Chronologies and Calendars/Chapter 7
FORMING their opinion from what they took to be original charters, some authorites have held that the Christian era was used in England about the close of the 8th century. Even admitting that there may be contemporary copy charters bear A.D. dates, I prefer, after inspecting the deed in the British Museum, to consider the charter or grant by King Eadred (dated A.D. 948 in Roman numerals) as the earliest original writing which contains the Christian style of years.[1]
72. While wondering whether such an iconoclastic decision did not border on chronological vandalism, I was somewhat pleased to find that Mr. Rounds attacks many traditions which were considered historic, and English dates which had been viewed as fixed for all time. For instance, he proves inter alia that Richard the Lion changed his official seal not 'in 1194, but in 1198, and between January and May that year.' But Mr. Rounds goes further. He considers the English 'consecutive political history only begins at the Norman Conquest,' and he riddles the prior Narrative in the scathing words, 'Our jejune native chronicle.' Another authority proceeds, 'The charter of Edward the Confessor to Westminster Abbey is generally thought to be the oldest sealed charter of any authenticity in England.'[2] And a third has declared that 'there was no written Anglo-Saxon literature until the conversion of the people to Christianity' (i.e., at the opening of the seventh century).[3]
73. Again, most people would say that the Great Charter was first signed in 1215 Anno Domini, but the deed only sets forth that it was executed—the king set his seal thereto, for regal autographs came into use only in Richard II.'s reign[4]—by John on the 13th of June, in the seventeenth year of his reign. Twenty years later, the date of an Act of Parliament reads, 'Wednesday, the morrow after the feast of St. Vincent, the 20th year of the reign of King Henry, the son of King John.' This mode of dating Acts was also in vogue in Scotland.[5]
74. Probably one of the earliest printed statutes is the one known as 'Anno 24 Henrici VIII,' made 'in the session of this present Parliament holden upon prorogation at Westmynstere, the 4 daye of Februarye in the 24 yere of the reign of our most dradde soveraigne Lorde Kinge Henry the VIII.'
75. The revisers of the English statutes, whose labours were begun in the present generation, have had a deal of bother with doubts and questions upon the true dates of the earlier statutes. They give a list of fifty 'statutes of uncertain date,' as they term these acts, but from internal evidences they are able to fix these enactments in some of the Parliamentary Sessions during the period from 1267 to 1325 respectively. They explain in footnotes the variances in former translations—how, for instance, the 'statute of breaking prisons' had long been attributed to the first year of Edward II., i.e., 1307, whereas its true date is 23 Edward I., being 1295.[6] Again, one act is wrongly dated by a whole reign, viz:—Statutu sup' aportam'to armor (=a statute forbidding bearing armour). It was, until thirty years ago, placed as seventh year of Edward I., instead of 7 Edward II. To crown the chronological confusion, the revisers had actually to unravel two lists of acts of different Parliaments which had got intermingled. All this proves the chaos which had been so long handed down from generation to generation.
76. John Gower, Chaucer's friend and fellow-poet, lived between 1327 and 1408. In his prologue he says:—
And in the oldest diary of English travel (Torkington Pilgrimage) the inductive clause reads the 'ffyrst the ffryday afor mydlent,[8] that was Seynt Cuthberdy's Day, and the XX day of Marche, in the VII yer of Kyng Herri the VIIIth, and the yer of ower Lorde God MCCCCCXVII.'[9]
77. Resorting to numismatics, I find that Edward VI. was the first English king who issued year-dated coins. These were the testoons—copies of a French silver coin, valued in England at eighteenpence. 'They are dated (1549) MDXLIX. Thus it is under three hundred and fifty years since the English currency began to bear a year of issue on the legend.
78. As mentioned in a former chapter,[10] the new style or Gregorian correction was issued in Italy in the year 1582; and it would appear that the English Parliament, in the 27th session of Queen Elizabeth (1585), considered a bill to introduce the new style into England, but the measure reached a second reading only. The wonder is that such a Papal principle got so much support then.
79. But even in 1585, sovereigns had a fondness for inserting the regnal year as well as the year of the Christian era. But as regards dates after Charles I., it is very important to observe that though his son did not ascend the throne de facto till Tuesday 29th May, 1660, yet the regnal year then beginning was, and is, reckoned as the twelfth year of his reign up to 29th January, 1661. From 30th January, 1661 to 29th January, 1662 was, and is, the thirteenth regnal year of the second Charles, and so on thereafter. Of course 30th January was the day of the execution of Charles I., and by a legal fiction (which was evolved from an excess of loyalty) of his son's hypothetical accession to the vacant throne. This is a most important chronological fact, but is often neglected by historians.[11]
- ↑ The charter is in the British Museum. The time of legal memory (it may be mentioned) dates from and after the reign of Richard I. (1189–1199).
- ↑ Blackstone, vol. II., p. 401.
- ↑ Webster's Introduction, p. xxxi.
- ↑ He reigned from 1377 to 1399.
- ↑ Compare section 86 infra.
- ↑ Revised Statutes, vol. i, p. 63.
- ↑ This is important, for poets usually reflect the popular way of doing things: and we may conclude that the regnal year was mostly in use at the date in question, 1392.
- ↑ On the Friday before mid-lent, being the 20th March.
- ↑ Or in the historical date, 1516.
- ↑ See section 26, supra.
- ↑ The Cromwellian period may be called the era of the usurper, according to the phraseology used by the Parliaments of the second Charles—the word "usurper" occurring very often in the enactments.