Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Question from E. Manford - Treason to discuss the monarch's death



1 comment:

Marilyn R said...

The Treasons Act of 1534 specified that all those were guilty of high treason who:


In Katheryn Howard's case Francis Dereham had supposedly remarked to his friend Davenport that if the King died then Katheryn would choose him, Dereham. This was construed by interrogators as wishing Henry VIII would die, which is not what appears to have been meant at all.

In Katheryn and Culpeper's case it had been more wishing and hoping, it would seem, than actually doing, but in the eyes of the King that meant wishing he, her husband, would die so they could be together, and since 1534 this alone was more than enough for a charge of treason to be brought.

It would seem that with a law like this you could make just about anything stick to anybody.