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95-879: The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 ( 24 Geo. 2 . c. 23), also known as Chesterfield's Act or (in American usage) the British Calendar Act of 1751 , is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain . Its purpose was for Great Britain and the British Empire to adopt the Gregorian calendar (in effect). The Act also changed the start of the legal year from 25   March to 1   January. The Act elided eleven days from September 1752. It ordered that religious feast days be held on their traditional dates – for example, Christmas Day remained on 25 December. (Easter

190-750: A barrister of the Middle Temple , who was also an astronomer and formerly secretary to the Royal Society, drafted the Bill. The prime minister the Duke of Newcastle , opposed the Bill and asked Chesterfield to abandon it, but the government did not block it and the Bill passed in the Lords without further debate. The House of Commons passed the Bill on 13 May  [N.S.  24 May] 1751; it received royal assent on 22 May [N.S. 2 June] 1751. The title of

285-504: A consequence, male-preference primogeniture was the practiced succession law for the nobility. The autonomous and troublesome duchy of Aquitaine was conquered by the Franks in 769, after a series of revolts against their suzerainty. In order to avoid a new demonstration of Aquitain particularism, Charlemagne decided to organize the land within his kingdom. After the Carolingian conquest,

380-681: A constituent kingdom of the Frankish kingdom after the Salian Franks conquered Aquitaine following the Battle of Vouillé , ultimately a recreation of the Roman provinces of Aquitania Prima and Secunda . As a duchy, it broke up after the conquest of the independent Aquitanian duchy of Waiofar , going on to become a sub-kingdom within the Carolingian Empire . It was then absorbed by West Francia after

475-525: A cyclical military campaign that lasted for eight years, i.e. the War of Aquitaine. Waifer strenuously carried on an unequal struggle with the Carolingian Franks, but his assassination in 768 marked the demise of Aquitaine's relative independence. During these years Aquitaine underwent intensive destruction of urban, economic, military and intellectual centres. Pepin's forces destroyed up to 36 monasteries. As

570-558: A date written as 21 January 1719/20 (or ⁠17 + 19 / 20 ⁠ ) means both a date of 21 January 1719 (where the year began ten months earlier, on 25 March 1719, as in England) and a date of 21 January 1720 (where the year began three weeks earlier, on 1 January 1720, as in Scotland). These notations both refer to the same day in the real world. The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 removed this difficulty by changing

665-459: A different matter. The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, 23 January 1753, reported that a "vast concourse of people" in Somerset gathered at the (Christmas-flowering) Glastonbury thorn on 24 December 1752   (New Style) to test the authenticity of the new date. "[B]ut to their great disappointment, there was no appearance of its blowing , which made them watch it narrowly

760-532: A painting (and an engraved print from the painting) loosely based on these elections, entitled An Election Entertainment , which shows a placard carrying the slogan "Give us our Eleven Days" (on the floor, lower right). In his book Hogarth, His Life, Art and Times (1993), Ronald Paulson says of the picture that "the Oxfordshire people ... are specifically rioting, as historically the London crowd did, to preserve

855-526: A painting by the satirist William Hogarth . There are no contemporary records of any such events in the riot depositions at the Public Record Office . This is the same Lord Chesterfield who introduced the Bill to the House of Lords. He wrote to his son (without saying which 'numerous assembly' he had in mind), "Every numerous assembly is a mob, let the individuals who compose it be what they will. Mere sense

950-930: A successor state to the Roman province of Gallia Aquitania and the Visigothic Kingdom (418–721), Aquitania (Aquitaine) and Languedoc ( Toulouse ) inherited the Visigothic Law and Roman Law which had combined to allow women more rights than their contemporaries in other parts of Europe. Particularly with the Liber Judiciorum , which was codified in 642 and 643 and expanded in the Code of Recceswinth in 653, women could inherit land and title and manage it independently from their husbands or male relations, dispose of their property in legal wills if they had no heirs, and women could represent themselves and bear witness in court by age 14 and arrange for their own marriages by age 20. As

1045-468: Is a moveable feast : the Act specifies how its date should be calculated.) It ordered that civil and market days  – for example the quarter days on which rent was due, salaries paid and new labour contracts agreed – be moved forward in the calendar by eleven days so that no-one should gain or lose by the change and that markets match the agricultural season. It is for this reason that

