"The Handbook of Dates for Students of English History (Royal Historical Soc. Guides & Handbooks #4)says that Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings of England followed the proposal of the Venerable Bede and dated the new year from Christmas day, Dec. 25th.  ""Benedictine writers, with characteristic conservatism, still employed it after it had been abandoned in most quarters of Plantagenet England."" (p. 4)  March 25, Lady Day (feast of the Annunciation) was not considered the beginning of the new year in England or, apparently, northern French regions. (p.5) 

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