The Englishman Abroad: the Medieval Origins of an Identity

The 2024 Annual Riddy Lecture will be given by Anthony Bale, Professor of Medieval Studies, Birkbeck, University of London:

In this lecture I will explore some late medieval English travellers' texts, focussing especially on a little-studied Middle English travel guide, sometimes known as Advice for a Journey to the Orient. I will examine the authorship and occasion of the text, and describe its place in positioning Englishness within international travel, at the origins of the vexed identity of the 'Englishman abroad'.