Glossary

A glossary of medieval and Latin terms, for quick reference to assist your time travel

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acre	The amount of land tillable by one man behind one team of eight oxen in one day. Traditional acres were long and narrow due to the difficulty in turning the plough and the value of river front access.
advowson	In ecclesiastical law, the right to recommend a member of the Anglican clergy for a vacant benefice, or to make such an appointment.
assart	The clearing of land for agriculture. Slashing and burning.
BCE	Before the Common Era. The term tends to be used today by historians instead of BC, of which it is the equivalent.
bovate	A medieval land unit equivalent to one eighth of a carucate. From Latin bovata, it is synonymous with an oxgang and was a term commonly used in former Danelaw counties. Depending on the quality of the land, it might be about 10 to 18 acres. It might be interpreted as the land which a single oxen could plough in a year, though oxen typically ploughed in teams of eight though not exclusively, so a carucate was the land that a plough team could plough in a year.
burh	Anglo Saxon fortified settlement.
carucate	A medieval land unit based on the land which a plough team of eight oxen could till in a year. Depending on the quality of the land, it might be about 80 to 150 acres. Caruca means a team of eight oxen.
castrum	Roman fort.
CE	Of the Common Era. The term tends to be used today by historians instead of AD, of which it is the equivalent.
chevauchée	A practice common during the Hundred Years War, the chevauchée was an armed raid into enemy territory. With the aim of destruction, pillage, and demoralization, chevauchées were generally conducted against civilian populations.
church rates	The church rate was a tax levied in each parish for the benefit of the parish church. The rates were used to meet the costs of services, repairing the fabric of the church and paying salaries. It was always a matter of common law, not statute. The compulsory levying of the church rate was abolished by the Compulsory Church Rate Abolition Act 1868, though it continued on a voluntary basis in many parishes.
Close Rolls	Rotuli clausi were administrative records of the royal chancery to preserve a central record of all letters close issued by the chancery in the name of the Crown. They were usually records of orders or instructions of a personal nature and were issued folded and sealed or ‘closed’. They were then enrolled in the close rolls. Close Rolls cover the period from 1204. The last writ enrolled on a close roll was dated 1532-33.
cottar	Cottar is a Germanic term for a peasant farmer. Cottars occupied cottages and cultivated small land lots. The word cottar is often employed to translate the cotarius recorded in the Domesday Book, a social class whose exact status has been the subject of some discussion among historians, and is still a matter of doubt.
crenallate	Licence to fortify a castle.
Curia Regis	Curia regis refers to the King’s Court. It refers to councils of advisers to the medieval kings of Europe, including England. The curia regis rolls are a source for various information about people and places, particularly involving litigation. These records span the period from Richard I to Henry II.
enfeoffed	“Bent the knee”. To pledge service and allegiance often to the King in return for confirmation of freehold over property under the feudal system.
escheat	The reversion of land to a feudal overlord when the tenanted owner died without heirs.
Eyre Court	Henry II took a grip on a court system in a muddle. He developed a system of travelling eyres for royal judges to travel around the country. The old French word erre, means journey. The eyre justices were judges of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries who were sent out from the central courts at Westminster Hall around the counties of England (though not Chester nor Durham). Generally they travelled out every seven years, but the interval changed from time to time.
Feet of Fines	A foot of fines is the record of an agreement between two parties after a land dispute. The agreement itself was called the final concord or ‘fine’ for short. In practice the disputes were often fictitious and a foot of fines was really just a way to record the transfer of land in an official way, through the court of the King. Feet of Fines records span the period 1195 to 1833. There are some examples before that, even back to King Stephen in 1140, but from 1195, the process was formalised so that three copies of the agreement were made on a sheet of parchment. One was retained by each party and the third was at the foot of the parchment. The three bits were separated by cutting, the parties retained their segments and the third was retained by the Crown. That is why the document is usually referred to in the plural as ‘feet of fines’. At first, the fines were made in the Eyre Court in the Exchequer, before justices of Eyre. From the early fourteenth century, fines were made in the Court of Common Pleas.
furlong	Meaning furrow length, the distance a team of oxen could plough without resting. This was standardised to be exactly 40 rods or 10 chains.
hart	A male red deer, or a stag. The red deer (Cervus elaphus) is one of the largest deer species. The word comes from the Middle English word hert meaning deer.
hind	A female red deer, or a doe.
Inquisition Post Mortem	A stocktaking for tax purposes taken on the death of a noble person.
