Professor Bellamy places the theory of treason in its political setting
and analyses the part it played in the development of legal and
political thought in this period. He pays particular attention to the
Statute of Treason of 1352, an act with a notable effect on later
constitutional history and which, in the opinion of Edward Coke, had a
legal importance second only to that of Magna Carta. He traces the
English law of treason to Roman and Germanic origins, and discusses the
development of royal attitudes towards rebellion, the judicial
procedures used to try and condemn suspected traitors, and the
interaction of the law of treason and constitutional ideas.