Felo de se

rdf:langString Felo de se

rdf:langString Extract from London Before the Houses, W.E. Loftie, 1884 showing at centre in Middlesex beyond old London's limits an elevated key crossroads, for centuries, a place of hanging convicts, the Tyburn Tree and of Ossulstone ; today by Marble Arch. Roadside burials were also a slur in the Roman Empire.

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString Felo de se (from Medieval Latin fel[l]ō dē sē, "felon of him-/herself") was a concept applied against the personal estates (assets) of adults who ended their own lives.Early English common law, among others, by this concept considered suicide a crime—a person found guilty of it, though dead, would ordinarily see penalties including forfeiture of property to the monarch and a shameful burial. Beginning in the seventeenth century precedent and coroners' custom gradually deemed suicide temporary insanity—court-pronounced conviction and penalty to heirs were gradually phased out. Such judgment and penalties had taken in any deceased, lawfully killed for self-defence or defence of another, committing a felony.