Treason and the State: Law, Politics and Ideology in the English Civil War
D. Alan Orr, "Treason and the State: Law, Politics and Ideology in the English Civil War"
English | 2002 | ISBN: 0521771021, 0521037336 | 248 pages | PDF | 1 MB
English | 2002 | ISBN: 0521771021, 0521037336 | 248 pages | PDF | 1 MB
This study traces the transition of treason from a personal crime against a monarch to a more modern crime against the impersonal state. Prior to the Civil Wars of the 1640s, English jurists construed the law of treason largely as a personal crime against the monarch. The book reveals how the events of the 1640s challenged pre-existing interpretations and led to a revised understanding of treason as a crime committed against "the state" as an impersonal entity.