Skule receives safe conduct for a pilgrimage to Canterbury
DN 19/206 · 25 juni 1232 · Ely
What the letter says
At Ely on 25 June 1232 the Duke of Norway and those he brings with him to England receive letters of safe conduct for a pilgrimage to the tomb of the holy martyr Thomas. The safe conduct is valid until Easter in the king's 17th year, that is spring 1233.
The letter in modern English
On safe conduct for the Duke of Norway. S., Duke of Norway, and those of his people whom he brings with him to England to visit the shrine of the blessed martyr Thomas on pilgrimage, have letters of safe conduct valid until Easter in the year etc. 17 [Easter 1233]. Witness the king, at Ely on 25 June.
Original text
De conductu ducis Norwegie. S. dux Norwegie et sui quos secum duxerit in Angliam ad limina Beati Thome Martiris causa peregrinationis visitanda, habent literas de conductu duraturas usque ad Pascha, anno etc. xvij. Teste rege, apud Ely, xxv die Junii.
Background
The duke is Skule Bårdsson (1189 to 1240), of the Giske family through Tora Skoftesdatter, who was then jarl and ruled Norway together with King Håkon Håkonsson. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury killed in the cathedral in 1170, was one of the most visited saints in Europe, and his tomb was a great place of pilgrimage. A safe conduct was a letter from the king granting safe passage, so that no one could attack or detain the traveller. It is not known that Skule actually travelled to England that year. The source is an entry in the English king's register of letters, and it shows only that the safe conduct was granted.
People: Skule Bårdsson