Bacinet:
Relatively light helmet with a rounded or pointed top. It might be fitted with a visor.
See also: Bascinet and Bassinet
Badge:
An emblematic figure, especially placed on some prominent part of the clothing of servants and
retainers, such as the breast, back, sleeve, etc., to show to what household they belonged;
found also on flags, buildings, etc.
Baffle Entrance:
A doorway into a house after which it is not possible to go straight into a room as the way is
blocked by a wall, usually containing a chimney stack, so that it is necessary to turn either
left or right into the rooms on either side.
Bailey:
Defended courtyard of a castle.
See also: Castle and Ward.
Bailli:
Royal officer responsible for the administration of justice and of revenue in a baillage or
district.
See also: Bailiff
Bailiff: (or bailie, bailo)
1) Manorial official, overseer of the manor, chosen by the lord.
2) Chief representative of a lord on a manor (usually an outsider appointed by the lord).
See also: Bailli.
Balinger:
Small oared vessel with single mast and sail.
See also: Ballinger.
Balk:
1) Turf left unplowed to provide separation between strips.
2) A ridge left between two furrows, or a strip of ground left unploughed as a boundary line
between two ploughed portions.
Ball-Flower:
1) Globular ornament consisting of three-petalled flower enclosing a small ball.
2) Ornament resembling a ball enclosed in a globular three-petalled flower; characteristic of
the first quarter of the 14th century.
Ballinger:
English sailing barge usually with from forty to fifty oars, shallow-draughted and clinker
built.
See also: Balinger
Ballista:
Engine resembling a crossbow, used in hurling missles or large arrows.
See also: Bombard, Espringale, Catapult, Mangonel and Trebuchet
Baluster:
1) A short shaft, such as is used in balustrades, usually thicker in the middle than at the ends.
2) A small column supporting a hand-rail.
Balustrade:
A series of balusters.
Ban:
1) A King's power to command and prohibit under pain of punishment or death, mainly used because
of a break in the King's Peace. Also a royal proclamation, either of a call to arms, or a decree
of outlawry. In clerical terms, an excommunication on condemnation by the church.
2) Power originally wielded by the king, but later assumed by counts and castellans to exploit
men and levy dues and services in return for protection. Hence ban inférieur, seigneurie banale,
etc.
3) A ruler or governor of a large province, usually a subordinate of the King of Hungary
(or historically so). The title was used in the western Balkans in Bosnia, Croatia, Slavonia,
and Macva. On occassion a banship became hereditary. Sometimes bans were able to achieve
considerable, if not complete, independence.
See also: Banate.
Banalities:
Fees which a feudal lord imposes on his serfs for the use of his mill, oven, wine press, or
similar facilities. It some times includes part of a fish catch or the proceeds from a rabbit
warren.
Banate: (or Banovina)
The territory ruled by a ban.
Bandon: (pl. banda)
A tactical unit of Byzantine cavalry numbering 450 men.
Banneret:
1) A military rank, superior to that of a knight. Bannerets bore square banners, rather than
long pennons.
2) Lord entitled to have a banner, and drawing higher wages of war than an ordinary knight.
Banvin:
Monopoly of wine sales at end of season.
Barb: (also Barbary horse)
A breed of horse from "Barbary", or Berber, coast of the Mediterranean (Libya, Tunisia,
Algeria and Morocco), and rather smaller than the Arabian. The term equus de Barbaria occurs
in letters of the Emperor Frederick II in 1240. In England the term "Barb" is first found in
1636.
Barbed, Rowed, and Shorn:
hree finishing processes in the manufacture of cloth.
Barber-Surgeon:
Monastic who shaves faces/heads and performs light surgery.
Barbican:
1) An outwork or forward extension of a castle gateway.
2) Outerwork of a castle, providing additional defence for the gatehouse. Also used to describe
the strategy developed by the English in the late fourteenth century.
See also: Castle
Bard:
A minstrel or poet who glorifies the virtues of the people and chieftains.
Barded Horse:
See Horse, Barded
Baron: (Old French "man")
A vassal who holds directly from the crown and serves as a member of the king's great council.
It is not, of itself, a title, but rather a description of the Tenants in Chief class of
nobility.
See also: Baronage and Barony
Baronage:
The leading members of the landed elite, above the bannerets. The title of baron carried no
specific duties or rights, though most were treated as peers.
See also: Baron and Barony
Baronnie:
Supplementary profits arising from the expolitation of men.
