Britain from Antiquity through 1065

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EuroDocs > History of the United Kingdom: Primary Documents > Antiquity through 1065

Pre-Roman Rule

Maps and images of transformations as seen through cultural artifacts.
(Includes data on former Roman provinces now found in Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Netherlands, Romania and Slovakia)
Geographic and thematic approaches available in nine languages.
(Antiquity through 212 AD; maps and facsimile images)
Materials for the History of Britain, From the Earliest Period.
Volume I - Extending to the Norman Conquest
(antiquity-1066 AD; facsimiles in several languages; Latin transcriptions)
Photographs from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales.
Read about the project here.
(Mostly antiquity; photo facsimiles)
Dozens of chronicles, biographies, poems, medical books and other pieces of literatures from the ancient Celts
(English, Latin, Welsh)
Accounts of the region and people of Britannia. Authors include Julius Caesar, Polybius, Lucretius, etc. "People" filter can be removed for wider search results within the region.
Made available by Topos Text
(antiquity; English translation)
Although Pytheas' work is now lost, he is heavily referenced in this selection from Strabo's Geography. Pytheas offered the earliest account of the British inhabitants.
In cooperation with LacusCurtius
(330-320 BC; English translation)
From Diodorus Siculus' Library of History comes an account of Britain, Basileia, Gaul, Celtiberia, Iberia, Liguria, and Tyrrhenia
LacusCurtius
(60 BC; Greek and English translation)
Cæsar, himself gives the following account of his two famous invasions of Britain, in the years 55 B. C. and 54 B. C., and with this account the written history of the country begins.
From Elfin Spell
(55 BC; English translation)
Cæsar with his usual keenness observed the Britons and made inquiries about them at the same time that he was carrying on war with them. The results of his investigations as he gives them in his narrative, incorrect as some of his statements probably are, furnish us our first satisfactory information concerning the inhabitants of the island of Britain.
From Elfin Spell
(55 BC; English translation)
Two letters from Cicero written to his friend Atticus in the fall of the year 54 B. C. give a glimpse of the way Cæsar’s invasion of Britain looked to contemporary Romans.
From Elfin Spell
(54 BC, English translation)
Beginning in section 21, we are given a description of the mannerisms, housing, transportation, farming, and other customs of Ancient Britain's inhabitants.
Find the book in its entirety here at LacusCurtius.
(ca mid-1st century BC; English translation)
Greek traveler Strabo’s encyclopedia on the ancient world as he knew it. This portion focuses specifically on Britain, Ireland and Thule.
Compiled by Lacus Curtius
(7 BC; Greek transcription with English translations)
Contains the original and authentic testimony of contemporary writers to the most important transactions of our forefathers, both by sea and land, from their first arrival in this country to the year 1154.
Part of The Avalon Project.
(1-1154; English transcription)

Provincia Britannia (43AD-410)

Curses were usually inscribed with a stylus on lead tablets, although other materials, including wooden writing tablets, papyri and stone, could also bear them. Find photographs and translations of the curses.
(antiquity; English)
The attack on the island of Mona or Anglesea, which thus gave opportunity for a revolt of the still but half-conquered Britons, and the subsequent events of this year of war, A. D. 61, are more fully described in another of Tacitus’ works, his Annals.
From Elfin Spell
(61 AD; English translation)
Written by Cornelius Tacitus about the life and culture of native Britons in comparison to the Empire
(98 AD; Latin transcription with English translation)
Wooden tablets recording life in Roman Britain at an outpost in Northern England.
(1st - 2nd Centuries; facsimiles with transcriptions and commentary)
"Nearly 2,000 years ago – in around 100 AD – a woman wrote in a cursive Roman script inviting a friend to her birthday party. "
From History Extra
(100 AD: English transcription)
AND the building of the Great Wall across Britain. Account by Aelius Spartianus
From Elfin Spell
(120 AD; English translation)
  • Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland
Volume I (The British Church during the Roman Period and the Period of the Saxon Conquest; the Church of Wales; the Church of Cornwall)
Volume II.1 (Church of Cumbria or Strathclyde; British Church in Armorica; See of Bretoña in Gallicia; Church of Scotland during the Celtic period and until declared independent of the See of York)
Volume II.2 (Church of Ireland; Memorials of S. Patrick)
Volume III (English churches during the Anglo-Saxon period)
(200-1066; Latin and English; eBooks)
Account by Herodian
From Elfin Spell
(211 AD; English translation)
Although considered an amateur account borrowed from 6th-century BC Massiliote Periplus, it is still valuable in its inclusion of lost works of Himilco and account of the trading habits of the inhabitants of Ireland and Britain.
(4th century; Latin and German side-by-side)
With accounts of wars against the Britons here and here
From LacusCurtius
(380s AD; Latin transcriptions)
A list of some of the officials of the Roman Empire and their jobs in Roman Britain.
From Elfin Spell
(400; English translation)

