Category Archives: Primary Sources

The French Army in Italy (1494), according to Matteo Maria Boiardo

by DRM_peter Posted on March 21, 2025

The following text is a letter from Matteo Maria Boiardo, author of Orlando Innamorato and captain of Reggio Emilia in 1494, describing some French soldiers of King Charles VIII’s army going through the Este territories. Boiardo focused his attention on … Continue reading →

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A Description of English Soldiers during the Wars of the Roses

by DRM_peter Posted on March 21, 2025

The Italian scholar Dominic Mancini spent the first half of 1483 in England, likely on a diplomatic mission to gather intelligence for the French court. In December of that year, he completed his report, De Occupatione Regni Anglie Per Riccardum … Continue reading →

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Two 15th-century documents concerning Crossbow-Shooting in the Marquisate of Mantua

by DRM_peter Posted on March 21, 2025

Dilecte noster. Voressemo che come da te tu monstrassi haver inteso che nui a questa Pasqua de Mazo proxima vogliamo far trare cum le balestre quatro o cinque presii, tra li quali ge ne serà uno forsi de XX braza … Continue reading →

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The Campaigns of Joan of Arc, according to the Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet

by DRM_peter Posted on February 10, 2025

The work by Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Governor of Cambrai, covers the years 1400 to 1444. The section given below deals with events in France from 1428 to 1430, focusing on the rise of Joan of Arc, and ending with her … Continue reading →

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Joan of Arc’s victory at Orleans (1429), according to the Commentaries of Pius II

by DRM_peter Posted on February 10, 2025

Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, a statesman, poet and humanist, ascended to the Papal throne as Pius II in 1458. Writing in the third person, his work, the Commentaries of Pius II is part autobiography, memoir, diary and history. Much of his … Continue reading →

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Battle Tactics of the Hussites in the 15th century

by DRM_peter Posted on February 10, 2025

The Hussites, also known as the Taborites, became a formidable fighting force in the early fifteenth-century under the leadership of Jan Ziska (d.1424).  In the following two accounts, the first by Enea Silvio Piccolomini (later to be Pope Pius II), … Continue reading →

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The Battle of Bouvines (1214), According to Guillaume le Breton’s Gesta Philipi Augusti

by DRM_peter Posted on January 24, 2025

A translation of Chapters 181 to 190 from the Latin text in Guillaume le Breton, Gesta Philippi Augusti, in H. François Delaborde, ed., Oeuvres de Rigord et de Guillaume le Breton, historiens de Philippe-Auguste, vol. 1 (Paris: Société de l’Histoire de France, 1882), 264-81. Continue reading →

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The Battle of Nicopolis (1396), according to Johann Schiltberger

by DRM_peter Posted on January 11, 2025

One of the most important battles in European history was fought on September 25, 1396. Nicopolis was the first battle where the Ottoman Turks encountered a Western European army. The Ottomans were led by their sultan, Bayezid I, while the … Continue reading →

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Warfare in France and Flanders, 1381 to 1386, according to Buonaccorso Pitti

by DRM_peter Posted on January 11, 2025

Buonaccorso Pitti, who wrote a diary of his life, was a Florentine businessman who went into exile from his city in 1382.  His travels took him to the Low Countries and France, where he acted as a money lender and … Continue reading →

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The Bishop of Norwich’s Crusade (1383), according to the Chronica maiora of Thomas Walsingham

by DRM_peter Posted on January 9, 2025

Thomas Walsingham, a Benedictine monk at St Albans Abbey until his death in 1422, was among the most significant chroniclers of the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV. Renowned for his detailed historical works, Walsingham’s account of Henry Despenser’s … Continue reading →

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The Crusade of the Bishop of Norwich (1383), according to the Westminster Chronicle

by DRM_peter Posted on January 9, 2025

The Westminster Chronicle appears to have been the work of two authors: one who recorded events from 1381 to 1383, and another who continued the narrative up to 1394. The text below, detailing the Crusade of Henry Despenser, Bishop of … Continue reading →

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The Crusade of the Bishop of Norwich (1383), according to the Chronicle of Henry Knighton

by DRM_peter Posted on January 9, 2025

Henry Knighton, a canon at the Augustinian abbey of St. Mary of the Meadows in Leicester, chronicled English history from the tenth century to 1396 in his work, of which only two manuscripts survive today. His chronicle relies on earlier … Continue reading →

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Contrat de maître Barra, facteur d’arbalètes et autres artilleries, pris au service du consulat de Cahors le 1er octobre 1369

by DRM_peter Posted on December 31, 2024

Contract of master Barra, crossbows and other weapons manufacturer, in the service of the consulate of Cahors, dated October 1st, 1369. Origin of the document: Town archives of Cahors (Lot department, France), Livre Tanné (tanned book), folio 83 both sides. … Continue reading →

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Warfare in 14th-century Catalonia, according to the Chronicle of Pere III

by DRM_peter Posted on December 31, 2024

The Chronicle of King Pere III of Catalonia-Aragon (1336–1387) is presented as if written by Pere himself. However, it is more likely that Pere served as a supervisor overseeing a team of writers. His reign was marked by numerous conflicts, … Continue reading →

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The Black Prince’s Campaign of 1356 and the Battle of Poitiers According to the Monk of Malmesbury’s Eulogium historiarum, ca. 1366

by Daniel Franke Posted on November 5, 2022

The Black Prince’s Campaign of 1356 and the Battle of Poitiers According to the Monk of Malmesbury’s Eulogium historiarum, ca. 1366.[1]  Translated by the Turma ad Latinam of the United States Military Academy (Cadets Cammack Y. W. Shepler, Paul Conroy, … Continue reading →

