pire. These
attempts failed, but he was again employed, with two other members of
the Mercers' Company, in a similar but successful mission in October
1468 to the new duke, Charles the Bold, who earlier in the year had
married Princess Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV. The last mention
of Caxton in the capacity of governor of the "English Nation" is on the
13th of August 1469, and it was probably about that time that he entered
the household of the duchess Margaret, possibly in the position of
commercial adviser. In his diplomatic mission in 1468 he had been
associated with Lord Scales, afterwards Earl Rivers and one of his chief
patrons, and at the Burgundian court he must have come in touch with
Edward IV. during his brief exile in 1470.

He had begun his translation of the popular medieval romance of Troy,
_The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye_, from the French of Raoul le
Fevre, early in 1469; and, after laying it aside for some time, he
resumed it at the wish of the duchess Margaret, to whom the MS. was
presented in September 1471. During his thirty-three years' residence in
Bruges Caxton would have access to the rich libraries of the duke of
Burgundy and other nobles, and about this time he learned the art of
printing. His disciple, Wynkyn de Worde, says that he was taught at
Cologne, probably during a visit there in 1471, recorded in the preface
to the _Recuyell_; Blades suggests that he learnt from Colard Mansion,
but there is no evidence that Mansion set up his press at Bruges before
1474. He ceased to be a member of the gild of St John (a gild of
illuminators) in 1473, and the first dated book he is known to have
printed is dated 1476. Mansion and Caxton were partners or associates at
Bruges, where Caxton printed his _Recuyell_ in 1474 or 1475. His second
book, _The Game and Playe of Chesse_, from the _Liber de ludo
scacchorum_ of Jacobus de Cessolis through the French of Jehan de
Vignay, was finished in 1474, and printed soon after; the last book
printed by Mansion and Caxton at Bruges was the _Quatre derrenieres
choses_, an anonymous treatise usually known as _De quattuor
novissimis_. Other books in the same type were printed by Mansion at
Bruges after Caxton's departure.

By September 1476 Caxton had established himself in the almonry at
Westminster at the sign of the Red Pale. Robert Copland the printer, who
was afterwards one of Caxton's assistants, states that Caxton began by
printing small pamp