I’m not a proper historian, I’m a novelist. I like to look at what the record says—and then speculate wildly about what might really have happened while trying to stay true to the era and the characters of the people I’m writing about. So that’s what I did.
I hope you enjoy the result—as painstakingly uncovered by that “concentrated essence of Elizabethan” Sir Robert Carey and his much put-upon Sergeant Dodd.
Glossary
Apothecary – drugstore/druggist
Aqua vitae – brandy
Board of Green Cloth – committee in charge of adminstration and discipline at Court and within three miles of the Queen’s person (within the Verge)
Boot, the – instrument of torture popular in Scotland which used wedges and hammers to break the victim’s legs
Boozing ken – a small alehouse, often full of thieves etc (Thieves’ Cant)
Border reiver – armed robbers on the Anglo-Scottish Border, organised in family groups called surnames who used the Border as a means of escape
Buff jerkin – long sleeveless jacket made of tough leather, originally from buffalo
Carlin – old woman (Scotch)
Carrels – study rooms in a monastery or library
Cloth of estate – a square tent of rich cloth traditionally set up over any seat occupied by a monarch
Cods – testicles, as in codpiece
Coining – forging money
Coney-catch – con-trick (thieves’ cant)
Cramoisie – dark purple red, a very popular colour in Elizabethan England.
Culverin – medium sized cannon with a long barrel
Chess – there have been various manifestations of chess over the years; one form of Medieval chess had a queen that could only move one square at a time in any direction. The modern mobile or puissant (powerful) queen was introduced some time around the sixteenth century and may have been a compliment to Elizabeth. When two pieces of equal power were in position to take you could throw dice to decide which piece won
Chorus of Kings – a winning hand at Primero (Aces were low)
Dag – large muzzle-loading pistol, decorated with a heavy ball on the base of the handgrip to balance the weight of the barrel and hit enemies with when you missed
Daybook – diary
Debateable Land – area to the north of Carlisle that was invaded and counterinvaded so often by England and Scotland that in the end it became semi-independent and a den of thieves, as often happens
Dominie – Scotch for a teacher
Dorter – dormitory
Faggots – bundles of firewood, hence also the name of a kind of traditional English meatball made with offal
Falling band – plain white turned down collar, Puritan style
Farthingale – like a crinoline, a petticoat shaped with steel or wooden hoops to make the kirtle stand out in a particular shape; bell-shaped early in the reign, then more or less barrel shaped by the 1590s.
Footpad – mugger
French hood – a style of headtire popular in the 1550s
French pox – syphilis
“Greeted like a bairn” – cried like a baby
Groat – coin worth four pennies
Harbinger – scouts sent out ahead of the Court on progress, specifically to requisition lodgings and food for it
Headtire – woman’s stiffened headdress which went over her linen cap, mandatory for married women
Henbane of Peru – an early name for tobacco
Henchman – a male servingman or hanger-on, often providing muscle and armed back-up to a lord, although a young page might be called a henchman as well
Humoral complexion – the personal mix of the humours which dictated your character and which caused disease when unbalanced – Sanguine (Blood), Choleric (Yellow Bile), Melancholic (Black Bile) and Phlegmatic (Phlegm).
Incognito – in disguise
Jack – padded jacket interlined with metal plates
Jakes – outside toilet
Kirtle – skirt over the petticoats
Lay – scam (thieves’ cant)
Limner – painter in colours, also meant a miniaturist
Morion – high curved steel helmet, standard in sixteenth century
Muliercula – little woman or midget
Ordinary, the – fixed price meal at an inn
Papist – Catholic
Parole – after surrendering, a gentleman would give his word (parole) that he wouldn’t try to escape
Patent – a monopoly on the sale of some luxury granted by the Queen in the later years of her reign as a way of rewarding courtiers without costing herself anything, very unpopular with the ordinary people who had to pay inflated prices as a result
Penny loaf – bread roll. A one pound loaf of bread had its price fixed at 1 d but with the inflation of the late sixteenth century and high wheat prices, the loaf shrank though it still cost a penny
Pinniwinks – Scottish term for thumbscrews, a conveniently portable instrument of torture which broke the victim’s fingers
Poinard – long thin duelling dagger with an elaborate hilt, big brother to a stiletto
Polearm – any weapon involving a long stick with something sharp on the end
Punk – whore
Pursuivant – literally chaser, someone who acted for the state in tracking down spies, criminals, and traitors. Often freelance and unscrupulous
Phlegm – mucus or snot, the cold and moist Humour, one of the four Humours of the body and a constant problem for the English who were renownedly Phlegmatic
Red lattices – the shutters of any place selling alcohol would be painted red
Rickets – soft bones caused by vitamin D and calcium deficiency in childhood, common among the Elizabethan upper classes if they allowed their childrens’ diet to be supervised by physicians who advised against fresh vegetables (too Cold of Humour) and fish (too lower class).
Screever – professional scribe, later a pavement artist
Sleuth dog – hunting dog specially bred for tracking
St. Paul’s Walk – the aisle of old St. Paul’s Cathedral where fashionable young men would parade up and down in their finery
Statute cap – blue woollen cap that all common men had to wear so as to support the Wool industry – a statute more honoured in the breach than the observance
Stews – Turkish bathhouses (descending ultimately from Roman baths) that tended also to be brothels
Swan Rampant – this was indeed apparently Hunsdon’s badge and looked as described.
Terceiro – elite Spanish soldier
Tiring room – dressing room (from attire)
Upright man – gang leader
Venery – persistent naughty sexual behaviour. Now called sexual addiction, very common.
Veney – exact equivalent of a kata in karate or pattern/tul in taekwondo, this was a set series of sword moves practised with a partner so as to build up strength and agility. To keep the deathrate down, pickaxe handles with hilts (veney-sticks) were used
Wood – woodwild, mad
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Table of Contents
An Air of Treason
Copyright
Contents
Dedication
An Air of Treason
Historical Note
Glossary
More from this Author
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P. F. Chisholm, Air of Treason, An: A Sir Robert Carey Mystery (Sir Robert Carey Mysteries)
Air of Treason, An: A Sir Robert Carey Mystery (Sir Robert Carey Mysteries) Page 34
