How Did People Travel in the Early Middle Ages?

Most early medieval people traveled only short distances, on foot, by cart, or on horseback, along roads that often followed the routes of the old Roman system. The great highways of the Roman Empire survived, in many regions, for centuries after the imperial collapse, and they remained the chief arteries of long-distance travel. Sea travel, on the great rivers and along the coasts, was often faster and cheaper than land travel, and the early medieval period saw the development of new kinds of ship, especially the Viking longship, that transformed travel in northern Europe. Travel was slow, dangerous, and uncomfortable by modern standards, but it was more common than is sometimes realized. Kings, bishops, monks, merchants, and pilgrims made long journeys, and their letters, chronicles, and saints’ lives preserve a rich record of what they saw and what they endured.

For the trade that was the chief stimulus to long-distance travel, see the Towns, Trade, and Currency. For the towns that were the destinations, see the What Was Life Like in an Early Medieval Town?. For the Viking ships, see the Viking Ships and Technology. For the political system that protected the roads, see the The Carolingian Empire.

The road network

The Roman road network was one of the most durable features of the imperial inheritance. The great highways of Gaul, Italy, Spain, and Britain - the Via Agrippa, the Via Salaria, the Watling Street, the Ermine Street - remained in use for centuries after the Roman withdrawal, and they were the foundation of the medieval road system. The roads were built of layers of gravel, sand, and paving stones, often several feet deep, and they had been designed to last.

The Roman road system was not, however, comprehensive. It covered the Mediterranean basin and the western provinces, but it was thin in northern Germany, in the Slavic lands, in Scandinavia, and in the Celtic regions of Britain and Ireland. In these areas, the road network was less developed, and travel depended on local paths, on the rivers, and on the sea. The result was that travel was easier in some regions than in others, and the great long-distance journeys of the period were the more remarkable for the difficulty of the terrain.

The roads were maintained, in part, by the obligation of the local population to provide labor and materials. The cursus publicus, the imperial postal and transport system, disappeared from the West after the collapse of the Empire, and the local lords and the Church took over some of its functions. The great Carolingian Capitulary of Frankfurt of 794 ordered the repair of the bridges and the roads. The result was a road network that was, in many regions, surprisingly well maintained.

Travel on foot, on horseback, and by cart

The most common form of travel was on foot. The peasant walked, and he expected to cover fifteen to twenty miles a day. Walking was also the form of travel of the pilgrim, the beggar, the wandering monk, and the great majority of the population.

The horse was the prestige form of travel, and it was the form used by the wealthy, the powerful, and the great. The horse was expensive, both to buy and to maintain, and the equipment of a mounted traveler - the saddle, the bridle, the spurs, the cloak, the hat - was a substantial investment. The famous war-horse, the destrier, was a large and powerful animal, capable of carrying a heavily armored knight; the riding horse, the palafredus, was a smaller and more agile animal, used for ordinary riding.

The cart was the chief form of wheeled transport, and it was used to carry goods rather than people. The four-wheeled wagon, drawn by oxen, was the standard vehicle for the transport of heavy goods: grain, wine, wool, timber, stone, iron. The two-wheeled cart, drawn by horses, was used for lighter loads and for faster journeys. The carriage, a passenger vehicle suspended on springs, was a luxury of the very rich, and it was not common in the early Middle Ages.

Travel by river

Rivers were the great highways of the early Middle Ages. The Rhine, the Danube, the Seine, the Loire, the Rhône, the Elbe, the Oder, the Vistula, the Dnieper, the Volga, the Thames, the Severn, and the Shannon were all major arteries of trade and travel, and they were far more efficient than the roads for the transport of heavy goods. The great rivers were connected to the sea, and the sea was another major highway. The Mediterranean was the busiest of the early medieval seas; the North Sea and the Baltic were the chief theaters of the Viking expansion. The Irish Sea and the English Channel were the chief arteries of the Anglo-Saxon and the Frankish trade.