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1140-542: Is a complete list of acts of the Parliament of Great Britain for the year 1750 . For acts passed until 1707, see the list of acts of the Parliament of England and the list of acts of the Parliament of Scotland . See also the list of acts of the Parliament of Ireland . For acts passed from 1801 onwards, see the list of acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . For acts of the devolved parliaments and assemblies in

1235-548: Is never to be talked to a mob; their passions, their sentiments, their senses and their seeming interests alone are to be applied to. Understanding have they collectively none." When the son of the Earl of Macclesfield (who had been influential in passing the Act) stood for Parliament in Oxfordshire as a Whig in 1754, dissatisfaction with the calendar reform was one of a number of issues raised by his Tory opponents. In 1755, Hogarth produced

1330-516: Is the Sunday after". The Annexe uses the terms ' Paschal Full Moon ' and ' Ecclesiastical Full Moon ', making it clear that they only approximate to the real full moon . In his The Book of Almanacs (1851) Augustus De Morgan (Professor of Mathematics at University College London ), commented on the definition of Easter in the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750. He noted that the body of the Act wrongly stated

1425-512: The 'Popish' calendar . Hogarth's placard, part of a satire on the character of the debate, was not an observation of actual crowd behaviour. Three Market Days unto the Farmer's lost, Yet three per Cent, is added to his Cost: The Landlord calls for Rent before 'tis due, King's Tax , and Windows, Poor, and Parson too; With Numbers more, our Grandsiers never knew. Domestick Servants all will have their Pay, And force their Masters e're

1520-499: The Battle of Agincourt in 1415. He succeeded in obtaining the French crown for his family by the Treaty of Troyes in 1420. Henry V died in 1422, and his son Henry VI inherited the French throne at the age of less than a year; his reign saw the gradual loss of English control of France. The Valois kings of France, claiming supremacy over Aquitaine, granted the title of duke to their heirs,

1615-723: The Book of Common Prayer as required by the Act, includes calculation of the Golden Number and the Sunday Letter needed for the Anglican method. The Annex includes the definition: " Easter-day (on which the rest depend) is always the first Sunday after the Full Moon , which happens upon, or next after the Twenty-first Day of March . And if the Full Moon happens upon a Sunday , Easter-day

1710-488: The Dauphins , during 1345 and 1415: John II (1345–50), Charles VII (1392?–1401), and Louis (1401–1415). French victory was complete with the Battle of Castillon of 1453. England and France nominally remained at war for another 20 years, but England was in no position to continue its campaign, due to its escalating internal conflicts . The Hundred Years' War was formally concluded with the Treaty of Picquigny of 1475. With

1805-478: The English crown by 1153. William IX, Duke of Aquitaine (d. 1127), who succeeded to the dukedom in 1087, gained fame as a crusader and a troubadour. His granddaughter, Eleanor of Aquitaine , succeeded to the duchy at the age of 15 as the eldest daughter and heir of William X (d. 1137), as his son did not live past childhood. She married Louis , heir to the French throne, three months after her father's death due to

1900-666: The Hundred Years' War between England and France. Aquitaine as it came to the English kings stretched from the Loire to the Pyrenees, but its range was limited to the southeast by the extensive lands of the counts of Toulouse. The name Guienne, a corruption of Aquitaine, seems to have come into use about the 10th century, and the subsequent history of Aquitaine is merged in that of Gascony and Guienne . In 1337, King Philip VI of France reclaimed

1995-487: The Imperial Laws Application Act 1988 , which disapplied all but a limited schedule of English Acts it declared to be "part of the laws of New Zealand", one of which is the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750. Britain had by this time begun colonising India and parts of Africa—hence the references to Asia and Africa. Apart from Great Britain and Ireland, the only part of Europe under effective British sovereignty

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2090-472: The kingdom of France gain full control over Aquitaine in the 1450s, with much of its territory directly incorporated into the French royal domain itself. Gallia Aquitania fell under Visigothic rule in the 5th century. It was conquered by the Franks under Clovis I in 507, as a result of the Battle of Vouillé . During the 6th and early 7th century, it was under direct rule of Frankish kings, divided between

2185-542: The medieval period . No civil legislation or religious canon law ordered this change, but Christmas Day on 25 December gradually became a popular date for New Year in England from the 6th century, though this custom fell almost entirely out of use by the beginning of the 14th century. It is not wholly clear why 25 March came to be settled on as the beginning of the legal year instead, though it saw use in Aquitaine during

