English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages (XIVth Century)Jusserand, J. J. (Jean Jules)
History
English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages (XIVth Century)
Jusserand, J. J. (Jean Jules)
Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages -- England; England -- Social life and customs -- 1066-1485; Travel, Medieval
Then there were Spanish pilgrimages, and especially the world-famous
one at Compostela, where English travellers went in large numbers,
most of them direct by sea, though some preferred the lengthy,
picturesque land road, dotted with famous shrines good for the soul,
and where all sorts of adventures might be expected.[532] Licences
authorizing the owners and the captain of such or such a ship to
carry to St. James’s a fixed number of pilgrims fill pages in Rymer’s
“Fœdera.” They were granted pursuant to the before-mentioned statute
of Richard II, and are all drawn after one or two models, the text
in Latin, with the name of the ship in French, like the one here
translated, of the year 1394:
“The king, to all and each of his Admirals, etc., greeting.
“Know you that we have given licence to Oto Chambernoun, William
Gilbert, and Richard Gilbert, to receive and embark in the harbour
of Dartmouth a hundred pilgrims in a certain ship belonging to the
same Oto, William, and Richard, called la Charité de Paynton, of
which Peter Cok is captain; and to take them to Saint James’s, there
to fulfil their vows, and from thence to bring them back to England,
freely and without hindrance, notwithstanding any ordinances to the
contrary.”[533] {376}
A few provisos are added, the keeping of which the pilgrims should
swear to before leaving England; they must upon their oath bind
themselves to do nothing contrary to the obedience and fealty they
owe the king; they must not take out of the realm gold or silver in
money or bullion beyond what is necessary to their journey, and they
must not, it is sometimes added, reveal the secrets of the kingdom.
During the following century these licences became innumerable, or
maybe they have been preserved in larger numbers. They show that, in
fact, fleets loaded with English pilgrims plied towards St. James’s.
We find that “Le Petre de Darthmouth” is allowed to carry sixty
pilgrims; “La Marie de Southampton,” a hundred; “La Sainte Marie de
Blakney,” sixty; “Le Garlond de Crowemere,” sixty; “La Trinité de
Wells,” forty; “Le Thomas de Saltash,” sixty; and so on. Numbers
usually vary from thirty to one hundred.[534]
[Illustration 65. TRAVELLING BY SEA IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
(_From the MS. Harl. 1319._)]
{378}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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