In 2026 women can have their own passport, book travel, and journey alone if they wish. Over the years women have undertaken a multitude of incredible journeys: Dr Helen Sharman travelled into space in 1991, Emma Gatewood walked the Appalachian Trail alone in 1955 and Preet Chandi, finished a solo walk to the South Pole in 2022. All are role models, have inspired others and have challenged societal expectations of what’s achievable. We know this because their journeys have been documented, photographed, and more recently recorded in detail through social media, satellite technology means communication is possible from even the most isolated places. 
 
So where did this all begin? 
 
Imagine a woman who leaves her husband and infant children to visit large parts of Europe, who arranges with her husband to have a sexless marriage and who behaves   so outrageously she is frequently arrested and tried. A modern day emancipated woman? Social Media influencer and travel blogger? No, this is Margery Kempe, a laywoman, born in the 1370’s, a medieval pilgrim who wrote, with the help of a scribe, what is considered the first autobiography, describing both her physical and spiritual journeys, The Book of Margery Kemp. 
 
Expectations for young women in the 14th Century were low; they were considered possessions to be married young for an advantageous alliance for their parents or born into a lifetime of servitude and work. Women were uneducated and illiterate. Indeed, Margery Kempe’s life began in such a way. Born around 1373 in Kings Lynn she was married at an early age and experienced fourteen successive pregnancies. 
 
During her first pregnancy Margery experienced what we would consider today, a post-partum breakdown. She experienced intense visions of Christ, continually cried loudly and raucously, and felt driven to go on pilgrimages believing Christ would forgive her sins. She believed she was having direct conversations with Christ and the Virgin Mary, who told her to live chastely and “I shall make you weep for my passion as long as you live.”  She expressed physically feeling Christ’s suffering and her neighbours complained about her loud and disruptive behaviour, constant weeping and accused her of falseness. 
 
Driven by her visions, facing accusations, and unsure of herself Margery sought out the guidance of Julian of Norwich in 1413, who was highly regarded, famous for her religious insight and had a reputation for spiritual wisdom. As an anchoress, Julian was considered a living saint, dead to the world and encased in a cell in St Julian’s church Norwich. Margery spent “many days” being questioned by her and it is thought to be the only recorded meeting of two spiritual medieval women. Although a writer, (Julian wrote the Revelations of the Divine the earliest surviving book written by a female), Julian did not chronicle the meeting, we only have Margery’s account in which she says Julian validated her visions and experiences, telling her to never contradict the church and to consider, “All things must be examined by charity.” and “If they lead to charity, they are of God.” 
 
Pilgrimages were hugely popular at the end of the 1300’s, hundreds of thousands of people took part across Europe, encouraged by the papacy and embedded in Christian life. It was similar to booking a journey today, a coordinator booked your travel, planed your routes, and reserved accommodation. For a minority of religious women, Pilgrimages were considered acceptable however, for a lay woman like Margery, it was truly exceptional and socially unacceptable. To travel alone, without male guardianship, and independently, was viewed with suspicion and invited accusations of immorality, illegal preaching, and unorthodox behaviour.  
 
After her encounter with Julian, Margery set off for Rome with a group of Pilgrims from mixed European backgrounds. The journey was remarkable but not for physical endurance; Margery’s fervour meant she was intensely disliked by her fellow travellers. She held true to her beliefs and expressed them constantly, would not engage in the behaviours of the group, didn’t drink wine, insisted on chastity, and wept loudly which resulted in them repeatedly trying to abandon her enroute. She describes being “despised and scorned” by her companions and them stealing from her and mocking her. Once in Rome, where she spent many months in spiritual devotion, having mystical experiences and praying several hours a day in various churches around the city including St Pauls and St Peter’s as well waiting and tending to the sick, her living situation, with fellow pilgrims, did not improve. They continued to mock her, spread rumours that she was a fake and a hypocrite and tried to evict her. Often isolated “she cried to our Lord for help, saying that she had no comfort but Him alone.” Further pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Santago De Compostela, Prussia, Germany and Italy, were all accompanied by isolation, hostility, and expulsion from groups as her weeping became uncontrollable and the intensity of her sensory visions increased. This did nothing but strengthen her and more importantly, her piety and resolve gained her support from the clergy who would go on to support her. 
 
On her return to England Margery was arrested at least six times and interrogated on accusations of Lollardy, a crime at the time, punishable by death in the 1400’s, and considered heresy, a lay woman acting as though she had spiritual authority, which was very much the domain of the church alone. She maintained her devoutness and commitment to the church and successfully defended herself, most notably in front of the Archbishop of York, all accepted that she was genuine. With this experience Margery felt compelled by God to record her spiritual journey as a defence of her orthodoxy and directed a scribe to record her experiences as she dictated, and the first known autobiography was created. The journey it takes us on, revealing the medieval life of an unconventional spiritually driven, ill, laywoman, her travels, interactions, and her strength in what she faced is as absorbing as any autobiography written today. A truly epic journey. 

References 

1.Clarissa W. Atkinson, Mystic and Pilgrim: The Book and the World of Margery Kempe  
 
2.Charity Scott Stokes, “Margery Kempe: Her Life and the Early History of Her Book,” 
 
3.Wikipedia, The Book of Margery Kempe 
 
4.  All quotes from The Book of Margery Kempe 

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