MEDIEVAL HISTORY                           VOCABULARY FOR CHAPTER 5

 

EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

 

Middle Ages: the years between ancient and modern times

 

Medieval: referring to the Middle Ages (medi-middle and aevum-age)

 

Feudalism: a system in which land was owned by kings or lords but held by

                     vassals in return for their loyalty

 

Manor: a large estate, often including farms and a village, ruled by a lord

 

Serf: a farm worker considered part of the manor on which he or she worked

 

Clergy: persons with authority to perform religious services

 

Excommunication: expelling someone from the church

 

Guild: a medieval organization of crafts workers or tradespeople

 

Apprentice: an unpaid person training in a craft or trade

 

Chivalry: the code of honorable conduct for knights

 

Troubadour: a traveling poet and musician of the Middle Ages

 

Holy Land: Jerusalem and parts of the surrounding area where Jesus lived and taught

 

Crusades: a series of military expeditions launched by Christian Europeans to win the

                   Holy Land back from Muslim control

 

Jerusalem: a city in the Holy Land, regarded as sacred by Christians, Muslims, and Jews

 

Pilgrim: a person who journeys to a sacred place

 

Magna Carta: the “Great Charter,” in which the king’s power over his nobles was

                          limited, agreed to by King John of England in 1215

 

Model Parliament: a council of lords, clergy, and common people that advised the

                                   English king on government matters

 

Hundred Years War: a series of conflicts between England and France that lasted from

                                      1337 to 1453