Crime of lese-majesty

The crime of lese-majesty is a legal concept evil definite which evolved/moved in time, recovering various legal qualifications. Essentially, it was connected to the attacks with the sovereign, whatever it is (people, a monarch, a principle founder, etc), and with the signs of his majesty (objects, decisions, people including their representatives, etc).

The Roman maiestas

This crime appears with Rome under the République and according to Tacite ( Annales , I, LXXII, 2-4) recovered the crimes of “treason towards the army, sedition with regard to the plebs, finally bad management of the public affairs, vermin with the majesty of the Roman people”. The maiestas it is the size of the Roman people as a whole.

Cicéron employs this concept in two cases:

  • In its second speech against Glasses (IV, 88), it qualifies the flight of the Mercury of Tyndaris of lese-majesty (at the same time as crime of misappropriation, of diversion of a public property, sacrilege and cruelty)
  • : “There is lese-majesty, because it dared to reverse and carry the memory of our domination. ”
  • In its defense of Cluentius ( Pro Cluentio , 97), it employs this term in connection with a military attempt at rising.
  • : “It was established (...) that it had sought to raise a legion in Illyrie: such was the action which concerned properly within the competence of this court, such was the fact which fell under the law from majesty. ”

Always according to Tacit ( Yearly , I, LXXII, 2-4): “the acts were blamed, the words remained unpunished”.

Imperial majesty

With the Empire, the emperor becomes the personification of the maiestas of the Roman people. Tacit and Suétone show well the evolution of the concept of this crime of lese-majesty, under Auguste then Tibère, to condemn the bearing remarks reached to the imperial person - who since Auguste received the power tribunician with life is sacrosanctus .

“Auguste the first covered this law to engage an instruction on make out scandalous, made indignant by the license of Cassius Severus which, being caught some with men and women of famous row, had defamed them in writings insolents; then Tibère, consulted by the praetor Pompeius Macer on the admissibility of the charges for lese-majesty, answered that the laws were to be applied. He also had been exasperated by anonymous worms which ran on its cruelty, its pride and its disagreement with his/her mother. ” (Tacit, Yearly , I, LXXII, 2-4)

“Towards same time, as a praetor asked Tibère if he wanted to make continue the crimes of lese-majesty, he answered “that the laws had to be applied”, and it applied them in the most atrocious way. Somebody had removed the head of a statue of Auguste for him to substitute another of them; the business was discussed with the Senate and, as there was doubt, one had recourse to torture. The accused having been condemned, this kind of charge was imperceptibly carried so far one made a capital crime even have beaten a slave or have changed clothing close to a statue of Auguste, to have been to the latrines or in a den of iniquity with a coin or a ring carrying his effigy, to have criticized one of his words or his actions. Finally one went as far as making perish a citizen who had let himself invest of a magistrature in his colony, the same day when one had formerly decreed loads with Auguste. ” (Suétone, Lives of the twelve Césars , “Tibère”, LVIII).

Certain researchers consider that, precisely under the reign of Tibère, Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus under this criminal charge of lese-majesty, the title of “king of the Jews”, bearing reached with the majesty of the Roman people and the emperor.

Modifications of the Lower Empire and Digeste to supplement -->

With the Middle Ages

The attack against the pope before the imperial crowning of 800 was described as reus majestatis (“defendant of - majesty”).

In 1199, with the Décrétale Vergentis in senium , the Innocent pope III, upsets the direction of the crime of lese-majesty by assimilating the Hérésie to it. From now on lese-majesty will comprise a religious facet and qualifies the heresy, the Blasphème, the Sacrilège, and any other deviating opinion.

In 1313, the emperor Henri VII, gives a modern definition of lese-majesty through the text Which sint rebellious .

Dispute by the Lights

The concept of lese-majesty was very violently disputed by the Lumières:

  • on the one hand because of the dispute of any concept of divinity on ground, at one time when lese-majesty was explicitly related to the religion;
  • in addition considering that the repression of this crime was the open door with all the arbitrary ones, because of the blur inherent in its definition, of its procedure out of the common right (sometimes even goes away), and of the absence of limit in the possible punishments. In fact, some used this chief to attack their adversaries (and sometimes succeeded in making them condemn), with the reason for example that to complain was to dispute a royal decision, therefore to attack the majesty of the king.

This dispute proved to be effective, the concept of lese-majesty strongly moved back since.

Contemporary time

The revision of the penal code in 1832 made disappear the mention from lese-majesty in France. It was maintained in other States. The offense of Offense to the Head of the State under the Fifth Republic was compared to lese-majesty.

Crimes attached to lese-majesty

Qualified cases of famous lese-majesties

  • François Ravaillac (1610) condemned to quartering, was shown the worst of the fixed prices in the hierarchy of the offenses: " The crime of divine and human lese-majesty to the first chef" , by assassinating Henri de Bourbon (Henri IV);
  • Henri de Talleyrand-Périgord, count de Chalais, implied in the “conspiracy of Chalais” against the cardinal of Richelieu (1626);
  • Henri of the Tower of Auvergne-Bubble, Viscount of Turenne (1649);
  • Jean-François Paul de Gondi, cardinal of Retz (1657);
  • Nicolas Fouquet, superintendent of finances (lawsuit of 1661 with 1664)
  • Robert François Damiens (1757) for his bloody aggression on the person of Louis XV.

See too

lawsuits of Majesty
Crime of Lese-majesty and crucifixion

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