The Treason Act 1553 (1 Mary Sess 1 c 1) 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 bishops and peers that advised t ...

. (It should not be confused with another Act about treason passed in the same year, 1 Mary Sess 2 c 6.) The Act abolished all forms of treason that had been created since 1351, except the

Treason Act 1351 The Treason Act 1351 is an Act of the Parliament of England which codified and curtailed the common law offence of treason. No new offences were created by the statute. It is one of the earliest English statutes still in force, although it has b ...

itself. It also abolished all

felonies A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...

created since the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII.

Repeal

Section 2 of this Act was repealed on 28 July 1863 by section 1 of, and the Schedule to, the

Statute Law Revision Act 1863 The Statute Law Revision Act 1863 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was intended, in particular, to facilitate the preparation of a revised edition of the statutes. The enactments which were repealed (whether for the whole ...

. The rest of the Act was repealed by section 10(2) of, and Part I of Schedule 3 to, the

Criminal Law Act 1967 The Criminal Law Act 1967 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. Territ ...

Other treason legislation

Another Act (1 Mary Sess.2 c.6) passed in the same year made it high treason to

counterfeit To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

foreign coins, or forge the Queen's

privy seal A privy seal refers to the personal seal of a reigning monarch, used for the purpose of authenticating official documents of a much more personal nature. This is in contrast with that of a great seal, which is used for documents of greater impor ...

signet ring A seal is a device for making an impression in wax, clay, paper, or some other medium, including an embossment on paper, and is also the impression thus made. The original purpose was to authenticate a document, or to prevent interference with a ...

royal sign manual The royal sign-manual is the signature of the sovereign, by the affixing of which the monarch expresses his or her pleasure either by order, commission, or warrant. A sign-manual warrant may be either an executive act (for example, an appointmen ...

. This Act was replaced by the

Forgery Act 1830 The Forgery Act 1830 (11 Geo 4 & 1 Will 4 c 66) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It consolidated into one Act all legislation imposing the death penalty for forgery (except for counterfeiting coins). (It did not apply to Scotl ...

,The 1830 Act did not apply in Scotland: section 29. which continued this form of treason until it was repealed in 1861. (That offence continued to exist as a felony until 1981.)

References

External links

The Treason Act 1553

Danby Pickering Danby Pickering ( fl. 1769) was an English legal writer. Biography Born circa 1716 (christened 17 March that year),Parish records the son of Danby Pickering of Hatton Garden, Middlesex by his wife Mary (née Horson), Pickering was admitted, on 28 ...

, The Statutes at Large, 1763, vol. 6, pp. 1 – 3 (from

Google Book Search Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

) Acts of the Parliament of England (1485–1603) 1553 in law Treason in England 1553 in England {{statute-stub

Repeal

Other treason legislation

See also

References

External links