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The Battle of Berre River, 737 CE: The Account of the Fredegar Continuator

by Daniel Franke Posted on May 18, 2021

Summary: Charles Martel, along with other Frankish leaders, besieged and recaptured the city of Avignon. They then advanced south and besieged Narbonne. While the city was under siege, Omar ibn Khaled led a Muslim army north to relieve his comrades. Charles … Continue reading →

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The French Chronicle of London on the Battle of Sluys and the Siege of Tournai

by DRM_peter Posted on November 4, 2016

The French Chronicle of London, detailing events from 1259 to 1343, provides one of the best accounts of the naval battle of Sluys, and the siege of Tournai by Edward III in 1340. Continue reading →

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Warfare Between England and Scotland, 1299 – 1301, according to Documents from the English Government

by DRM_peter Posted on October 7, 2016

In the following section, one can see the preparations and actions that the Edward I and his forces undertook in their ongoing war with Scotland at the turn of the fourteenth-century. Continue reading →

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Warfare between England and Scotland in the late 13th and early 14th centuries from the Chronicle of Lanercost

by DRM_peter Posted on October 7, 2016

The Chronicle of Lanercost covers the period 1201 to 1346. The sections given below involve the ongoing warfare in Scotland between Edward the Second and Robert the Bruce Continue reading →

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Warfare between England and Scotland in the late 13th and early 14th centuries from the Scalacronica

by DRM_peter Posted on October 7, 2016

In 1355, Sir Thomas Gray of Heton, warden of Norham Castle, was captured during warfare with Scotland. While being held at Edinburgh Castle, Thomas began writing the Scalacronica, a history of England up to the reign of Edward the Third, with the work ending in 1362. Continue reading →

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The Battle of the Bannockburn in 1314, according to the Vita Edwardi Secundi

by DRM_peter Posted on September 28, 2016

The anonymous author of the Vita Edwardi Secundi provides one of the best accounts of the reign of Edward II. This includes his description of the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, where the Scots under Robert Bruce defeated Edward and his army. Continue reading →

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The Siege of Florence in 1312, according to Giovanni Villani

by DRM_peter Posted on September 28, 2016

One episode in the continuous warfare between the Holy Roman Empire, the Papacy and the Italian city-states was the siege of Florence by the forces of Emperor Henry VII in 1312. This account of the siege was recorded by the Florentine historian Giovanni Villani (d.1348) Continue reading →

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Naval Contract by the Papacy against the Turks (1334)

by DRM_peter Posted on September 28, 2016

The Aegean Sea became a new theatre of warfare between Crusaders and the Turks in the early fourteenth-century. In the following document, the papal camera contracts four fully equipped galleys for service in the first naval league against the Turks. The contract is dated March 7, 1334. Continue reading →

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Descriptions of warfare in The Rhyme Chronicle of Livonia

by DRM_peter Posted on September 21, 2016

The Rhyme Chronicle of Livonia (Liulandische Reimchronik) is an account of the activities of the Teutonic Order . It was written around the end of the thirteenth century, and consists of 12017 lines of rhyming couplets written in Middle High German. It is the only major source of Baltic history for the years 1225 to 1290, since the only other chronicle, the one by Henry of Livonia, covers the period 1143 to 1225. Continue reading →

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The Battle of Stillfried, 1278, from the Gesta Hungarorum

by DRM_peter Posted on September 21, 2016

The Gesta Hungarorum, or The Deeds of the Hungarians, was written by Simon of Keza around 1280-2. Simon was a court cleric to King Ladislas IV of Hungary, and his work is highly laudatory of his king. In the following section, the writer describes the battle of Stillfield, in which the forces of Ladislas and Rudolf of Habsburg, the German king, defeated King Otakar of Bohemia. The battle was fought on August 26, 1278. Continue reading →

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Military Organisation in the Guta Saga

by DRM_peter Posted on September 21, 2016

The Guta Saga is a short chronicle, written sometime between 1220 and 1275, which details the history of Gotland, a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. One of the last sections in this saga describes the arrangements made regarding what obligations did Gotlanders have in providing ships and men for the military campaigns of the Swedish kings. Continue reading →

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Warfare in Thirteenth Century Iceland

by DRM_peter Posted on September 21, 2016

The collapse of Iceland as a self-governing country in the mid-thirteenth century is highlighted by several conflicts between various powerful chieftains. The various sagas and histories that make up the Sturlunga Sagas were written soon after the events they record, and their descriptions of some of the battles that took place on the island are among the most interesting medieval accounts of warfare. Continue reading →

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Warfare between Bologna and Faenza in 1275

by DRM_peter Posted on August 10, 2016

Salimbene de Adam, a Franciscan, produced his Chronicle in the 1280s. He left one of the most interesting and wide-ranging histories of the Middle Ages, in which he covers a variety of matters, from the political maneuvers of the Italian city-states to the practical jokes that his fellow monks played upon each other. Continue reading →

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The surrender of Gaston Castle (1268), according The Catalan Rule of the Templars

by DRM_peter Posted on August 10, 2016

The following is clause 180 of this text, which describes the surrender of a Templar castle after the fall of Antioch in 1268. It was against the Order’s rule for members to abandon their castles without permission, with a punishment of expulsion from the Templars to those who transgressed. Continue reading →

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Muslim accounts on warfare in al-Andalus (Spain)

by DRM_peter Posted on August 10, 2016

The second account describes the death of Sancho Ramirez, son of the Aragonese king Ramiro I, while at the siege of Huesca in 1094 (Christian accounts have Sancho Ramirez being killed by an arrow while at the siege). The third section details how James I invaded and captured the island of Majorca in 1231 Continue reading →

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