Treason by Women Act (Ireland) 1796 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. It abolished death by burning at the stake as the penalty for women convicted of treason. (It therefore made equivalent provision to the Treason Act 1790 for Ireland.) This Act was repealed for the Republic of Ireland by section 1 of, and the Schedule to, the Statute Law Revision (Pre-Union Irish Statutes) Act 1962 This Act was repealed for Northern Ireland on 30 September 1998 by section 120(2) of, and
Death by burning his reign. Just one year after his death, however, in 1401, William Sawtrey was burnt alive for heresy. Death by burning for heresy was formally abolished by King Charles II in 1676. The traditional punishment for women found guilty of treason was to be burned at the stake, where they did not need to be publicly displayed naked, whereas men were hanged, drawn and quartered. The jurist William Blackstone argued as follows for the differential punishment of females vs. males: However, as described in Camille Naish's "Death Comes to the Maiden", in practice, the woman's shift would burn away at