Feudal Europe was organized into a strict hierarchy with the king at the top who granted land to nobles in exchange for military service. Society was divided into estates with the privileged nobility and clergy who did not pay taxes unlike the unprivileged peasants who worked the lands. The system was based on a network of obligations between lords and vassals and ensured military protection in a decentralized agrarian society.

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.