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Benefit of Clergy Act 1496

As Enacted Cited in Amendments 4 Related
Vincent
JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1496 c. 7
Year1496
Statutes made at Westminster, Anno 12 Hen . VII. and Anno Dom 1496 Of Murder.

(12 Hen. 7) C A P. VII.

'WHERE abominable and wilful prepensed Murders be by the Laws of God and of natural Reason forbidden, and are to be eschewed; yet not the less, many and divers unreasonable and detestable Persons, lacking Grace, wilfully commit Murder, to the high Displeasure of God , and contrary to all the Laws abovesaid, (2) and moreover against their natural and obliged Duty, wilfully commit prepensed Murder, in slaying their Master, or their immediate Sovereign, under whom he or they be, or owe Obedience, in Trust to eschew the Peril and Execution of the Law by the Benefit of their Clergy: (3) In Hope whereof, of late oneJames Grame , late of London , Yeoman, wilfully assented and prepensed the Murder of one Richard Tracy Gentleman, then his Master, by him and his prepensed Assent, the Ninth Day of February last past, at Brentwood in the County of Essex , murdered and slain, to the right perilous Ensample of other evil disposed:' (4)Wherefore, and in avoiding of like Mischiefs to ensue, by the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by Authority of the same, be it enacted, That the saidJames Grame , for the Murder of the said Richard Tracy his late Master, be attainted of the said Murder as a Felon that hath offended in Pety Treason; and that the same James , for the same Murder, shall be drawn, and hanged in such Manner and Form, as by the Law of this Land hath...

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