| A | B |
|---|
| Feudalism | Loosely organized system of rule in which powerful local lords divided their landholdings among lesser lords. In exchange, these lesser lords or vassals, pledged service and loyalty to the greater lord. |
| Vassals | Lesser lords that pledged their service and loyalty to the greater lord in exchange for the use of land. |
| Fief | An estate that a powerful lord granted his vassal. These estates could be a few acres to hundreds of square miles. They also included the peasants that worked on the land, all buildings, and towns. |
| Lord | During the Middle Ages, the person who ruled large areas of land and had total authority over it and the people living within this land. They normally were the judge and jury whenever a dispute needed to be settled and they were also the judge and jury for dispute between his various vassals. |
| Manor | The lord’s estate. Most of these estates included one or more villages and surrounding lands. Peasants (serfs) lived and worked on the estate. |
| Serf | Peasants of a manor were bound to the land. They were not slaves but they could not leave the manor without the lord’s permission. |
| Knights | A mounted warrior. They usually fought on horseback using swords, axes, and lances. They wore armor and carried shields for protection. They defended the castles of their noble lords. |
| Priests | 9. These men said Mass for the town in the town church and also said Mass in the castle. This was done in its chapel. They also were responsible for the collection of church taxes and the spreading of alms among the poor. Often these men were the only people who could write and read in the village. Thus, they were sometimes responsible for village and castle record keeping. |
| Black Death or Bubonic Plaque | A global epidemic that began in 1347. One in three people died. It was spread by fleas that rats carried. |
| Reasons for the the fall of the Roman Empire | Military attacks, political turmoil, civil wars, economic weakness, population decline, and social decline resulted in this. |
| Charlemagne | King that united Western Europe when he built an empire reaching across what is now France, Germany, and part of Italy. |
