On my research trip in the summer of 2023 I followed Chaucer’s footsteps from London to Bordeaux to Navarre, Rioja and Castile. Along the way I learned some fascinating facts and details that helped me finish The Storyteller’s War: Geoffrey Chaucer, Reluctant Spy (to be released May 8, 2025).
- We know a lot about Geoffrey Chaucer and his whereabouts between 1357-1400 because he worked for the court and government, and careful records were kept on expenses and travel. The records mentioning Chaucer (over 500) were gathered together by Martin Crow and Claire Olson in their seminal reference book, Chaucer Life-Records (1966, Oxford at the Clarendon Press).
2.The Three Cranes Wharf in London’s Vintry district (the sign is located east of Southwark Bridge) was named after three cranes that were used to lift wine and other goods off the cogs that arrived from all over Europe – including the famed Vernaccia wine from San Gimignano, Tuscany that Chaucer’s father John imported for King Edward the Third. If you visit, make sure to stop in for a pint at The Banker pub a few steps east to take in the view. Some form of cranes were operation there until the 19th century, and the site was badly damaged during the Blitz. See blog here.
3. Canterbury, the destination of the characters in Chaucer’s best well-known work, The Canterbury Tales, remains at its centre a medieval town. I visited Canterbury on an earlier research trip and was struck by the prominence of the cathedral and the many medieval buildings. See blog post here.
4. Bordeaux is called the “Port of the Moon” because of the crescent shape made by the Garonne River there. The topography hasn’t changed and I could well imagine Chaucer stepping of a cog from London and facing several great structures…Cathedral de Andre ahead, Basilica de Saint Michel to the south, the archbishop’s palace or Archibescat, and Palais de l’Ombrière, both now gone.
5. Cathedral Saint Andre is a wonder. The gargoyles, 14th century clothing, gold chalices, stained glass, gothic arches, and the sheer amount of beauty, craftsmanship, and quality of every nook and cranny left me gobsmacked, and I felt for a moment that I was standing next to Chaucer, experiencing what he might have seen. That’s the power of such places when you step inside – they remain substantively the same since they were built, while everything outside changes. Even the architecturally less impressive, dirty and dark Basilica de Saint Michel was moving in its own way once the light from the stained glass windows coloured the interior. See blog here.
6. English imports of wine from the Bordeaux region were a major part of the economy in Chaucer’s day. The English had controlled Bordeaux for over two hundred years since King Henry the First and Eleanor of Aquitaine took control of the city and all of Aquitaine. Now Prince Edward, King Edward’s eldest and the hero of Poitiers, controls the area and wine trade. But rebels are rising. See blog post here.
7. In Chaucer’s time, King Carlos of Navarre controlled the passes through the Pyrenees Mountains and access to what is now northern Spain. Standing in a calle in Pamplona, surrounded on all sides by snow topped peaks, I was reminded of how closed off Spain actually was but for the coasts. See blog post here.
8. Pacharán is a local drink of the Basque drank as a digestif and still made and consumed in Pamplona as it would have been in Chaucer’s day. I certainly researched this drink extensively, and in fact brought some home with me to continue my research.
9. Olite Castle is one of Europe’s best preserved medieval castles. It was renovated a hundred years ago, and the famed hanging gardens that at one time held lions and giraffes still exist. See blog post here.
10. Marion Turner, a Chaucerian biographer, posits in her book Chaucer, A European Life, that the lowly page Chaucer was probably sent to Olite to gain a pass to travel across Navarre so he could gather information and spy on behalf of King Edward the Third. This became the genesis for my story. Turner thinks this because of a record (in Chaucer Life Records) showing Chaucer being given a pass in February, 1366, to weeks before war broke out. See blog post here.
11. Pilgrims walked several routes from France to Santiago de Compostela, one of the main medieval pilgrimages then and now. Called the Camino de Santiago, in northern Spain it runs from Pamplona to Logrono and west to Najera then Burgos. The age old trail often ran next to the highway and I saw countless pilgrims walking.
12. Puenta La Reina – Gares is located along the Camino. There is a medieval church and chapel. The sound of medieval music drew me inside and I was witness to guitarist playing a song by himself, the sound echoing around the chapel. Absolutely magical, as I was transported back in time.
13. Wine was made by monks in Monjardin, a town above the road to Logrono. I pulled off to explore and wasn’t able to reach the castle atop the hill that had been built by the Moors in the 10th century and ever since controlled the valley.
14. Logroño was strategically important, situated at the crossroad between Rioja, Navarre and Castile. Chaucer would have known that all roads led through Logroño to Najera and Burgos, where a king would soon be crowned – or killed.
15. A few kilometres west of Logroño is Navarette. It was clear standing there, facing west, that if Prince Edward marched around a low mountain to the north he could outflank Enrique’s army placed on the plain in front of Najera, five miles west—as described in the best account of the battle, To Win and Lose a Medieval Battle by L.J. Andrew Villalon and Donald J. Kajay.
16. Najera was as I had imagined it, nestled beneath red cliffs, the River Najerilla bisecting the town, a monastery set back by the cliffs (and closed, sadly). Enrique Trastamara and his army gathered east of the river, and once the Battle of Najera (the largest battle of the 100 years war) began, there was no place to retreat. See the blog post here.
17. Burgos Cathedral is well worth a visit, a beautiful structure in the heart of Burgos. The scene where King Pedro the Cruel kills his daughter’s suitor, and was based on my visit to the central cloister and well…which gave me an idea of how a murder could occur. See the blog post here.
18. The city of Burgos was in Chaucer’s time surrounded by a wall and several gates, some of which still survive. I walked to five different gates connecting what was left of the city walls. The San Martin Gate was the entry into the Jewish quarter. King Pedro entered this gate after his victory at the battle of Najera (says Ayala, the chronicler who also fought at the Battle of Najera and who Chaucer may have met). The people likely gave Pedro a muted reception, as he had abandoned them and fled the city a year earlier as Enrique’s forces approached. See blog post here.
19. Las Huelgas monastery is where kings and queens have been baptized, crowned and buried in Castile for over a thousand years, and a sense of history pervaded the entire place. I wasn’t allowed to take photos inside the chapel (as i dodged sarcophagi) so had to suffice with the outside portico. The feeling was not dissimilar to stepping into the nave of the Palace of Westminster in London.
20. King Pere of Aragon had been fighting Pedro for a decade and was allied with Enrique Trastamara. From his power base in Barcelona he provided gold and mercenaries, including Hugh Calveley, whom Chaucer was searching for. See blog post here.
These are only a few of the many details I discovered along the journey. I hope to return to Europe in 2025 to conduct research on the fourth novel in the series, set in France, and hope to find similar kinds of details to support the research and writing.