A league is a unit of length. It was common in Europe and Latin America, but due to its highly inconsistent definition, it is no longer an official unit in any nation. Derived from an ancient Celtic unit and adopted by the Romans as the leuga, the league became a common unit of measurement throughout western Europe. Since the Middle Ages, many values have been specified in several countries, ranging from 2.2 km (1.4 mi) to 7.9 km (4.9 mi).
It may have originally represented, roughly, the distance a person could walk in an hour.
Definitions
Ancient Rome
The league was used in
Ancient Rome, defined as 1½ Roman miles (7,500 Roman feet, modern 2.2 km or 1.4 miles). The origin is the leuga Gallica
(also: leu
ca Callica
), the league of
Gaul.
[ The Oxford English Dictionary]
Argentina
The Argentine league (legua) is or 6,666 varas: 1 vara is .
[ Espasa-Calpe Dictionary, Argentina and Mexico Edition 1945: headword Legua]
England
On land, the league is most commonly defined as three
(4.83 km), although the length of a mile could vary from place to place as well as depending on the era. At sea, a league is . English usage also included many of the other leagues mentioned below (for example, in discussing the Treaty of Tordesillas).
The Battle Abbey Chronicles define a leuga (league) as the English leuga. This contains 12 roods, and 40 perches make a rood. The perch is 16 feet in length, so by this definition a league is 7,680 feet.
France
The French lieue—at different times—existed in several variants, namely 10,000, 12,000, 13,200 and 14,400 French feet, about . It was used along with the
mesures usuelles for a while, but is long discontinued.
A metric lieue was used in France from 1812 to 1840, with 1 metric lieue being exactly 4,000 m, or 4 km (about 2.5 mi).[François Cardarelli: Scientific Unit Conversion (Springer-Verlag London, 1999)] It is this unit that is referenced in both the title and the body text of Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870).[Jules Verne: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (1871), Part 2, Chapter VII]
"Aussi, notre vitesse fut-elle de vingt-cinq milles à l’heure, soit douze lieues de quatre kilomètres. Il va sans dire que Ned Land, à son grand ennui, dut renoncer à ses projets de fuite. Il ne pouvait se servir du canot entraîné à raison de douze à treize mètres par seconde. Quitter le Nautilus dans ces conditions, c’eût été sauter d’un train marchant avec cette rapidité, manœuvre imprudente s’il en fut."
"Accordingly, our speed was twenty–five miles (that is, twelve four–kilometre leagues) per hour. Needless to say, Ned Land had to give up his escape plans, much to his distress. Swept along at the rate of twelve to thirteen metres per second, he could hardly make use of the skiff. Leaving the Nautilus under these conditions would have been like jumping off a train racing at this speed, a rash move if there ever was one." Translated by F. P. Walter
Mexico
In some rural parts of Mexico, the league (Spanish
legua) is still used in the original sense of the distance that can be covered on foot in an hour, so that a league along a good road on level ground is a greater distance than a league on a difficult path over rough terrain.
Portugal
In
Portugal,
Brazil and other parts of the former Portuguese Empire, there were several units called league (Portuguese:
légua):
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Légua of 18 to a degree = 6,172.84
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Légua of 20 to a degree (Maritime légua) = 5,555.56 metres
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Légua of 25 to a degree = 4,444.44 metres
The names of the several léguas referred to the number of units that made the length corresponding to an angle degree of a meridian arc.
For compatibility after Portugal adopted the metric system, the metric légua of 5.0 km was used.
In Brazil, the léguas is still used occasionally, where it has been described as about 6.6 km.
Spain
The
legua or Spanish league was originally understood as equivalent to (Spanish
).
[Spence, Spence's Guide to Shipwreck Research, Narwhal Press (Charleston), 1997.] This varied depending on local standards for the
pie (Spanish foot) and on the precision of measurement, but was officially equivalent to (2.6
) before the
legua was abolished by Philip II in 1568. It remains in use in parts of
Latin America, where its exact meaning varies.
