OF PARTICULAR CRIMES
- CHAPTER VII HOMICIDE
- CHAPTER VIII OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON THAT ARE NOT FATAL
- CHAPTER IX BIGAMY
- CHAPTER X CRIMINAL LIBEL
- CHAPTER XI OFFENCES AGAINST PROPERTY
- CHAPTER XII BURGLARY AND HOUSEBREAKING
- CHAPTER XIII STEALING
- CHAPTER XIV EMBEZZLEMENT
- CHAPTER XV FRAUDULENT CONVERSION
- CHAPTER XVI CHEATS PUNISHABLE AT COMMON LAW
- CHAPTER XVII FALSE PRETENCES
- CHAPTER XVIII RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY
- CHAPTER XIX OTHER OFFENCES INVOLVING FRAUD
- CHAPTER XX FORGERY
- CHAPTER XXI OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE
- CHAPTER XXII CONSPIRACY AND INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES
- CHAPTER XXIII PERJURY AND OTHER OFFENCES AGAINST PUBLIC JUSTICE
- CHAPTER XXIV OFFENCES AGAINST INTERNATIONAL LAW
- CHAPTER XXV OFFENCES OF VAGRANCY
- BOOK III MODES OF JUDICIAL PROOF
- BOOK IV CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
- Appendix I The meaning of ‘credit’
- Appendix II II Rules as to admission of evidence which reveals to the jury facts discreditable to the person accused
- Appendix III III Forms of indictment
- Index
CHAPTER XXI - OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE
from BOOK II - DEFINITIONS OF PARTICULAR CRIMES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2016
- Frontmatter
- Preface to the Sixteenth Edition
- Preface to The Seventeenth Edition
- Preface to the Eighteenth Edition
- Contents
- Index of cases
- Index to the principal statutes
- List of principal books cited
- BOOK I GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
- BOOK II DEFINITIONS OF PARTICULAR CRIMES
- CHAPTER VII HOMICIDE
- CHAPTER VIII OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON THAT ARE NOT FATAL
- CHAPTER IX BIGAMY
- CHAPTER X CRIMINAL LIBEL
- CHAPTER XI OFFENCES AGAINST PROPERTY
- CHAPTER XII BURGLARY AND HOUSEBREAKING
- CHAPTER XIII STEALING
- CHAPTER XIV EMBEZZLEMENT
- CHAPTER XV FRAUDULENT CONVERSION
- CHAPTER XVI CHEATS PUNISHABLE AT COMMON LAW
- CHAPTER XVII FALSE PRETENCES
- CHAPTER XVIII RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY
- CHAPTER XIX OTHER OFFENCES INVOLVING FRAUD
- CHAPTER XX FORGERY
- CHAPTER XXI OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE
- CHAPTER XXII CONSPIRACY AND INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES
- CHAPTER XXIII PERJURY AND OTHER OFFENCES AGAINST PUBLIC JUSTICE
- CHAPTER XXIV OFFENCES AGAINST INTERNATIONAL LAW
- CHAPTER XXV OFFENCES OF VAGRANCY
- BOOK III MODES OF JUDICIAL PROOF
- BOOK IV CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
- Appendix I The meaning of ‘credit’
- Appendix II II Rules as to admission of evidence which reveals to the jury facts discreditable to the person accused
- Appendix III III Forms of indictment
- Index
Summary
Section I. Treason
Definition. The most heinous of crimes in a feudal system must naturally be a breach of allegiance to an overlord, and the greatest of overlords was the Lord Paramount, the King; such a crime was called treason, a word derived from the French trahir and the Latin trader and denoting a perfidious betrayal. At common law treason was of two kinds, high treason which was a breach of faith due to the King from his subjects, and petit treason which was committed when one subject of the Crown killed another who was his superior. The latter was therefore really a murder, made more atrocious by the duty of allegiance which the murderer owed to his victim: as when a feudal vassal slew his lord, a priest his bishop, or a wife her husband.
THE STATUTE OF TREASONS
History. An indictment for high treason was in medieval times a most powerful weapon for the Crown to wield against its two great rivals, the Church and the baronage. For a ‘clerk’ who was accused of this crime could not claim benefit of clergy; and if any feudal vassal was convicted of it, his lands passed to the Crown instead of to his immediate lord. Hence the King's judges, attentive to their master's interests, expanded the definition of high treason until it became a most comprehensive offence, including any kind of injury to the King's rights, e.g. even the hunting of deer in his forests. At last a reaction was provoked. In the reign of Edward III one John Gerberge of Royston laid hands on one William of Bottisford and would not release him until he made a payment of £90. This act of unlawful imprisonment was construed as an act of treason, on the plea of its being an ‘accroaching’(i.e. appropriating) of royal power. At this the barons forthwith took action; and succeeded in confining the law of treason within definite limits by the enactment, in 1351, of the Statute of Treasons (25 Edw. Ill, st.5, c.2).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Kenny's Outlines of Criminal Law , pp. 382 - 411Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013