Western Europe Flashcards
North Atlantic Drift
North Atlantic Drift An oceanic surface current in the North Atlantic, which flows from the Grand Banks off New-found land eastwards to north-western Europe, forming a northerly extension of the Gulf Stream.
Monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns. A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church, or temple.
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was a medieval emperor who ruled much of Western Europe from 768 to 814.
Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire, the varying complex of lands in western and central Europe ruled by the Holy Roman emperor, a title held first by Frankish and then by German kings for 10 centuries. The Holy Roman Empire existed from 800 to 1806.
Feudalism
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries.
Manorialism
Manorialism, also known as the manor system or manorial system, was the method of land ownership in Europe.
The Battle of Hastings/William The Conqueror
The Battle of Hastings was a decisive battle that took place in 1066 just north of the town of Hastings, East Sussex. William the Conqueror defeated the forces of the Anglo-Saxon king Harold II.
Papacy
According to Roman Catholicism, the history of the papacy, the office held by the pope as head of the Catholic Church, spans from the time of Peter to the present day.
Monarch
A monarch is a head of state for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy.
Magna Carta
The Magna Carta is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor.
The Crusades
Crusades, military expeditions, beginning in the late 11th century, that were organized by western European Christians in response to centuries of Muslim wars of expansion.
Pope Urban II
Pope Urban II was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 March 1088 to his death.
Saladin
Saladin was a Muslim sultan of Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Palestine, founder of the Ayyūbid dynasty, and the most famous of Muslim heroes.
Richard I
Richard I, known as Richard Cœur de Lion or Richard the Lionheart because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior, was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199.
The Black Death (Bubonic Plague)
Black Death, pandemic that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351, taking a proportionately greater toll of life than any other known epidemic or war up to that time.
The Hundred Years War
The Hundred Years War was a series of armed conflicts fought between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages.
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc known in English as Joan of Arc, was a French peasant girl whose visions of angels led her to become a military leader.
Henry V
Henry V was the king of England (1413–22) of the house of Lancaster, son of Henry IV. As victor of the Battle of Agincourt (1415, in the Hundred Years’ War with France), he made England one of the strongest kingdoms in Europe.
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a centuries-long series of battles by Christian states to expel the Muslims (moors).
Queen Isabella
Isabella I, also called Isabella the Catholic, was Queen of Castile and León from 1474 until her death in 1504. She was also Queen of Aragon from 1479 until her death as the wife of King Ferdinand II…
King Ferdinand
Ferdinand II was King of Aragon from 1479 until his death in 1516. As the husband of Queen Isabella I of Castile, he was also King of Castile from 1475 to 1504.
Inquisition
The Inquisition was a judicial procedure and a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics.
Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula, peninsula in southwestern Europe, occupied by Spain and Portugal.
