Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/341

 ENGLISH GOTHIC. 283 A.D. 1095-1254. The Crusades, which brought about the con- tact of East and West, aided in the formation of the great universities, which had a direct influence on feudahsm and the Church. A.D. 1338-1453. The wars with France, known as the "Hundred Years' War." A.D. 1360. Edward the Black Prince ruled at Bordeaux, as Prince of Aquitaine. A.D. 1431. Henry VI. of England crowned King of France at Paris. c. A.D. 1500. The introduction of gunpowder ruined feudalism, fortresses which were impregnable against the bow of the yeoman and retainer, crumbling before the new artillery which lay at the entire disposal of King Henry VH. Houses were henceforward constructed, not as castles or places of defence, but as residences, and from this period modern ideas of domestic economy gradually transformed house planning. Sutton Place (a.d. 1521-1527), near Guildford, is one of the earliest examples of a non-castellated domestic residence (page 322). A.D. 1520. Henry VHI. visited the French King, Francis I., on the Field of the Cloth of Gold ; the King and the many knights who followed in his train returning imbued with the newly intro- duced Renaissance style as practised in France. Girolamo da Trevigi, an Italian, was appointed Court Architect, and Henry VIII. encouraged other foreign artists, amongst whom was Hans Holbein, an accomplished painter of portraits and designer of goldsmiths' work and woodwork. These and various other causes led to the great Renaissance movement, which is referred to on page 547. 2. ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER. The architectural character of Gothic architecture in Europe has already been referred to on page 268. The development of mediaeval architecture in England from the departure of the Romans till the sixteenth century, has a more complete sequence of style than in other countries. It is usually divided into periods having special characteristics and known as Anglo-Saxon (page 327), Norman (page 328), Early English (page 335), Decorated (page 341), Perpendicular (page 349), and Tudor (page 356), and a comparative table showing the approximate period covered by each is given on page 327. Gothic Vaulting in England. The problems of vaulting during the Romanesque period have been already explained on page 224, where the essential differences between Roman and Mediaeval vaulting are compared. The first