Treason in early modern England, 1500-1700

In 16th and 17th-century England, treason was regarded as the worst crime on the statute book, an offence against both monarch and – by extension – the whole state. It attracted particular opprobrium from contemporaries, and particularly severe punishment upon conviction.

Through this course we will explore the development of statute law and legal thought on this topic, identifying which offences did and which did not constitute treason. We will consider how treason related to other capital crimes. Several dramatic and often high-profile trials will be considered to illustrate the challenges of bringing a suspect to trial, the processes of prosecution, the strategies for a successful defence, and the ways in which reputations were made and more often destroyed in the courtroom. We shall also follow condemned traitors to the gallows to see how the theatre of the occasion could be exploited by those sufficiently bold, or desperate. We shall look at why kings and queens needed treason laws, the strengths that such legislation bestowed and the weaknesses that it generated. We shall look too at why people willingly committed offences they knew to be treasonous, and whether most cases of treason simply display the playing out of political, religious and personal rivalries across English society. Although the scope of the course runs no further than 1700, there will be an opportunity to conclude with some brief consideration of what the experience of early modern treason legislation taught subsequent generations of English men and women, and indeed to assess the place of treason in Britain today.