The Treason Act 1814 (54 Geo. III c. 146) was an Act of the

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Grea ...

which modified the penalty for

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 diplo ...

for male convicts. Originally the mandatory sentence for a man convicted of high treason (other than

counterfeiting 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 ...

coin clipping Coin debasement is the act of decreasing the amount of precious metal in a coin, while continuing to circulate it at face value. This was frequently done by governments in order to inflate the amount of currency in circulation; typically, some o ...

) was

hanging, drawing and quartering To be hanged, drawn and quartered became a statutory penalty for men convicted of high treason in the Kingdom of England from 1352 under King Edward III (1327–1377), although similar rituals are recorded during the reign of King Henry III ...

. The 1814 Act changed this punishment and replaced it with death by hanging, followed by posthumous quartering. The Act was amended by the Forfeiture Act 1870 (in England) and the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1949 (in Scotland) so that the penalty became simply hanging, which was the method of execution for murder. The original penalty for women was to be drawn to the place of execution and

burned at the stake Death by burning (also known as immolation) is an execution and murder method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishment f ...

. Burning was abolished by the Treason Act 1790 in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

and by the

Treason by Women Act (Ireland) 1796 The Treason by Women Act (Ireland) 1796 (36 Geo 3 c 31 (I)) was an Act of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Ireland which reduced the penalty for women convicted of high treason and petty treason from death by burning to death by hanging. It was ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. The 1814 Act also permitted the King to authorise the use of an alternative method,

beheading Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...

, which was not abolished until 1973 (although obsolete long before then). The Act was amended by the

Crime and Disorder Act 1998 The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (c.37) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act was published on 2 December 1997 and received Royal Assent in July 1998. Its key areas were the introduction of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, Sex ...

when the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

was abolished and replaced with imprisonment at the discretion of the court, up to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes fo ...

. The last execution under the Act was of

William Joyce William Brooke Joyce (24 April 1906 – 3 January 1946), nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw, was an American-born fascist and Nazi propaganda broadcaster during the Second World War. After moving from New York to Ireland and subsequently to England, ...

in 1946, for assisting the Third Reich during the Second World War. Note that hanging, drawing and quartering was never the penalty for counterfeiting or clipping coins (which was high treason until 1832). The penalty for this kind of high treason was the same as for

petty treason Petty treason or petit treason was an offence under the common law of England in which a person killed or otherwise violated the authority of a social superior, other than the king. In England and Wales, petty treason ceased to be a distinct offen ...

, which for men was to be drawn to the place of execution and hanged, and for women was burning without being drawn. The death penalty for forging seals and the

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 ...

, which was the same as for other forms of high treason, was abolished in 1832, although it was still treason.

Forgery, Abolition of Punishment of Death Act 1832 The Forgery, Abolition of Punishment of Death Act 1832 (2&3 Will.4 c. 123) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It abolished the death penalty for all offences of forgery, except for forging wills and c ...

Notes

References

(House of Commons)
23 March 1814, vol. 27, col. 342 - 346, a
346
(leave to bring forward bill)
(House of Commons)
25 March 1814, vol. 27, col. 360 (first reading)
Hansard (House of Commons)
25 April 1814, vol. 27, col. 538 - 541

External links

Text of the Treason Act 1814
as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.
Text of the statute as originally enacted
{{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1814 English criminal law Treason in the United Kingdom

See also

Notes

References

External links