Ah, but you're a medievalist, ergo you will have to draw tables. All my major research projects to date have involved massive tables - the latest being my current research and associated ~150 pages of excel spreadsheets, one day to be a full-blown database.

As far as your table problems, I think you should be able to make the table in excel and import it into word. It sounds like you have other people who know more about it than me helping you, though, so good luck!