A Handbook of Dates for Students of British History

A Handbook of Dates For students of British history edited by C. R. CHENEY new edition revised by MICHAEL JONES iii published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom cambridge university press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru, UK www.cup.cam.ac.uk 40 West 20th Street, New York, ny 10011–4211, USA www.cup.org 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia Ruiz de Alarcón 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain © Royal Historical Society 1945–2000 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1945 Revised edition 2000 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeface teffLexicon 91⁄¢/13 pt System QuarkXPress® [se] A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress cataloguing-in-publication data A handbook of dates/edited by C. R. Cheney, Michael Jones. – 2nd edn. p. cm. (Royal Historical Society guides and handbooks: no. 4) Rev. edn. of: Handbook of dates for students of English history. 1945. Includes index. isbn 0 521 77095 5 hardback 1. Great Britain – History – Chronology. 2. Church history – Chronology. 3. Great Britain – Calendars. i. Cheney, C. R. (Christopher Robert). 1906– . ii. Jones, Michael, 1940– . iii. Handbook of dates for students of English history. iv. Title v. Series: Guides and handbooks: no. 4. da34.h29 1999 941´ .002´ 02 – dc21 99–27383 cip isbn 0 521 77095 5 hardback isbn 0 521 77845 x paperback iv Contents Preface to the new edition vii Preface to the original edition (1945) ix Select bibliography xiv 1 Reckonings of time 1 i The Julian calendar: Old Style 1 ii The year 1 iii The date of Easter 4 iv The beginning of the year of grace 8 v Divisions of the year 15 vi Fractions of the day 16 vii The Gregorian calendar: New Style 17 2 Rulers of England and regnal years 21 i Rulers of England from the English settlement to ad1154 22 ii Regnal years of rulers from ad1154 32 iii Exchequer years of English rulers 45 3 List of Popes 48 i St Peter and his successors to ad590 50 ii From Gregory the Great to John Paul II 51 4 Saints’days and festivals used in dating 59 i List of saints’days and other festivals 63 ii Saints’days in annual chronological order 87 iii Days of the week 93 iv The dating of episcopal acta 93 5 Legal chronology 96 i The limit of legal memory 96 ii Limitation of actions 96 v Contents iii The law terms 98 iv The exchequer of pleas 105 v Chancery and Star Chamber 106 vi Parliament and statutes 106 vii County court days 110 viii The terms of the Court of Arches 110 ix Other ecclesiastical and civilian courts 111 x Tables of law terms from ad1066 to ad1830 112 6 The Roman calendar 145 7 Celtic and Roman (Alexandrian) Easter days, ad400–768 147 8 Calendars for all possible dates of Easter, ad400–2100 155 9 Easter days according to Old Style, ad400–1752 226 10 Easter days according to New Style, ad1583–2100 231 11 The English calendar for 1752 233 12 Dates of adoption of the Gregorian calendar in Europe 236 13 The French Revolutionary calendar 242 Index 244 vi 1 Reckonings of time* i The Julian calendar: Old Style Throughout the Middle Ages, and in some countries for much longer, the calendar in use was that known as the Julian, because it was originally introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 bc. This way of reckoning is now known as the Old Style, in contradistinction to the New Style, that is to say reckoning by the Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. The Julian calendar set up a common year consisting of 365 days, while every fourth year was to contain an extra day, the sixth calends of March (24 February) being doubled and the year therefore being described as annus bissextilis. This latter device was intended to rectify, at regular inter- vals, the accumulated discrepancy between the calendar year of 365 days and the solar year, calculated by the astronomers at 3651⁄¢ days. The mistake was made, however, of counting in the current year when decid- ing which was ‘every fourth year’, and in practice the bissextile years occurred in what we should call every third year. Thus an error rapidly accumulated, until the Emperor Augustus got rid of it by ordaining that twelve successive years should consist of 365 days only. The next bissextile or leap year was ad 4, and thereafter, as long as the Old Style lasted, every fourth year, in the modern sense, was a leap year. ii The year The Christian era The use for dating purposes of the Christian year (annus domini, annus ab incarnatione domini, annus gratiæ) arose somewhat unexpectedly through the compilation of a table for calculating the date of Easter, made by the monk Dionysius Exiguus in ad 525. This was intended to continue to ad 626 the Easter Table then in use, of which the cycle would end in 531. Dionysius, a Scythian by birth, but living in Rome and moribus omnino *Chiefly revised by Dr Richard Sharpe. 