The state of the arts in Britain, at an early period, seems to have been very much the same as in the neighboring kingdoms of the continent, judging from the most authentic record, the coinage. Nor do the British appear to have been later in cultivating the art of stained glass, which necessarily implies the knowledge of design. According to Lord Orford, the finely illuminated eastern window of York cathedral was the work of a native artist, John Thornton of Coventry, as early as the year 1338, though other accounts date it sixty years later. The earliest record on the subject goes no further back than the reign of Henry III, who when building his new palace at Westminster about the year 1250, had one of the chambers painted with scenes from the Crusades.

But the most valuable relics of the art of painting in these early times consist in the limnings, or illuminations of the missiles, chronicles and romances, many of which, now extant, are not only wonderful for the beauty and permanence of the colors, and the delicate and elaborate finishing, but for the character of the heads and the taste of the draperies.

There appears to have been but little exertion of patronage on the part of the British sovereigns, till the accession of Henry VIII. in 1509, who, more from a spirit of rivalry than from any knowledge or taste for the fine arts, invited various foreign artists to come to England. His pride was roused by the more successful efforts of Francis I. of France, who had succeeded in attracting to his court from among the greatest artists in Italy—Leonardo da Vinci, Benvenuto Cellini, Primaticcio, and Nicolo del Abbate.