Anglo-Saxons, Vikings & Germanic Peoples (410-871)

  • Cartularium Saxonicum: a Collection of Charters Relating to Anglo-Saxon History
Volume 1 (AD 430-839)
Volume 2 (AD 840-947)
Volume 3 (AD 948-975)
(430-975; Latin and English; eBook)
Internet Medieval Sourcebook on Selected Sources
In cooperation with Fordham University
(447-1150; English transcription)
The Annals of Wales
In cooperation with Fordham University
(447-954; English translation)
Charters, pleas and inquisitions in several volumes.
(447-1721; Latin eBook)
Online database of sources regarding medieval Europe
In cooperation with Fordham University
(450-1275 ; English transcription)
Chronicle of the affairs of England, from the settlement of the Saxons to the reign of King Cnut
(455-1023; Latin transcription)
Online database of sources regarding topics including Saxon invasions, Richard the Lionhearted, and the origins of Common Law
In cooperation with Fordham University
(500- 1484; English transcription)
Eyewitness accounts of historic events from the Black Plague to the Crusades to Columbus’ discovery of America
EyeWitness to History
(585-1597; English transcription)
The laws called Edward the Confessor's. The laws of William the Conqueror, and those ascribed to Henry the First. Also Monumenta Eclesiastica Anglicana, from the seventh to the tenth century, and the ancient Latin version of the Anglo-Saxon laws.
(589-1135; English translation; eBook)
Record of the spread of Christianity in Britain including Northumbria.
(597; English)


