The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is widely believed to be the most useful and reliable history of England from the Roman conquest, through to the eleventh century. Although only nine copies of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle survive, at one time, there were multiple copies of the Chronicle, which were distributed to religious houses throughout England, with further copies being made by monks. Once copies had been made of the original, the documents were then independently updated at the monastery where they were housed. This means that there were many different versions in existence, each of which had initially been copied from the original.