Canynge traded to Iceland, Finland, and the
Mediterranean. He is said to have possessed ships as large as 900 tons,
and it is recorded on his monument, in the church of St. Mary Redcliffe,
in Bristol, that he at one time lent ships, to the extent of 2,670 tons,
to Edward IV. It is also related of him that he owned ten ships and
employed 800 sailors and 100 artisans.

It was not till the year 1475, upon the conclusion of peace between
Edward and the French king, Louis, that affairs quieted down in England,
and then trade and commerce made most marvellous progress. The king
himself was one of the leading merchants of the country, and concluded
treaties of commerce with Denmark, Brittany, Castile, Burgundy, France,
Zealand, and the Hanseatic League. In the reign of Edward's successor,
Richard III., English seaborne trade obtained a firm footing in Italy
and other Mediterranean countries.

We, fortunately, possess drawings which show that an enormous advance
was made in shipbuilding during the period under discussion, or that, at
any rate, the advance had by that time reached England. Fig. 37
illustrates a large ship of the latter half of the fifteenth century. It
is taken from a manuscript in the Cottonian Library, by John Rous, the
celebrated Warwickshire antiquary and historian. This manuscript records
the life and history of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who was born
in 1381, and died in 1439. The author of the manuscript, however, lived
till 1491, in the early part of the reign of Henry VII., and we may
therefore conclude that the illustrations represent ships of the latter
half of the fifteenth century. The vessel shown in Fig. 37 was used for
war purposes, as four guns were mounted on the broadside. There were
also four masts and a bowsprit, and a strongly developed forecastle,
which formed part of the structure of the ship. There was apparently
very luxurious accommodation provided for passengers and officers in a
large deck-house at the poop. The mainsail was of very large dimensions,
and was emblazoned with the arms of the Earl of Warwick. In this
illustration we see an early approach to the modern type of
sailing-ship. There are several other drawings of ships in the same
manuscripts, and most of them have the same general characteristics as
Fig. 37.

[Illustration: FIG. 37.--English ship. Latter half of fifteenth
century.]

The reign of Henry VII. (1485 to 1509) was a memorable one in the annals
of n