Medieval Crossword - Martin Najemi

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Across
  1. 1. Frontier territory, especially the Welsh Marches and the Scottish Marches. In medieval times they were subject to continual feuding.
  2. 9. Traditional decorative item or figure made using cut straw, fixed to a thatched roof or thatched hayrick. Often (loosely) called a Corn Dolly.
  3. 11. Financial penalty inflicted at the MERCY of the King or his justices for various minor offences.
  4. 14. Wooden partition at the lower or kitchen end of a hall. The screens passage lay between it and the kitchen etc. Traces still remain at Hemyock.
  5. 17. The jail
  6. 20. Small latrine or toilet either built into the thickness of the wall or projected out from it.
  7. 22. Legal condition under which every male member of a tithing.
  8. 23. Temporary wooden framework built next to a wall to support both workers and materials.
  9. 24. Centre post of winding or spiral staircase.
  10. 25. Enclosed field of combat for a tournament. Also, the barriers enclosing the field.
  11. 26. Town granted a Charter.
  12. 28. The ecclesiastical banning of all sacraments, except for baptism and extreme unction, throughout a geographical area.
  13. 30. Ceremonial coins given to the poor by the British Monarch.
  14. 31. The right of the eldest son to inherit the estate or office of his father.
  15. 32. Gaelic Title (Great Steward) given to the rulers of the seven provinces of Celtic Scotland.
  16. 35. Cellar, crypt, or basement under a building.
  17. 37. Monastic who shaved faces/heads and performed light surgery.
  18. 38. Medieval process of determining guilt, or a dispute, by combat between the accuser and the accused. Sometimes, champions were permitted. The assumption was that God would intervene and decide the case. Officially abolished in Britain in 1819.
  19. 43. Term used in Kent for a subdivision of land equivalent to a hundred.
  20. 44. Small structure, often domed, on the roof of a building.
  21. 50. Anglo Saxon institution.
  22. 51. Money given or pledged for the performance of a legal obligation to do, or not to do, some particular act.
  23. 54. Length. One foot (foot-length, foot-print or foot-space).
  24. 55. The area around the outside of and adjacent to the inner curtain.
  25. 56. Domesday Book
  26. 57. Toll (tax) levied for passage or wayleave.
  27. 59. Coat of mail.
  28. 60. Days when rents and taxes were due.
  29. 62. A deep trench dug around a castle to impede attack from the surrounding land.
  30. 63. Norman equivalent of Anglo Saxon Witan.
  31. 65. One of the chartered companies of the City of London. These originate from the craft guilds.
  32. 70. A term of lease of land, usually for the life of its holder, his son or wife, and a grandson.
  33. 73. Undermining of a wall, above or below ground, by attackers. One siege technique was to dig a tunnel under the castle walls and support the tunnel roof with timbers. Setting fire to the timbers would collapse the tunnel - and the wall.
  34. 77. Lord or institution (often the Church) holding land directly from the King. All Earls were Tenants in Chief.
  35. 79. Exclusion from the membership of the church or from communion with faithful Christians.
  36. 80. Weight or volume
  37. 81. Administrative unit of land. Third part of a shire, eg. the Yorkshire Ridings (North Riding, East Riding, West Riding) which were established in the 9th century by the Danes. (Not necessarily exactly a third.)
  38. 82. Battering-ram. Also the reinforced projection from the bows of some warships.
  39. 83. Weight. About 70 pounds of lead.
  40. 84. Meeting of feudal vassals with the King.
  41. 86. English county. The shire court conducted the administrative, judicial and financial business of people living in the county.
  42. 88. Comprehensive record of all land holdings in England, compiled in about 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror - apparently to discover the patterns of land ownership.
  43. 92. A right belonging to a property.
  44. 93. Administrative unit of land.
  45. 94. Words used in the charters of many towns, to proclaim the freedom of any escaped serf who lived there for a year and a day without being claimed by his lord.
  46. 95. Place where Monks or Nuns live a religious life in seclusion from secular society.
  47. 96. The sum commonly paid by a serf to his lord when the serf's daughter married a man from another manor.
  48. 98. Scottish or Irish single family hill fort
  49. 103. The local earl's one-third share of fines in shire or hundred courts, often allocated afterwards to a particular manor or church as income.
