Norman England and the Medieval World

Vocabulary practice cards covering Norman England, feudal social structures, medieval towns and trade, ecclesiastical architecture, religious life, medieval medicine, the Black Death, and the Norman conquest of Ireland.

Battle of Hastings (1066)

The battle in $1066$ where William, Duke of Normandy, defeated Harold, Earl of Hereford, after King Edward the Confessor died with no heir, establishing William as William the Conqueror.

Feudalism

A system of landownership where rulers divided land through ranks in return for taxes, loyalty, protection, and farming.

Fief

Land passed down through the ranks in the feudal system.

Motte and Bailey

A temporary Norman fortification built before power was secured, consisting of a keep, motte, bailey, ditch or moat, earth bank, and gatehouse.

Stone Castle

A permanent, massive fortress that took hundreds of men to build, featuring a keep, battlements, towers or turrets, a bailey, moat, portcullis, curtain wall, drawbridge, and gatehouse.

Dowry

Money or land paid to the groom during an arranged marriage.

Foot Soldiers

The largest segment of the Norman army, made up mostly of peasants equipped with swords, daggers, and spears.

Oath of Chivalry

A sacred promise sworn by knights to stay loyal, protect the poor and weak, and display bravery in battle.

Page

The first stage of knight training, where a boy was fostered by another Lord to learn horse riding, singing, dancing, manners, and sword use.

Squire

The second stage of knight training, beginning at age $14$, where a boy learned to fight on horseback and assisted the Lord in battle.

Manor

A countryside village owned by a lord or knight, typically containing a manor house, church, mill, and forge, surrounded by woods where peasants were forbidden to hunt.

Open Field System

An agricultural arrangement where village land was divided into three large fields partitioned into long strips worked by different families.

Crop Rotation

A three-year farming cycle alternating crops (wheat, oats, barley) and leaving one field fallow (empty) each year to preserve soil quality.

Tithe

A tax consisting of one-tenth ($\frac{1}{10}$) of a peasant's earnings paid to the local priest.

Freemen

Peasants who paid rent to the lord and a tithe to the priest, received wages for their work, and held the right to marry and leave the manor.

Serfs

Unfree peasants who belonged to a lord, worked six days a week, and could not marry or leave the manor without permission; they became freemen if they stayed away undetected for a year and one day.

Wattle and Daub

A woven wooden framework covered with mud and plaster, used to construct the walls of serfs' homes.

Pottage

A thick soup or stew made from vegetables and grains that formed a core part of a serf's diet alongside bread and cheese.

Curfew

A regulation in medieval towns requiring all household fires to be extinguished by sundown to lower the risk of town-wide fires.

Guild

An association of craftsmen within the same trade that set production standards, fixed wages, regulated trading licenses, and provided care for elderly and ill members.

Charter

A legal grant from the King allowing a town to govern its own affairs through a corporation and mayor in exchange for tax payments.

Christendom

The term used for Catholic Europe as the 'Kingdom of Christ,' recognized as a unified cultural and spiritual realm headed by the Pope.

Romanesque

An architectural style featuring rounded doorways, arches, and windows, low ceilings, and large pillars that held the weight of the roof.

Gothic

An architectural style featuring pointed doorways, arches, and windows, high ceilings, narrow pillars, and roof weight supported by flying buttresses.

Monastic Vows

The solemn promises of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience sworn at age $15$ by an aspiring monk upon approval by the abbot.

Friars

Members of religious orders such as the Dominicans and Augustines who lived and worked directly among the common people rather than in secluded monasteries.

Cupping

A medieval medical practice that involved placing heated metal cups on a patient's skin to draw bodily fluids toward the center.

Black Death

A devastating outbreak of Bubonic Plague transmitted by flea-bearing rats from the Black Sea area that peaked between $1347$ and $1350$, killing one-third ($\frac{1}{3}$) of Europe's population with a $70\text{--}80\%$ mortality rate.

Norman Conquest of Ireland (1169)

The arrival of the Normans in $1169$ that ended Viking reign, established English rule lasting $800$ years, and introduced the feudal system and stone castles such as Trim and Kilkenny.

Hiberno-Norman Surnames

Family names introduced to Ireland following the Norman invasion, such as Butler, Burke, and Barry.