Timeline of Lady Montagu's Travels

By katiereitzel

  • Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is born

  • Mary is baptized

  • Mary became Lady Mary

    Mary became a Lady when her father succeeded his brother as earl of Kingston

  • Lady Mary began her writing career

    Lady Mary filled two volumes with writings, both poetry and prose, at age 14

  • Lady Mary marries Edward Wortley Montagu

  • Lady Montagu's first child is born

    Edward Wortley Montagu the younger was born

  • Lady Mary finds new company

    At New Year's of 1715, Lady Mary arrived in London and plunged herself into court and intellectual society

  • Lady Mary gets smallpox and survives

  • Lady Mary leaves London to accompany her husband on his embassy to Constantinople

  • Lady Mary and her husband reach Turkey in the spring

  • Lady Mary writes the first of the letters we read (letter XXIV)

    Lady Mary writes to Pope from Belgrade, detailing the events of her travels thus far

  • Lady Mary writes the fifth of the letters we read (Letter XXXI)

    In this letter, Lady Mary is writing to Mrs. S.C. from Adrianople. Mary discusses the notion of inoculation, and how she has seen it in practice on her travels, as well as how it works. She also mentions wishing to bring inoculation back to England when she returns home.

  • Lady Mary writes the second of the letters we read (Letter XXV)

    Lady Mary writes to the Princess of Wales from Adrianople. In this letter, Lady Mary tells the Princess of the city she is currently in, as well as the economic disparity between citizens of the city and the oppression of the lower classes.

  • Lady Mary writes the third of the letters we read (Letter XXVI)

    Lady Mary writes to "The Lady" from Adrianople, and paints a beautifully vivid picture of the hot baths at Sophia. Lady Mary talks at length of the beauty and lack of modesty/shame of the Turkish at the baths, detailing their shapeliness, their beautiful hair, etc.

  • Lady Mary writes the fourth of the letters we read (Letter XXIX)

    Lady Mary writes to her sister from Adrianople. In this letter, she first entreats her sister to write her of what is happening back home, then goes on to describe in great detail the Turkish dress which she has traded her English garments for, as well as the perceived sense of liberty that being entirely covered brings

  • Lady Mary writes the sixth of the letters we read (Letter XXXIII)

    Lady Mary writes to her sister from Adrianopolis. In this letter, Mary tells her sister of the entertainments she was afforded the previous night, via visits to female nobility of Adrianople. She goes on at length about the beauty of the people and of their dress, focusing specifically on a noblewoman named Fatima and the perceived perfection of her person.

  • Lady Mary writes the seventh and final of the letters we read (Letter XXXIV)

    In this letter, Lady Mary is writing to "The Abbott of--" from Adrianople. She writes about the city of Adrianople itself, as well as it's charms. She also details a ceremony which she was privy to that involved the parading of the city's finest of each profession through the town, and goes on to discuss the beauty of a mosque she visited. She ends this letter by promising in a postscript to write to the recipient from Constantinople.

  • Lady Mary's second child is born

    the future Mary Stuart was born in Turkey in 1718.

  • Lady Mary and her family set out to return home

  • Lady Mary brings the practice of inoculation home to England

    Lady Mary convinced a doctor to inoculate her daughter against smallpox, and in doing so brought the eastern practice of inoculation to the west.

  • Lady Mary falls in love

    Lady Mary fell in love with "a brilliant young middle-class Venetian" named Francesco Algarotti and began writing him love letters
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    Lady Mary eloped and Traveled with Algarotti

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    Lady Mary settled at Avignon

    Lady Mary spent over a decade travelling to flee war, rather than travelling with her lover as she once had
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    Lady Mary falls ill and settles at Brescia

  • Lady Mary begins trying to get away from Brescia

  • Lady Mary realizes she is a prisoner at Brescia and makes her escape

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    Lady Mary settles in Venice

  • Lady Mary's husband dies and she makes her final journey back to London

  • Lady Mary dies in Westminster