2280-629: The partition of Verdun in 843 and soon reappeared as a duchy under it. In 1153, an enlarged Aquitaine pledged loyalty to the Angevin kings of England . As a result, a rivalry emerged between the French monarchs and the Angevins over control of the latter's territorial possessions in France. By the mid-13th century, only an enlarged Guyenne and Gascony remained in Angevin hands. The Hundred Years' War finally saw

2375-825: The ready reckoner printed in Faulkner's Dublin Journal for 1752. In January 1753, Tynwald , the Isle of Man 's legislature, passed an Act for regulating the Commencement of the Year, and for establishing the new Calendar now used in England, now referred to as the Gregorian Calendar Act 1753. The Act recited that the island had observed the calendar established by the British Act since 1 January 1752 and made provision in similar terms to

2470-508: The region of Occitanie . Most of the rest of the post-1271 duchy now forms the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine , though parts fall into the three neighbouring regions of Pays de la Loire , Centre-Val de Loire and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes . The county of Aquitaine as it stood in the High Middle Ages, then, was bordering the Pyrenees to the south ( Navarre , Aragon and Barcelona , formerly

2565-571: The 'Eleven Days' the government stole from them in September 1752 by changing the calendar". Thus, the 'calendar riot' fiction was born. The election campaign depicted concluded in 1754, after a very lengthy contest between Court Whigs and Jacobite Tories. Every issue between the two factions was brought up, including the question of calendar reform. The Tories attacked the Whigs for every deviation, including their alleged favouritism towards foreign Jews and

2660-547: The 10th century and Normandy by the 11th (shortly before the Norman Conquest ). The 11th century also saw dedications to the Virgin Mary go from being rare in England to the most frequent, signifying the increasing importance of Lady Day in the liturgical year . Despite being commonplace by the middle of the 12th century, however, it then gave way to the invariable use of the regnal year for legal records from

2755-679: The 16th century to return to a legal year that started on 1 January: for example the Venetian Republic (1522, sixty years before the Gregorian reform), France (1564) and Scotland (1600). By 1750 most of Europe had already made this change and the continuing English practice became a source of confusion for English merchants and diplomats and their counterparts, when dealing across the Channel or with Scotland. An informal system of ' dual dating ' had developed to help reduce confusion. For example,

2850-462: The 1896 Act conferred the short title Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 on this Act. It may seem strange to modern readers that the Calendar (New Style) Act has the date of 1750 when royal assent was given on 22 May 1751. The reason is that, before the Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793 , the date on which a Bill became law was the first day of the parliamentary session in which it was passed, unless

2945-473: The 5th of Jan. the Christmas-Day, Old-Stile, when it blow'd as usual." The vicar of Glastonbury, however, later announced that it had in fact flowered nearer New Christmas Day. William Dawson (1902) writes a Reverend Francis Blackburne opened his church on Friday, 5 January 1753—(O.S., 25 December 1752)—to a congregation which filled the building. "The people were sorely disappointed, however, when

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3040-515: The Act ('Times of Payment of Rents, Annuities') stipulated that monthly, quarterly or yearly payments would not become due until the days that originally they would have done had the Julian calendar continued—that is, due dates were deferred by eleven days. The Earl of Macclesfield, in his speech to the House of Lords during the passage of the Bill, said a proportionate reduction in payments had been considered as an alternative solution. That is, maintaining

3135-525: The Act also requires that the dates of 'fairs and marts' traditionally associated with those feasts (but in reality tied to the seasons), be moved in the calendar by discounting eleven days. Thus, for example, the Michaelmas hiring and mop fairs moved to 10 October and became known as Old Michaelmas Day . Christmas Day was still celebrated on 25 December and an ' Old Christmas ' was not formalised: nevertheless, some communities were reluctant to accept

3230-581: The Act contained a provision to the contrary. The calendar reform bill was introduced in the session which began on 17 January 1750 Old Style [N.S.   28 January 1751], almost nine months into a year that had begun on 23   March 1750. Hence the Short Titles Act 1896 assigned the calendar reform to 1750. The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 applied to those countries and dominions in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America that belonged or were subject to

3325-575: The Act corrects this divergence by providing that Wednesday, 2 September 1752 be followed by Thursday, 14 September 1752. The Annex to the Act gives the algorithm (formally, 'the Computus') to be used thereafter in the Church of England 's Book of Common Prayer to establish the date of Easter: this replaced the previous rules used by the Church. However, with the potential for religious strife in mind,

