| Term | Definition |
|---|
| alms | anything given to the poor as charity |
| apothecary | a person who made a living by making and selling medicine and herbal remedies |
| Beguines | women who lived in a community serving God and society without taking formal religious vows |
| buttress | something which helps to make a building more stable |
| charter | an agreement which made a town free to make its own rules |
| chivalry | rules for the proper behaviour of a knight |
| Christendom | a word used to refer to the countries where Catholicism was the main religion |
| clergy | people who had taken formal vows to devote their lives to God |
| demesne | the farmland of the lord and lady of the manor |
| donjon | medieval word for a castle tower; also known as a `keep' |
| dowry | money, goods or land which a woman brought to her husband upon marriage |
| feudalism | the system for organising land use and control of society in medieval times |
| frescoes | paintings on a plaster wall or ceiling |
| gargoyle | a stone water spout, often with an ugly face, attached to a building to drain rainwater from its gutters |
| glebe | land from which a church gains an income in rent or crops |
| Gothic | style of medieval architecture featuring pointed arches and flying buttresses |
| guild | a craft or trade organisation which set work standards for its members and offered them protection |
| heresy | statement which goes against the teachings of the Catholic Church |
| jousting | armed combat between knights who fought according to set rules |
| knight | noble who provided military service to the king or a lord |
| manuscripts | books or documents which have been written by hand |
| motte and bailey | the earth mound and outer fenced-in courtyard of certain kind of castle |
| page | the first level of training for knighthood |
| pottage | a thick soup made from whatever vegetables were available. Sometimes meat or fish was added. |
| Romanesque | a style of architecture used in the Middle Ages |
| sanctuary | protection offered by the Church to those who confessed their crimes and promised to leave the country |
| siege | surrounding a castle or town in the attempt to starve the inhabitants into submission |
| squire | the second stage of training for knighthood |
| subtlety | special food dish designed to impress guests with its imaginative presentation |
| tithe | a tax equal to 10 per cent of a person's produce or income paid to the Church |
| treason | the crime of not being loyal to the monarch |
| troubadours | poets who provided their own musical accompaniment |
| villeins | peasants under the control of the lord of the manor who had to provide him with certain services |
Combine with other sets
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