In The Twelve Caesars, Suetonius wrote that the Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC as consul, continued the old Roman practice of beginning the year with 1 January. Later Christians, however, felt that 1 January had no religious significance and wanted to begin the year on a more appropriate date, resulting in a great variety of dates being used during the medieval period. No civil legislation or religious canon law ordered this change, but Christmas Day on 25 December gradually became a popular date for New Year in England from the 6th century, though this custom fell almost entirely out of use by the beginning of the 14th century. It is not wholly clear why 25 March came to be settled on as the beginning of the legal year instead, though it saw use in Aquitaine during the 10th century and Normandy by the 11th (shortly before the Norman Conquest). The 11th century also saw dedications to the Virgin Mary go from being rare in England to the most frequent, signifying the increasing importance of Lady Day in the liturgical year. Despite being commonplace by the middle of the 12th century, however, it then gave way to the invariable use of the regnal year for legal records from the reign of Henry II, though its legal status was cemented by its use in official Parliamentary records from the 16th century onwards. From the 13th century, there also arose the curious phenomenon of New Year's Day being almost universally celebrated on 1 January, despite the recorded year not incrementing until 25 March.
