Today’s Petty Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The ultimate torment, slow death by burning at the stake, was practiced in England and Scotland for several centuries, not only for heresy or witchcraft, but for the ‘petty treason’ of murdering a husband. Sometimes a degree of mercy was allowed: the victim was strangled as the flames took hold. In Lincoln in 1722, Eleanor Elsom was convicted of killing her husband, and sentenced to be burned. Her clothes and limbs were smeared with pitch, and she was dragged on a hurdle to the place of execution. She was made to stand on a barrel of pitch surrounded by faggots, and chained to the stake. A noose was placed about her neck, the rope running through a pulley at the top of the stake and into the executioner’s hands. The fire was lit, and the rope was pulled; but whether Eleanor was dead before the flames finally consumed her body half an hour later, nobody knew.
Culled from: The History Of Torture
Petty Treason isn’t a half-bad name for a band.
But it begs the question: what on earth would they consider non-petty treason? And is there really such a thing as petty treason? I mean, treason is about as low as you can go.
It actually makes a lot of sense, if you look at it from the mindset of the 1700s. All men were subjects of the King. Disloyalty to the King would be Treason. All *women* were subjects of their Husbands. Disloyalty to him would be a form of Treason as well. And just like killing a police officer is punished more severely than murdering a crackhead for his stash, treason against your husband might be considered just a bit less severe than treason against the King — not that the end result seems to have been any better!
Oh, and all of the above should be noted as [[citation needed]], because I basically took a guess based on my limited knowledge of 18th century pre-industrial society. YMMV!