Born 1410.—Died 1491.—Henry IV.—Henry V.—Henry VI.—Edward IV.—Edward V.—Richard III.—Henry VII.

William Caxton was born in Kent. He seems to have begun authorship long before printing. He went to Bruges in 1468 with the English bride of Duke Charles of Burgundy, and translated for her the Recueil des Histoires de Troye, by the duke’s chaplain. Having learnt in Germany (Cologne) to print, he brought out this translation in 1471. He removed in 1474 to Westminster, where he lived in the Reed Pale, near the Almonry, and set up his printing-press there. The first book printed there was The Game and Playe of the Chesse, translated out of the French. When he died in 1491, Wynkyn de Worde and Richard Pynson worked the press.