Treason...
Today I got to thinking about modern day definitions of treason...strange how my mind works....
I don't know too much about present day definitions of treason...I know that Henry VIII and his cronies managed to cook up a charge of treason against his second wife, Anne Boleyn...her form of treason was bedhopping...the same for his fifth wife Catherine Howard for both queens treason roughly translated to wounded pride and a lack of a son for Good King Hal...
As far as I could remember treason obviously included killing or attempting to kill the monarch, also plotting to kill the monarch and killing one of the monarch's swans....not really a deep knowledge of treason...so I decided to do a little reading.
I have learnt the following.....
It is no longer treason to kill a swan in England. That was apparantly stopped in 1998. As the vast majority of the swans in England belong to the crown (there is even a Royal swan keeper), killing a swan was attacking the property of the monarch. There is a 1186 statute stating that the swans belong to the monarch this is confirmed by the Act of Swans of 1482 and the Wild Creatures and Forest Law Act of 1981. Apparently only the Dyers’ Company and Vintners’ Company based in the City (London) can claim swan ownership...and then that is only to specific birds on the Thames. As this story shows, this is not a law to take lightly...
Apparently in George I's reign there was an addition to the act of treason...'if your animal should have carnal knowledge of a royal pet'...this little gem was gleaned from a post about strange laws in England...according to that list the Welsh seem to be in serious trouble...
The treason act of 1351 which remains largely unchanged today lists the following items as acts of treason...
"when a man doth compass or imagine the death of our lord the King, or of our lady his Queen or of their eldest son and heir";
"if a man do violate the King’s companion, or the King’s eldest daughter unmarried, or the wife of the King’s eldest son and heir";
"if a man do levy war against our lord the King in his realm, or be adherent to the King’s enemies in his realm, giving to them aid and comfort in the realm, or elsewhere, and thereof be probably attainted of open deed by the people of their condition"; and
"if a man slea the chancellor, treasurer, or the King’s justices of the one bench or the other, justices in eyre, or justices of assise, and all other justices assigned to hear and determine, being in their places, doing their offices".
So, according to this Will Carling and James Hewitt have allegedly committed treason...
So, there you have it...a few ways in which treason could be or could have been committed...
I don't know too much about present day definitions of treason...I know that Henry VIII and his cronies managed to cook up a charge of treason against his second wife, Anne Boleyn...her form of treason was bedhopping...the same for his fifth wife Catherine Howard for both queens treason roughly translated to wounded pride and a lack of a son for Good King Hal...
As far as I could remember treason obviously included killing or attempting to kill the monarch, also plotting to kill the monarch and killing one of the monarch's swans....not really a deep knowledge of treason...so I decided to do a little reading.
I have learnt the following.....
It is no longer treason to kill a swan in England. That was apparantly stopped in 1998. As the vast majority of the swans in England belong to the crown (there is even a Royal swan keeper), killing a swan was attacking the property of the monarch. There is a 1186 statute stating that the swans belong to the monarch this is confirmed by the Act of Swans of 1482 and the Wild Creatures and Forest Law Act of 1981. Apparently only the Dyers’ Company and Vintners’ Company based in the City (London) can claim swan ownership...and then that is only to specific birds on the Thames. As this story shows, this is not a law to take lightly...
Apparently in George I's reign there was an addition to the act of treason...'if your animal should have carnal knowledge of a royal pet'...this little gem was gleaned from a post about strange laws in England...according to that list the Welsh seem to be in serious trouble...
The treason act of 1351 which remains largely unchanged today lists the following items as acts of treason...
"when a man doth compass or imagine the death of our lord the King, or of our lady his Queen or of their eldest son and heir";
"if a man do violate the King’s companion, or the King’s eldest daughter unmarried, or the wife of the King’s eldest son and heir";
"if a man do levy war against our lord the King in his realm, or be adherent to the King’s enemies in his realm, giving to them aid and comfort in the realm, or elsewhere, and thereof be probably attainted of open deed by the people of their condition"; and
"if a man slea the chancellor, treasurer, or the King’s justices of the one bench or the other, justices in eyre, or justices of assise, and all other justices assigned to hear and determine, being in their places, doing their offices".
So, according to this Will Carling and James Hewitt have allegedly committed treason...
So, there you have it...a few ways in which treason could be or could have been committed...
posted by Madame Chiang at 8:57 pm
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