  50. 105. Money paid annually by a lord to a vassal in return for homage, fealty, and military service.
  51. 106. Permission to neglect a rule, often issued for church rules.
  52. 108. Arrow-slit. Narrow opening in a wall for discharge of arrows and admittance of light.
  53. 111. Military tactic that involved the surrounding and isolation of a castle.
  54. 115. Measure of land roughly equal to a modern acre.
  55. 116. Fixed sum, usually paid annually, for the right to collect all revenues from land.
  56. 117. 25th December.
  57. 118. Peasant's land, similar to German Bauergeit. See also Inland and Sokeland.
  58. 121. Religious orders of mendicant friars and nuns founded by St. Francis of Assisi.
  59. 122. The highest title attainable by an English nobleman who is not of royal blood. Also known in earlier times as Ealdorman. Word related to Jarl.
  60. 123. Officer of the royal household. Responsible for the chamber.
  61. 125. Openings in walls or ceiling of gate house, used for attacking the enemy.
  62. 126. Food such as acorns that swine (pigs), etc., feed on in the woods.
  63. 128. Hallowe'en. 31st October. Eve of All Saints Day.
  64. 129. To add Battlements.
  65. 130. The holding of more than one church living at the same time.
  66. 133. Splayed opening in a wall for a window.
  67. 136. Common name for Augustinian Canons
  68. 138. Right of a feudal lord to recover a fief when a vassal failed to honour his obligations under the feudal contract.
  69. 139. Night of April 30. Sometimes called May Day Eve
  70. 141. A hole intentionally left in the surface of a wall for insertion of a horizontal pole. Such holes held scaffolding used during construction, floor joists, or supported hourdings. Hemyock Castle has many such holes.
  71. 142. Name given to the border lands between Scotland and England.
  72. 143. Weapon-taking. Sub-division of land in areas formerly under Norse control - including Northern and Eastern areas of Britain - equivalent to Anglo Saxon Hundred.
  73. 144. Republic of (Southern) Ireland.
Down
  1. 2. Royal official, or a manor official appointed by the lord or elected by the peasants.
  2. 3. The interest charged on a loan. Forbidden by medieval Christian church law (based upon an interpretation of the Bible), and also for some Moslems.
  3. 4. A slender piece of stone used to decorate the tops of the Merlons.
  4. 5. Right to present a clergyman to a vacant benefice.
  5. 6. A method of trial in which the accused was given a physical test (usually painful and/or dangerous) which could be met successfully only if they were innocent.
  6. 7. Servant who accompanied his lord to battle, or a horseman of lower status used as light cavalry. Also meant a type of non knightly "tenure in service" owed to a lord. Such persons might carry the lord's banner, serve in the wine cellar, make bows/arrows or any of a dozen other occupations. Sergeants paid the feudal dues of wardship, marriage, and relief but were exempt from scutage (non knightly).
  7. 8. 2000 pounds.
  8. 10. High wall surrounding the Inner Ward of a castle.
  9. 12. 24th June. Feast of St. John the Baptist. A quarter day.
  10. 13. The retainer of a feudal lord who owed military service for his fief.
  11. 15. Officer of the Royal Household who served as the monarch's secretary or notary.
  12. 16. Usually 14 pounds Avoirdupois, as decreed by King Edward III in 1340 when Flemish / Florentine measures were adopted to aid England's vital international wool trade.
  13. 18. Also Pentise, Penthouse or Lean-to building.
  14. 19. Poetic name for Britain or England.
  15. 21. The Roman penny.
  16. 27. Type of wooden drawbridge pivoted on an axle and working like a see-saw, with a counter-weight attached to the end nearer the gateway. This required a large chamber below the bridge to receive the counterweight. The Hemyock drawbridge is believed to have been the simpler hinged type with counter-weights on the hoisting cables.
  17. 29. Compact staircase often built into the walls of castles. Usually designed so that attackers climbing a clockwise staircase would find it hard to fight with their right hand, whilst descending defenders would have their right (sword) arm free.
  18. 33. Roman road from London, via Wroxeter, to Chester.
  19. 34. The comprehensive survey of all land holdings in England, compiled in 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror - apparently to assist in the raising of taxes.
  20. 36. The part of the lord's manorial lands reserved for his own use and not allocated to his serfs or freeholder tenants.
  21. 39. Combined monastery for men and women but sexually separated.
