70 Eliz. 2 Yesterday was the start of 70 Eliz. 2 - the start of the 70th Regnal year of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning British monarch after Queen Victoria, (and fourth in the world of verifiable reigns, after Louis XIV of France, Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) of Thailand and Johann II of Liechtenstein). Regnal years are an interesting legal marker of time, as demonstrated by the prominent position of this table at the front of: “A Law Dictionary: containing definitions of the terms and phrases of American and English jurisprudence” a 1910 book by Henry Campbell Black - available scanned on here: http://bit.ly/39VbbFh. They were used as a dating system for all UK parliamentary documents until 1963, when an Act of Parliament switched this to the Gregorian year. The only system that still officially counts using regnal years is Japan (more on that in May - stay posted!) Regnal years start on the very first day of a monarch’s reign - and when that succession is due to death, that’s the day of the previous monarch’s death. In the case of Queen Elizabeth, the death was of her father. All these many years later, I imagine it might still being an emotionally conflicting day for her. Because of the way they are counted, the last year of any reign is often not a full calendar year, as you can see in Henry Black’s table. My favourite fact about Regnal years is that they start from day one as Year 1, because, as wikipedia explains, you can have a first or second year of rule “but not a zeroth year.” Quite. That’s why although the new year that is called 70 Eliz. 2, yesterday was 69 years since her ascension. Presuming she lives that long and doesn’t abdicate, she will have reigned for 70 years next February 6th and there are, apparently, plans in the making for a Platinum Jubilee, something no other British monarch has had. Looking back, in 2017 I was busy ignoring the equally unique Sapphire Jubilee to mark her 65 year reign, though I did note the start of 66 Eliz. 2. The zeroth year thing can’t have quite clicked or I would have been way more excited back then… Happy New Year #RegnalYear #70Eliz2 #LongestReigningMonarch #TheYearOfYears #Zeroth (at United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLAVYgdFtTZ/?igshid=mde2eqon8kj4