3420-574: The Act explicitly exempted fairs and marts from the calendar reform; "that is, they were to change their nominal date to retain the same place in the season, thus in effect observing the Old Style". The revision to the Book of Common Prayer setting the new basis for calculating the date for Easter (and its associated events like Lent ) appears to have passed without public controversy—"perhaps", Poole remarks, "because few people understood how Easter worked anyway". The date of Christmas, however, proved to be

3515-477: The Act finally settles the position of leap day in English law as 29 February. By the 18th century, the English legal year – used for legal, financial and other civil purposes – had for centuries begun on 25 March, or Lady Day . Thus, for example, 24 March 1707 was immediately followed by 25 March 1708, while the day following 31 December 1708 was 1 January 1708, with 1709 still nearly three months away. The introduction to

3610-493: The Act is: An Act for regulating the Commencement of the Year, and for correcting the Calendar now in Use . It was not the practice in the 18th century to give short titles to Acts of Parliament. The old long titles had proved increasingly inconvenient, and it became the custom to refer to Acts by informal popular names. The Short Titles Act 1896 retrospectively gave short titles to old statutes that had not been repealed. In particular,

3705-499: The Act replicates this algorithm. By 1750, almost all countries in Western Christendom except Britain and its empire had already adopted Gregory's reform. According to Gregory's rule, the year 1600 was a leap year, but 1700 was not—but it remained a leap year under the Julian calendar. This meant that when Britain reformed the calendar in the 1750s, the divergence between the calendars had reached eleven days. Section I of

3800-484: The Act states succinctly the rationale for a change to the start of the year in England (and Wales) to 1 January: the March date had been found to have many inconveniences. It differed from the date (1 January) used by Scotland, which had ceased to use 25 March in 1600, as well as that used by other neighbouring countries and ordinary people throughout the kingdom. As a consequence, it says, frequent mistakes were made in

3895-469: The British Act. The Act was promulgated and became law, with retrospective effect, on 5 July 1753. One of its permanent effects was to postpone the holding of the annual sitting of Tynwald at St John's , at which Acts of Tynwald were and still are promulgated, from 24 June (the feast of St John the Baptist ) to 5 July. The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 applied to Britain's American colonies:

Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 - Misplaced Pages Continue

3990-670: The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750. For example, New South Wales passed the Imperial Acts Application Act 1969 , the First Schedule of which repeals various British statutes including the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750. At the same time Section 16 continues the operation of the British Calendar Act by restating key parts and by referring to that Act for the details. New Zealand also passed early legislation at various times applying British law. In 1988, New Zealand enacted

4085-572: The Calendar (New Style) Act contains the new Gregorian rule for determining leap years in the future and also makes it quite clear that leap years contain 366 days. In addition, the calendar at the end of this Act confirms that leap day falls on 29   February. Today, a major reform of this kind would be a government bill , but this was a Private Member's Bill , proposed in the House of Lords on 25 February 1750 [8 March 1751 Gregorian] by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield . The proposition

4180-567: The Carolingian king or (later) emperor based in Francia (Austrasia, Neustria). It included not only Aquitaine proper, but also Gothia , Vasconia (Gascony) and the Carolingian possessions in Spain as well. In 806, Charlemagne planned to divide his empire between his sons. Louis received Provence and Burgundy as additions to his kingdom. When Louis succeeded Charlemagne as emperor in 814, he granted Aquitaine to his son Pepin I , after whose death in 838

4275-411: The English crown. Having suppressed a revolt in his new possession, Henry gave it to his son Richard . When Richard died in 1199, it reverted to Eleanor, and on her death in 1204, it was inherited by her son John and absorbed into the English crown permanently. The duchy henceforward followed the fortunes of the other English possessions in France, such as Normandy and Anjou , ultimately leading to

4370-533: The Frankish Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel's authority. In 735 and 736 Martel attacked Hunald and his allies, the counts of key Aquitanian towns such as Bourges and Limoges . Eventually Hunald retired to a monastery, leaving both the kingdom and the continuing conflict to Waifer, or Guaifer. Following the full occupation of Septimania in 759, Pepin turned now his attention to Aquitaine, initiating

