2ºESO

1. Unit 2: FEUDAL EUROPE.

2.  Bishop (obispo): a priest entrusted with authority. They were often advisors to a king.
 Clergy (clero): all the people who belonged to the Church. They were a privileged estate in
medieval society.
 Convent (convento): a place where nuns lived and worked.
 Court (corte): the followers of a monarch, made up of family memebers, warriors and advisors.
 Crop rotation (rotación de cultivos): leaving part of a field fallow to allow the soil to rest.
 Crusades (cruzadas): holy military expeditions by Christians to recover the Holy Land from the
Muslims.
 Demesne (dominio): the land on a fief possesed directly by its lord.
 Estates (Estados): medieval social groups. Medieval society was divided into three estates:
nobility, clergy and the third estate.

3.  Excommunicate (excomulgar): the expulsion of a person from the Roman Catholic Church by
the Pope.
 Famine (hambruna): a widespread lack of food for a population.
 Feudalism (feudalismo): the main system in Europe in the 10th-13th centuries based upon a
network of feudal ties, in which nobles recieved land from the king in return for military
assistance.
 Fief (feudo): an area of land given to a vassal in return for military assistance.
 Free peasant (campesino libre): a peasant who owned a small plot of land and pais taxes, but
was free to make personal decisions.
 Holy Roman Emperor (Emperador del Sacro Imperio Romano): a title established in AD 800 as a
succesor to the Western Roman emperors.
 Homage (homenaje): a demonstration of loyalty to a lord.

4.  Knight (caballero): a noble who offered military assistance to a lord.
 Lord (señor): a powerful noble with a castle and a large estate.
 Lower nobility (baja nobleza): knigths, who sometimes only owned their horse and weapons.
 March (Marca): a well-defended border region of the Frankish kingdom.
 Mayor of the Palace (Mayordomo de palacio): a Frankish official. They were the real rulers of the
Frankish kingdom.
 Military order (orden militar): an organisation of warrior-monks.
 Missi Dominici: were Frankish royal inspectors who controlled regional administration.
 Monastery (monasterio): a place were monks lived and worked.
 Nobles: a privileged estate in medievl society. They had a military role and often controlled large
pieces of land.
 Page: a noble child who served a knight.

5.  Peasants (campesinos): the majority of the medieval population. They worked on the land and
were unprivileged.
 Privileged estates (Estados privilegiados): the nobility and clergy, who did have not pay taxes or
do manual labour.
 Regular clergy (clero regular): members of religious orders, who lived in separate communities.
 Rule (regla): a set of religous obligations that monks followed.
 Secular clergy (clero secular): priests and bishops. They lived within society and provided
religious services.
 Serf (siervo): a peasant completly under the authority of a lord.
 Squire (escudero): a young noble who offered military assistance to a knight.
 Tithe (diezmo): a tax paid on Church land by peasants. It was usually a share of the harvest.

6.  Upper nobility (alte nobleza): great feudal lords with castles and large estates.
 Vassal (vasallo): a noble or a knight who has recived land in return for the promise of military
support.