Maritime enterprise, 1485-1558

The reign of Henry VII marks the opening of the modern era in the history of the English nation, the period in which, from being an agricultural and military people, we have bec...

It was the universal tendency of the Middle Ages for trades and industries to organize themselves, more or less rigidly, for the purpose of mutual defence and assistance. Such o...

The subject of the Cabot voyages is one of the most puzzling in history, ranking indeed with the identity of Shakespeare as a battle-ground for the exponents of conflicting theo...

The voyage of Sebastian Cabot is described in narratives of which the details were presumably furnished by himself, in the works of various historians of the sixteenth century....

After the Cabot voyages, which were, financially, a failure, nothing more is heard of American enterprises originating in England until March 19, 1501. On that date Henry VII gr...

The death of Henry VII and the accession, in April 1509, of his son, then in his eighteenth year, inevitably caused great changes in nearly all departments of the state. The new...

During the reign of Henry VIII the Hanseatic League enjoyed its last days of prosperity in England. Its ancient privileges, confirmed and regularized by treaty with Edward IV, a...

The first half of the reign of Henry VIII was undoubtedly the palmiest time in the history of the Merchant Adventurers. Under Henry VII their position in the North Sea had been...

The trade between England and France during the first half of the sixteenth century falls into two divisions: the local cross-channel traffic between Normandy and Brittany and t...

During the reign of Henry VIII, although English prestige increased and commerce became firmly established, it must be confessed that commensurate progress was not made in disco...

In the days of Queen Elizabeth, when Michael Locke and Martin Frobisher were contemplating the revival of the search for the North-West Passage, a certain James Alday wrote to t...

Shortly after the death of Henry VIII there reappeared in England that mysterious and elusive figure which has so often flitted across the page of this history—Sebastian Cabot....

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries witnessed great developments in English shipbuilding. In the former the feeble, untrustworthy vessels of the Middle Ages were improved and...

Henry VII raised himself to the throne at the close of a period of naval decadence which corresponded with that of English commerce and prestige, and which, in common with the l...