Note: I have boldfaced these words at their first use in the main text of the book, and I have italicized below words that are defined elsewhere in the glossary.
advowson The right to appoint someone to an ecclesiastical office (for example, as the rector of a parish).
affeeror An officer of the manorial court who assessed the amount of fines to be paid by offenders.
aletaster An officer of the manorial court who supervised commercial brewers and brewsters, ensuring that ale was well priced, properly measured, and of good quality.
anchorhold A small cell in which an anchoress or anchorite was voluntarily—and permanently—enclosed to pursue a life devoted to prayer and study.
ancient demesne Any English manor owned directly by William I at the time of the Domesday Book survey in 1086. Villeins of ancient demesne manors enjoyed special privileges. They did not have to pay tolls or customs anywhere in England, they did not have to attend county courts, and they could obtain legal writs from the king. Many ancient demesne manors later passed into non-royal hands, but the special status of its villeins was retained.
assart Former wasteland, forest, or marsh turned into cultivated land, either surreptitiously or with the permission of the landowner.
bailiff The chief administrative officer of a manor. Bailiffs were usually literate men with a working knowledge of law and business. They collected rents, tracked expenses and income, and supervised reeves and haywards.
boon-work Extra harvest labor performed by serfs on their manorial demesnes, above and beyond the ordinary week-work due from serfs. Manors often provided food and drink for boon-workers.
brewster A female brewer. Women made most of the ale consumed in medieval England. The term “brewer” applied to both sexes, but brewster was a woman-only term.
by-laws Community rules agreed by tenants at manorial courts. By-laws could stipulate, for example, what wages should be paid to harvest-workers or when tenants could release their animals onto fallow fields.
chancel The sanctuary of a church—that is, the area in which the priest celebrated Mass—always located to the east of the nave. By tradition, only clergy and their assistants went into the chancel.
chevage Literally, a “head tax” levied on all tenants, but usually only paid by serfs who needed permission to live away from their manors.
churching A religious ceremony, held about six weeks after a birth, that “purified” a new mother and celebrated her successful childbirth. By the Later Middle Ages, churching ceremonies emphasized celebration more than purification, but women were still not allowed to worship in church until after this ritual.
common lands Lands, usually unplanted fields, pastures, or meadows, on which all tenants of a manor could graze their animals. By-laws often specified how many animals each household could place on these lands.
coverture The legal state of wives in medieval England in which they were “covered” by their husbands. Wives under coverture could not on their own sell property or make contracts.
cuckingstool An instrument of punishment usually reserved for women and especially brewsters. It consisted of a seat at the end of a pivoting bar; placed in this seat, the offender would be displayed to her neighbors and often ducked in a pond, ditch, or river.
deacon A cleric who ranked just below a priest in the hierarchy of religious officials. Deacons assisted parish priests at their duties, helping at Mass, reading scriptures during services, and instructing parishioners. In theory, no man could be ordained a deacon before the age of nineteen.
demesne Most manorial land was rented out to long-term tenants, but the demesne was reserved for direct manorial use. The demesne was usually cultivated by serfs and its harvest placed in the barns of lords and ladies. But the demesne was a flexible resource, and if it was easier or more profitable, a manor would lease out parts of the demesne on a short-term basis.
diocese The district administered by a bishop and subject to his jurisdiction. Medieval England was divided into seventeen dioceses and medieval Wales into four. Dioceses were subdivided into other units of which the most important were parishes.
Domesday Book A survey of English lands, landowners, and tenants commissioned by William I and completed in 1086. Because Domesday Book recorded who owned land and under what terms, it was used throughout the Middle Ages as a record of local rights and responsibilities. For example, if Domesday Book recorded that a particular manor had been held by the king in 1086, that manor was regarded as part of the ancient demesne and its villeins enjoyed special privileges.
dower Lands set aside for a widow to use after her husband’s death, with the rest going directly to his heirs. Dower lands usually amounted to one-third of the husband’s properties. They were often identified by a husband at the time of marriage, but they were also sometimes regulated by custom or law.
dowry A payment made by a bride’s family to her husband at the time of marriage. Like dower lands, dowries were sometimes intended to support wives if their husbands died first. Provision of dowries was most common among members of the elite, and it was more common in southern Europe than in northern Europe. Although forbidden to do so by the Church, many female monasteries required dowries from would-be nuns.
fallow Unplanted land. Because fertilizers were few and inadequate, medieval peasants let some land lie fallow each year so that it could regain its productivity. See also three-field system and two-field system.
