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First, the Anglo-Saxons were a rough lot and 90% of them could neither read nor write. King Alfred was an exception. Pretty well all the other writing was done by the monks in Latin, and schools for boys only were also at the abbeys.
For research like this, I would go to a Public Library and ask to speak to someone who could help you. I have always found the staff in Libraries to be interested in research for novels.
Regards, Patty
Remember your local library if it has a search system will only list the books that are available within the libraries county system.
The Bristol Library borrowed two volumes of a tome written in 1888 from Southampton University, and I was allowed to keep them for the summer vacation.
Patty, Which crusade(s) did the knights if St John first show? Forgive my ignorance.
The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem originated during the First Crusade in about 1100 AD. A group of monks went outside the city walls to care for the robbed and wounded pilgrims on the approach roads.
They found they had to be armed to keep off the robbers while they took the pilgrims back into the city. They also needed horses and carts.
Soon they were formed into a proper Religious Order with the blessing of the Pope, and called it The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.
The Order survives today, and St. John's Ambulance is a branch of it.
Peter Tremayne has written a series of murder mysteries featuring Sister Fidelma, an Irish nun in the 7thC AD. He's a practicing Druid, and he's chosen an era where Irish Christianity and Druidism were co-existing, which is quite interesting.
In the older children's area, I've got two books on King Edwin of Northumbria, again set in the 7thC. Julian Atterton and Fay Sampson take the same meagre facts about King Edwin and produce quite different stories about his life. The titles are The Fire of the Kings and The Flight of the Sparrow.
Going back a bit, and undoubtedly out of print, Geoffrey Trease wrote a very good Saxon story, too. I forget the title, but I remember the boy and girl main characters on a journey carrying a precious book (she thinks it's a magic talisman - he thinks it would be more useful to be able to read it).
Vikings are pre-William, too, and for that era, you still can't beat Henry Treece. Viking Dawn, The Road to Miklegard and Viking Sunset are superb, and so is Horned Helmet (which explains, by the way, that Vikings didn't wear them!)
More recently, the explorer Tim Severin has just written a Viking era story, and with his experience, the sea faring bits are bound to be right!