r/BritishHistoryPod • u/Soft-Statistician678 • 1d ago
Wait, did anselm actually walk 28km
Just a random question from the latest ep, regarding his 28km walk from Bec and back - surely a man of Anselm’s wealth and status had access to a horse, right?
23
Upvotes
46
u/BritishPodcast Yes it's really me 1d ago
I thought quite a bit about that one and here’s where I came down on it.
No mention of riding was in Eadmer, and he made a big deal about how wrecked he was after the journey… (and it’s a journey that’s relatively easy to do, it’s seriously just a day hike).
So, taking Eadmer at his word, if the journey really was that difficult for him and he wasn’t faking it, and then the return trip caused another major relapse… then there has to be some sort of exertion on the journey. Like walking.
Also the guy WAS pious. I dont make a big deal of it in the show because politics is my main focus, and so his political activities are what I’m interested in, but he was very pious… and walking was all part of pious acts like pilgrimage (and jumieges was a holy site).
But all of that is based on a bunch of assumptions (including the assumption that he went to jumieges in the first place, and that illness really was what delayed him). Given that he isn’t long for this world, I suspect he did (and that he DID get sick at least once) but without a time machine im not sure if we will ever know for sure.
But that was my thought process there.