JISC-funded project bringing together four searchable databases of Anglo-Saxon sources.
ASChart and eSawyer: Anglo-Saxon charters (6th-11th centuries)
Langscape: Anglo-Saxon estate boundaries and related data (8th-18th centuries)
(6th to 18th centuries; manuscripts & transcriptions)
The decay of the province of Britain through the fourth and fifth centuries has left almost no traces in written records. The somewhat fanciful description of Gildas, who lived in Britain, and wrote about A. D. 550, and a few scattered references in continental chronicles, are the nearest we have to contemporary history.
Also available here: An Account of the Ravaging of Roman Britain
(6th century; English translation)
Although the monk Gildas wrote some five hundred years after Tacitus, and more than six hundred years after Cæsar, the same mistake is still made about the size of Britain, which the ancients had always over-estimated.
From Elfin Spell
(6th century; English translation)
Laws of Alfred and Ine
See the law code in its original language HERE
(560-975; English transaltion)
England-France Medieval Manuscripts
800 manuscripts from the French and British national libraries with historical significance for medieval relations between the two countries.
Search manuscripts by theme, author, place, or century.
(700–1200 A.D.; Latin, Old French and Old English facsimiles)
The works of Bede, Robert de Monte, William of Newburgh, and several other writers, in 5 volumes.
(Middle Ages; English translations)
Including Ethelwerds Chronicle; Asser's life of Alfred; Geoffrey of Monmouth's British history; Gildas; Nennius; the spurious chronicle of Richard of Chichester. All relate to the history of Britain before the Norman Conquest.
(6th to 12th century; English)
Includes the Kentish laws, laws of Ine and of Alfred, treaties with the Danes, and the laws of Edward the Elder and Æthelstan.
(7th-10th century; English translations; eBook)
Books, laws, treaties.
(600-1799; Russian transcriptions)
Of the existing Anglo-Saxon laws, those of Ethelbert, Hlothere and Eadric, Wihtred, Ine, Edward the Elder, Athelstan, Edmund, and Edgar, are mainly of the nature of amendments of custom. Those of Alfred, Ethelred, Canute, and those described as Edward the Confessor's, aspire to the character of codes.
Part of The Avalon Project
(600-1035; English translation)
Internet Medieval Sourcebook on the commercial revolution, trade and commerce, the church, slavery and the rise of towns.
In cooperation with Fordham University
(600-1270 ; English and Latin transcriptions)
Liebermann's Laws of the Anglo-Saxons, digitized.
(601-1154; German)
Primary source for England in the medieval period, ending with the rebellion following the marriage of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York
(655-1486; English transcription]
Chronologically organized collection of English literature, including Old, Middle and Modern English
From Bibliotheca Augustana
(8th-20th century; facsimiles and transcriptions)
Digitized book containing scans of medieval documents.
(8th-11th century; facsimiles; Anglo-Saxon or Latin transcriptions with English translations)
11 ancient charters and other documents
See also, The British Library's Digitized Manuscripts Collection
(8th-10th century; facsimiles)
This has been called "...the book that made Britain." (The Sunday Times, May 11, 2003)
A selection of pages by the British Library.
(715-720; facsimiles & commentary)
Not only is it an English national and ecclesiastical history, but it offers great insight into the tensions between pre-Schism Roman Rite and Celtic Christianity. Historians view it as one of the most valuable source on the Anglo Saxons, and it has impacted English national identity as a whole.
For full PDF version, refer HERE
(731, English transcription)
Full transcriptions in the original languages, with notes.
(739-1150; Latin, Old and Middle English; eBook)
Alcuin sent the letter to the Bishop Higbald and the monastic community at Lindisfarne in 793, after the famous monastery of St. Cuthbert had been sacked by Vikings.
(793; English translation)
Chronicles of St. Alban's Monastery
Volume II
Volume III
(793-1411; Latin eBook)
This treaty between Charles the Great or Charlemagne (†814) and Offa, the greatest of the Mercian kings (†796), is of interest as showing the character of the intercourse between England and the Continent.
Click "next" to read their letters.
(795; English translation)
An appeal for unity and courage against the invaders
From Elfin Spell
(797; English translation)
From The British Library's collections.
(8th century; facsimile)
Medieval manuscript about a saint from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia. He was a warrior in the Mercian border lands who, after nine years of fighting, had a religious conversion and became a hermit in Crowland.
See also the Guthlac Roll
From the British Library Medieval Literature Collection
(Original written in 8th century)
The History of the Britons records the history of indigenous Brittonic peoples, attributed commonly to Nennius.
The first is also referred to as the History Brittonum.
(828, Latin transcription)
The story of St. Edmund as told by Archbishop Dustan
In cooperation with Fordham University
(870 ; English transcription)

Reign of the House of Wessex (871-1013)

