Honors World History I - Europe in the Middle Ages Vocab & Terminology

Abbess

The lady superior of a nunnery.

Abbot

Head of a monastery

Apprentice

A person who works for another in order to learn a trade

barter economy

system in which one set of goods or services is exchanged for another

Black Death

the epidemic form of bubonic plague experienced during the Middle Ages when it killed nearly half the people of western Europe

Borough

An incorporated village or town.

Bubonic Plague

Also called the Black Death was a deadly disease that spread through Europe and killed one out of every three people

Burgher

A medieval merchant-class town dweller.

Canon Law

The body of laws governing the religious practices of a Christian church

Capital

money for investment

Cardinal

Chief, most important, people who vote for popes

Chain mail

flexible armor made of joined metal links

Charter

A document that gives the holder the right to organize settlements in an area

Chivalry

Code of conduct for knights during the Middle Ages

Clergy

Church officials

Coat of Arms

a shield marked with designs of a particular family or group

Commercial Revolution

the expansion of the trade and business that transformed European economies

Common Law

A legal system based on custom and court rulings

Cruciata

marked with a cross

Crusades

A long series of wars between Christians and Muslims in Southwest Asia

Domestic system

Early industrial labor system in which workers produced goods at home

Estates General

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

Feudalism

A system of government based on landowners and tenants

Fief

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

Friar

A catholic priest who belongs to a religious order

Great Famine

widespread food shortage that killed thousands of Europeans

Great Schism

the official split between the Roman Catholic and Byzantine churches

Guild

A medieval organization of crafts workers or trades people.

Heretic (Heresy)

people who believed in false teachings

Inquisition

search for heretics

Interdict

excommunication of an entire region, town, or kingdom

Journeyman

a fully trained and qualified worker

Knight

mounted warrior

lay investiture

a noble appointing a friend to become a bishop

Longbow

a large bow used for firing feathered arrows

Lord

person who granted land

Magna Carta

a document constituting a fundamental guarantee of rights and privileges.

Major Domo

a chief butler or assistant

Manor

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

Manorialism

economic system of Middle Ages Europe that was based on agriculture

Market Economy

economic system in which decisions on production and consumption of goods and services are based on voluntary exchange in markets

Master

someone who makes something new, own seller

Monastery

A community of monks

Monasticism

A way of life in which men and women withdraw from the rest of the world in order to devote themselves to their faith

Page

a boy servant or attendant, the first step in becoming a knight

Parliament

written code

Primogeniture

system which the eldest son in a family-- or, in exceptional cases, daughter--inherits all of a dying parent's land.

Reconquista

The effort by Christian leaders to drive the Muslims out of Spain

Romanesque

Style of church architecture using round arches, domes, thick walls, and small windows

Sacrament

something considered to have sacred significance

Scholastics

Scholars who gathered and taught at universities

Secular

Non-religious

Serf

A person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord

Shire

a county in England

Simony

the buying and selling of church offices

Squire

Acted as a servant to the knight

Three-Field System

Farmland divided into three equal-sized fields, in which crops were rotated

Tithe

A family's payment of one-tenth of its income to a church

Tournament

a mock battle in which knights would compete against one another to display their fighting skills

Troubadours

traveling poet-musicians at the castles and courts of Europe

Two-Field System

in agriculture, Half was planted; half rested

Universitas

those united for the common purpose of education

Usury

the practice of lending money at exorbitant rates

Vassal

A knight who promised to support a lord in exchange for land

Vernacular

Everyday language of ordinary people

Peter Abelard

Author of Yes and No; university scholar who applied logic to problems of theology; demonstrated logical contradictions within established doctrine

Alfred the Great

King of Wessex

Dante Alighieri

Italian poet who wrote the Divine Comedy

Thomas Aquinas

monk who wrote the Summa Theologica

St. Augustine

Led groups of monks to England

Thomas Becket

the archbishop of Canterbury, close friend of Henry who later opposed his attempt to bring Church/clergy into royal court system. Murdered by Henry's knights

Venerable Bede

wrote Ecclesiastical History of the English People

St. Benedict

founded a community of monks for which he wrote a set of rules and came to be the standard in the Catholic Church and used by other groups of monks

Giovanni Boccaccio

Wrote the Decameron

Pope Boniface VIII

Pope who had a conflict with Philip IV and refused the taxes on the French clergy; also declared that the Pope is over anybody

Canute

Danish king of England

Hugh Capet

Nobles elected him king of the Frankish kingdom in 987 laying the foundation for future political stability in France

Carolingians

the family that ruled the Franks in Gaul from 751 to 987 in the Carolingian Dynasty. This began when Pepin was declared king. They lost power after the Treaty of Verdun.

Charlemagne

king of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor

Charles the Bald

He was in power when the Vikings raided Paris. He tried to buy them off.

Charles Martel

Son of Pepin II; defeated the Muslims at the Battle of Tours

Charles IV of the Holy Roman Empire

first King of Bohemia to become Holy Roman Emperor

Charles VI of France

had frequent bouts of insanity; in 1420 forced by Henry V to sign away his kingdom

Charles VII of France

He began France's long recovery after the Hundred Years' War

Geoffrey Chaucer

English poet remembered as author of the Canterbury Tales

Christine de Pisan

A woman of the medieval era who strongly challenged misogyny and stereotypes prevalent in the male-dominated realm of the arts.

Clare

First member of the Order of Poor Ladies

Pope Clement V

the pope who moved his court from Rome to Avignon

Pope Clement VII

Pope who would not issue a decree of annulment to Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon

Clovis

King of the Franks

Alexius Comnenus

Byzantine emperor who appealed to the pope for Christian knights to fight against the Turks

St. Dominic

founded the Dominicans

Edward the Confessor

Anglo-Saxon/Norman King

Edward I of England

King of England who ruled under common law; had a king's court divided into 3 parts

Henry V of England

helped the English win at the Battle of Agincourt

Henry Tudor of England

1st of Tudor Dyansty, married Elizabeth of York to unite the royal families

Henry III of the Holy Roman Empire

Holy Roman Emperor

Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire

Holy Roman Emperor who argued with the pope over lay investiture

Hildegard of Bingen

nun who was also a poet and musician

Pope Innocent III

proclaimed pope in 1198-1216; claimed supremacy over all other rulers and strengthened papal power within the Church