Regnal Years

in England

Over a long period of British history, particularly in legal documents, the year in a date was identified by reference to the year number of the king or queen's reign. Although this method of dating documents stopped many years ago, it was still used for acts of Parliament until 1964.

For example: 25 June 1776 falls in the year 16 of George III's reign and would be written: 25 June 16 George III. The regnal year information at the bottom of Calisto's main screen will help interpret regnal year dates.

Some samples (in the blue boxes) from Calisto's display are given below.

Example 1 - 1776 (A simple example)

Regnal years: 16:17 George III (25 Oct)

days before 25 October are in year 16 of George III's reign

25 October and after are in year 17 of George III's reign

Example 2 - 1830

Regnal years: 10:11 George IV (29 Jan)
1 William IV (from 26 Jun)

days before 29 January are in year 10 of George IV's reign

29 January to 25 June are in year 11 of George IV's reign

26 June and after are in year 1 of William IV's reign

Example 3 - 1553 (more complicated)

Regnal years: 6:7 Edward VI (28 Jan)
Jane Grey (6 Jul)
1 Mary (19 Jul 1553 to 5 Jul 1554)

days before 28 January are in year 6 of Edward VI's reign

28 January to 5 July are in year 7 of Edward VI's reign

6 to 19 July are in Lady Jane Grey's reign

19 July to 5 July 1554 are in year 1 of Mary's reign. Although her first year dated from 19 July Mary, by way of insisting that Jane Grey had not been queen, dated all following years of her reign from 6 July.

Example 4 - King John 1210

Regnal years: 11:12 John (Ascension Day)

John came to the throne on Ascension Day 1199 - Ascension Day is on a different day each year:

7 May 1209 to 26 May 1210 are in year 11 of John's reign
in 1209 Ascension Day was on 7 May, in 1210 on 27th.

27 May 1210 to 11 May 1211 are in year 12 of John's reign.
in 1211 Ascension Day was on 12 May.

12 May 1211 to 2 May 1212 are in year 13 of John's reign
in 1212 Ascension Day was on 3 May.

Example 5 - Mary and Philip 1555 / 1556

Regnal years: 2 Philip & 3 Mary (25 Jul 1555 to 5 Jul 1556)
2 Philip & 4 Mary (6 Jul 1556 to 24 Jul 1556)
3 Philip & 4 Mary (25 Jul 1556 to 5 Jul 1557)

Mary's years are reckoned from 6 July 1553, Philip's from 25 July 1554 when their joint reign started. Both numbering systems ran in parallel.

days in 1556 before 5 July are in year 2:Philip 3:Mary

5 to 24 July are in year 2:Philip 4:Mary

days after 24 July are in year 3:Philip 4:Mary

last edited 1-Dec-2003