Medieval Ages Flashcards
Tithe
10 percent of their income to the Church (163)
Treaty of Verdun
divided the Frankish empire into three kingdoms
Illumination
decorating the first letter of a paragraph and the margins of a page with brilliant designs (164)
Feudalism
the system of rule by local lords who were bound to a king by ties of loyalty (166-167)
Knight
mounted warriors (167,169-170)
Lord
greater noble (167)
Vassal
lesser lords (167)
Feudal Contract
many unwritten rules governed the relationship between a lord and his vassal (167)
Fief
estate (167)
Chivalry
a code of conduct developed by feudal nobles, combined Christian values and virtues of being a warrior, dictated rules of warfare (169-170)
Troubadour
wandering poets (170)
Three-Field System
a method of crop rotation (173)
Trial By Combat
another knight challenged the accused to battle (174)
Trial By Ordeal
a painful physical test that people believed to be a way of God deciding if the accused is guilty or innocent (174)
Manor
a village or several villages and the surrounding lands (171-172)
Serf
peasants who were tied to the land (171)
Demesne
a reserved portion of the manor land (174)
Bailiff
agent (172)
Excommunication
people who disobeyed the Church faced this by losing their property and being treated like outcasts (176)
Inquisition
a special court in the Church to try people accused of heresy (176)
Hanseatic League
an association of about 80 large towns and cities in northern Germany that banded together for protection and trade purposes (182-183)
Charter
written documents that guaranteed townspeople’s rights (184)
Guild
an association of merchants and artisans that governed the town (184)
