A medieval English calendar

N.B. For some information on dating medieval documents in general, see the section on chronology and dating.

This is a version of the Julian calendar, as used in England, covering the 11th to 16th centuries. For each month, the calendar gives the days of the week and also the Roman-style dates in terms of Kalends, Nones and Ides. The calendar is organised either by historical year (click on the century in the list below) or, from the Norman conquest, by regnal year (click on the monarch in the list below). For each year of either type the date of Easter Sunday is also given, to allow moveable church feasts to be dated. (The Easter dates were calculated using the algorithm given by Ronald W. Mallen in his article Calculate the Date of Easter Sunday.)

1. This calendar is based on the modern (historical) year, which begins on 1 January. It should be remembered that in medieval times the year was more commonly reckoned from 25 March (or sometimes from 25 December).
2. The regnal dates used are those given in the Guide to the Contents of the Public Record Office, vol.1 (1963). Various anomalies concerning regnal years are noted on the tables themselves. In particular alternative versions for William I, based on the dates of accession and coronation, are provided, as the scarcity of early Norman documents dated by regnal year makes it uncertain which convention was used. King John's regnal years were reckoned from his coronation, which took place on Ascension Day, a moveable feast, so that the dates varied from year to year.
3. The moveable feast of Easter can, in principle, fall twice in the same regnal year. In practice, this seems to have happened only in 11 Henry VIII during the period covered.

I have tried to check the accuracy of the calendar fairly thoroughly; please let me know if any errors or anomalies come to light.

NB Unfortunately, I have discovered an error in the program used to generate this calendar, which has resulted in the weekdays in some of the monthly calendars in the regnal years section being displaced forward or backward by a day. The affected regnal years were those beginning in March or later, and either starting or ending in a leap year, and the affected calendars those centred on March until the end of the regnal year. This error has been corrected, 21 September 2002.

Historical years:

11th century
12th century
13th century
14th century
15th century
16th century

Regnal years:

William I (based on accession) (1066-1087)
(alternative based on coronation)
William II (1087-1100)
Henry I (1100-1135)
Stephen (1135-1154)
Henry II (1154-1189)
Richard I (1189-1199)
John (1199-1216)
Henry III (1216-1272)
Edward I (1272-1307)
Edward II (1307-1327)
Edward III (1327-1377)
Richard II (1377-1399)
Henry IV (1399-1413)
Henry V (1413-1422)
Henry VI (1422-1461; 1470-1471)
Edward IV (1461-1483)
Edward V (1483)
Richard III (1483-1485)
Henry VII (1485-1509)
Henry VIII (1509-1547)
Edward VI (1547-1553)
Mary I (1553-1558)
Elizabeth I (1558-1603)