English Historical Documents is a standard series of publications of source material on English history by the academic publisher Eyre and Spottiswoode, now part of Oxford University Press; some later vols. are published by Routledge The general editor is David C. Douglas, professor of history at the University of Bristol. Publication began in 1953. Each extensive volume (they average 1000 pages) is edited by a major academic authority in the period covered; some are in their second edition. WorldCat shows them present in essentially all academic libraries, both large and small.[1] Sources published in other languages (French, Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, Latin) are given in English translation.
They have been widely reviewed, and are considered as the basic set of this material. Each volume consists of a general introduction to the history and the historical sources for the period, an extensive bibliography, and sections (with their exact nature depending on the period) on Narrative sources such as chronicles and newspapers, Legal documents and Legislation , Economic sources, Literary sources, and appendices of maps and genealogies; many vols. contain extensive illustrations. - The series contains
They are now electronically available in various formats, including MyiLibrary, Kindle, and NetLibrary. The volume numbering on the later volumes vary, to take account of the two volumes never published. A volume of selections, English historical documents, 1815-1870 in 120 pages was published by Methuen in 1964, OCLC 62887069.