Photo: sarkao (Shutterstock)
On average, it’s true, most people died within a fairly small radius of the place where they grew up. But that doesn’t mean that everyone was a homebody. Diplomacy, trade, and pilgrimages all required travel. Medievalists.net lists “messengers, embassies, pilgrims, merchants, vagabonds, preachers, missionaries, scholars, soldiers, explorers,” alongside migrant workers, immigrants, traveling royal courts, and more. Even if you couldn’t travel yourself, you probably met plenty of people who had.
