Mobility and migration: Calais and the Welsh imagination in the late Middle Ages

The fortified city of Calais was a key English possession during the Hundred Years War, and previous accounts of the city have been written from an English viewpoint. This chapter aims to open up a view of the city from the perspective of Welsh soldiers and migrants who lived there in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Primary source material includes examples of Middle Welsh poetry which refer to soldiers fighting in France, while comparative material in Middle English expresses ambivalent views regarding the economics of trade with Calais. The chapter is grounded in theories of migration and transnationalism and it argues that the Hundred Years War, which offered opportunities to Welshmen for overseas military duty, marked a social and political change in Wales towards a more Europe-focused perspective. The Welsh migrant, Elis Gruffydd, who settled in Calais in the early sixteenth century, exemplifies the Welsh diaspora who considered the city their home. The chapter includes a newly edited and translated Welsh poem in praise of Welsh soldiers stationed in Calais in the late fifteenth century.