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The Act distinguishes two varieties of treason: high treason and petty treason (or petit 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, the penalty was death by hanging, drawing and quartering (for a man) or drawing and burning (for a woman), and the traitor's property would escheat to the Crown; in the case of a petty treason the penalty was drawing and hanging without quartering, or burning without drawing; and property escheated only to the traitor's immediate lord.
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 (following the coming into force of the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, this will have effect as if the reference was to the eldest child);
- 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 (following the coming into force of the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, this will have effect as if the reference was to the eldest son only if he is also the heir);
- levied war against the King in his Realm;
- adhered to the King's enemies in his Realm, giving them aid and comfort in his Realm or elsewhere;
- counterfeited the Great Seal or the Privy Seal (death penalty abolished in 1832 (in all of UK); reduced to felony in 1861 (except in Scotland));
- counterfeited English coinage or imported counterfeit English coinage (reduced to felony in 1832);
- 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, an Assize judge, and "all other Justices", while they are performing their offices. (This did not include the barons of the Exchequer.)
The penalty for counterfeiting coins was the same as for petty treason. The offence had previously been called petty treason, before the Act elevated it to high treason.
Under the Act petty treason was the murder of one's lawful superior: that is if a servant killed his master or his master's wife, a wife killed her husband or a clergyman killed his prelate. This offence was abolished in 1828.
The Act originally envisaged that further forms of treason would arise that would not be covered by the Act, so it legislated for this possibility. The words from "Et si per cas" onwards have been translated as:
| “ | 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. | ” |
The words from "Et si per cas" onwards were repealed by section 10(2) of, and Part I of Schedule 3 to, the Criminal Law Act 1967 and Part I of Schedule 2 to the Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967.
Read more about this topic: Treason Act 1351
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