- What does “corruption of blood” mean?
Often a Bill of Attainder not only decreed that a person (or people) was guilty, but also confiscated the convicted person’s property, preventing his (or rarely her) heirs from inheriting, and possibly rendering those heirs ineligible to hold public offices or peerages. The heir would also be prevented from inheriting through the attainted person. For example, property held by the father of the attainted person would not pass to the child of the attainted person. This was called “corruption of the blood”, and was viewed with particular horror by many during the colonial period and before. It effectivly treated the heirs of the attainted person as illegitimate.
- Attainder (Wikipedia)
In English criminal law, attainder was the metaphorical “stain” or “corruption of blood” which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason). It entailed losing not only one’s life, property and hereditary titles, but typically also the right to pass them on to one’s heirs. Anyone condemned of capital crimes could be attainted.
