Margery Kempe

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MK , called the first English autobiographer, wrote (in the earlier fifteenth century) an account of her life-experience as immensely significant to God and to herself. In a sense, though her subject is herself, she may be seen as writing hagiography. She was more concerned to record her religious experiences than her external adventures on pilgrimage.
  • BirthName: Margery
    The Feminist Companion spells her Christian name Marjery. Scholarly usage, however, has settled on spelling with a g.
    Brunham
  • Married: Kempe

Milestones

About 1373

Margery Brunham (later MK ) was born in Lynn in Norfolk (later called King's Lynn).
Kempe, Margery. “Introduction”. The Book of Margery Kempe, translated by. Barry A. Windeatt, Penguin, 1994, pp. 9-30.
10

1431-2

At about this date MK began dictating the story of her life.
Kempe, Margery. “Introduction”. The Book of Margery Kempe, translated by. Barry A. Windeatt, Penguin, 1994, pp. 9-30.
30
Kempe, Margery. The Book of Margery Kempe. Translator Windeatt, Barry A., Revised Edition, Penguin, 1994.
261

Some time after April 1438

MK died at an unknown date; she seems to have been alive during this month.
Some scholars take the admission to Lynn's Trinity Guild on 13 April as the last trace of her still living. Barry A. Windeatt thought her working on her text at the end of this month, and still alive on 22 May 1439.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Kempe, Margery. The Book of Margery Kempe. Translator Windeatt, Barry A., Revised Edition, Penguin, 1994.
265, 328n2
Kempe, Margery. “Introduction”. The Book of Margery Kempe, translated by. Barry A. Windeatt, Penguin, 1994, pp. 9-30.
30
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Kempe, Margery. The Book of Margery Kempe. Translator Windeatt, Barry A., Revised Edition, Penguin, 1994.
265, 328n2

28 April 1438

At the suggestion of her priest-scribe, it seems that MK began adding a shorter second part to her book, telling what had happened in the interim.
Felicity Riddy in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, says only that the priest-scribe began the additional section on this date, and supposes that the author's instructions may have dated from earlier.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Kempe, Margery. The Book of Margery Kempe. Translator Windeatt, Barry A., Revised Edition, Penguin, 1994.
265, 328n2

1501

The early printer Wynkyn de Worde printed seven pages from MK 's text as A Shorte Treatyse of Contemplacyon Taught by Our Lorde Ihesu Cryste.
Kempe, Margery. “Introduction”. The Book of Margery Kempe, translated by. Barry A. Windeatt, Penguin, 1994, pp. 9-30.
9

Biography

Birth and Family

About 1373

Margery Brunham (later MK ) was born in Lynn in Norfolk (later called King's Lynn).
Kempe, Margery. “Introduction”. The Book of Margery Kempe, translated by. Barry A. Windeatt, Penguin, 1994, pp. 9-30.
10