HENRY VYIL 
5, The industrial arts made great progress during this period 
wearing of linen dates from the reign of Henry IIL; 
that of woollens from the reign of Edward TIL, Towards 
the end of the Plantagenet epoch, coal-mining became an 
inportant branch of industry. Banking institutions 
were established, and gradually the basis of Kngland’s commercial 
supremacy was firmly laid. . 
6. During this period, Gothic architecture filled England with its 
glorious creations— York Minster, the Cathedrals of 
Salisbury and Ely, Westminster Abbey, and St. George’s Architec- 
Chapel, Windsor. SPP: 
7. When this period began, Latin was the language of the learned 
classes; French of the nobility and gentry; English, in 
its early or transition form, was £he despised patois of en 
he common. people. Before its close, peer and peasant, ııtepature. 
“ gentle and simple,” alike, spoke English, whose modern 
form may be said to date from the introduction of the printing-press 
into England by William Caxto1, in the reign of Kdward LV. The 
Plantagenet period included a century of war with France, and thirty 
years of deadly strife between the Roses, to say nothing of other civil 
confliets and almost constant hostilities with Scotland. We should 
not, therefore, be surprised to find it comparatively barren of great 
literary productions, which generally demand & somewhat settled 
condition of society. "These centuries, however, gave forth some works 
of great value. Here it is only necessary for us to mention the “* Can- 
terbury Tales” of that immortal poet Geoffrey Chaucer. 
„8. The Plantazenet period saw the Norman and Anglo-Saxon races 
in England completely amalgyamated. "The reign of John fr 
Contributed greatly to this result. By the loss of his Belen 
Norman provinces, that bad King confined the ambition . 
of his nobles within the Limits of Knzland; while by the oppression of 
all classes of his subjects alike, he led “ £he two races, so long hostile, 
to feel that they had common interests and common grievances.” By 
Putting a premium on what was distinetively English, the Hundred 
ya War with France completed the work bezun in the reign of 
ohn. 
IV 
TE 
CHAPTER XXX. 
HOUSE OF TUDOR.—HENRY vIL 
1485 to 15(9. A.D. 
in Honry "Fudor, as we. have seen, became King under the title of 
enry VI! His coronation, which wies delayed by the 
een of a terrible disease called ‘the Swenting Accession of 
ickness,” took place at Westminster, 1485, To Parlia- Henry VIL