4465-594: The Franks, Aquitaine was fully absorbed into the Frankish crown. By a treaty made in 845 between Charles the Bald and Pepin II, the kingdom had been diminished by the loss of Poitou, Saintonge and Angoumois in the northwest of the region, which had been given to Rainulf I, count of Poitiers. The title of Duke of Aquitaine, already revived, was now borne by Rainulf, although it was also claimed by

4560-474: The French crown but remained sovereign lord of Aquitaine (rather than merely duke). However, when the treaty was broken in 1369, both these English claims and the war resumed. In 1362, Edward III, as Lord of Aquitaine, made his eldest son Edward the Black Prince , Prince of Aquitaine. In 1390, King Richard II , son of Edward the Black Prince, appointed his uncle John of Gaunt as Duke of Aquitaine. That title passed on to John's descendants although they belonged to

4655-420: The Great . The first duke is on record under the name of Felix, and as having ruled from about 660. As his successor, Lupus held loose ties with the Frankish kings, ruling autonomously ( princeps ). Odo succeeded Lupus in 700 and signed a peace treaty with Charles Martel . He inflicted on the Moors a crushing defeat at the Battle of Toulouse in 721. However, Charles Martel coveted the southern realm, crossed

4750-442: The Julian calendar, thus resetting 21 March to coincide with the equinox. The reform also provided a new method for calculating leap years so that the error would not recur. Under the Julian calendar a leap year fell every four years when the year was evenly divisible by four. The second part of Gregory's change declared that a centennial year would not be a leap year unless it was further evenly divisible by 400: Section II of

4845-442: The Loire in 731 and looted much of Aquitaine. Odo engaged the Franks in battle, but lost and came out weakened. Soon after this battle, in 732, the Moors raided Vasconia and Aquitaine as far north as Poitiers and defeated Odo twice near Bordeaux . Odo saw no option but to invoke the aid of Charles Martel and pledge allegiance to the Frankish prince. Odo was succeeded by his son Hunald, who reverted to former independence, so defying

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4940-411: The London Parliament included Wales. The 1746 Act provided that in all legislation, past and future, the word 'England' was deemed to include Wales and thus the Calendar Act (four years later) applied to Wales, despite it not being named explicitly. As part of the Kingdom of Great Britain since the Acts of Union 1707 , the Act applied equally to Scotland as to England. Scotland had already made part of

5035-416: The Parliament of Great Britain had the right to legislate for Ireland, which was one of His Majesty's Dominions. Nevertheless, in 1782, the Parliament of Ireland enacted a statute, the Calendar Act 1781 (21 & 22 Geo. 3. c. 48 (I)), to confirm the application of the 1750 act to Ireland. Whatever the de jure status of the British Act in Ireland, it was applied immediately de facto , as recorded in

5130-477: The Parliament of Great Britain were deemed to have come into effect on the first day of the session in which they were passed. Because of this, the years given in the list below may in fact be the year before a particular act was passed. The fourth session of the 10th Parliament of Great Britain , which met from 17 January 1751 until 25 June 1751. This session was also traditionally cited as 24 G. 2 . Duchy of Aquitaine The territory originated in 507 as

5225-433: The Quarter Day. How shall the Wretch, then glean his Harvest in, His Cash expended e're he does begin;... Or how the Miser cram his Bags with Pelf, If that he don't receive it first himself? True Briton , Bristol, 20 September 1752 There were, however, legitimate concerns lest tax and other payments arise any earlier under the new calendar than they would otherwise have done. Consequently, Provision 6 of

5320-516: The UK personal tax year ends on 5 April, being eleven days on from the original quarter-day of 25 March ( Lady Day ). In summary, the Act has three key elements: The Act also provides that fixed religious feast days continue to be observed on the same calendar date, whereas movable feasts (whose dates depend on the date of Easter) would follow from the new rules for its calculation. Religious feast days were to be held to their nominal dates (for example Michaelmas , on 29 September), but

5415-428: The United Kingdom, see the list of acts of the Scottish Parliament , the list of acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly , and the list of acts and measures of Senedd Cymru ; see also the list of acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland . The number shown after each act's title is its chapter number. Acts are cited using this number, preceded by the year(s) of the reign during which the relevant parliamentary session

5510-429: The authors of the Act were careful to minimise the impact on religious sensitivities by expressing the revision in terms consistent with the traditions of the established Church of England, given the experience of previous attempts. By the middle of the 18th Century, however, it seems that the climate had changed somewhat. The traditional saints' days like Lady Day , Michaelmas and Martinmas had come to mark events in