Baron of Exchequer:
A judge of the court of the exchequer.
Barony:
1) Name given to administrative divisions of certain counties.
2) Land held as a grant directly from the king.
See also: Baron, Baronage and Cantred
Barrel Roof:
Like a covered wagon, or inverted ship.
Barrow:
n earthen burial mound.
Bartizan:
Overhanging battlemented corner turret, corbelled out; common in French and Scottish military
architecture.
See also: Castle
Bascinet:
A fourteenth century open-faced helmet of globular or pointed shape, which extended downwards to
protect the cheeks and the back of the neck. An aventail was added c. 1320 and a pointed visor
after 1350.
See also: Armor, Bacinet, Bassinet, Cabacete, Kettle Hat and Sallet
Bassinet:
Conical helmet with "hounskul" (or "pig-face") pointed visor.
See also: Bascinet and Bacinet
Bastard:
Title borne by acknowledged eldest natural son of a noble.
See also: Special Bastardy and Bourc
Bastardy, Special:
Illegitimacy prior to parent's subsequent marriage.
See also: Bastard and Bourc
Bastide:
See Gagnage
Bastille:
1) Redoubt or outwork. (military architecture)
2) Wooden tower on wheels for assault, used in siege warfare.
See also: Castle
Bastion:
1) Round or polygonal tower projecting from walls.
2) A small tower at the end of a curtain wall or in the middle of the outside wall.
See also: Castle
Batter:
1) Lower sloping surface of a wall linking a wide base to a narrower upper structure.
2) A sloping part of a curtain wall. The sharp angle at the base of all walls and towers
along their exterior surface.
See also: Castle
Battle:
1) A main division of the army; usually there were three or four battles in an army.
2) A division of troops commanded by a peer or knight banneret.
Battlements:
1) Indented parapet for defence.
2) A narrow wall built along the outer edge of the wall walk to protect the soldiers against
attack.
See also: Castle
Bauding: (Bavaria)
Tenants' assembly.
Bavier:
Chin-piece; so called from its resemblance to a bib. (armour)
See also: Armor
Bay:
A constituent protion or compartment of a building, complete in itself and corresponding to
other portions.
Bay Window:
Projecting window usually at ground level.
See also: Oriel
Bead:
A small round moulding.
Beadle:
Manorial official, usually assistant to reeve.
Beg: (or Bey)
A member of a dualistic, heretical sect that arose in Bulgaria in the mid-tenth century and spread beyond Bulgaria into the Byzantine Empire, and from there along the Mediterranean to the south of Western Europe.
Beguines / Beghards:
Since the twelfth century, a name for pious women who lived in small voluntary groups for religious purposes, but did not take religious vows. They were free to own property, to leave
the group and to marry. Beghards were men who lived the same sort of life. They were prominent in
Low Countries and the Rhineland; sometimes suspected by church authorities of heresy.
Belfry:
Large movable wooden tower used in sieges.
Benedictine Order:
Monastic order founded by St. Benedictine. Monks take vows of personal poverty, chastity and obedience to their abbot and the Benedictine Rule.
See also: Black Monks
Benefice: (L. beneficium)
1) A grant of land given to a member of the aristocracy, a bishop, or a monastery, for limited
or hereditary use in exchange for services. In ecclesiastic terms, a benefice is a church
office that returns revenue.
2) The grant made by a lord, usually of land.
3) An endowed church office.
4) An ecclesiastical office, such as a parish church or prebend, to which specific duties and revenues are assigned.
5) Ecclesiastical appointment, with cure of souls, usually held by rector or vicar of parish church.
6) Normally referring to the income, endowments and rights (or the living) of a parish church, but generally used of any church with income. Derived from beneficium, the feudal land given in return for service.
Benefit of Clergy:
1) A privilege enjoyed by members of the clergy, including tonsured clerks, placing them beyond the jurisdiction of secular courts.
2) The legal privilege of those who could prove they were clergy to be tried and sentenced for felonies in the church courts and punished by the church.
Benevolence:
Tax imposed under guise of voluntary loan.
Berm:
1) Strip of ground between the base of the curtain wall and the ditch.
2) Flat space between the base of the curtain wall and the inner edge of the moat.
See also: Castle
Besagues:
Circular plates laced to the outside of the elbow joint and front of the shoulder to protect the joints in an armour.
See also: Armor
Bevor:
A high collar of plate covering the lower half of the face.
