Catherine Hayes – burnt for the Petty Treason murder of her husband.
Catherine Hayes – burnt for the Petty Treason murder of her husband. The crime of Petty Treason. In these male dominated times, men were considered more valuable in law than women. So if a woman killed her husband, she was guilty not merely of murder but the much more serious crime of Petty Treason. Petty Treason was defined by the Treason Act of 1351 and encompassed the killing of a master by a servant, a husband by his wife, or an ecclesiastical superior by his inferior. These crimes were seen as an assault on the majesty of the State, as well as the actual victim, and were perceived at the time to be against the natural order of things. Therefore, the punishment for Petty Treason was much more severe than for ordinary murder. Women convicted of petty treason were burned at the stake up to 1793, after which they were still drawn to the place of execution but then hanged in the normal way up till 1825, when the crime of Petty Treason was abolished, the offence being reclassified as