The Treason Act 1554 ( 1 & 2 Ph. & M. c. 10) was an act of the

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the Great Council of England, great council of Lords Spi ...

. It is not to be confused with two other acts about treason passed in the same year, the Traitorous Words Act 1554 ( 1 & 2 Ph. & M. c. 9) and Counterfeit Coin Act 1554 ( 1 & 2 Ph. & M. c. 11) (summarised below).

Long title

The

long title In certain jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and other Westminster-influenced jurisdictions (such as Canada or Australia), as well as the United States and the Philippines, primary legislation has both a short title and a long title. The ...

was "An Acte wherby certayne Offences bee made Treasons; and also for the Government of the Kinges and Quenes Majesties Issue." The words in the long title of the act from "and also" were repealed on 30 July 1948 by section 1 of, and the first schedule to, the

Statute Law Revision Act 1948 The Statute Law Revision Act 1948 ( 11 & 12 Geo. 6. c. 62) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Section 5(3) of the Statute Law Revision Act 1950 provided that this act, so far as it repealed chapter 34 of the Statute of West ...

Provisions

Section 1 to 6 – Protection of King Philip

The act provided legal protection to King

Philip Philip, also Phillip, is a male name derived from the Macedonian Old Koine language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominen ...

, who had married Queen Mary I on 25 July 1554 and became co-monarch of England and Ireland. It became an offence to "compass or imagine to deprive the King's Majesty from the having with the Queen the style, honour and kingly name, or to destroy the King, or to levy war within this realm against the King or Queen," or to say that the King ought not to have his title. The penalty for a first offence was forfeiture of goods and "perpetual imprisonment". A second offence was

high treason 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 d ...

. However to "compass or imagine the death of the King" or to remove him from government was high treason on a first offence. The act also declared that if Mary died and her heir was not yet 18 if male, or was under 15 and unmarried if female, then Philip would govern the realm until the heir to the throne came of age (or was married, if female). In that event, it would be treason to "compass, attempt, and go about to destroy the person of the King, or to remove his Highness from the government".

Section 7 – Procedure

Section 7 of the act required trials for "any treason" (not just treason under this act) to be conducted in accordance with the

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

, "and not otherwise".

Section 8 – Misprision of treason

Section 8 of the act provided that the concealment or keeping secret of treason constituted misprision of treason but not treason:

Sections 9 to 12 – Further procedure

Section 9 of the act preserved privilege of peerage — the right of peers of the realm to be tried by their peers. Section 10 stipulated that offences against the Act which were committed "only by preaching or words" must be prosecuted within six months. Section 11 of the act created a new rule of evidence for cases of treason under the act (but not other treasons). It required all of the witnesses against the defendant (or at least two of them) to attend court to give evidence against him in person, "if living and within the realm". (The rule did not apply if the defendant pleaded guilty.) Different versions of this two witnesses rule were adopted in the Sedition Act 1661 ( 13 Cha. 2 St. 1. c. 1), the Treason Act 1695, and eventually in

Article Three of the United States Constitution Article Three of the United States Constitution establishes the judicial branch of the U.S. federal government. Under Article Three, the judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as lower courts created by Con ...

. The rule was first enacted in the Treason Act 1547. Section 12 of the act made similar provision to section 7.

Section 13 – Accessories

Section 13 of the act provided the rule for how accessories were to be treated for aiding and abetting a crime for which the penalty depended on whether it was the defendant's first or second offence. An accessory was to receive the same penalty as the principal offender, regardless of whether the accessory had committed the offence before.

Repeals

The whole act, except sections 6 and 8, was repealed on 28 July 1863 by section 1 of, and the schedule to, Statute Law Revision Act 1863. The whole act was repealed on 1 January 1968 by section 10(2) of, and part I of schedule 3 to, the

Criminal Law Act 1967 The Criminal Law Act 1967 (c. 58) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made some major changes to English criminal law, as part of wider liberal reforms by the Labour government elected in 1966. Most of it is still in force. ...

Ireland

The act was adopted by the

Parliament of Ireland The Parliament of Ireland () was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until the end of 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two chambers: the Irish Hou ...

as the ( 3 & 4 Phil. & Mar. c. 11 (I)).

Other treason legislation in 1554

Two other acts concerning treason were passed in 1554, the Traitorous Words Act 1554 ( 1 & 2 Ph. & M. c. 9) and Counterfeit Coin Act 1554 ( 1 & 2 Ph. & M. c. 11). The former made it treason to "pray or desire that God will shorten the Queen's days". The latter made it treason to import counterfeit coins and returned the rules of evidence to what they had been before the Treason Act 1547 ( 1 Edw. 6. c. 12).

Notes

References

External links

The Treason Act 1554
Danby Pickering, The Statutes at Large, 1763, vol. 6, pp. 53 – 55 (from Google Book Search) {{Authority control Acts of the Parliament of England 1554 Repealed English legislation Treason in England Treason Acts