ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines how early modern royal journeys and progresses were perceived and defined, the purposes for which they were undertaken and aspects of their logistical and material history. It addresses the royal itineraries in England and France, the administrative and spatial dimensions of progresses, questions of spectacle and symbolism and the political culture of royal journeys in terms of theatricalisation memory and the performance of justice. The book includes the importance of gender as a category of analysis; elements of unpredictability and royal agency; the challenges of reading source materials to recover what actually took place on royal journeys; and how historians of different specialisms can establish a common set of approaches to a diverse topic spanning multiple territories and cultures.
