Research Guides: HIST 3363: Britain to 1714: Find Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Women in England, c. 1275-1525: Documentary sources
Call Number: DA170 .W655 1995, 4th floor
Demonstrates the variety of evidence that survives of English women in all walks of life from the time of Edward I to the eve of the Reformation.
The Romans in Britain: a selection of Latin texts, with commentary
Call Number: DA145.M6 1953, 4th floor
The Anglo-Saxon World: A sourcebook
Call Number: PR1508 .A54 1999, 3rd floor
The Anglo-Saxon chronicle
Call Number: DA150.A6 1961, 4th floor
A revised translation edited by Dorothy Whitelock, with David C. Douglas and Susie I. Tucker.
Chronicles of the Reign of Alfred the Great
Call Number: Read Online
(Alfred, King of England, 849-899)
The Norman Conquest of England: Sources and documents
Call Number: Read Online
Offers insight into the Norman Conquest of England from a variety of perspectives: literary and narrative sources (including Norman, Old English and Anglo-Norman texts); documentary sources, such as charters, writs and leases; letters; and the art of the period, principally, though not exclusively, from the Bayeux Tapestry. Both Anglo-Saxon and Norman England are represented, and Normandy itself is the subject of one section. All documents are provided in translation.
The Battle of Hastings: Sources and interpretations
Call Number: Read Online
Domesday and Feudal Statistics with a Chapter on Agriculture Statistics
Call Number: DA190.D7I5 1971, 4th floor
Aelred of Rievaulx: The historical works by Aelred, of Rievaulx, Saint, 1110-1167
Call Number: DA190 .A43 2005, 4th floor
The Occult in Medieval Europe, 500-1500: A documentary history
Call Number: BF1434 .E85 O25 2005, 4th floor
A varied collection of documents--many of which appear in English for the first time--surveying what people throughout Europe actually thought and believed about the occult sciences at the time. The various branches of magic, divination, astrology and alchemy which helped people to make sense of their world are presented through translated extracts from religious, legal, medical and scientific documents.
The Lisle Letters
Call Number: DA335.L5L57 volumes 1-6, 4th floor
The Lisle Letters consist of the personal, official, and business correspondence of the household of Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, the illegitimate but acknowledged son of Edward IV, during the years 1533 to 1540 when he was Lord Deputy of Calais. These seven years in English history were marked by the rise, ascendency, and fall of Thomas Cromwell, and the letters reflect court of Henry VIII. They also present the everyday concerns of the Lisle household. Abundance of detail about daily life: marriage, child rearing, education, clothing, food, and furnishing. The Lisle Letters are the Tudor world in microcosm.
The Black Death: The great mortality of 1348-1350 : a brief history with documents
Call Number: RC178 .A1 A237 2005, 3rd floor
Nearly 50 documents organized into topical sections that focus on the origin and spread of the illness; the responses of medical practitioners; the societal and economic impact; religious responses; the flagellant movement and attacks on Jews provoked by the plague; and the artistic response.
From the Norman Conquest to the Black Death: An anthology of writings from England
Call Number: PA8163 .F766 2011, 3rd floor
Literature that was produced between the Norman Conquest and the Black Death.The diversity of genres includes chronicle, history, legends, plays, lyrics, debates, romances, and stories of all shapes and kinds.

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On the library catalog search page, first enter keywords related to your topic, in the row marked words or phrase.
Then, in the row marked subject, copy and paste this string of words -- sources or diaries or 'personal narratives' or manuscripts or correspondence

What is a Primary Source?

Primary vs. Secondary Sources: A Guide to Understanding

Primary Source Collections Online

Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy
Browse documents in the ancient, medieval, 15th, 16th, and 17th century menu sections. Note: Documents listed are not limited to Britain. (Yale Law School)
British History Online
Contains core primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles, 11th - 19th centuries. (Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust)
De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History
Hosts "many primary sources, articles, dissertations, and resources for the study of military actions, technology, and topics from the fall of Rome to early seventeenth century." (Society for Medieval Military History)
Digital Scriptorium: Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts
A growing image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts that unites scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research. (Univ. of California-Berkeley)
The Domesday Book: Online version
(National Archives, U.K.)
EuroDocs: Primary Sources from Britain, Antiquity through 1065
(Brigham Young University)
EuroDocs: Primary Sources from Britain, 1066-1485
(Brigham Young University)
Internet Medieval Sourcebook: England
Links to historical documents from Anglo-Saxon England, Norman England, Angevin England, through Later Medieval England. (Fordham University)
Treasures from the National Archives: Middle Ages, 1066-1484
(National Archives, U.K.)
Treasures from the National Archives: Tudors and Stuarts (1485-1714)
(National Archives, U.K.)

The Crusades: Primary Sources

Often a variety of primary documents are collected together into a book (usually related to a time period, topic, or theme).

Below are just a few broad collections in the Library; each book contains many original documents.

(Note: many of these books will contain both primary and secondary content, so use your judgement or ask a librarian for help in distinguishing the two).

Arab Historians of the Crusades
Call Number: D157 .S76 1984, 4th flooor
Contemporary Arab accounts of the fighting between Muslim and Christian. Extracts are drawn from seventeen different authors encompassing a multitude of sources showing the Crusades through Arab eyes.
The First Crusade: The chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and other source materials
Call Number: D161.1 .F57 1998 , 4th floor
The Deeds of the Franks and Other Jerusalem-Bound Pilgrims: The earliest chronicle of the first crusades
Call Number: D161.1 .G413 2011, 4th floor
God, Humanity and History: The Hebrew First Crusade narratives
Call Number: Read Online
The Gesta Tancredi of Ralph of Caen: A history of the Normans on the First Crusade by Raoul, de Caen, 1080-1120
Call Number: Read Online
First translation into English of Ralph of Caen's Gesta Tancredi. Exceptionally important narrative of the First Crusade and its immediate aftermath, covering the period 1096 - 1105, but often neglected. The most important Latin source for the Norman campaigns in Cilicia (1097 - 1108), and for the early Norman rule of Antioch. The work as a whole has a striking Norman point of view and contains details found in no other source.
The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades: Extracted and Translated from the Chronicle of Ibn Al-Qalanisi
Call Number: Read Online
Remarkable contemporary account of early Crusades by one of Damascus' leading citizens covers events of 1097-1159. Based on both written and oral reports, colorful narrative relates every particular of life during wartime.
Christian Society and the Crusades, 1198-1229: Sources in translation
Call Number: Read Online - Or print is available: D151.P47, 4th floor
Crusade and Christendom: Annotated documents in translation from Innocent III to the fall of Acre, 1187-1291
Call Number: D151 .C765 2013, 4th floor
The Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa: The history of the expedition of the Emperor Frederick and related texts
Call Number: Read Online
This is the first English translation of the main contemporary accounts of the Crusade and death of the German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (ruled 1152-90). The main text here, the 'History of the Expedition of the Emperor Frederick', was written soon after the events described, and is a crucial, and much under-used source for the Third Crusade. A number of subsidiary texts also translated illustrate and expand this main account, and place the crusade in context.
Cathars and Albigensian Crusade: A Sourcebook
Call Number: DC83.2 .C38 2014 - 4th floor
Diverse range of medieval sources to examine key aspects of the growth of heresy and dissent in southern France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and the Church's response to that threat through the subsequent authorisation of the Albigensian crusade.
The Seventh Crusade, 1244-1254: Sources and documents
Call Number: D167 .S48 2007, 4th floor
How to Defeat the Saracens by William, of Adam, approximately 1275-approximately 1338
Call Number: D172 .W55 2012, 4th floor

Find more in the SHSU Library catalog . . .