Knight’s Fee (or Fief)	A unit of land which was deemed to be sufficient to support a night. The area of land depended on the climate and richness of the soil and such other factors.
Land Tax Assessment	In 1692 the British government instituted a scheme to increase revenue which came to be known as the land tax. The laws changed several times over the years until the tax was finally repealed in 1963. The tax was administered locally and original records will usually be located at the County Record Office. From 1780 to 1832, a copy of the Land Tax Assessment was placed in the quarter session records.
Lay Subsidy	Lay subsidy rolls are taxation records. They tend to relate to more prosperous households. The rolls are arranged by county, and then by regions within the county, often referred to as wapentakes (or hundreds). The subsidies include the hearth tax returns of 1662 to 1674.
mainpernor	A person who gave a guarantee that a prisoner would attend court.
maritage	The fee paid by a vassal following the feudal lord’s decision on a marriage.
messuage	An area of land occupied as a site for a dwelling house and its adjacent buildings.
molendinum	Latin for Mill.
mordant	A substance such as alum which, if applied to material before it goes into the dye bath, will help the dye pigment bond more strongly with the fibres of the material. This produces a richer, brighter result that is colour-fast when washed.
oxgang	The amount of land tillable by one ox in a ploughing season. This could vary from village to village, but was typically around 15 acres.
oyer and terminer	From the French oyer et terminer, literally means 'to hear and to determine'. It was one of the commissions by which a judge of assize sat. By the commission of oyer and terminer the commissioners, the judges of assize, though other persons were named with them in the commission, were commanded to make diligent inquiry into all treasons, felonies and misdemeanours whatever committed in the counties specified in the commission, and to hear and determine the same according to law. The inquiry was by means of a grand jury. After the grand jury had found the bills of indictment submitted to it, the commissioners proceeded to hear and determine by means of the petit jury. The words oyer and terminer were also used to denote the court that had jurisdiction to try offences within the limits to which the commission of oyer and terminer extended.
palfrey	an archaic term for a light, docile horse used for riding, especially by women, during the Middle Ages.
Patent Rolls	Rotuli litterarum patentium are administrative records. Letters were issued openly or 'patent' (in contrast to the Close Rolls) as they related to matters of public interest. They were sealed with the sovereign's great seal pendent. They covered a diverse range of subjects including revenue, justice, treaties, and foreign correspondence. They also record grants, confirmations of liberties, offices, land and wardship. They include charters of incorporation.
praetorium	Roman Headquarters.
Pipe Rolls	The Pipe Rolls are financial records held by the Exchequer, dating from the twelfth century. They were early audits by the Exchequer. Various sheets of parchment were fixed together and rolled tightly for storage, looking like a pipe, from which the name derives. Pipe rolls record payments made to government, debts owed to the Crown and expenditure of royal officials.
quitclaim	A quitclaim was a formal renunciation of a legal claim against some other person, or of a right to land. A person who quitclaimed a right, renounced or relinquished a claim to some legal right, or transfers a legal interest in land.
rod	A historical unit of length equal to 5 ½ yards. It may have originated from the typical length of a medieval ox-goad. There are 4 rods in one chain.
regarders	Ancient officers of the forest. Generally knights, sworn to carry out the regard of the Forest, and watch over royal; forest hunting grounds.
soar	A sow or female pig or boar.
sokeman	A sokeman belonged to a class of tenants, found chiefly in the eastern counties, especially the Danelaw area, occupying an intermediate position between the free tenants and the bond tenants, in that they owned and paid taxes on their land themselves. Forming between 30% and 50% of the countryside, they could buy and sell their land, but owed service to their lord's soke, court, or jurisdiction.
terrier	An eighteenth and nineteenth century record of field names, with reference number, land use, acreage, value per acre and rent.
verderers	Forestry officials in England who dealt with royal hunting areas which were the property of the Crown. The title Verderer comes from the Norman word vert meaning green and referring to woodland.
villein	Villein was a term used in the feudal system. It describes a peasant or medieval tenant farmer. A villein in gross was legally tied to a lord of the manor. A villein regardant was tied to a manor. They were expected to spend some of their time working on the lord's fields in return for land. Villein is derived from Late Latin villanus, which referred to a person employed at a Roman villa rustica, or large agricultural estate. Villeinage became progressively less common through the Middle Ages, particularly after the Black Death reduced the rural population and improved the bargaining power of the non noble classes.
virgate	The amount of land tillable by two oxen in a ploughing season.
YBP	Years Before Present

If you need some more help you might also try the glossary of medieval terms.

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