The transition occurred in 1776, when the need arose to express a change in their legal status consistent with the Revolutionary War. Kentucky was a county of Virginia at this time, but chose to retain the Commonwealth descriptor when it became a separate state. While the term "commonwealth" has the same legal and economic meaning as "state", the four regions that chose to designate themselves commonwealths probably did so as a reference to the earlier Commonwealth period in England which ended in 1660, when that nation was not ruled by a king.