Treason

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1. When a man doth compass or imagine the death of our lord the king, of our lady his queen, or of their eldest son and heir
2. If a man do violate the king's companion, or the king's eldest daughter unmarried, or the wife of the king's eldest son and heir
3. If a man do levy war against our lord the king in his realm
4. If a man be adherent to the king's enemies in his realm, giving to them aid and comfort in the realm, or elsewhere.

To avoid the abuses of the English law, treason was specifically defined in the United States Constitution. Article Three defines treason as only levying war against the United States or giving aid and comfort to its enemies, and requires the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or a confession in open court for conviction. In the United States Code the penalty ranges from "shall suffer death" to "shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States." In the United States, the accusation of treason has at times been levelled at those who dissented against the government's foreign policy, especially during military actions. However actual prosecutions have been very rare, and even very well known spies have generally been convicted of espionage rather than treason.

In the history of the United States there have been fewer than 40 federal prosecutions for treason and even fewer convictions. Several men were convicted of treason in connection with the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion but were pardoned by George Washington. The most famous treason trial, that of Aaron Burr in 1807, resulted in acquittal. Politically motivated attempts to convict opponents of the Jeffersonian Embargo Acts and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 all failed. Significantly, after the American Civil War, no person involved with the Confederate States of America was charged with treason, and only one major Confederate official, the commandant of the Andersonville prison who was charged with war crimes, was charged with anything at all.

In the 20th century, treason has become largely a wartime phenomenon, and the treason cases of World Wars I and II were of minor significance. Most states have provisions in their constitutions or statutes similar to those in the U.S. Constitution. There have been only two successful prosecutions for treason on the state level, that of Thomas Dorr in Rhode Island and that of John Brown in Virginia.

Canadian Traitors

• FLQ Members, a militant Quebec separatist group
• Louis Riel, Metis leader who opposed Canada's expansion into the west.

UK Traitors

• Guy Fawkes
• William Joyce, alias "Lord Haw-Haw"
• British Free Corps, whose members fought for the Nazis against their country
• Klaus Fuchs - German-born British citizen who gave atomic bomb secrets to the Soviets

US Traitors

• Aaron Burr
• Anthony Cramer
• Benedict Arnold
• Iva Toguri D'Aquino (aka Tokyo Rose)
• Thomas W. Dorr
• Max Haupt
• Tomoya Kawakita
• Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg
• Philip Hansen
• Fritz Kuhn
• John Walker Lindh
• The Saint Patrick's Battalion - Irish-Americans who fought for Mexico in the Mexican-American War.

French Traitors

• Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy
• Henri Philippe Petain
• Joseph Darnand
• Pierre Laval

Other Traitors

• Thomas More
• Vidkun Quisling
• Andrei Vlasov
• Kotoku Shusui
• Kawashima Yoshiko
• Wang Jingwei
• Zou Fohai
• Chen Gongbo
• Balthazar Gerards
• Anton Mussert