Useful Links

British History Online Digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/
The London Gazette Back copies from 1665 until the present day can be found on:
 http://www.londongazette.co.uk
The National Archives (UK) Looking for records of 16th and 17th century British political history? Try:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/
looking-for-subject/sixteenth-and-seventeenth-centurypolitical-
history.htm
Diplomatic Correspondence of Thomas Bodley – Online The letters of Thomas Bodley, founder of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, which relate to his diplomatic service in the years prior to his bibliographical activities offer a rich resource for Early Modern Studies. This Centre for Editing Lives and Letters (CELL) project, in partnership with the Bodleian Library, Oxford, will produce an online edition of all the letters between Bodley and his correspondents between the years 1585-97. 
The project homepage is:http://www.livesandletters.ac.uk/bodley/bodley.html
The Electronic Introduction to Old English http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/resources/IOE/index.html 
The Geoffrey Chaucer Page http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/gp-aloud.htm
The Great Vowel Shift http://facweb.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs/
HEL on the Web This website puts together abundant Web resources both directly and indirectly related to the study and teaching of the history of the English language (commonly abbreviated as HEL). 
http://sites.google.com/site/helontheweb/home
History of the English Language, University of Toronto http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/hell/
IASEMS - Italian Association of Shakespearean and Early Modern Studies http://www.maldura.unipd.it/iasems/index.html
The Historical Thesaurus of English  For the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Historical Thesaurus of English, the University of Glasgow has made the latest version of the Thesaurus freely-available online at www.glasgow.ac.uk/thesaurus 
The Story of English - BBC (1986)

The Story of English is the title of an Emmy Award-winning nine-part television series, and a companion book, both produced in 1986, detailing the development of the English language. The book and the television series were written by Robert MacNeil, Robert McCrum, and William Cran. The book has been revised twice (1993 and 2002). The documentary series was directed by William Cran, and originally broadcast on BBC and PBS.

  1. An English Speaking World: Discusses how English has become the most dominant language throughout the world.
  2. The Mother Tongue: Discusses the early stages of the English language, including Old English and Middle English.
  3. A Muse of Fire: Discusses the influence of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible on the English language as well as how Early Modern English took root in the American colonies and its influence on contemporary American English.
  4. The Guid Scots Tongue: Discusses the Scottish influence on the English language.
  5. Black on White: Discusses the influence of Blacks on the English language. (Includes interviews with Philadelphia hip hop legends The Scanner Boys, Parry P and Grand Tone.)
  6. Pioneers, O Pioneers!: Discusses Canadian English and the various forms of American English.
  7. The Muvver Tongue: Discusses Cockney dialect and Australian English.
  8. The Loaded Weapon: Discusses the Irish influence on the English Language.
  9. Next Year's Words: Discusses the future and new emerging forms of the English language.
The Adventure of English - ITV (2003)

The Adventure of English is a British television series (ITV) on the history of the English language presented by Melvyn Bragg as well as a companion book, written by Bragg. The series ran in November 2003. In the television series, Bragg explains the origins and spelling of many words based on the times in which they were introduced into the growing language that would eventually become modern English.

1. "Birth of a Language
2. "English Goes Underground"
3. "The Battle for the Language of the Bible"
4. "This Earth, This Realm, This England"
5. "English in America"
6. "Speaking Proper"
7. "The Language of Empire"
8. "Many Tongues Called English, One World Language"