World History: Medieval Europe, Byzantium, and Eastern Europe Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering key historical terms, figures, concepts, and developments from the medieval lesson summaries.

Constantinople

The capital of the Byzantine empire, rebuilt and renamed by Constantine in 330, commanding key trade routes linking Europe and Asia.

Justinian’s Code

A collected and organized body of Roman laws created under Emperor Justinian that strongly impacted future monarchs and legal thinkers.

Autocrat

A ruler who governs with complete authority, such as Emperor Justinian.

Medieval

Relating to the Middle Ages, a civilization created by the blending of Greco-Roman, Germanic, and Christian traditions.

Clovis

King of the Franks who conquered Gaul in 486, preserved Roman customs, and converted to Christianity.

Charles Martel

Frankish warrior leader who defeated a Muslim army at the battle of Tours in 732.

Charlemagne

King of the Franks and crowned emperor of the Romans who united his kingdom during a 46-year rule and revived Latin learning.

Magyars

Nomads who settled in present-day Hungary around 900 and overran Eastern Europe before being pushed back.

Vikings

Skilled sailors and explorers from Scandinavia who began invading European coasts and river towns in the late 700s.

Feudalism

A political and economic system during the Middle Ages based on a network of mutual duties between lords and vassals.

Vassal

A lesser lord in feudal society who pledged loyalty and military service to a lord.

Feudal contract

An exchange of pledges in which a lord provided land and protection in return for military service, payments, and loyalty from a vassal.

Fief

A parcel of land or estate granted to a vassal by a lord under a feudal contract.

Knight

A medieval mounted warrior trained from boyhood to ride horseback, fight, and care for weapons.

Chivalry

A code of ideal conduct for knights requiring bravery, loyalty, honesty, fair fighting, and protection of the weak.

Troubadour

A wandering musician who sang about knights and ladies, creating the basis for medieval romances.

Manor

A lord's self-sufficient estate that formed the center of the medieval feudal economy.

Serf

A peasant bound to the lord's land who worked the estate, paid fees, and needed permission to marry or leave.

Secular

Nonreligious or worldly, as distinguished from church matters.

Sacraments

Sacred rites administered by parish priests in local churches.

Benedictine Rule

A set of rules created around 530 by the monk Benedict governing monastery life, requiring vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity.

Papal supremacy

Authority over all secular rulers, including kings and emperors, claimed by medieval popes.

Canon law

The body of laws and courts established by the medieval Roman Catholic Church.

Excommunication

A Church penalty withholding sacraments and Christian burial from an individual, condemning them to hell.

Interdict

A papal penalty barring an entire town, region, or kingdom from receiving sacraments and Christian burial.

Friar

A monk who traveled and preached to the poor rather than residing in a monastery.

Anti-Semitism

Prejudice against Jewish people, which increased in Western Europe by the late 1000s.

Usury

The practice of lending money at interest, which was forbidden to Christians by the Church.

Patriarch

The highest Church official in Constantinople, appointed by the Byzantine emperor.

Great Schism

The official split in 1054 between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

Charter

A written document establishing rights and privileges for a town in exchange for money or fees.

Capital

Money intended for investment, which stimulated the growth of medieval banks.

Partnership

A business agreement in which merchants pooled their money to finance large-scale ventures.

Tenant farmer

A peasant laborer who paid rent for their land.

Middle class

A social class between nobles and peasants made up of merchants, traders, and artisans.

Guild

An association formed by merchants or artisans to control and protect specific trades or businesses.

Apprentice

A child trainee who spent seven years learning a trade under a guild master without receiving a salary.

Journeyman

A salaried worker in a guild who completed an apprenticeship.

The Crusades

A series of wars in which European Christians fought Muslims for control of lands in the Middle East.

Reconquista

The centuries-long campaign by Christian kingdoms in Spain to expel Muslims.

Inquisition

A Church court campaign used by Ferdinand and Isabella to impose religious and political uniformity in Spain.

Domesday Book

A census and property survey completed by William the Conqueror in 1086 to build an effective taxation system.

Common law

An English legal system established under Henry II based on custom and prior judicial rulings.

Magna Carta

The Great Charter signed by King John in 1215 that limited royal power and established due process and habeas corpus.

Due process of law

The legal principle protecting individuals from arrest without proper legal procedures.

Habeas corpus

The legal principle protecting individuals from imprisonment without being charged with a specific crime.

Parliament

England's legislature, which evolved from the Great Council and gained control over taxes.

Lay investiture

The practice in which non-church rulers named and installed Church bishops.

Scholasticism

A medieval method of learning that used reason to support and explain Christian beliefs.

Thomas Aquinas

The most famous scholastic scholar, author of Summa theologica, who argued that faith and reason exist in harmony.

Vernacular

The everyday spoken language of ordinary people in a region.

Gothic style

A style of architecture featuring flying buttresses, thinner and higher walls, and massive stained-glass windows.

Flying buttresses

Exterior stone supports characteristic of Gothic architecture that permitted thinner, higher walls and massive windows.

Illumination

The artistic decoration of books and manuscripts in the Gothic style.

Black Death

A deadly outbreak of bubonic plague spread by fleas carried by rats that killed one-third of Europeans in the mid-1300s.

Epidemic

A widespread outbreak of an infectious disease.

Longbow

A powerful weapon technology used by the English to win early victories in the Hundred Years' War.

Steppe

An open, treeless grassland in southern Russia that provided pasture for herds and allowed easy nomadic migration.

Cyrillic

An alphabet created in the 800s by Orthodox monks Cyril and Methodius, still used in Russia today.

Ivan the Great

Ivan III, who united much of northern Russia between 1462 and 1505, limited noble power, and adopted the title tsar.

Ivan the Terrible

Ivan IV, the first officially crowned Russian tsar, whose violent and unstable rule earned him his epithet.

Ethnic group

A large group of people who share the same language and culture.

Diet

An assembly of nobles in Poland-Lithuania where any single noble held the power to block passage of a law.