England-France Medieval Manuscripts
800 manuscripts from the French and British national libraries with historical significance for medieval relations between the two countries.
Search manuscripts by theme, author, place, or century.
(700–1200 A.D.; Latin, Old French and Old English facsimiles)
Links to primary sources on kings and queens of England, from Alfred the Great to Sweyn
Free access is only available to some of the titles.
From The Paul & Rosemary Trible Library
(871-1014)
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. This particular variant chronicles the events Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, experienced during the Viking invasions of the ninth century.
From The Internet History Sourcebook
(late 9th century; English translation)
by Asser, Bishop of Sherborne.
16th century manuscript found HERE
(888; English)
On promoting literacy for all the people of England, and providing books.
From ElfinSpell
(890; English translation)
(9th to 16th centuries; facsimiles)
King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of the Compendious history of the world by Orosius.
A literal translation HERE
(9th century; Anglo-Saxon and English facsimile)
Click on "Manuscripts."
(Facsimiles & transcripts)
15 charters, writs and confirmations from authorities such as King Æthelred and King Cnut.
Includes Latin text, English translation, and the old text.
(908-992 AD)
Even in the tenth and twelfth centuries it was still necessary for Councils of the Church in Germany, England, and Ireland to forbid the sale of unfree Christians.
From the Medieval Sourcebook
(922-1171; English)
Battle between England and a combination of Scots, Vikings and Britons.
(937; Anglo-Saxon original, Tennyson version and modern English translation)
This mourning poem "is by far the earliest work written about the Normans from the Norman point of view...."
It also serves as "an excellent laboratory in medieval philology."
(943; Latin facsimiles and variant text transcriptions with English and German translations)
His is a translation of a lost Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with information surviving only in his version English selection from the beginning of the fourth book
(circa 975; Latin facsimile)
By Ethelred the Unready (†1016). This oath was taken at the bidding of Dunstan. No. 11 shows how little it was kept.
From Elfinspell
(979; English translation)
How Byrhtnoth’s men, arrived at the battle field, dismount and turn their horses loose, how one of them sends his hawk flying to the wood, and how the East Saxon alderman proceeds to marshal his band on the banks of the stream.
From Elfinspell
(991; English translation)
By Dudo of St. Quentin. Work on Viking Normandy.
(996; English transcription)
Images from the illuminated tenth-century Gospel book, available to be viewed in its entirety.
(10th century; image facsimiles)
(Transcriptions and translations)
  • Records of the Social and Economic History of England and Wales
Survey of the Honour of Denbign
The Black Book of St. Augustine, Canterbury
Documents Illustrative of the Social and Economic History of the Danelaw
(ca 11th-13th century; Latin with English notes; eBooks)
Sources: 11th Century
Includes records of religious houses, higher clergy and early urban government.
(11th & 12th centuries, transcriptions)

Conflict Between the Houses of Denmark & Wessex (1013-1066)

Along with the short reign of the House of Godwin

Digital version.
This Old English code represents the agreement reached at Oxford in 1018 between the Danes and the English early in the reign of King Cnut (1016–1035). Both peoples accepted the laws of Edgar I (king of England, 959–975) as the basis for an Anglo-Danish settlement.
See also the manuscript Charter of King Cnut to Earl Godwine
(1018-1035; Latin with English translation)
"This letter of the great Danish king shows the influence of the mediæval church in drawing together peoples of Western Europe. It shows also the spirit in which Canute ruled."
(1027; English translation)
This is the longest Anglo-Saxon law code, issued by King Cnut (r. 1016–35) with the advice of his counsellors.
From the Magna Carta Collection
(11th century; Old English facsimile)
Written to honor Emma of Normandy, queen consort of Denmark, England and Norway
Made available by Bibliotheca Augustana
(1041; Latin transcription)
Deeds of the Norman Dukes by William of Jumièges. Focuses on the Norman conquest of England
From Liber Gentium
(1060; English translation)
Since England produced at this time very little for export except a few staple commodities, it was convenient to exchange slaves for other goods and these unfortunate people were sent to Italy, Ireland, and Denmark, from which last country they also probably made their way into Germany.
From the Medieval Sourcebook
(1065-1066; English transcription)

Other Collections of the Middle Ages

Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores. Here are some of the 99 volumes, compiled and published between 1858 and 1965, now digitized.
(Old English and other languages)


EuroDocs > History of the United Kingdom: Primary Documents > Antiquity through 1065

EuroDocs Creator: Richard Hacken, European Studies Librarian,
Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA.
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