feudalism The political, military, and social system that maintained the culture and power of the military elite (“those who fight”). The term “feudalism” refers both to the customs of the feudal elite and to the hierarchy among members of this group. Peasants were not part of the feudal hierarchy; the lowest-ranking member of the feudal elite was far superior to the highest-ranking peasant. See further discussion in chapter 2.
free peasant A peasant free of the restrictions and liabilities of serfs. Free peasants were allowed to emigrate, work, marry, and take grievances to the king’s court. Freedom was determined by birth; if born to parents who were free, a person could claim free status.
friar A member of one of the mendicant (“begging”) religious orders founded in the early thirteenth century. The most important of these were the Dominicans and Franciscans. Unlike monks and nuns who stayed within monasteries, friars often wandered the countryside, preaching and ministering to the faithful.
gleaning The practice of going over a harvested field to collect grain that the harvesters had missed. Traditionally, the right to glean was reserved for the young, the old, and the poor.
hayward Haywards were responsible for the fields of the manor. They supervised the work of serfs at harvest; they ensured that no one stole crops from the demesne; they checked that fences were maintained without gaps; and they impounded cattle or sheep that escaped from pastures. Haywards usually served under the direction of reeves.
heriot A payment made to the manor when an unfree tenant died. Traditionally, the heriot took the form of the serf’s most valuable animal (the “best beast”), but the surviving members of the household often offered a cash payment instead. See also mortuary.
hue and cry A loud shout made by anyone who came upon the scene of a crime, so that others would help catch the wrongdoer. People who raised the hue and cry without good reason were fined in the manorial court, as were people who failed to respond.
jury A panel of six, twelve, or sometimes twenty-four jurors who either reported on misdoings in their community (a “jury of presentment”) or judged a case put before them (a “trial jury”). Juries were used at all levels of the English court system, from manorial courts to royal courts. Except for special “juries of matrons” who assessed pregnancy, all jurors were male.
leyrwite A payment due to the manor from young women of serf status (and rarely, young men too) if they were found guilty of sex outside marriage.
manor An estate consisting of land and people. Owned by privileged people or institutions, manors were worked by peasants (“those who work”) for the profit of owners. Although one person or institution might own several manors, each manor usually had its own court and own officials.
manorialism The economic system whereby serfs and free peasants (who lived on manors) supported the landowning elite.
merchet A payment made to the manor when a female serf (and rarely, a male serf) got married.
mortuary A payment made to the parish priest when someone died. Traditionally, the mortuary took the form of the deceased person’s second most valuable animal (the best animal was given to the manor as a heriot). This payment was based on the theory that parishioners were unlikely to have paid all their tithes during their lifetimes, so the mortuary compensated for tithes unpaid. In some places mortuaries were charged on all deaths, wives and children included, while in other places they applied only to male householders.
nave The main area of a church, where the congregation gathered to hear services. The nave stretched between the chancel at the east end, where the priest celebrated Mass, and the bell tower at the west end. Through most of the Middle Ages, naves did not contain pews, so people stood or sat on the floor. The upkeep of the nave was the responsibility of the parishioners.
oblation A payment made to a priest in return for his services in baptizing, marrying, burying, or otherwise caring for a parishioner. In theory, the payment was voluntary, but it was customary and expected.
open fields Fields surrounding medieval villages in which many tenants held separate strips of land for growing crops. Because an open field was not divided by fences, only boundary stones or other markers separated the strips of various tenants. While open fields enabled easy plowing and planting, they were the subject of conflict in manorial courts; peasants often complained that boundary markers had been moved or that their neighbors had taken grain from the wrong strip.
parish The smallest geographical unit in the ecclesiastical system. In the early fourteenth century, England and Wales contained about nine thousand parishes, each under the religious authority of a parish priest and his assistants. For most ordinary people, parishes were the focus of worship and religious activity.
parish clerk A man hired to assist a parish priest at his duties, especially the reading and writing of documents.
parson Any priest responsible for a parish, whether a rector or vicar.
pence The plural of penny, the basic medieval coin. Twelve pence made a shilling; 240 pence made a pound sterling. In the fourteenth century, female laborers usually earned 1 penny or less for each day’s work, whereas a male laborer got about 1½ pence. In documents, pence were abbreviated as d., short for the Latin word denarius.
pledge A person who guaranteed that another person would pay a stipulated fine or perform a specified obligation. If the fine remained unpaid or the obligation unfulfilled, the pledge was liable. Pledges were almost always men, and often they were men of high social standing on the manor.
