From: hodges@purina.berkeley.edu (Kenneth Hodges)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Movement Rates
Date: 20 Aug 1992 18:29:08 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Math. Department.
NNTP-Posting-Host: purina.berkeley.edu
Summary: medieval travel speeds

     I have found some information about travel speeds of various forms 
of transportation; as usual, they are not in terms most useful to gamers, 
but I present them for what they are worth.

     As far as travel by land, speed varies widely depending on weather, 
roads, and resources.  In _Pride and Prejudice_, Darcy declares that 50 
miles on good roads is but half a day's journey, and while Austen is 
hardly medieval, the transportation was still horse and carriage, with 
all the advantages of very good roads  and, if travelling post, places to 
change horses.  This, however, would be an upper limit.  (I seem to 
recall the story of a heroic messenger making a round trip from England 
to France in two days, but I cannot find it, and my memory may well be 
playing me false; this would be around the upper limit, as well, if it is 
true.) 

     Joseph and Frances Gies, report in _Life in a Medieval City_ on 
conditions in the thirteenth century:

     In level country pack animals can make fifteen to twenty-five miles 
     a day, carrying three to four hundred pounds.  Couriers travel 
     faster; the Flemish cloth merchants operate a service between the 
     Champagne Fairs and Ghent which covers two hundred miles in four 
     days.  But it takes a company of merchants travelling from Florence 
     to Champagne three weeks, even barring accidents.  [p. 25]

Roads could be horrible, and bridges worse; upkeep was often the duty of 
local landholders, or someone granted authority to take tolls and use the 
funds for repairs.  Too often, the tolls were high and the funds were 
spent on the bridgekeeper, not the bridge.  Since the wagons were heavy, 
and with no means of muffling shocks, riding in them could be quite 
unpleasant; even sick people preferred to go horseback, if possible.  
Women rode astride; sidesaddle came in late in the middle ages, and it 
was not universal.  To ride that way, of course, the women would wear 
riding trousers; they were not yet compelled to skirts.

     But there are other kinds of transport, as well.  _The Vikings_, by 
Else Roesdahl, reports that Scandinavian travel got eaier in the winter, 
when skis, sledges, and skates could be used; in the summer bogs and 
rough land slowed things down.  And, of course, there were feet.  
Roesdahl cites several figures to give an idea of travel time.  The 
voyage from Skane to Sigtuna took five days; overland, a month.  The 
voyage from Jutland to Trondheim is five or six days: one day from 
northern Jutland to southern Norway, and then along the coast.  A land 
route from Skane to Trondheim was not taken, because it was dangerous.  
She also reports, citing Adam of Bremen (1075), who was citing King Svein 
Estridsson, that it was easy to traverse Norway in a month, but Sweden, 
marshy and mountainous, would take at least two. 

     And, to conclude land travel, I include this description of mountain 
crossing by Pero Tafur, describing a 1437 journey, taken from Marjorie 
Rowling's _Everyday Life in Medieval Times_:

      The third day after leaving Milan I arrived at a German town where 
     all my animals and baggage were loaded upon boats which then crossed 
     a great lake which receives its waters from the Alps.  . . .  The 
     next day I departed and arrived at the foot os St. Gothard Pass, 
     high up in the Alps.  The day following, after the necessary 
     preparations were completed, we began the ascent.  It was now the 
     end of August and the snow was melting in the heat, making the 
     crossing extremely perilous.  The people in those parts use oxen 
     which are used to the track.  One of these goes ahead dragging by a 
     long rope a trailer which resembles a Castilian threshing machine.  
     The passenger sits on this while his horse, held by a guiding rein, 
     follows behind.  If any accident happens, only the ox is involved.  
     Before entering the narrow defiles firearms are discharged to bring 
     down any loose snow from above, for such avalanches sometimes bury 
     travellers.  . . .   The mountains are thickly populated, inns and 
     small hamlets are numerous.  [pp. 95-96]

Travel definitely was not easy!

     As far as ships go, the best data I have come from Else Roesdahl's 
book.  She reports that trials of replica Viking ships have maintained an 
average of 6-8 knots per hour with good winds, with a reported high of 10 
knots maintained over six hours, and nearly 9 knots with a side wind.  
Cargo ships seem to have been able to sail about 60 degrees into the 
wind, and a speed of 1.5 - 2 knots upwind while tacking.  She reports 
that, with optimal conditions, the run from Limfjord to Tynemouth (the 
west coast of Denmark to the east coast of England) took 36 hours.

     The replicas, Saga Siglar and Roar Ege, are reconstructions of cargo
ships found at Skuldelev.  They were primarily sailing ships, though there
were a few oar ports.  Skuldelev 1 is made of pine, 16.3 meters long and
4.5 meters wide amidship.  The draught was about 1.25 meters, and the loading
capacity was 24 tons, or 40 cubic meters.  Six men can sail it efficiently.
Skuldelev 3 is smaller: 13.8 meters long, and 3.4 meters wide.  The draught
was 84 cm, and it could take 4.6 tons, or 12 cubic meters; its crew would be
five.  The sail area for Skuldelev 1 was about 100 square meters; for 
Skuldelev 3, 45 square meters.

     But, all in all, travel depended on how hard you were willing to 
push, and what you were willing to pay.  In _English Wayfaring Life in 
the Middle Ages_ by J. J. Jusserand (an excellent book for anyone wanting 
the flavor of travel) records the following informative sequence of 
events.  On August 7, John XXII was chosen Pope in Lyons.  Edward II at 
York learned of this on August 17 from a messenger.  On September 27 he 
received an official letter announcing it.  Still later, a papal Nincio 
arrived, bringing the news in person.

     I know this is not exactly what you asked for, but I hope it will be 
somewhat useful.

                                           --Kenneth
                                           hodges@math.berkeley.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc