Excerpt from A Short History of the English People, Vol. 2 A lord's caprice into rights that could be pleaded at law. The number of teams, the fines, the reliefs, the services that a lord could claim, at first mere matter of oral tradition, came to be entered on the court-roll of the manor, a copy of which became the title-deed of the villein. It was to this that he owed the name of copy holder which at a later time superseded his older title. Disputes were settled by a reference to this roll or on oral evidence of the custom at issue, but a social arrangement which was eminently. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A BRIEF HISTORY of PRINTING IN ENGLAND England was slow to take up printing and slow and backward in the development of it. It was 25 years after the invention of printing before any printing was done in England. It was many years after that before the work of the English printers could compare with that done on the continent. The reason for this is to be found in the conditions of the country itself. Although the two great universities had long been in existence, Oxford dating back to 1167 and Cambridge to 1209, England as a whole was a backward country. In culture and the refinements of civilization, as well as in many more practical things, England was not so far advanced as the rest of Europe nor was it to be so for many years to come. England at this time was an agricultural and grazing country. A colony of Flemings had been brought over to start the cloth industry. There was still, nevertheless, a large export of wool to Flanders, which was there woven and sent back as cloth. The English nobles lived largely on their estates, looking after their tenants, hunting for diversion, and doing a little fighting occasionally when life became otherwise unbearably uninteresting. They were not an educated class and the peasantry were profoundly ignorant. The cities which, as always, depended upon manufacture and commerce were just beginning to grow, with the exception of some of the seaport towns which were already prosperous and wealthy. Not only was this general condition true, but there were special conditions which rendered the middle of the fifteenth century unfavorable to culture and to the introduction of a new invention auxiliary to culture. In 1450 England was shaken and horrified by the bloody insurrection of peasants, with its attendant outrages, known as Jack Cade’s Revolt. Scarcely had order been restored when a disputed succession to the crown plunged the country into the bloody civil war between the adherents of the Houses of York and Lancaster, known as the Wars of the Roses. This period of civil strife lasted for thirty years and affected the general welfare of England very seriously. It was especially marked by mortality among the noblest families in the realm, many of which were actually exterminated. Some time within this bloody half-century the art of printing was introduced into England. There is in existence a book printed in Oxford and dated on the title page 1468. Upon the existence of this book, and upon a somewhat doubtful legend, has been built a claim that English printing originated in Oxford. This claim, however, has practically ceased to be maintained. The legend appears to be baseless, and it has been generally concluded that the date is a misprint and that it should be 1478, an X having been dropped in writing the Roman date, a not uncommon error in publications of this period. Historians have now generally agreed that the introduction of printing in England is due to William Caxton, one of the most interesting figures in the whole annals of printing. A BRIEF HISTORY of PRINTING IN ENGLAND

"Compelling...A masterly feat...A magnificent, sweeping, authoritative, warm yet wry history."--The Wall Street Journal In this fascinating and intimate portrait of the Stuarts, author Allan Massie takes us deep into one of history's bloodiest and most tumultuous reigns. Exploring the family's lineage from the first Stuart king to the last, The Royal Stuarts is a panoramic history of the family that acted as a major player in the Scottish Wars of Independence, the Union of the Crowns, the English Civil War, the Restoration, and more. Drawing on the accounts of historians past and present, novels, and plays, this is the complete story of the Stuart family, documenting their path from the salt marshes of Brittany to the thrones of Scotland and England and eventually to exile. The Royal Stuarts brings to life figures like Mary, Queens of Scots, Charles I, and Bonnie Prince Charlie, uncovering a family of strong affections and fierce rivalries. Told with panache, this is the gripping true story of backstabbing, betrayal, and ambition gone awry.