Primary Sources

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This section contains our collection of translated medieval sources that deal with warfare in the Middle Ages.

Roman | Early Medieval | 10-11thC | Crusades | 12-13thC | 14thC | 15thC | 16thC+

Late Roman and Byzantine Sources

 

Early Medieval Warfare

 

Tenth/Eleventh-Century Warfare

 

  • • Knut’s Invasion of England in 1015-16, according to the Knytlinga Saga
  • • Warfare in the Orkney Islands in the Eleventh Century
  • • The Battle of Nouy, from Rodulfus Glaber
  • • The Battles of Saint Aubin (1053) and Mortemer (1054)
  • • The Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066) and the life of Haraldr Sigurðarson, according to Theodoricus Monachus
  • • Ransoming of English prisoners by St. Margaret of Scotland
  • • Warfare in Eleventh-Century Spain (Al-Andalus), according to The Tibyan
  • • The Battle of Zallaqa in 1086

The Crusades

 

High Medieval Warfare (12-13thC)

 


This section is divided geographically:

Western Europe (England, France, Low Countries)

  • • War between Henry V and the city of Cologne, 1114
  • • Selections from the Life of Louis VI, by Suger
  • • The Battle of Bremule, by Orderic Vitalis
  • • Warfare in Flanders and the Siege of Bruges, 1127
  • • Description of a Motte and Bailey Castle from Flanders, 12th century
  • • The Battle of the Standard, 1138, from the Hexham chronicle
  • • Warfare in Bristol and Bath, from the Gesta Stephani
  • • The Siege of Worcester, from the Chronicle of Worcester
  • • Five works on the battle of Lincoln, 1141
  • • Geoffrey of Mandeville’s rebellion in 1143-44
  • • Levy of an Army in Wales, 1164
  • • Warfare between Henry I and Robert Curthose, according to Wace
  • • Warfare in England and France in 1173-74, according to William of Newburgh
  • • The Battle of Gisors, 1198, from the Annals of Roger of Hoveden
  • • Portions of Two Poems by the Twelfth-Century Knight-Troubadour Bertran de Born
  • • Warfare in Normandy, 1201-1204, according to Rigord’s Deeds of Phillip Augustus
  • • The History of William the Marshal
  • • The Battle of Bouvines, 1214, from several sources
  • • The Battle of Lincoln (1217), according to Roger of Wendover
  • • The Siege of Toulouse in 1217-18, according to The Chronicle of William of Puylaurens
  • • The Siege of Termes (1210), according to the Song of the Cathar Wars
  • • The Siege of Termes (1210), according to the Historia Albigensis
  • • Jacques de Vitry: Sermons to a Military Order
  • • Philippe de Remy’s description of a fictionalised tournament at Ressons-Gournay (c.1241)
  • • Selection about warfare from The King’s Mirror, a thirteenth century Norwegian text
  • • A Plea Roll of Edward I’s Army in Scotland, 1296
  • • Journal of the Movements of King Edward I in Scotland, 1296
  • • Letter reporting on the Battle of Falkirk, 1298
  • • The Battle of the Golden Spurs, 1302

Iberia (Reconquista) and the Mediterranean

  • • The Career of Robert Guiscard, according to the Annales Lupi Protospatharii
  • • Pisan raids on the Balearics, 1114
  • • The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, 1212
  • • The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, according to The Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile
  • • The Battle of Jerez, 1231
  • • The Siege of Burriana (1233), according to the Chronicle of James the Conqueror
  • • Muslim accounts of warfare in al-Andalus
  • • Laws concerning warfare and the military, from Las Siete Partidas
  • • The Siege of Padua in 1257, according to Rolandino Patavino
  • • The surrender of Gaston castle (1268), according The Catalan Rule of the Templars
  • • Bologna against Faenza and Forli, 1275
  • • A Naval battle between Pisa and Genoa, 1284
  • • Warfare between Reggio and Gesso, 1287
  • • Battle of Campaldino, 1289, according to Dino Compagni
  • • Battle of Campaldino, 1289, according to Giovanni Villani