The ships of the early Middle Ages varied enormously by region. The Mediterranean used the great round ship, the naves, of late Roman tradition. The Atlantic and the North Sea used the great Viking longship, with its shallow draft, its single square sail, and its bank of oars. The rivers used small, flat-bottomed boats, propelled by oars, by sail, or by being towed from the bank. The merchant ship of the period was typically a small vessel, capable of carrying perhaps twenty to fifty tons of cargo, and operated by a crew of perhaps ten to twenty men.

Travel and the seasons

Travel was strongly seasonal. Winter, with its snow, ice, and short days, was a time of little travel. The spring, with the improvement of the weather and the opening of the roads, was the great time of travel: the great Church councils were usually held in the spring, the great markets and fairs in the spring and summer, and the great pilgrimages began in the spring. The autumn, with the harvest, was another time of relative stillness. The hazards of travel were real: poor roads, unpredictable rivers, dangerous weather, and the ever-present danger of robbery. The traveler was advised to take a companion, to carry a weapon, to travel in groups, and to avoid the dangerous stretches of road. The great lords and the kings traveled with a substantial retinue, which served as protection as well as a mark of status.

The monastery and the inn

The monastery was the most important institution of hospitality in the early Middle Ages. The Rule of St. Benedict prescribed that all guests who arrived at a monastery were to be received as Christ, and the great monasteries maintained extensive guest-houses, stables, and store-rooms for the reception of travelers. The Carolingian Capitulare de villis prescribed in detail the reception of guests at the royal estates. The inn, in the modern sense, was rare in the early Middle Ages; the famous inns of the central and later Middle Ages, with their beds and their wine, were a development of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Travel and the message: the courier and the royal missive

The transmission of messages was an important part of early medieval travel. The king needed to communicate with his officials, his bishops, his great men, and (in time of war) his armies. The Carolingian monarchy developed an extensive system of royal messengers, the missi dominici, who carried the king’s orders to the local officials and reported back on the state of the kingdom. The papal chancery developed a sophisticated system of papal envoys in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The couriers traveled fast - the papal courier, in the eleventh century, is reported to have covered the distance from Rome to the north of France in three weeks - and they were protected by the special immunity of the Church and the king.

Travel and the pilgrimage

The pilgrimage was one of the great stimuli to travel in the Early Middle Ages. The shrines of the saints - Rome, Santiago de Compostela, Jerusalem, Canterbury, Tours, Cologne, and many others - drew pilgrims from all over Christendom, and the great pilgrimage routes became major arteries of trade and communication. The route to Santiago de Compostela, the Camino de Santiago, was well established by the ninth and tenth centuries. The pilgrim traveled in a distinctive dress, with the staff and the scrip, the gourd and the hat, and he was protected by the pax Dei, the Peace of God, which gave him a special immunity from violence.

Travel and the merchant

The merchant was a different kind of traveler. He traveled with his goods, his servants, and his money, and he was protected by the special privileges granted to him by the king, the bishop, and the local lord. The merchant of the period traveled with his own armed guard, and he often traveled in the company of other merchants. The routes of the merchant were the routes of the trade: the great emporia of the North Sea and the Baltic were connected by sea, the great emporia of the Mediterranean by sea and the great Roman roads, and the overland trade between the two systems was carried on through the great river valleys - the Rhine, the Rhône, the Danube, the Elbe. A lengthier treatment is in the Towns, Trade, and Currency.

The reality of travel

Travel in the Early Middle Ages was slow, dangerous, and uncomfortable. The traveler could expect to cover perhaps twenty to thirty miles a day on horseback, less on foot, much less by cart. The roads were often poor, the bridges were few, the inns were rare, and the dangers of weather, illness, and robbery were constant. Yet travel was also a regular feature of early medieval life, and the network of roads, rivers, and sea routes was more extensive and more active than the older view of the period allowed. The great journeys of the period - the missionary journeys of Boniface and Columbanus, the trade routes of the Viking merchants, the pilgrimages to Jerusalem and to Santiago - were the more remarkable for the difficulty of the conditions in which they were carried out. For a broader context, see the Daily Life and Society in the Early Middle Ages.

Related articles

• Towns, Trade, and Currency
• What Was Life Like in an Early Medieval Town?
• Viking Ships and Technology
• The Carolingian Empire
• Monasticism and the Benedictine Rule
• Daily Life and Society in the Early Middle Ages