1.6 vocab

Fuedalism

A political system in which nobles are granted the use if lands that legally belong to their king, in exchange for their loyalty, military service, and protection for people who live or own the land

Fiefs

An estate granted by a lord to a vassal in exchange for service and loyalty

Vassals

Lesser lords who pledged their service and loyalty to a greater lord- in a military capacity

Code of chivalry

A code of behavior that governed the aspect of all knights behavior

Manors

A large estate, often including farms and a village, ruled by a lord

Serfs

People who gave their land to a lord and offered their servitude in return for protection from the lord

Three-field system

A system of farming developed in medieval Europe, in which farm land was divided into three fields of equal size and each of these was successfully planted with a winter crop, planted with a spring crop, and left unplanted

Estates-general

An assembly of representatives from all three of the estates, or social classes, in France

Estates

France’s traditional national assembly with representatives of the three estates, or classes, in French society: the clergy, nobility, and commoners

Magna Carta

A charter of freedoms that King John “Lackland” of England was forced to sign; it made the king obey the same laws as the citizens of his kingdom

English Parliament

First established in 1265, England’s chief law-making body. It was a key institution in the development of representative democracy as it provided some voice and recognition of the rights and intrests of various 

Antisemitism

Prejudic and hatred against Jews

Humanism

A renaissance intellectual movement in which thinkers studied classical texts and focused on human potential and achievements

Ivan the Great

Ruler who was Russia’s first czar