Treason Act 1351

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Main article: High treason in the United Kingdom

The Treason Act 1351 is an act of the English Parliament (25 Edw. III St. 5 c. 2) which attempted to codify all existing forms of treason. It is one of the earliest English statutes still in force, although it has been significantly amended. 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 1946 for collaborating with Germany in World War II.

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The Act distinguishes 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, not only was the penalty death but the traitor's property would escheat to the Crown; in the case of a petty treason property escheated only to the traitor's immediate Lord. However in both cases the penalty was death.

Petty treason was the murder of one's lawful superior: that is if a servant kills his master, a wife her husband or anyone their prelate. It was abolished in 1828.

A person was guilty of high treason under the Act if they:

"compassed or imagined" (i.e. planned) 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 or adhered to the King's enemies in his Realm, giving them aid and comfort in his Realm or elsewhere;
counterfeited the Great Seal, the Privy Seal or any of the King's money (reduced to felony in 1861);
imported counterfeit English money (also reduced to felony in 1861);
killed the Chancellor, Treasurer (this office is now in commission), one of the King's Justices (either of the King's Bench or the Common Pleas), a Justice in Eyre or an Assize judge, while they are performing their offices.

The Act originally contained a curious feature (now repealed), in that it envisaged that further forms of treason would arise that would not be covered by the act, so it legislated for this possibility:

And because that many other like Cases of Treason may happen in Time to come, which a Man cannot think nor declare at this present Time; it is accorded, That if any other Case, supposed Treason, which is not above specified, doth happen before any Justices, the Justices shall tarry without any going to Judgement of the Treason till the Cause be shewed and declared before the King and his Parliament, whether it ought to be judged Treason or other Felony.