Ladies

Search hotels

Check-in date

Check-out date

Ladies' Privilege Enshrined in Law

The 29th of February 1288 AD

Information Britain is proud of its history pages, which we like to think inform and occasionally amuse, and are pretty much solid fact. But though it’s very far from factual, there’s a date that we would be remiss to miss as it were.
February 29 is the day, in Irish, British and some Scandinavian cultures, when women can propose to men. Ladies’ Privilege some call it. Some cite a legal backing for this in the form of a law passed in 1288 by Queen Margaret of Scotland, the Maid of Norway. Unfortunately Margaret was not in Scotland in 1288 – she died in the Orkney Isles (not a Scottish possession until the 15th century) on her way to the country in the autumn of 1290. And as she was (probably) born in 1283 Margaret would have been a very forward little miss to insist on such a statute when she was just four or five.
Margaret’s non-existent law, by the way, is supposed to exact a penalty from any man refusing a woman’s proposal on February 29. Fines of £1, £100, a kiss, or a new dress are all cited as the penalty for in modern terms non-compliance. Depending on your viewpoint and the lady in question they don’t look too stringent, though in the 13th century £100 would have been a fortune.

More famous dates here

8207 views since 24th February 2012

Brit Quote:
I love not man the less, but Nature more. - Lord Byron
More Quotes

On this day:
Battle of Berwick - 1296, Fire Claims 19 Glasgow Firefighters - 1960
More dates from British history

click here to view all the British counties

County Pages