5605-464: The bull calls "their proper places" and would be prevented from being moved away again. The divergence had happened because the Julian calendar adds a leap year every four years, but this process adds about three more days every four hundred years than the Earth's orbit requires. By 1582, the error had accumulated to the extent that the calendar date of the spring equinox had moved from 21 March by about ten days. Gregory's reform removed ten days from

5700-424: The calendar in 1583/1584, but the Anglican hierarchy of the day rejected the proposal because of its Popish origins. Again, when Sir Isaac Newton renewed the campaign to correct the calendar in 1699, his proposal foundered on doctrinal objections. The Annex established a computation for the date of Easter that achieved the same result as Gregory's rules, without actually referring to him. The algorithm , set out in

5795-464: The calendar was corrected and the eleven days' difference deleted. The Gregorian calendar was a reform of the Julian calendar, instituted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 by the papal bull " Inter gravissimas " (" Among the most serious "). The intention expressed by the text of this bull was to reset the calendar so that celestial events critical for the calculation of Easter dates—the March equinox and its adjacent full moons—would be back in what

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5890-439: The change. The Act includes various measures to prevent injustice and other problems. For example, Section VI, echoing a rule in Gregory's reform, provides that the date on which rents and other debts are due must be deferred by 11 days. In addition, the same Section says a person does not reach a particular age, including especially the age of majority (21), until the complete number of years have passed. In addition,

5985-436: The change: its calendar year had begun on 1 January since 1600. The example of Continental countries prompted King James VI of Scotland and his council to make the change, as the Register of the Scottish Privy Council of 17 December 1599 records. At the time, the Kingdom of Ireland was a semi-autonomous kingdom in a personal union with the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Declaratory Act 1719 asserted that

6080-409: The civil calendar such as fair days, rent days and hiring days far more than they did days of special religious observance. Poole writes, "The religious calendar of the established church continued, but it encompassed a shrinking proportion of the population as Dissent expanded at the expense of Anglicanism, and as parish wakes, feasts and saints' days were themselves disowned by many parish clergy." So

6175-416: The counts of Toulouse. The new Duchy of Aquitaine, including the three districts already mentioned, remained in the hands of Ramulf's successors, despite disagreement with their Frankish overlords, until 893 when Count Rainulf II was poisoned by order of King Charles III, or Charles the Simple . Charles then bestowed the duchy upon William the Pious , count of Auvergne, the founder of the abbey of Cluny , who

6270-422: The crown because John of Gaunt's son, Henry IV , managed to successfully usurp the crown from Richard II, therefore 'inheriting' the title Lord of Aquitaine from his father, which was passed down to his descendants as they became Kings. His son, Henry V of England , ruled over Aquitaine as King of England and Lord of Aquitaine from 1413 to 1422. He invaded France and emerged victorious at the Siege of Harfleur and

6365-405: The crown of Great Britain. After the conquest of Wales by Edward I of England , English law was increasingly applied. Various Acts passed by the Parliament of England between 1535 and 1542 consolidated the combination of England and Wales as a single jurisdiction . Nevertheless, before the Wales and Berwick Act 1746 it was often uncertain whether a reference to 'England' in legislation of

6460-434: The dates of deeds and other writings. In The Twelve Caesars , Suetonius wrote that the Julian calendar , introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC as consul , continued the old Roman practice of beginning the year with 1 January. Later Christians, however, felt that 1 January had no religious significance and wanted to begin the year on a more appropriate date, resulting in a great variety of dates being used during

6555-409: The duchy ceased to exist as such, whose powers were taken over by the counts (dukes) of Toulouse, main seat of the Carolingian government in the Midi, represented by Chorso and, after being deposed, by Charlemagne's trustee William (of Gellone), a close relative of his. In 781, he made his third son Louis , then three years of age, king of Aquitaine. The Carolingian kingdom of Aquitaine subordinated to

6650-409: The eleven missing days were included in the official information about the changeover and widely published in the press, almanacs and pocket books ". The True Briton newspaper of 20 September 1752 reported that the reduction in servant's wages (according to the official guide) was 7 d for each pound but that another source had calculated the rate as 7 + 1 ⁄ 4 d. As already observed,

6745-405: The eleven-day accumulated difference was a religious one: calculation of the date of Easter. The introduction to the Act explains that, due to the inaccuracy in the Julian calendar, the date of the spring equinox (which determines the date of Easter) had drifted by about eleven days from its date at the time of the First Council of Nicaea , 21 March, and that this drift would continue unless

