AHC: Movable Type Printing Press Invented In 1350 in England, Not 1450 in Germany

[VirginiaHistoryTeacher]

It depends of the PoD.
Would the PoD itself be the invention of printing press, I would say that it would be too fast for a safe widespread anyway.

An earlier local production of paper in England is mandatory, but I won't see it being that quicker than IOTL. Maybe the XIVth century instead of the late XVth, admittedly.
With that, and without HYW, you may have an earlier printing press appearing around mid XIVth century, relativly plausibly outside England (maybe Upper Rhine) and being present in England between the latter half of XIV up to XV in some places.

Remember that first printing locations were essentially due to an inverstor presence, and patronage. It really took decades to have it being relativly widespread, understanding that almost all of these printings were outside "heterodoxial hands" but people close either to rulers, economic elite, clergy, etc.

Furthermore, the problem with Lollards was less how to widespread their ideas, than these being irreconciliable with the contemporary society or at least powerful elites. Not that a more widespread presence of written texts would hurt of course, but literacy being essentially a clerical thing outside rulers. I could see urban patricians being more touched, but it doesn't look like they had enough military power on them.

At this point, as you seem to want to do it since some times, I'll advise you to not care about PoD plausibility that much, and to argue of an earlier invention in Frisia without HYW diverting ressources.

Part of me feels like it's incredibly unlikely because the press would have to not only be invented 150 years before OTL, it would also have to make it across the channel WITH paper abilities AND survive through the HYW AND the Bubonic Plague. I'm shooting for the freaking moon.

 

[VirginiaHistoryTeacher]

A historian by the name of Diarmaid McCulloch stated that if the Lollards had the printing press, they'd not only be able to disseminate their material, they could also communicate in a "language" of sorts of that day, which was through songs and plays. He argues that it was because they lacked a printing press, the upper gentry classes never saw the Lollards as a movement worth regarding. I'm attempting to make the Lollard cause eventually turn into Anglicanism prior to Henry VIII. I'm basically trying to spark a religious revolution in England but England ONLY. I want the Reformation to start there and Lollardy to take hold to such a degree that it displaces the Roman Catholic Church's hold on England and Wycliffe is able to help recruit an army in case the Church hires out another nation to invade England. Where Edward III stands with Lollardy I haven't worked out yet. I'm also not sure how this would line up with the HYW, if it would stop it or alter its course in some capacity. Admittedly, my strong suit is American history, not British history. Any help would be most appreciated.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

Well, John of Gaunt was a supporter of Wycliffe's, though mostly to tweak his nose at others it's plausible he could become king - OTL's Richard II dying in infancy is a POD of something I began but tabled for a w3hile due to time constraints.

Givent hat John was the in the top 20 richest people of all time would there be a reason why he'd invest in such a thing, and then Wycliffe get hold of it?

Is it as easy potentially as just one genius living who died - perhaps like Cato's Cavalry but with someone who needs to do a whole lot more than happen to devise some way to put one's feet in and hold them? (A great POD, BTW.)

The question is, what need would there be for such a person to do so? A peasant creating something like that seems a lot less likely than - IIRC - a soldier trying to help himself stay int he saddle. But, if he lives when he would have died OTL because of some earlier POD then it's possibl

If you'd like I can PM you what I did and tabled as I covered more thehistory of Europe and some oddities with theHudnred years' War that resulted from John II becoming king, like Charles VI dying in 1393.