De Worde was likely born in either Wörth an der Sauer in Alsace or Wörth am Rhein in the Palatinate. Traditionally, he was believed to have accompanied Caxton to England in 1476; more recently, it has been argued that de Worde actually arrived c. 1481, and that Caxton brought him to England to counter the competition of a second printer (John Lettou set up a press in London in 1480). Sometime while in England, de Worde married a woman named Elizabeth. De Worde improved the quality of Caxton's product; he was, in this view, "England's first typographer". In 1495, following Caxton's death in 1492 and a three-year litigation, de Worde took over Caxton's print shop.