  22. 40. Religious/Monastic rules based on Love of God and Neighbour.
  23. 41. Simple shelter or cottage.
  24. 42. King's power to command and prohibit under pain of punishment or death.
  25. 45. Quarter days.Candlemas: 2nd February. Whitsun: 15th May. Lammas: 1st August. Martinmas: 11th November.
  26. 46. Monastic order founded by St. Benedictine.
  27. 47. Abbreviation in the Domesday Book meaning in the time of King Edward the Confessor.
  28. 48. A unit of measurement for assessment of tax.
  29. 49. Colloquial term for a churchyard or graveyard.
  30. 52. Weight. 4 quarters ie. 8 stones or 112 pounds.
  31. 53. Much confusion is caused by the different calendars, especially for any date between 1st January and 24th March
  32. 58. Documents granting liberty to a serf by his lord.
  33. 61. 20 hundredweight or 2240 pounds. The "Long Ton."
  34. 62. Opening between the corbels of a parapet or in the floor, used for attacking besiegers. See also Murder Holes.
  35. 64. Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude and Justice.
  36. 66. The church of the diocese where a Bishop has his throne.
  37. 67. Term meaning that the youngest son would inherit the estate or office of his father. This was customary in some Devon farming families until modern times. The logic was that the older sons would marry and be helped to move away onto new lands, leaving the youngest son to stay at home, help his parents and eventually inherit. See also Borough-english.
  38. 68. A payment which a feudal lord could claim from the possessions of a dead serf or other tenant, essentially a death tax.
  39. 69. A sum of money paid to the Crown to obtain some grant
  40. 71. 29th September. Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. A quarter day.
  41. 72. The buying or selling of spiritual things, particularly church livings, offices and benefices.
  42. 74. Castle built without the liege lord's approval.
  43. 75. The right by which a lord could sleep the first night with the bride of a newly married serf, although the custom could be avoided by the payment of a fine.
  44. 76. A college of secular priests.
  45. 78. Monastic order which follows an especially strict form of the Benedictine rule.
  46. 85. Wall enclosing the outer ward.
  47. 87. Weight.
  48. 89. Main tower; final defensive refuge.
  49. 90. Name commonly given to Norman landholders on the Welsh border.
  50. 91. The interminable series of conflicts between England and France which lasted from May 1337 to October 1453.
  51. 94. German Fighting Order with main bases in Prussia, Hungary and Germany. Recruited almost exclusively from German speaking peoples of Europe.
  52. 97. English Place Name Society.
  53. 99. An ancient Gaelic legal system.
  54. 100. Defensive earth or stone wall surrounding castle.
  55. 101. Another name for a free villager, especially in Danelaw regions.
  56. 102. Head of the royal judicial system and the King's viceroy during his absence from the country.
  57. 104. The common form of medieval construction in which walls were made of a wood frame structure filled with Wattle and Daub. Buildings within the castle would often be of this form.
  58. 107. Middle ranking peasant
  59. 109. Additional building against a Keep containing the stair to the doorway, and sometimes a chapel.
  60. 110. Ancient Irish language
  61. 112. Term generally given to land which was unusable or un-cultivated within a holding.
  62. 113. A side or less important gate into a castle. Often used for raids on besieging forces, or for escape. Traces of a postern gate have been found in the remains of Hemyock Castle's NW tower.
  63. 114. The right to cut peat or turf, also the place where these are cut. Most of the hills around Hemyock had turbaries.
  64. 119. Roman road from Lincoln, via York, to the Antonine Wall near Edinburgh.
  65. 120. Remission from punishment for a sin after it has been forgiven.
  66. 124. In this sense to be a lord's man, to owe obligations to him in the forms of labour or service. A woman could be someone's man.
  67. 127. War engine for throwing stones.
  68. 131. Modified form of a lord's coat of arms displayed as a badge on his property and the uniforms of his servants.
  69. 132. Any religious house administered by a prior or prioress. If the prior was subject to a resident abbot, the house was called an abbey or monastery. The title prioress was held in certain religious houses for women.
  70. 134. Mock battle between teams of mounted knights.
  71. 135. Charitable gift of money or goods to the poor and needy.
  72. 137. The land area that can be ploughed by one ox team in a day
  73. 140. Sturdy type of horse for riding and draught.