Medieval Travellers: The Rich and the Restless
Labarge, Margaret Wade

Softcover, $12.95
ISBN 0-75382-041-2
Phoenix Press, 2005.
283 pages.

"The kings and queens, lords, ladies and leading ecclesiastics of the thirteenth to mid-fifteenth centuries were indefatigable travellers. Eudes of Rouen averaged 2,500 miles a year during his term as archbishop of Rouen: Mary, daughter of Edward I was a most restless nun; Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo, Castilian ambassador to the court of Timur at Samarkand and Bertrandon de la Broquiere both traveled widely, while a Burgundian squire disguised himself as a Turk in order to join a caravan returning from Mecca.

Drawing on personal reports, the notices of chroniclers and varied financial accounts, Margaret Wade Labarge tells their stories, and those of their fellow travelers. She describes how they were impelled by religion, politics, amusement and social contact.

She discusses the physical conditions of medieval travel and emphasises the practical consequences of the firm medieval belief in the importance of maintain and displaying one/s proper place in the social hierarchy, even on the road and whether alive or dead." Cover art: Jacob's Journey, a manuscript illumination c. 1411, from the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett, fol. 62.