At about this time, Leonard Casley styled himself "His Majesty Prince Leonard I of Hutt". Casley did this because he believed it would enable him to take advantage of the British Treason Act of 1495, which provides that the "de facto" king of a nation cannot be guilty of treason in relation to any act against the lawful king and that anyone who interfered with that monarch's duties could be charged with treason. No government or legal scholar has ever accepted this legal theory of Prince Leonard's.