Treason Act 1397

The Treason Act 1397 (21 Ric. 2. c. 12) was an act of the Parliament of England. It was supplemented by six other acts (21 Ric. 2. cc. 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 20). The seven Acts together dealt with high treason.

This legislation was passed during the final years of King Richard II's turbulent reign. The main act (c. 12) was a lengthy document setting out several new crimes which were to be treason. Another act (c. 3) confirmed that to "compasseth or purpose the death of the king, or to depose him", as well as the making of war against him in his realm, were treasonous acts. This act went further than the Treason Act 1351, which required that the offence be proved "of open deed". A third act (c. 4) also made it treason "to attempt to repeal any Judgments made by Parliament against certain traitors" (i.e. acts of attainder). A fourth act (c. 6) disqualified the sons of traitors from sitting in Parliament or the King's Council. A fifth act (c. 7) voided all "Annuities, Fees, Corodies, and all other Charges made or granted" by traitors after the date of the treason they were convicted of. A sixth act (c. 2) made it treason to set up any commission which was prejudicial to the king (this was in response to a commission of Lords Appellant which had been set up by Parliament in 1386, against Richard's will (10 Ric. 2. c. 1, 1386)). The last act (c. 20) made it treason to "pursue to repeal any of these statutes".

The new treasons created by Richard were abolished by another act passed in the first year of his successor, Henry IV (1399), which returned the law of treason to what it had been under the Treason Act 1351 (1 Hen. 4. c. 10) This act explained the reason for the repeal:

"Whereas in the said Parliament holden the said one and twentieth Year of the said late King Richard, divers Pains of Treason were ordained by Statute, in as much that there was no Man which did know how he ought to behave himself, to do, speak, or say, for Doubt of such Pains, It is accorded and assented by the King, the Lords and Commons aforesaid, that in no Time to come any Treason be judged otherwise, than it was ordained by the Statute of his noble Grandfather King Edward the Third, whom God assoil."

The jurist Sir William Blackstone wrote in his Commentaries on the Laws of England:

"The most arbitrary and absurd [treason] of all which was by the statute 21 Ric. II. c. 3. which made the bare purpose and intent of killing or deposing the king, without any overt act to demonstrate it, high treason. And yet so little effect have over-violent laws to prevent any crime, that within two years afterwards this very prince was both deposed and murdered."

Chapter 3
21 Ric. 2. c. 3 created four kinds of treason:
 * 1) "[to] compass[] or purpose[] the Death of the King"
 * 2) "or to depose him"
 * 3) "or to render up his Homage or Liege"
 * 4) "or [to] ... raise[] People and ride[] against the King to make War within his Realm"

The Act declared that the procedure for prosecuting someone for any of these was by attainder in Parliament.

Chapter 12
21 Ric. 2 c. 12 repealed everything done by the parliament of 1387 (11 Ric. 2) and declared that the people who had been responsible for it were traitors. Moreover, it was declared to be treason for Parliament to impeach any of the king's officers without his consent, or for Parliament to continue to deliberate after the king dissolved it.