‘Almain’ – a Central European mercenary – Landsknecht
‘Almain rivet’ – mass-produced harness, munition quality
‘Backsword’ – a form of weapon with one sharpened cutting edge and the other flattened and blunt, primarily a horseman’s weapon designed for the cut
‘Base’ – small gun, throwing a ½lb ball
‘Bastion’ – projection from the curtain wall of a fort usually at intersections to provide a wider firing platform and to allow defenders to enfilade (flanking fire) a section of the curtain
‘Bastle’ – often confused with ‘pele’, a form of defensive dwelling, a squat stone blockhouse with thick walls, pitched stone-flagged roof and, typically barrel-vaulted basement, access to first floor by ladder only
‘Batter’ – outward slope at the base of a masonry wall to add strength and frustrate mining efforts
‘Battery’ – a section of guns, may be mobile field artillery or a fixed defensive position within a defensive circuit
‘Battle’ – a division on the field, armies comprised left or vaward, centre or main and rear or right-handed units, deployed in a linear formation
‘Battlements’ – the merlons and crenellations atop the parapet walk of a castle or fort, often reinforced by timber additions in time of war, castle builders required a ‘licence to crenellate’ before erecting castles
‘Bill’ – formidable military variant of a peasant’s agricultural tool, combining axe blade with sharpened point
‘Blinde(s)’ – a bundle of brushwood or planks used to afford cover to trenches
‘Border Horse’ – irregular troops of lightly armed marcher cavalry, latterly the ‘Steel Bonnets’, the hobilars of the fourteenth and fifteen century
‘Breast and back’ – body armour comprising a front and rear plate section
‘Breastwork’ – defensive wall
‘Brigandine’ – lightweight padded body armour, similar to the ‘jack’ but reinforced by an inner layer of small metal plates
‘Broadsword’ – a double- edged blade intended for cut or thrust, becoming old-fashioned though many would do service, often with an enclosed or basket hilt
‘Buckler’ – small round shield used for parrying and blows
‘Cannon’ – heavy gun throwing a 47lb (21kg) ball; a demi-cannon fired 27lb (12kg) ball; cannon-royal shot a massive 63lb (29kg) ball
‘Centenar’ – company commander of a unit of foot 100 strong, essentially a senior NCO
‘Chevaux-de-frise’ – a large baulk of timber set with sharpened blades to form an improvised defence, often employed to seal or attempt to seal a breach in the defender’s walls
‘Claymore’ or cleadamh mor ‘great sword’ – a Highland bastard sword with distinctive down-swept quillons finished with lobed rings
‘Commission of Array’ – this was the ancient royal summons issued through the lords lieutenants of the counties to raise militia forces, in the context of a civil war such an expedient was of dubious legality as clearly unsanctioned by Parliament
‘Corselet’ – this refers to a pikeman’s typical harness of breast and back, with tassets for the thighs
‘Culverin’ – a gun throwing a 15lb (7kg) ball; mainly used in siege operations the guns weighed an average of 4,000lb (1,800kg). The lighter demi-culverin threw a 9lb (4kg) ball and weighed some 3,600lb (1,600kg)
‘Curtain’ – the section of fortress wall linking two towers
‘Defilade’ – where one party, probably a defender uses any natural or man-made obstacle to shield or conceal their position; see also ‘enfilade’ below
Doppelnsolder – swordsman deployed to guard the flanks of the pike phalanx
‘Drake’ or ‘Saker’ – gun firing a 5¼lb (2.5kg) ball
‘Embrasure’ – the more open and splayed form of battlements used to facilitate siting of guns
‘Enceinte’ – the circuit or whole of the defensive works
‘Enfilade’ – where one party is in a position to direct fire onto the longest exposed axis of the other’s position, e.g. an attacker is able to shoot along a defender’s trench from the flank
‘Ensign’ (or ‘Ancient’) – a junior commissioned officer of infantry who bears the flag from which the name derives
