Stevenson, W.-"Life of William Caxton.” Tanner, L. E.-" Westminster Abbey." "Testamenta Cantiana." Unger, W. S.- "R. G. P. Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis var Middelburg." I and II. Unwin, G.-"Gilds and Companies of London." Varenbergh, E. -" Histoire des relations diplomatiques entre la Flandre et l'Angleterre." Verachter, F.-"Documens pour servir à l'histoire des Pays Bas." Walford, C.-" Gilds." Watney, Sir J.- "History of the Hospital of St. Thomas of Acon." Westlake, Canon H. F.-"The Story of Westminster Abbey." "Westminster Abbey." "Westminster Abbey: a study." Wheeler, J.-" A Treatise of Commerce." Winship, G. P. - " William Caxton." Wood, M. A. E. -" Lives of the Princesses of England." "Year Books: 21 Henry VI to 7 Henry VII." York." Chronicles of the White Rose of York." "GUILHELMUS CAXTON UIR NON OMNINO STUPIDUS AUT IGNAVIA TORPENS SED PROPAGANDAE SUAE GENTIS MEMORIAE STUDIOSUS ADMODUM, MULTA ALIARUM GENTIUM MONUMENTA AD ID PERAGENDUM NON PARUO QUAESIVIT LABORE. HABITAVIT INTERIM IN FLANDRIA 30 ANNOS CUM DOMINA MARGARETA BURGUNDIAE DUCISSA, REGIS ED WARDI SORORE. .." JOHN BALE, BISHOP OF OSSORY. xxvi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION I IN 1422, the year (as he tells us) in which the "whether cock" was set upon the steeple of old St. Paul's,1 William Caxton appears to have been born. Early scholars were wont to put back the date of his birth as much as a decade, on the ground that in 1471 Caxton tells us in the Epilogue to Book II of "The Recuyell" that he feels "age crepeth on me dayly and febleth all the body": but subsequent evidence has disposed of the year 1412. There is written an entry in the Archives of the Mercers' Company for "lan xvj du Roy Henr. sisme" (1438) which records the apprenticing of John Large and William Caxton to Robert Large, one of the most influential mercers in London, an alderman of long standing and, in 1439, Mayor. The customary age at which a youth was apprenticed in the Fifteenth Century can be ascertained with some accuracy from other records not in themselves bearing upon the life of Caxton himself and particularly from similar entries in the books of the Company embracing this period: from a study of which it is found that the period of apprenticeship most usual was a term of ten years; in no case was the term less than seven years. Right to the end of the seventeenth century there had always been a distinction made between a man's legal majority and what William Blades termed his "civic" majority. No one could be admitted to the Freedom of City or Company until he had arrived at "the full age of twenty-four." Since therefore we are able to associate the end of a man's apprenticeship with the attainment of an age of twenty-four years, it is evident 1 Polycronicon, Liber Ult. cap. xv. J : that in 1438 William Caxton, at the beginning of such a apprenticeship, was almost certainly between fourteen an seventeen years of age. The date of his birth must then li between 1421 and 1424, and the close of 1422 is perhaps th least unlikely guess. In themselves these years were full of import both to th history of England and to the new-born child who was to serve his country in so many different ways during his lifetime Born himself in 1421, Henry VI succeeded to the throne of England on the death of his father in the following year and John, Duke of Bedford, his uncle, was appointed to be his Protector during his minority: but it was Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, another uncle, who actually held that office, while Bedford, as Regent of France, carried on the third and disastrous stage of the Hundred Years War. As early as 1423, however, fortune still favoured England and the battle of Crevant secured communication between Burgundy and the English at a time when the alliance of the two countries had been strengthened by the marriage of the Protector-Regent with Anne, sister of Philippe le Bon, the Duke of Burgundy. This alliance was destined to be kept through many fluctuations of policy and amity during almost the whole of Caxton's lifetime, and thus it came about that he "contynued by the space of xxx yere for the most parte in the contres of Braband, Flaundres, Holand and Zeland"-the domains of Philippe. In the same year the successful battle of Verneuil established safe communication with Brittany also. Where William Caxton was born and of what parents is almost impossible to establish. In the Prologue to the "Recuyell of the Histories of Troye " he tells us that he "was born in Kente in the Weeld," and in the Prologue to "Charles the Great" that his parents were able to send him to school: that is almost the whole extent of his autobiography. Almost a century before Caxton's birth Kent had begun to change: until that time the large forest areas which constituted the Weald had been of little use as land and had offered no inconsiderable hindrance to internal communication and corporate life in general. But England had long been famous for the wool which it exported to Flanders and this wool, made into cloth by |