The Treasons Act 1649 or Act declaring what offences shall be adjudged Treason was passed on 17 July 1649 by the Rump Parliament during the Commonwealth of England. It superseded the Act declaring what offences shall be adjudged Treason passed about two months earlier on 14 May 1649. The Act was deemed necessary because the Commonwealth was a republic, so treason against the person of the king had no meaning. There were certain threats that faced the Commonwealth, which this law helped to address. However, all acts and ordinances passed by Parliament during the Civil War and Interregnum did not have royal assent, so they were deemed to be null and void following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. Legislation and political events King Charles I of England was beheaded on 30 January 1649. Shortly after his death the Rump Parliament passed a series of acts which established the Commonwealth (see High Court of Justice for the trial of Charles I). The execution of Charles I was delayed until later in the day on 30 January than had originally been planned, so that the House of Commons could pass an emergency act, the "Act prohibiting the proclaiming any person to be King of England or Ireland, or the Dominions thereof", that made it an offence to proclaim a new King, and to declare the representatives of the people, the House of Commons, as the source of all just power. Parliament voted to abolish the House of Lords on 6 February and to abolish the monarchy on 7 February; an act abolishing the kingship was formally passed by Parliament on 17 March, followed by an act to abolish the House of Lords on 19 March. The establishment of a Council of State was approved on 14 February as was an Act declaring what offences shall be adjudged Treason, and on 19 May An Act declaring England to be a Commonwealth was passed. On 17 July 1649 the second Act declaring what offences shall be adjudged Treason was passed and it became treason to say that the House of Commons (without the Lords or the King) was not the supreme authority of the land. Content The Act purported to make the following things treason: to say in writing or verbally that "the [Commonwealth] government is tyrannical, usurped, or unlawful, or that the commons in parliament assembled are not the supreme authority