Eastern and Northern Europe

Fourteenth-Century Warfare

 

  • • Naval Contract by the Papacy against the Turks (1334)
  • • The Siege of Florence, 1312, according to Giovanni Villani
  • • The Battle of the Bannockburn (1314), according to the Vita Edwardi Secundi
  • • Warfare in Fourteenth Century Hungary, from the Chronica de Gestis Hungarorum
  • • Warfare in Italy, 1332-3, according to Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
  • • Description of English soldiers in Italy by Filippo Villani
  • • Warfare between England and Scotland in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries from the Scalacronica
  • • Warfare between England and Scotland in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries from the Chronicle of Lanercost
  • • Warfare Between England and Scotland, 1299 – 1301, according to Documents from the English Government
  • • Siege of Carlaverock, 1300
  • • The City of London and Warfare in the 14th century
  • • Petitions dealing with warfare from Fourteenth-century Berwick, Cumbria and Durham
  • • Edward III’s Letter detailing his campaign in France, 1339
  • • The French Chronicle of London on the battle of Sluys and the siege of Tournai
  • • Descriptions of warfare found in the Chronicle of Louth Park Abbey, 1314-1346
  • • The Battle of Crécy according to Jean Froissart
  • • The War of Galata, according to the History of John Cantacuzenus, 1348
  • • Letter from Edward the Black Prince, about the Battle of Poitiers, 1356
  • • The Chronicle of Pere III: Campaign in Roussillion, 1344
  • • Peasants at War in France: Guillaume l’Aloue in 1359
  • • Contrat de maître Barra, facteur d’arbalètes et autres artilleries, pris au service du consulat de Cahors le 1er octobre 1369
  • • English Troops in Portugal in 1381, according to Fernao Lopes
  • • The Crusade of the Bishop of Norwich in 1383, according to the Chronicle of Henry Knighton
  • • The Crusade of the Bishop of Norwich in 1383, according to the Westminster Chronicle
  • • The Crusade of the Bishop of Norwich in 1383, according to the Chronica maiora of Thomas Walsingham
  • • Warfare in France and Flanders, 1381 to 1386, according to Buonaccorso Pitti
  • • The Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, according to Johann Schiltberger
  • • The Tree of Battles, by Honoré Bonet
  • • A Muslim Manual of War from the Fourteenth Century
  • • The Skill of Archery from a 14th century Mamluk-Kipchak Military Treatise

Fifteenth-Century Warfare

 

  • • Sources on Tamerlane (1336-1405), including the Battle of Angora (1402)
  • • Battles and Campaigns from The Chronicle of Adam of Usk
  • • The Battle of Tannenburg or Grunwald in 1410, according to Jan Dlugosz
  • • Annals of Owain Glyn Dwr, 1400-1415
  • • The Battle of Agincourt, 1415
  • • The Capture of Ceuta by the Portuguese (1415)
  • • Battle Tactics of the Hussites
  • • Joan of Arc’s victory at Orleans (1428), according to the Commentaries of Pius II
  • • Joan of Arc’s campaigns, from the Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet
  • • The Battle of Caravaggio (1448)
  • • The Siege of Constantinople (1453), according to Nicolo Barbaro
  • • The Siege of Constantinople (1453), according to George Sphrantzes
  • • The Siege of Constantinople (1453), according to Kritovoulos
  • • The Chronicles of Celje (in medieval German)
  • • Schioppettieri a Venezia (1477)
  • • Two Documents concerning Crossbow-shooting in the Marquisate of Mantua in the 15th century
  • • Warfare in Fifteenth Century Italy, according to a Florentine merchant
  • • A Description of a Castle in Milan in 1480
  • • A Description of English soldiers during the Wars of the Roses
  • • Defending Milan in 1490
  • • The French Army in Italy (1494), according to Matteo Maria Boiardo
  • • Warfare in the city of Perugia in 1495
  • • The Battle of Fornovo (1495), according to Alessandro Beneditti
  • • The Sack of Montopoli in Val D’Arno (1498)
  • • Castel Bolognese (1500)

 Sixteenth Century and Later Warfare