See also: Armor
Bezant:
A coin first struck at Byzantium (in other words Constantinople). There were gold bezants, varying in value between a sovereign and a half-sovereign, and silver ones worth from a florin to a shilling.
Bill:
1)
A) Short, informal note;
B) document initiating proceedings at common law or in equity;
C) petition in parliament, on which enactment may be made.
2) Miltiary use: a weapon based on agricultural tools and usually having a hooked blade with spikes at top and rear.
Bishop:
A church officer consecrated to the highest of the holy orders; usually the head of a diocese with spiritual authority over the other clergy and laity in that diocese; believed to be a successor to the apostles; word derived from the Greek episcopos, "overseer".
Black Canon:
A common name for Augustinian Canons, derived from the color of their robes.
Black Death:
Bubonic plague that ravaged Europe and Asia in the mid-fourteenth century and reappeared periodically in Europe for generations.
Black Monks:
A common name for members of the Benedictine Order derived from the color of the habits.
Blanc:
French equivalent of groat but mainly of base metal instead of silver.
Bloodfeud:
Conflict between kin-groups, arising from an attempt to exact vengeance or compensation for a previous injury.
Bogomil:
A member of a dualistic, heretical sect that arose in Bulgaria in the mid-tenth century and spread beyond Bulgaria into the Byzantine Empire, and from there along the Mediterranean to the south of Western Europe.
Bolting-House:
A place where bran is bolted (i.e. sifted) from flour.
Bombard:
Heavy cannon used in siege warfare, firing gunstones or metal cannon balls of up to 1,000 lb.
See also: Ballista, Espringale, Catapult, Mangonel and Trebuchet
Bombasted:
Stuffed with cotton, hair, etc. (costume)
Bond:
Arrangement of bricks in courses.
See also: English Bond, English Garden-Wall Bond, Flemish Bond and Header Bond
Bond, English:
1) Alternate courses of headers and stretchers.
2) In which the bricks are laid in alternate courses of stretchers (with the long sides visible) and headers (with the short ends visible), so that each alternate course is bonded through. This is the common European medieval bond.
See also: Bond, English Garden-Wall Bond, Flemish Bond and Header Bond
Bond, English Garden-Wall:
In which there is a single course of headers and then five (or sometimes three) courses of stretchers. This is not so strong since the bricks are bonded only through every fourth or sixth course. This is characterisitic post-medieval bond in the north of England for ordinary buildings.
See also: English Bond, Bond, Flemish Bond and Header Bond
Bond, Flemish:
Alternate headers and stretchers in the same course.
See also: English Bond, English Garden-Wall Bond, Bond and Header Bond,
Bond, Header Bricks laid so that only ends show on wall face.
See also: English Bond, English Garden-Wall Bond, Flemish Bond and Bond
Bondman:
Serf; villein.
Bonnier:
Between 2.2 and 3.5 acres.
Boon-work:
1) Work done on the lord's land by dependent peasants for a fixed number of days per week.
2) Obligation of tenants for special work services, notably the lord's harvest.
3) A day's work, given gratuitously to a lord by his men on a special occasion.
Bordar:
1) Smallholding cottager of lesser standing than villein but better off than cottar.
2) Usually, in rural contexts, a relatively humble peasant occupying a cottage with little or no arable attached.
Borde:
Peasant holding in Toulouse region [of France].
Borough: (also O.E. burg, burgh, burh; or L. burgus)
1) A town with the right of self government granted by royal charter.
2) Originally a defended farm or residence but usually used in the meaning current from the ninth to the eleventh centuries, namely an urban settlement, normally fortified.
3) At first used of any fortified place, not necessarily a town; by the eleventh century the word had strong urban connotations.
Borough-English:
1) A term which designates the custom of ultimogeniture (All lands inherited by the youngest son).
2) The name of a form of land-tenure whereby a man's property descended to his youngest son.
Borre:
A Scandinavian art style named from objects found in the ship burial in a great barrow at Boore in Vestfold in Norway and datable to the late ninth and early tenth centuries. It is most commonly found on small cast cooper-alloy objects and is typified by a ring chain pattern made up of a double ribbon plait forming a symmetrical interlace. Each intersection is bound by a circle which surrounds a hollow-sided lozenge. Borre-style objects were not necessarily imported and were made in the north of England, for example at York.
Bosnian Church:
An independent Church in Bosnia, often called heretical, but probably only in schism from Rome. It existed from the mid- to late thirteenth century until the late fifteenth century.
Boss: (Fr. bosse = lump or knot)
Projecting ornament concealing intersection of vaulting ribs, etc.
