In a previous post I addressed the question posed by Baron and Master Ulric von Der Insel a couple of weeks ago. His question: “Where did your — persona — always want to go? To see what?”
This got my brain weasels going and the post was so long that I was forced to stop after the analysis of my persona’s local towns, home town, and nearby geography. I had realized that I couldn’t address the question in its entirety without addressing my persona’s surroundings.
That having been addressed I think I can move on to where my persona would have wanted to travel. I believe that there are a couple of things that I need to consider while doing this exercise:
- Religion and commerce played the largest influences upon travel in the Middle Ages. Keeping this in mind and pinpointing common trade cities and routes as well as common pilgrimage sites.
- Knowing myself. My persona is an extension of myself, and I am a fairly practical person. Knowing my monetary circumstances, as well as my station, along with my persona’s backstory would place the limit on my travel.
I believe these two factors will help identify and narrow down likely travel locations. I’m going to break it down in two sections religious and commerce motivated travel and backstory related travel.
Map of France c.1035 with home (green), local towns (blue), the nearest major city (red), and potential points of interest (yellow).1
Religious & Commerce Driven Travel
Pilgrimage
Religion played a major role in the medieval person’s life. The church calendar dictated life for most people. It told them when to plant, when to harvest, etc. It only makes sense that the desire to visit holy sites would be of interest to the medieval person.
The role of pilgrimage in the medieval era is well documented. The ultimate pilgrimage was a journey to Rome or Jerusalem. Pilgrims would sometimes even sell their land to walk hundreds of miles to the holy sites. Not everyone could afford to walk this oftentimes dangerous and time-consuming journey. Therefore, it would make sense that for those unable to travel to the holy cities that more local sites of religious importance would be likely.
Ways of St James
Pilgrim routes to Compostela.3
History
St. James was the first of the twelve apostles to be martyred. James was beheaded by order of King Herod Agrippa I and, according to Spanish tradition, his body was taken to Santiago de Compostela on the western edge of Spain.2 His tomb was supposedly discovered in the 9th century, at which point a church was built on the site by Alfonso II of Asturias and enlarged by Alfonso III. However, it wasn’t until 1078 AD that the current cathedral was begun by Alfonso IV.
While no grand cathedral may have been on the site, this would have been a great pilgrimage while still being relatively close by. It would have been a major undertaking and, I think that while it would have been of great interest to my persona, not something that would have been readily attainable for me.
Routes
The routes that pilgrims took are still in evidence and in use in France today as walking trails. Looking at the map included above you can see the three major routes leading to Compostela. The route leading from Paris, The Way of Tours or Via Turonensis, would have been the closest departure point for me. Therefore, before even beginning, I would have had a two-day journey to Paris, before joining other pilgrims before leaving.
According to the Agence de Coopération Inerréigional et Réseau (ACIR), which oversees the traditional paths of St James, it would take approximately 73 days or roughly two and a half months of walking to go from Paris to Compostela. The walk covers an incredible 1839.6 km or 1143 miles. As I said before, I don’t believe that this would be something undertaken by my persona. My backstory aside, pilgrimage was usually discouraged through sermon literature as was other unsupervised travel.5
Interestingly enough, the first “tourist guide” was a publication from the 12th century for these routes. The Codex Calixtinus (written in Latin by a French monk) helped the pilgrims identify the best places to stay over the course of their travels.6
Local Holy Sites
Rouen
Smaller trips to local holy sites would have been far more feasible and likely in my opinion. In my persona’s history I was born in Croixmare, the little green dot on the map of France above, near Rouen. Rouen was only a half a day’s ride if we hold that a moderately loaded wagon could do approximately 35 to 40 miles in a day.7 The cathedral in Rouen had a fairly recently built tower, completed in 1035 and 1063 a Romanesque Cathedral was consecrated by Archbishop Maurille in the presence of Duke William, the future Conqueror.8 I think that would have been a fairly interesting and significant draw for people in the surrounding region. While the cathedral structure standing then didn’t live past the early 1100’s there are still some remnants of the Romanesque building remains under the current construction.
Topical view of the Labyrinth of Chartres (Sylvain Sonnet/Corbis)
Chartes
Chartres would have been another fairly local pilgrimage site. Over modern roads it’s 161.3km (100.2 mi) according to google maps. Estimating travel times to be about two and half to three days this wouldn’t be too unreasonable. Chartres had become a great center of medieval learning in the 10th century and the cathedral was also the center of a thriving marketplace. While it’s now famous labryinth would not be completed until 1200, there were other interesting attractions. For instance, its acquisition of a biblical relic (a scrap of silk, the veil of Mary worn during the birth of Christ) in 876 AD given by Emperor Charles the Bald, would make Chartes a very appealing destination.9
Points of Interest Further Afield
Further afield there were other points of interest, of course. Places such as Mont Saint Michael, Bayeux, and Paris lay 3-5 days away. I do not discount any of these as places as part of my narrative. These are places that were quite significant and popular to visit and had such historical significance that I don’t believe that I could really do them justice in a simple paragraph.
Follow the Yellow Brick Road…
Rather than short change these amazing locales. I’m going to opt to stop here and pause to do a little more digging…that is, research. Doing these last two posts has gotten me thinking about something and I now I’m curious to follow the white rabbit down the rabbit hole and see where it leads!
I hope you all have enjoyed reading my ponderings and research but now I’m curious…where would your persona have traveled?
1“Medieval France Maps Home Page.” www.pitt.edu. April 18, 2019. pitt.edu, Web. April 18, 2019. Site
2“Saint James | apostle, son of Zebedee.” Britannica.com. May 02, 2019. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., Web. May 02, 2019. Site
3“Traditional pilgrim routes.” walkinginfrance.info. May 02, 2019. JA & KP, Web. May 02, 2019. Site
4“ACIR – Itineraires | ACIR Compostelle.” chemins-compostelle.com. May 02, 2019. ACIR, Web. May 02, 2019. Site
5“Whose Rules? Medieval Women and Pilgrimage | American Catholic Historical Association.” achahistory.org/. May 02, 2019. ACHA, Web. May 02, 2019. Site
6“The Codex Calixtinus – Vivecamino.” vivecamino.com. May 02, 2019. LA Voz De Galica, Web. May 02, 2019. Site
7“Raven Cross Press – Travel in the Time of Perronnelle.” ravencrosspress.com. April 20, 2019. Caroline Daniel, Web. May 02, 2019. Site Reference to the section titled Travel and the book “Mistress, Maids and Men: Baronial Life in the Thirteenth Century.”
8“Patrimoine – Histoire.” cathedrale-rouen.net. May 02, 2019. Web. May 02, 2019. Site
9“Chartres Cathedral – Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres.” chartrescathedral.net. May 03, 2019. Chartres Cathedral, Web. May 03, 2019. Site