1 Reckonings of time romanus, constructed a list of years calculated not from the prevailing era of Diocletian, the pagan emperor, but from the Incarnation of Our Lord. A continuator carried on the table to ad 721. At the synod of Whitby, in ad 664, Wilfred, as part of his advocacy of all things Roman, secured the acceptance in Northumbria of the Dionysian Easter Table. Dionysius himself had had no thought of establishing a new era, but now his device was adopted for chronological purposes by Bede. Starting from English usage in the eighth century, the new era gradually spread to the Continent until in every country of Western Europe except Spain (see below), Christians reckoned from ad 1. In England this method was used for the dating of official documents long before it was adopted by continental chanceries. The year ab incarnatione is found in Anglo-Saxon diplomas very soon after the death of Bede to replace or supplement dating by indiction, and was commonly used for such royal documents as bore dates (even when they also used the regnal year) until late in the twelfth century. Outside the royal chancery the reckoning is to be found in English legal instruments of all sorts in the excep- tional cases in which a date of any kind is vouchsafed. Later in the Middle Ages documents of ecclesiastical provenance generally, and private charters occasionally, are dated by the year of grace. The era of the incarnation also regularly provided the chronological framework of English chroni- cles and annals. The Spanish era In Spain, Portugal, and those southeastern parts of Gaul which were for a time under the rule of the Visigoths, an era was used which had been taken over by the latter from the Christians of Roman Spain. According to some authorities, the era originated in an Easter Table of which the first cycle began, not at the year of incarnation, but at 38 bc, and it was reckoned from 1 January 38 bc, though the reasons for this remain unresolved. The era was in use in Catalonia to 1180, in Aragon to 1350, in Valencia to 1358, in Castile to 1382, in Portugal to 1420. The date is always given in the form ‘era millesima octava’ not ‘anno millesimo octavo’, and to find the equiva- lent year of the Christian era one must subtract 38 from the date in the Spanish era. The indiction Unlike the Christian and Spanish eras, the indiction was originally a civil reckoning of time. It is a cycle of fifteen years, counted as indictio prima, 2 II The year secunda, and so on, to 15, reverting then to 1. The first cycle was counted from ad 312, but there were three chief methods of reckoning the opening date: (a) The Greek, or Constantinopolitan, Indiction, beginning on 1 September. The popes seem to have used this fairly regularly till 1087, after which the practice of the papal chancery varied till Alexander III (1159–81). (b) The Bedan, or Cæsarean, or Imperial Indiction, or the Indiction of Constantine, beginning on 24 September. This was probably introduced by Bede into England, where it became usual, and was adopted by the papacy under Alexander III. (c) The Roman, or Pontifical, Indiction, beginning on 25 December (or sometimes on 1 January), was in fact only occasionally used in the papal chancery, but is found in other places at various periods. The use of the indiction-year as an element in the dating of documents goes back to imperial Rome, when it was added to statements of the con- sular and imperial years. It continued to be used by the papacy and the royal chanceries of the West in the early Middle Ages for the more solemn privileges and legal records. It is also found in some private charters. But by the end of the thirteenth century it was generally ignored except in one class of document: the instruments drawn up by public notaries continue to exhibit the indiction together with other dating elements until the six- teenth century. The dating formula, indictio prima, etc., simply shows the place which the year occupies in an unspecified cycle of fifteen years.

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