Treaty of Paris (1783)
George III proclaims a cessation of arms
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The ceasefire ran on four different clocks: 12 days near Britain, but as long as five months in distant seas — because the agreement allowed months for news to reach distant waters.
February 1783: a proclamation at St James's
At St James's in 1783, George III issued a royal proclamation announcing the agreed cessation of arms between Britain and France, Spain, the United Provinces and the United States. It commanded every British officer and subject to refrain from hostile acts by land or sea.
The date needs care. Many modern chronologies list 4 February, but the authoritative documentary record dates the surviving royal proclamation to 14 February 1783 — which is why this entry is marked disputed.
Four clocks, one armistice
The proclamation's deadlines were staggered by geography and calculated from 3 February 1783: 12 days for the English Channel and the North Seas, then one month, two months or five months depending on location.
The practical consequence was that a ship taken far from Europe could remain a lawful prize well after peace instructions had issued in Europe, because the agreement allowed for the time news needed to travel.
An armistice, not the peace
The proclamation followed the exchange of British-French ratifications on 3 February, which made the Anglo-American preliminary articles of 30 November 1782 operative. It was not itself the definitive Anglo-American peace treaty.
Nor was Britain the only party issuing instructions: the American commissioners made their own declaration on 20 February, and Congress proclaimed the cessation in April.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources 3 audit passes Date disputed
How this was checked
Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →
Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at 1783-02-14.
What the sources leave uncertain
- The listed February 4 date appears in numerous modern chronologies, but the authoritative documentary record identifies George III's surviving proclamation as dated February 14, 1783.
- A separate British declaration had been exchanged with the American commissioners on January 20. The February 3 exchange of British-French ratifications started the armistice's geographic clocks. These distinct steps may explain the inconsistent dates.
- Because the February 4 entry cannot be matched securely to the extant royal proclamation, this sheet uses the best-supported date and marks the event disputed.