‘Falcon’ – light gun firing a 2¼lb (1kg) ball
‘Falconet’ – light gun throwing a 1¼lb (0.5kg) shot
‘Field-works’ – a system of improvised temporary defensive works employed by an army on the march or protecting an encampment
‘Fleche’ – a projecting V-shaped defensive outwork
‘Foot’ – infantry
‘Foot-band’ – a reinforced company of English infantry, usually the affinity of a knight or captain
‘Foray’ – essentially a raid intended to lift livestock and glean intelligence, forerunner of the modern fighting patrol
‘Gabion’ – wicker baskets filled with earth, which formed handy building blocks for temporary works or sealing off a breach
‘Glacis’ – a sloped earthwork out from the covered way to provide for grazing fire from the curtain
‘Guns’ – artillery
‘Halberd’ – a polearm, outdated in war but carried as a staff of rank by NCOs
‘Harness’ – plate armour
‘Herce’ or deployment en herce (harrow) – positioning of the archers by English captains on the field, either in commanded bodies in the line or on the flanks, still employed in the early sixteenth century
‘Kern’ – a lightly armed Irish foot soldier, likely to be employed as a mercenary. The Scottish or Highland equivalent was the ‘cateran’
‘Lance’ – this refers not just to the horseman’s staff weapon but to a tactical unit, the immediate affinity and retinue of a knight, variable in size
‘Matross’ – a gunner’s mate, doubled as a form of ad-hoc infantry to protect the guns whilst on the march
‘Meutriere’ – or ‘murder-hole’, space between the curtain and corbelled out battlements enabling defender to drop a variety of unpleasant things onto attackers at the base of the wall
‘Minion’ – gun shooting a 4lb (2kg) ball
‘Munition armour’ – mass-produced foot armour of questionable quality
‘Ordnance’ – artillery
‘Pike’ – a polearm with a shaft likely to be 12–18ft ª3.5–5m) in length, finished with a diamond-shaped head
‘Pioneers’ – labourers used as navvies to help level roads for the guns or to dig fortifications, less skilled than sappers or engineers
‘Postern’ (‘Sally Port’) – a small gateway set into the curtain allowing re-supply and deployment of defenders in localised attacks on besiegers
‘Prickers’ – light cavalry vedettes and scouts
‘Rapier’ – a slender, long bladed thrusting weapon, more likely to be owned by gentry; bespoke and more costly than a trooper’s backsword, often used in conjunction with a left-handed or main gauche dagger
‘Shot’ – musketeers
‘Redoubt’ – a detached, square, polygonal or hexagonal earthwork or blockhouse
‘Reiver’ – similar to Border Horse as the riders frequently combined both functions, a breed of men to whom cattle raiding and the deadly feud were a way of life, as much a menace to their own side as the enemy
‘Robinet’ – light field gun firing a 1¼lb (0.5kg) shot
‘Scarp’ – inner wall of ditch or moat
‘Sconce’ – a small detached fort with projecting corner bastions
‘Serpentine’ – field gun throwing a 7lb (3kg) ball
‘Small-Beer’ – weak, watery ale drunk instead of water, the latter often being unsafe
‘Snap’ – cold rations carried in a ‘snap-sack’
‘Targe’ – a laminated timber, leather-covered buckler used with a single-handed broadsword, associated with Scottish Highlanders but widely used on the borders
‘Tasset’ – a section of plate armour hinged from the breastplate intended to afford protection to the upper thigh
‘Touch hole’ – the small diameter hole drilled through the top section of a gun barrel through which the linstock ignites the charge, fine powder was poured in a quill inserted into the touch hole
‘Train’ – a column of guns on the move, the army marches accompanied or followed by the train
‘Victualler’ – responsible for logistics and supply of foodstuffs and small beer in the field
‘Vintner’ – NCO in charge of a small platoon of twenty (vingt) footmen
‘Wappinschaw’ – a regular muster of Scottish fighters which provided for the weapons and gear provided by each