The middle ages Flashcards
Demesne
The 1/4 of the land that the king kept for his own use.
The feudal system
King
Vassals
Knights
Peasants
Feudal system
The feudal system was how society was organised and how kand was owned in the middle ages.
Peasant
A peasant was at the lowest in the feudal system. They farmed the land and consisted for serfs and freemen.
Serf
A type of peasant in the Middle Ages. They belonged to a lord and farmed his land and could not leave the manor or get married without the lord’s permission. They had to pay heavy taxes.
Freemen
Freemen were a type of peasant. They too had to pay taxes, but could travel and marry as they pleased.
Vassals
The name given to the king’s followers. (lords, bishops, abbots)
Knights
Soldiers who rode into battle on horseback.
Medieval manor
The house and the village where the lord, the peasants and the baliff lived.
Open-field system
A farming method that peasants used where they divided the land into two. One part were the commons where all their animals grazed in, and the other were divided into strips per family.
Fallow
When the peasants rotated their crops, they left one field empty (fallow)
Wimple
A headdress that rich women wore.
Pottage
A mixture of porridge and vegetable soup commonly ate by peasants at their main meal of the day.
Bailiff
The lord appointed a bailiff to keep law and order, and to make sure all peasants paid rents and taxes.
Stocks
A tool used to punish people, where their head and hands were pur into sockets and have to stand there for several hours while onlookers can throw rotten food at them.
Ducking stool
Used to punish gossiping women by ducking them in water.
Tithe
The peasants had to give 1/10 of their crops to the priest as payment.
Motte and bailey
The first castles made out of wood and were simple to build.
Keep
The keep was the main building in the castle where the king and the lady, their family and some soldiers lived in.
Battlements
The top of the keep where the sentries kept guard.
Turrets
Turrets were strong towers along the walls
Drawbridge
a bridge raised at night or if an enemy approached.
Portcullis
An iron grill that could be lowered in front of the castle gate
Ramparts
The ramparts ran along the top of all walls where soldiers could walk on.