Bourc:
Gascon title meaning "bastard", but to which no stigma attached. It was adopted as a matter of course by illegitimate sons of prominent families.
Bovate:
1) An eighth of a carucate. Sometimes reckoned at 15 acres; land ploughed by two oxen.
2) An ox-gang, or as much land as an ox could plough in a year; varying in amount from 10 to 18 acres according to the system of tillage.
3) A measurement of land. One eighth of a carucate; notionally as much land as could be kept under plough by one ox. Also known as an oxgang or oxgate of land.
Bowyer:
Bow maker.
See also: Fletcher
Boyar: (also Bojar)
A member of the military landed aristocracy in Bulgaria. The term was also used in Russia.
Brace:
Subsidiary timber of a roof, inserted to strengthen the framing.
Bracers:
Plate armour for the arms.
See also: Armor
Brandes Arces:
Heathlands of the Sologne district.
Brassier:
All-but landless peasant.
Brattishing:
Ornamental cresting on screen, cornice, etc.
Breche:
Breeches.
Brehon Laws: (also called Feinechus)
An ancient Irish legal system.
Bressumer:
Beam supporting an upper wall of timber framing.
Bretasche:
Protective wooden screen used in siege warfare.
Brigandine: (also brigantine)
1) Metal splints sewed upon canvas, linen, or leather and covered with similar materials; a material used in making light armour. A "pair of brigandines" is a body-coat of this material, in two pieces.
2) Defensive jacket of metal plates on cloth.
3) A canvas or leather jacket with small plates of metal stitched inside, popular from c. 1340.
See also: Armor and Jack
Brimstone:
Sulphur.
Broach-Stop:
A half pyramid against the chamfer to bring the edge to a right angle, often short with deep hollow chamfer in the 13th century, long with very shallow hollow chamfer in the 15th century.
Buckler:
A small round shield carried by infantry to parry blows.
See also: Armor
Buffet:
See Colée
Bull:
An authoritiative papal letter, sealed with the lead seal, or bulla, of the pope.
Bullace:
A small tree or large shrub bearing black fruits 1-1.5in. long with comparatively large stones. Spreads by cuckers - shoots arising from underground from parts of the root system - and therefore often develops into dense stands. Frequently found near to former habitation; not much grown today. Technically a sub species of the plum and its allies; the normal plum of gardens is another sub species.
Burel Cloth:
Coarse woolen cloth.
Burgage:
A unit of property in a borough, generally comprising a house but not much appurtenant land, held for a money-rent and according to the more or less standard rules of burgage tenure.
See also: Burgage Tenure
Burgage Tenure:
A freehold, usually within a town or borough; the holder customarily pays a money rent in lieu of all services, military or other.
See also: Burgage
Burgess: (L. burgensis)
1) The holder of land or house within a borough.
2) Member of a borough community, sharing in its communal privileges.
3) The member of a town (borough) community, generally a householder paying his share of any communal dues and thus participating in communal privileges and possessing the "freedom of the borough", "burgess franchise", or "borough franchise".
Burgher:
A townsman.
Burgonet:
A steel cap with chin-piece; a feature of sixteenth-century armour.
See also: Armor
Burgus: (L.)
See Borough
Burgware: (O.E.)
The inhabitants of burh.
Burh: (O.E.)
See Borough
Burhgemot: (O.E.)
A court held in a burh.
Buteil: (Germany)
Lord's right to a third or half share of his man's estate.
See also: Heriot, Mainmorte, Meilleur Catel and Mortmain
Butt:
Small part of a plowed field, often the portion remaining after plowing.
Buttery: (M.E. botelerie)
1) Room for the service of beverages.
2) Storeroom for wine and other beverages.
See also: Castle
Buttress:
Projection from a wall for additional support.
See also: Angle Buttress and Diagonal Buttress
Buttress, Angle:
A pair meeting (or nearly) at right angles on the corner of a building.
See also: Buttress and Diagonal Buttress
Buttress, Diagonal:
One set on the angle of a building, diagonally to each wall.
See also: Buttress and Angle Buttress
Bylaws:
Rules made by open-field villagers governing cultivation and grazing.
Byrnie:
A mail shirt, the prescursor of the hauberk.
See also: Armor
Byzantine Empire:
The eastern Roman Empire with its capital at Constantinople; it was closely intertwined with the Greek Orthodox church; the empire's long history of advance and retreat ended in 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks.