pound sterling A monetary unit worth 240 pence or 20 shillings. The symbol for a pound sterling is £, which derives from the Latin word libra.
rector A priest or institution appointed to attend to the religious needs of members of a parish. Many rectors directly served their parishes as priests, but some lived away from their parishes and paid vicars to do their work for them. In Brigstock, the rector of the parish was an institution, the Abbey of Cirencester, and as a result, a vicar always did the day-to-day work of parochial care.
reeve After the bailiff, the most important officer on a manor. Reeves managed much of the daily business of the manor, such as making sure that the demesne lands were properly plowed, sown, and harvested, and that rents of leased portions of the demesne were duly paid. The reeve supervised the hayward.
rod A small measurement of land whose exact area varied slightly from place to place. In Brigstock, four rods made an acre.
serf An unfree peasant. Serfs were not allowed to move around from place to place; they were expected to work for the manor on a weekly basis (see week-work) and at special times of the year (see boon-work); and they had to pay various fines and fees to their manor on particular occasions (see chevage, heriot, merchet, tallage). Serfdom was determined by birth. If born to parents who were serfs, a person inherited the status of serf. In England, serfs were also called villeins.
shilling In the medieval monetary system, 12 pence. Twenty shillings made a pound sterling. In documents, a shilling was abbreviated as s., short for the Latin word solidus.
singlewoman The medieval term for a woman who never married. In the Middle Ages, the term “spinster” described a woman who worked at spinning wool into thread.
stocks Instruments of punishment in which the offender’s feet or hands were tied or locked into a wooden frame. The offender was left on display in this position for a specified length of time. Millers and bakers who cheated their customers were particularly likely to be punished in this way.
strip A long narrow area of arable land within an open field. Strips were of varying widths and were demarcated by stones or other markers, not fences. Each family might hold one or more strips in several fields surrounding a village.
tallage A tax on serfs that could be levied at will by manorial lords or ladies. Sometimes tallage was assessed according to the amount of land or the number of animals a tenant held; on other occasions a set amount was charged per individual; and on still other occasions, tenants as a group were charged a particular amount and left to work out among themselves how to divvy up the expense.
three-field system A system of farming in which peasants rotated crops each year between three fields: the first field grew a winter crop such as wheat; the second grew a spring crop such as barley; and the third was unplanted (it lay fallow) to replenish the soil. The next year, the first field grew a spring crop, the second lay fallow, and the third was sown with a winter crop. The three-field system was an innovation of the High Middle Ages, an improvement on the two-field system.
three orders An idea, created and promoted by the medieval clergy, that society was composed of three interdependent and ranked groups: first, “those who pray” (priests, monks, nuns, bishops, and other religious professionals); second, “those who fight” (knights, ladies, and other members of the landowning classes); and last, “those who work” (peasants).
tithe An obligatory payment to the Church of 10 percent of all profits and produce. All members of society, from the wealthiest aristocrats to the poorest peasants, were expected to pay tithes.
tithing A group of men (originally, ten men) responsible for the behavior of each member. If a member of a tithing was accused of committing a crime, the other members had to ensure that he was brought before the manorial court for judgment. If they failed to produce their accused member, the entire tithing could be liable for punishment. Male peasants were sworn into tithings at the age of twelve.
tithingman The man in charge of a tithing. Tithingmen were elected annually and were often expected to serve on juries in manorial courts.
two-field system A system of farming in which peasants rotated crops each year between two fields: one field was planted with crops while the other was unplanted (it lay fallow) to replenish the soil. The next year, the planted field lay fallow while the fallow field was planted. In the eleventh century, many villages began to switch to the more efficient three-field system.
vicar A priest who stood in for an absent rector in doing the day-to-day work of looking after the religious needs a parish.
View of Frankpledge A special court convened twice a year (or sometimes once a year, as in Brigstock) to make sure that every male over the age of twelve was enrolled in a tithing and to punish people guilty of crimes and petty offenses.
village A cluster of peasant houses. Villages varied considerably in size, from small hamlets of only a few households to settlements of several hundred people. The boundaries of manors and parishes were not always the same as those of villages.
villein An English term for serf.
week-work The obligation of some serfs to work for a few days each week on the manorial demesne. Typical duties included plowing, sowing seed, mending farm buildings, carting dung, harvesting grain, and caring for animals. Serfs performing week-work were supervised by reeves and haywards.