Camino travelers (middle ages)

[Gene Silva]

Gary Hammond wrote:

> I have a tendency to believe that the higher estimate of travelers
reported
> by Michener, wasn't far off. I have no other evidence to doubt his
research
> and I acknowledge that the religious climate at the time far exceeds that
> which we see in todays Western World.
> Does anyone have better evidence?

Gary:

What do you mean "the higher estimate...", one million or 500,000? I think
it is unlikely the Iberian peninsula in the first decades of the 13th
century was host to a million pilgrims on a yearly basis. Had that occurred
even one year it would have been a remarkable event, worthy of numerous and
repeated historical comment. The local population along the camino would
have been overwhelmed by such numbers. For example, in 1150 the Kingdom of
Navarre, consisting of perhaps 10,000 square kilometers, had maybe 75,000
inhabitants. Best estimates are that the Kingdom of Aragon had a population
of 750,000 Christians in the year 1300, one of the high points in the middle
age and prior the black death. All of these figures are estimates, of
course. My "evidence" is found in several books, including: "The Medieval
Spains", by Professor Bernard F. Reilly (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks),
"Moorish Spain", by Richard Fletcher (University of California Press), "The
Episcopate in the Kingdom of Leon in the Twelfth Century", by the same
author, "Daily Life in Portugal in the Late Middle Ages", by Professor A. H.
Oliveira Marques (University of Wisconsin Press).

Michener may have been a fine writer, but I question his accuracy on this
point.