High Middle Ages/Rise of Nations

Vikings

Raiders, traders, and settlers who influenced European defenses and feudalism

Lord

Landowner who granted land for service

Vassal

Person who received land in exchange for loyalty

Feudalism

System based on land

Manors

Self

Serfs

Peasants bound to the land

Free peasants

Peasants who could move and own land

Chivalry

Code of conduct for knights

Three

field system

Guilds

Trade organizations for merchants and craftsmen

Bourgeois

Middle

Universities

Centers of higher education

Cathedrals

Large churches that served as religious and economic centers

Excommunication

Removal from the Church

Simony

Selling Church offices

Interdict

Church ban on religious services

Lay investiture

Conflict over who had the authority to appoint church officials

Crusades

Religious wars to reclaim the Holy Land

Pope Urban II

Pope who called for the Crusades

William of Normandy

Duke who conquered England in 1066

Battle of Hastings

Battle that led to Norman control of England

Bayeux Tapestry

Embroidered account of the Norman Conquest

Henry II

English king who strengthened royal courts

Magna Carta

Document that limited the power of the king

Parliament

Lawmaking body with two houses

Hundred Years’ War

War between England and France over the French throne

Joan of Arc

French leader who inspired victory

Black Plague

Deadly disease spread by fleas on rats

Effects of Black Plague

Population decline and weakening of feudalism

Ferdinand and Isabella

Spanish rulers who unified Spain

Inquisition

Church courts enforcing religious conformity

Great Western Schism

Period with multiple popes