6840-571: The end of the Hundred Years' War, Aquitaine returned under direct rule of the king of France and remained in the possession of the king. Only occasionally was the title of "Duke of Aquitaine" granted to another member of the dynasty, and then as a purely nominal distinction. Over the course of its existence, the duchy incorporated the Duchy of Gascony and, until 1271, the County of Toulouse , which now falls in

6935-496: The fief of Aquitaine (essentially corresponding to Gascony) from Eleanor's descendant, Edward III of England . Edward in turn claimed the entire Kingdom of France as the only grandson of King Philip IV of France . This triggered the Hundred Years' War , in which both the Plantagenets and the House of Valois claimed supremacy over Aquitaine. In 1360, both sides signed the Treaty of Brétigny , in which Edward renounced his claim to

7030-489: The first session of the Parliament of the United Kingdom are both cited as "41 Geo. 3". Acts passed by the Parliament of Great Britain did not have a short title ; however, some of these acts have subsequently been given a short title by acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (such as the Short Titles Act 1896 ). Before the Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793 came into force on 8 April 1793, acts passed by

7125-534: The historical basis for the later duchy. Charibert campaigned successfully against the Basques , but after his death in 632, they revolted again, in 635 subdued by an army sent by Dagobert (who was at the same time forced to deal with a rebellion in Brittany). The duchy of Aquitaine established itself as a quasi-independent realm within the Frankish empire during the second half of the 7th century, certainly by 700 under Odo

7220-461: The idea was abandoned. Nevertheless, the Treasury realised that outside government a proportionate reduction of wages, rents etc. for the short quarter might be convenient in some cases. Robert Poole writes that the Treasury, "decided that a tidy move to new-style quarter day payments might gradually be achieved at the point where old leases expired and new ones began. Tables of abatements  ... for

7315-579: The laws of England as it was in 1607, predating the 1750 Act. There is no US federal calendar law. The Act remains directly in force in Canada as part of Canadian law . The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 applies directly or indirectly in other former British colonies. Early Australian colonial legislation applied British law. Subsequently, various reviews have considered the relevance of old British statutes. Australian States eventually repealed British statutes but re-enacted those which remained relevant, such as

7410-563: The limits of the old Roman Gallia Aquitania but did not stretch south of the Garonne, a district which was in the possession of the Gascons. William died in 1030. Odo or Eudes (d. 1039) joined Gascony to Aquitaine. The Ramnulfids had become the dominant power in southwestern France by the end of the 11th century. By marriage rather than conquest, their possessions passed into the " Angevin Empire " under

7505-487: The magnates and prelates of Aquitaine formally elected Charles as their king. Later, at Orléans , he was anointed and crowned by Wenilo, archbishop of Sens . In 852, Pepin II was imprisoned by Charles the Bald, who soon afterwards pronounced his own son Charles as the ruler of Aquitaine. On the death of the younger Charles in 866, his brother Louis the Stammerer succeeded to the kingdom, and when, in 877, Louis became king of

7600-457: The nobility of Aquitaine chose his son Pepin II of Aquitaine (d. 865) as their king. The emperor Louis I, however, opposed this arrangement and gave the kingdom to his youngest son Charles, afterwards the emperor Charles the Bald . Confusion and conflict resulted, eventually falling in favor of Charles; although from 845 to 852 Pepin II was in possession of the kingdom, at Eastertide 848 in Limoges ,

7695-437: The north-eastern states of the present day United States and part of Canada. Some British law, including the 1750 Act, is still applicable in some US states because when American independence was declared in 1776, it was not practical for these former colonies to create an entirely new body of American law to replace British law. The practical solution adopted was to continue to apply British law as it stood in 1776 but subject to

7790-492: The original payment dates but reducing the amounts due proportionately to reflect the omission of eleven days from the quarter ending on 29 September 1752 ( Michaelmas Day ). Macclesfield said this idea was abandoned because it would prove more complex than it first appeared. Despite this, the Treasury later considered legislating to override the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 provisions by applying proportionate reductions to government payments of interest, salaries and wages, but

7885-595: The promoters of the Bill downplayed the Roman Catholic connection. The Parliamentary drafters of the Act, and of the associated text to revise the Book of Common Prayer , were careful to minimise the impact on religious sensitivities by expressing the revision in terms consistent with the traditional method of the Church of England. They had reason to be cautious: the Government of Elizabeth I had first attempted to reform

