Medieval History

2. a structure used for public scorn and punishment where one’s head was clamped between two pieces of timber with one’s hands tied behind one’s back, or the hands were clamped in separate pieces of timber
3. the practice of using what was believed to be special powers to control someone’s behaviour or to bring evil to a person; in medieval times, these powers were believed to have been given to people by the devil
5. an organisational structure in which members of society are ranked according to their status or level of importance
7. a geographical area of land or estate over which a lord had control and could exercise particular powers; contained a small village (or two for rich manors), a large manor house and a church
12. another term used to describe the period of medieval history
13. military expeditions undertaken by European Christians from the 11th to 13th centuries to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims; ‘crusade’ literally means ‘take up the cross’
14. tribes in ancient Europe, such as the Vandals and Visigoths, who were considered uncivilised and inferior by the Romans and Greeks
17. an act of deliberate betrayal; showing no loyalty to one’s country by helping enemies or attempting to overthrow the government
18. a social class who were privileged by birth or royal decree; the ranks of nobility in descending order are duke, marquess,

1. a name given to the outbreak of bubonic plague in the 1300s when millions of people across Europe died from the disease
2. a highly contagious bacterial disease that is often fatal
4. a political, social and economic system in which different classes owed services and obligations both to the classes below them as well as to the ones above; the adjective from feudalism is ‘feudal’
6. a person or group of people who are considered the lowest of the medieval social classes and who are attached to a particular lord or manor and could be transferred from one owner to another; a type of peasant
8. a person from the class of farmers, tenants and labourers on an estate/manor
9. rejecting religious beliefs of a society where most people accept these beliefs; considered a religious crime in medieval times with severe punishments
10. by ordeal, a process used to determine a person’s guilt or innocence by physical means, usually an unpleasant or dangerous experience such as torture; often believed to be under divine control with proof of innocence being survival
11. the property surrounding and including a manor house, owned by the lord of the manor
15. a device consisting of a wooden frame in which a person’s hands, head or legs were secured; often placed in a public area so the offender could be ridiculed
16. viscount and baron