-
Legua nautica (nautical league): Between 1400 and 1600 the Spanish nautical league was equal to four Roman miles of 4,842 feet, making it 19,368 feet (5,903 metres or 3.1876 modern nautical miles). However, the accepted number of Spanish nautical leagues to a degree varied between 14 1/6 to 16 2/3, so in actual practice the length of a Spanish nautical league was 25,733 feet (4.235 modern nautical miles) to 21,874 feet (3.600 modern nautical miles) respectively.
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Legua de por grado (league of the degree): From the 15th century through the early 17th century, the Spanish league of the degree was based on four Arabic miles. Although most contemporary accounts used an Arabic mile of 6 444 feet (1,964 metres), which gave a Spanish league of the degree of 25,776 feet (7,857 metres or 4.242 modern nautical miles) others defined an Arabic mile as just 6,000 feet making a Spanish league of the degree 24,000 feet (or 7,315 metres, almost exactly 3.95 modern nautical miles).
[S pence's Guide to Shipwreck Research, by Dr. E. Lee Spence, Narwhal Press, Charleston/Miami, © by Edward L. Spence, 1997, p. 32]
-
Legua geographica or geográfica (geographical league): Starting around 1630 the Spanish geographical league was used as the official nautical measurement and continued so through the 1840s. Its use on Spanish charts did not become mandatory until 1718. It was four millias (miles) in length. From 1630 to 1718 a millia was 5,564 feet (1,696 metres), making a geographical league of four millias equal 22,256 feet (6,784 m or 3.663 modern nautical miles). But from 1718 through the 1830s the millia was defined as the equivalent of just over 5,210 feet, giving a shorter geographical league of just over 20,842 feet (6,353 m or 3.430 modern nautical miles).
-
Legua marítima (maritime league): From around 1840 through the early 20th century, a Spanish marine league equaled 18,263.52 feet (5,566.72 metres or 3.00579 modern nautical miles).
In the early New Spain settlements of New Mexico, Texas, California, and Colorado, a league was also a unit of area, defined as 25 million square varas or about 4,428.4 .
Comparison table
A comparison of the different lengths for a "league", in different countries and at different times in history, is given in the table below.
are also included in this list because of the linkage between the two units.
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| Myanmar units of measurement |
| Ancient Roman units of measurement |
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| Over the course of time, the length of a yard changed several times and consequently so did the English (and, from 1824, Imperial) mile. The statute mile was introduced in 1592 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I |
| On 1 July 1959, the imperial mile was standardized to an exact length in metres |
| From 1959; also called the U.S. Survey Mile. From then its only utility has been land survey, before it was the standard mile. From 1893 its exact length in metres was: × 1760 |
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| Symbol: nmi; Abbreviation: NM |
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| Though the NM was defined on the basis of the minute, it varies from the equatorial minute, because at that time people could only estimate the circumference of the equator to be 40,000 km. |
| Ottoman units of measurement |
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Under the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, this replaced the Roman mile as the official unit of distance in the Gauls and Germanic peoples , although there were regional and temporal variations.[ Pre-metric units of length] |
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This unit is referenced by Jules Verne's 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. |
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| Units of measurement in France before the French Revolution |
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| introduced on occasion of a countrywide road survey |
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| Myanmar units of measurement |
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| Spanish customary units |
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| Derived from Persian Parasang. |
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| 6,197 | légua antiga | |
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| Obsolete Russian units of measurement |
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| German Empire, North German Confederation, Grand Duchy of Hesse, Russia |
| primarily for Denmark defined by Ole Rømer |
| Austrian units of measurement |
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| still commonly used today, e.g. for road distances.; equates to the myriametre |
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| was equivalent to 3,000 Rhenish rods. |
Similar units:
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1,066.8 metres – verst, see also Obsolete Russian units of measurement
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3,200 metres – kosh, used in North Bihar, India.
See also
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Medieval weights and measures for various definitions of the league.
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List of obsolete units of measurement
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Portuguese customary units
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Spanish customary units
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Seven-league boots
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Walking
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Parasang
