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Caxton had been engaged in organising the Burgundian
contribution to a joint Anglo-Burgundian war against France. When Edward
IV concluded
a peace treaty with France in August 1475, Caxton’s diplomatic
career apparently came to an end. Edward’s change of allies may
have made Caxton’s position untenable in the lands controlled by
the Duke of Burgundy, and Caxton may have returned
to England soon after. The first documentation which we have of his presence
back in England
is a record of his paying an annual rent for a shop
in Westminster on 30 September 1476, although we cannot assume that this
is when he first
settled in Westminster.
Caxton retained his base in Westminster for the
rest of his life. He had been successful as a mercer in the Low Countries
and he was also successful as a printer/publisher. He stayed in business
until the end of his life and his business was so viable that it was continued
after his death by Wynkyn de Worde, one of his employees. This is in contrast
to many early printers who survived in business only for short periods.
To understand his work as a printer/publisher
we should see it as a continuation of his activity as a merchant,
not as a completely separate and new phase of his life; for Caxton,
producing books was a way of making money. While based at Westminster
he may well have gone to the Low Countries from time to time, and
he may also have continued trading in other goods apart from books.
During his Westminster years Caxton also
imported books printed abroad. In 1487 and 1488 he commissioned
two liturgical books to be printed for him in Paris, and in all
probability he also imported other
books produced with or without his own involvement. On one occasion,
in 1487, we even know that he exported a number of books in French,
perhaps the remainder of one of the editions which he had produced
in Bruges, or perhaps an edition of his French-English
vocabulary.
Caxton was apparently married, but we do
not know the name of his wife – she may have been called Maude.
There is a record of a Maude Caxton being buried in St Margaret’s
Church in Westminster, the church where William Caxton himself was
also buried. We do know that he had a daughter, Elizabeth, for there
is a documented legal dispute between her and her husband in part
relating to the inheritance from Caxton. Judging from the accounts
of Westminster’s rental income from its property and from
the accounts of the Churchwardens of St Margaret’s it seems
likely that he died in late 1491 or early 1492.

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