- Edict of Roussillon
The Edict of Roussillon ( _fr. Édit de Roussillon) was a
1564 edict decreeing that the year would begin onJanuary 1 inFrance .During a trip to various parts of his kingdom, the King of France, Charles IX, found that depending on the
diocese , the year began either atChristmas (atLyon , for instance) or on25 March (as at Vienne), on1 March , or atEaster .In order to standardise the date for the new year in the entire kingdom, he added an article to an edict given at
Paris in January1563 which he promulgated at Roussillon on9 August 1564 .The 42 articles that comprised this edict concerned justice, except the last four, added during the king's stay at Roussillon.
It was article 39 that announced a January 1 start date for every year henceforth.
ources
*"Dictionnaire Historique de la France", by Ludovic Lalanne, p. 84, vol. 1, 1877, Reprinted by Burt Franklin, New York, 1968.
*"The New American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge", p. 493, ed. George Ripley, Charles A. Dana. D. Appleton and Company, 1858.
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