7980-573: The proviso that it could be overridden by any subsequent provision of American law, and did not conflict with the Constitution and laws of the United States. James Bryan Whitfield , a former Florida Supreme Court judge, together with others, produced a comprehensive list of the relevant measures in 1941. This built on earlier work by Missouri. The list includes the key part of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750. Some states adopted as their common law

8075-473: The quick thinking of Louis's father, Louis VI of France , who did not want to leave a territory such as Aquitaine governed by a child of fifteen. When Louis VI died, and Eleanor's new husband became King Louis VII, the duchy of Aquitaine officially came under the rule of the French Crown, and for fifteen years, Louis VII had territory that rivaled that of the English crown and the counts of Toulouse. The marriage

8170-420: The realms of Childebert II and Guntram in the Treaty of Andelot of 587. Under Chlothar II , Aquitaine was again an integral part of Francia, but after Chlothar's death in 629, his heir Dagobert I granted a subkingdom in southern Aquitaine to his younger brother Charibert II . This subkingdom, consisting of Gascony and the southern fringe of Aquitaine proper, is conventionally known as "Aquitaine" and forms

8265-465: The rector did not use the service designated for Christmas Day but instead, like a crusading clergyman of the twentieth century, preached a sermon on the virtue of obeying the Calendar Act." The Calendar Act 1751 ( 25 Geo. 2 . c. 30) was needed to rectify some unforeseen consequences of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750. 24 Geo. 2 Interregnum (1642–1660) Rescinded (1639–1651) This

8360-522: The reign of Henry II , though its legal status was cemented by its use in official parliamentary records from the 16th century onwards. From the 13th century, there also arose the curious phenomenon of New Year's Day being almost universally celebrated on 1 January, despite the recorded year not incrementing until 25 March. However, it was the continuation of the Roman calendar layout beginning with January that eventually led European countries in

8455-404: The start of the year to 1 January for England and Wales and the colonies. The change applied "after the last day of December 1751". The legal year which began on 25 March 1751 became a short year of 282 days, running from 25 March 1751 to 31 December 1751. The following year began as 1 January 1752 ( New Style ). The reason given to discard both the traditional calendar and

8550-512: The way Easter was calculated, but that the annexed Tables correctly set out the dates for Easter as prescribed by Pope Gregory. Until the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer , England followed the practice of the early Julian calendar period of creating a leap day by having two successive days, both numbered 24 February. The Book of Common Prayer (1662) included a calendar which used entirely consecutive day counting and showed leap day as falling on 29 February. Section II of

8645-464: Was Gibraltar . However, each session of Parliament began with a recital that the King was also the rightful King of France . Some history books report rioting in reaction to the calendar change, with people demanding that their 'eleven days' be returned. However, this is very likely a myth, based on just two primary sources— The World , a satirical journal of Lord Chesterfield, and An Election Entertainment,

8740-475: Was held; thus the Union with Ireland Act 1800 is cited as "39 & 40 Geo. 3. c. 67", meaning the 67th act passed during the session that started in the 39th year of the reign of George III and which finished in the 40th year of that reign. Note that the modern convention is to use Arabic numerals in citations (thus "41 Geo. 3" rather than "41 Geo. III"). Acts of the last session of the Parliament of Great Britain and

8835-436: Was later annulled on the grounds of consanguinity by a bishop on 21 March 1152, and she kept her lands and title as Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right. On 18 May 1152, she married Henry, Duke of Normandy , the son of Empress Matilda , daughter of Henry I of England , and a claimant to the English throne. When he defeated his mother's cousin, King Stephen , in 1153 and became King of England as Henry II, Aquitaine merged with

8930-462: Was seconded in detail by George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield , whom Chesterfield described as one of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers in Europe. Macclesfield had contributed the technical knowledge underlying the reform with support from Martin Folkes (then president of the Royal Society ) and James Bradley (the astronomer royal ). Bradley devised the revised Easter tables. Peter Davall,

9025-457: Was succeeded in 918 by his nephew, Count William II , who died in 926. A succession of dukes followed, one of whom, William IV, fought against Hugh Capet , king of France, and another of whom, William V , called the Great, was able to strengthen and extend his authority considerably, although he yielded the proffered Lombard crown rather than fight Conrad II for it. William's duchy almost reached

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