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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
- • The Siege of Amida in 359 by Ammianus Marecllinus
- • The Siege of Amida in 502, according to Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite
- • Warfare and Military Affairs in the Letters of Cassiodorus
- • Byzantine Warfare in the Sixth Century, according to John Malalas
- • Byzantine conquest of Italy in the sixth-century, according to the Chronicle of Marcellinus
- • A Byzantine campaign in the Balkans (594), according to Theophylact Simocatta
- • The Campaigns of Emperor Herakleios (620-6), according to the Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor
Early Medieval Warfare
- • Episodes of Medieval Warfare from the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours
- • The Battle of Berre River, 737 CE: The Account of the Fredegar Continuator
- • Medieval Warfare in the reign of Charlemagne
- • Charlemagne’s way of raising troops
- • The Battle of Fontenay in 841, according to the Annals of Fulda
- • Disorder and Warfare according to the Annals of Xanten (844 -861)
- • Viking Raids in France and the Siege of Paris (882 – 886)
- • The Arab invasions of Southern Italy, according to The Chronicle of Ahimaaz
- • The Siege of Thessaloniki in 904, from the letter of John Kaminiates
- • The Siege of Tarsos in 965, according to Leo the Deacon
- • The Fourth Book of The Chronicle of Æthelweard
- • Two battles from Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum
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
- • The First Crusade: A short narrative from contemporary sources
- • The Battle for Antioch in the First Crusade (1097-98) according to Peter Tudebode
- • The Siege of Tyre in 1111-12, according to the Chronicle of Ibn Al-Qalanisi
- • Warfare in the Crusader States (1104-1127), according to the Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa
- • The Genoese expedition to Almeria, 1147
- • Letters of Conrad III during the Second Crusade
- • The Siege of Ascalon (1153)
- • Frederick I ‘Barbarossa’ issues rules for his army (1158)
- • Letter from Aymeric, Patriarch of Antioch, to Louis VII, King of France (1164)
- • The Battle of Tusculum, 1167
- • The History of the Siege of Ancona (1173), according to Boncompagno da Signa
- • The Founding of the Templars
- • Hugh ‘The Sinner’: Letter to the Knights of Christ in the Temple at Jerusalem
- •The Battle of Hattin (1187): Four Accounts
- The Battle of Hattin (1187) from The Song of the Siege of Acre
- • A Naval Battle near Acre (1190)
- • Two accounts of the conquest of Cyprus by Richard I (1191)
- • The Battle of Alarcos, 1195
- • Robert of Clari’s account of the Fourth Crusade
- • The Seventh Crusade (1249), according to Abu al-Faraj Gregory Bar Hebraeus
- • The surrender of Gaston castle (1268), according The Catalan Rule of the Templars
- • Accounts about the Loss of Acre (1291)
- • Crusade planning in the late thirteenth century
- • Adh-Dhababi’s Record of the Destruction of Damascus by the Mongols in 1299-1301
- • A plan to regain the Holy Land from the Master of the Hospitallers (c.1305)
High Medieval Warfare (12-13thC)
This section is divided geographically:
Western Europe (England, France, Low Countries)
- • Warfare 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, according to Galbert of Bruges’ The Murder of Charles the Good
- • Warfare in Flanders, according to Herman of Tournai
- • Warfare in Flanders, according to Walter of Thérouanne
- • Description of a Motte and Bailey Castle from Flanders, 12th century
- • The Battle of the Standard, 1138, from the Hexham Chronicle
- • The Sieges of 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
- • 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)
- • 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
- • Pisa raids the Balearic Islands in 1114
- • Three Sources on the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212
- • The Battle of Jerez in 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
- • Bologna against Faenza and Forli in 1275
- • Naval Warfare between Pisa and Genoa in 1284
- • Warfare between Reggio and Gesso in 1287
- • Battle of Campaldino, 1289, according to Dino Compagni
- • Battle of Campaldino, 1289, according to Giovanni Villani
Eastern and Northern Europe
- • The Battle of Norafiord (1184), according to the Sverrissaga
- • Warfare in 12th-century Russia, according to the Kievan Chronicle
- • The Siege of the Rock of Tunsberg (1201), from the Sverrissaga
- • Description of Mongol warfare from Friar John of Plano Carpini (1247)
- • Warfare in Thirteenth Century Iceland
- • Thirteenth Century Warfare between Norway and Scotland
- • Ibn al-Athīr’s Accounts of the Rūs (10th to 13th centuries)
- • Warfare in 13th century Byzantium, according to George Akropolites
- • The Mongol Invasion of the Middle East (1258-1260), according to Rashiduddin Fazlullah
- • The Battle of Ayn Jalut (1260)
- • Military Organisation in the Guta Saga
- • Documents Relating to the Baltic Crusade (1199-1266)
- • The Battle of Stillfried, 1278, from the Gesta Hungarorum
- • Descriptions of warfare in The Rhyme Chronicle of Livonia
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)
- • English Battles and Campaigns from The Chronicle of Adam of Usk
- • The Battle of Tannenburg or Grunwald in 1410, according to Jan Dlugosz
- • Welsh Annals on the Rebllion 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 in 1453, according to Nicolo Barbaro
- • The Siege of Constantinople in 1453, according to George Sphrantzes
- • The Siege of Constantinople in 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 Italian 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
- Babur’s capture and loss of Samarkand (1501), according to the Baburnama
- The Asahina Battle Chronicle of early Sixteenth Century Japan
- The Battle of Pavia in 1525, according to a Jewish chronicler
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