Part 1: Did Medieval Pilgrimage from England to Santiago Really End After the English Reformation?

by Sharenda Barlar

Two years ago, while I was walking the French Camino, I met Stephen from England.

Me and Stephen

He had completed 7 Caminos in Spain and was an active member of the Ambulatory Society in the UK. He excitedly told me that England in particular was beginning to restore medieval pilgrimage routes and the Pilgrim’s Office in Santiago had an agreement with the British Pilgrimage Trust.

If a person walks a route in the UK or any British Isle, gets documentation for their walk, and continues their pilgrimage in Spain, they can receive a Compostela. I was intrigued because I knew that pilgrims like Margarie Kemp, the wife of Bath, and William Wey had gone on pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela during the late medieval and early modern periods, so I began investigating St. James’ pilgrimage in the British Isles. The result is our exploration of the historical connections that the British Isles had with the Way of St. James until the English Protestant Reformation. In this post, I will detail exciting new developments in the restoration of these ancient routes during the 21st century.

As Anne Cruz argues in Material and Symbolic Circulation between Spain and England, 1554-1604, "although England and Spain are separated only by a narrow body of water, scholarship on them nevertheless continues to be restricted and isolated by specific fields, which divide and isolate them by their history, language, and culture” (xviii). Cruz suggests that scholars “whether in history or literature, prefer to examine the two nation-states from their own perspective, separately and independent from the other” (xviii). The result of this compartmentalization is that historians and literary scholars interested in Spain and England have tended to “ignore the other’s cultural production, with the unfortunate result that any correlation or contact that may have influenced the literature, art, and cultural milieu of both nations has gone, in the main, unnoticed and unstudied” (xviii). Our project attempts to step into the gaps left open by this division of research and examine pilgrimage networks that connected Spain and England in the medieval period and that are beginning to reconnect those nations in the twenty-first century.

The Historical Connection Between English Pilgrimage and Santiago

Pilgrims traveling during the Middle Ages from the British Isles used both the French Way and the English Way to reach Santiago de Compostela.

The French Way

The first recorded pilgrims travelled by boat to the English way in 1147.

The English Way

The English way is one of the shortest routes in Spain to Santiago. From A Coruna it is 96 kilometers and from Ferrol it is 110 kilometers. Between 1361 – 1396 The Close and Patent Role records letters requesting licenses for masters or owners of ships to take a number of pilgrims to St. James in Galicia. Luis Vasquez de Parga tells us that “at least 2300 pilgrims were licensed by the English king in 1434, permitting them to go to Santiago on pilgrimage, while in 1445 some 1700 pilgrims obtained similar licenses. (Luis Vasquez de Parga, Las Peregrinaciones a Santiago de Compostela (3 vols, Madrid, 1948) I, pp. 92, 94).

As the political webs between noble families intertwined in England and the Iberian Peninsula, pilgrimage to Camino became a common occurrence for future unions. Notable examples appear in history like Lord Edward, future Edward I, who was betrothed to Eleanor, half-sister of Alfonso X (El Sabio) of Castile. In their marriage treaty, which was negotiated by the bishop of Bath and Wells, they mention going on pilgrimage to Santiago as an act of thanksgiving for their union.

Shots from the Lincoln Cathedral

The Lincoln Cathedral in Lincolnshire was an important stop for pilgrims traveling to Santiago. Eleanor is buried here and St. James is a clear patron of this cathedral.

Catherine of Aragon

And of course, Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Fernando and Isabella, made a pilgrimage to St. James’s relics on her way to marry Arthur. Her ill-fated marriages were perhaps foretold once she reached the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. History and legend says that when she visited, the large incense botafumeiro that swings during the pilgrim mass broke and flew out the window, crashing into the cathedral courtyard. Many at the time understandably believed that this was a terrible omen.

Phillip II and Mary Tudor

Once Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church and became Head of the Church of England, pilgrimages seemed to stop in England. Or do they? After her father’s death, Mary Tudor, a strong Catholic like her mother Catherine, married Phillip II of Spain. In route to England for his wedding, Phillip traveled the English Way and made a pilgrimage to Santiago. Unfortunately, when Mary died, leaving no heir to the English throne, Phillip lost his power in England. With his loss of power, Catholic pilgrimage seemed to disappear within Protestant England.

The Exciting Discovery that Led to Our Project

Even so, within the last 100 years, pilgrim badges from Santiago de Compostela have been found along the Thames River and throughout the British Isles.

Pilgrim badge found in the Thames River

Badges like this one have been found throughout England, as pilgrims would often bring several back to their homeland to give thanks for their safe return and then throw them in the river. The recent discovery of these pilgrim badges suggests that pilgrimage persevered secretly in spite of wars and religious persecution in the medieval British Isles.