DENARO
The ‘silver penny’ of Venetian currency of the time, a descendant of the Roman Denarius.
DESTRIER
A Norman warhorse, often called the Great Horse. The Normans had four designations of horse: a destrier (for use in battle); a palfrey (a good riding horse); a rouney (an ordinary riding horse); and a sumpter (a packhorse). Modern shire breeds like the Percheron and Suffolk Punch may descend from destriers, but they may not have been as large as today’s shire horses. In fact, a destrier was probably not a breed, just the name for a horse bred and trained for war.
EUNUCH
A eunuch is a person who, by the common definition of the term, has been castrated early enough in his life for this change to have major hormonal consequences. Less commonly, in translations of ancient texts, ‘eunuch’ may refer to a man who is not castrated but who is impotent, celibate or otherwise not inclined to marry and procreate. Castration was carried out on the soon-to-be eunuch without his consent in order that he might perform a specific social function; this was common in many societies. The practice was also well established in Europe among the Greeks and Romans, although their role as court functionaries did not arise until Byzantine times.
In the late period of the Roman Empire, after the adoption of the oriental royal court model by the Emperors Diocletian and Constantine, Emperors were surrounded by eunuchs for such functions as bathing, hair cutting, dressing, and many bureaucratic functions – in effect acting as a shield between the Emperor and physical contact with his administrators. Eunuchs were believed loyal and indispensable and enjoyed great influence in the imperial court. At the Byzantine imperial court, there were a great number of eunuchs employed in domestic and administrative functions, actually organized as a separate hierarchy, following a parallel career of their own. Archieunuchs, each in charge of a group of eunuchs, were among the principal officers in Constantinople, under the emperors. Under Justinian in the sixth century, the eunuch Narses functioned as a successful general in a number of campaigns.
EXTREME UNCTION
The anointing of the sick or dying carried out in extremis as part of the last rite of passage. The last rites traditionally include three elements: penance, unction (anointing) and receiving the Eucharist (Christ’s sacrament) in order to prepare the dying person for the next life.
FITZ
A prefix to patronymic surnames of Anglo-Norman origin. This usage derives from the Norman fiz or filz (son of) which was coupled with the name of the father (for example, FitzGilbert, meaning ‘son of Gilbert’) as in the Scandinavian tradition of adding -son behind the father’s name, and the Gaelic traditions: ‘Mac’ and ‘O’.
FUTUWWA
An Arabic term that has similarities with chivalry and virtue. It was also a name of ethical urban organizations or ‘guilds’ in medieval Muslim realms that emphasized honesty, peacefulness, gentleness, generosity, hospitality and avoidance of complaint in life. In modern-day dialects of Arabic (for example, in Egypt) the term is sometimes used for youths who do quasi-chivalrous acts such as helping others resist intimidation by rival groups.
GARDEROBE
The term garderobe describes a place where clothes and other items are stored, and also a medieval toilet. In European public places, a garderobe denotes the cloakroom, wardrobe, alcove or an armoire. In a medieval castle or other building, a garderobe was usually a simple hole discharging to the outside leading to a cesspit or into the moat, depending on the structure of the building. Such toilets were often placed inside a small chamber, leading by association to the use of the term garderobe to describe them.
GELD
Another word for money in Dutch and German (gelt in Yiddish), in medieval England it meant tax, or tribute or a ransom – as in Danegeld.
GOLDEN HORN
The Golden Horn is an inlet of the Bosphorus to the east of the city of Constantinople (Istanbul) forming a natural harbour that has sheltered ships for thousands of years. It is a scimitar-shaped estuary that joins the Bosphorus just at the point where that strait enters the Sea of Marmara, thus forming a peninsula, the tip of which is ‘Old Istanbul’ (ancient Constantinople).
GONFALON
A small tailed flag or banner, flown from the top of a lance or pole to indicate lordly status, common throughout Europe. It would carry the colours, crest or heraldry of its owner.
GRAND DOMESTIC
The title of Megas Domestikos, or the Grand Domestic in English, was given to the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine land army. Its exact origin is somewhat unclear; it is first mentioned in the ninth century, and derives from the domestikos of the scholai, with the epithet megas added to connote the supreme authority of its holder. Both titles appear to have co-existed for a time, until the Megas Domestikos fully replaced the earlier office by the mid-eleventh century. In the Comnenian period, in an echo of the tenth-century arrangements, the Megas Domestikos would command the entire field army of the Empire.
GREEK FIRE
The secret weapon of the Byzantine emperors. A sort of ancient napalm, it was invented by a Syrian engineer, a refugee from Baalbek, in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis in 673 ad. The mix of ingredients, a closely guarded secret, was reputedly handed down from emperor to emperor. It has remained a secret to this day, but was thought to be a combination of pitch, sulphur, tree resin, quicklime and bitumen. The key ingredient may well have been magnesium, which would explain why the ‘fire’ would burn under water. Varieties of it began to be used by other navies, most using pitch. The ‘fire’ was often poured into wooden barrels or clay pots before being lit and hurled at the enemy.
HAUBERK
A chain-mail ‘coat’, worn like a long pullover down below the groin. Hauberks for the infantry were slightly shorter so that the men could run in them, and were only split at the sides. Cavalry hauberks extended to the knee and were split front and back. The mail could extend into a hood (ventail), like a balaclava, but had a flap in front of the throat and chin that could be dropped for comfort when not in the midst of battle. Three kinds of mail were used and were progressively more expensive: ordinary ring mail, scale mail and lamellar mail (when overlapping individual plates were fastened together by leather thongs).
HEARTHTROOP
The elite bodyguard of kings, princes and lords of the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries.
HERALDIC TERMS
Azure: blue
Bend: diagonal stripe like a sash
Field: background of a shield, usually consisting of colours or metals (tinctures) or symbolic vair
Gold (or): yellow
Gules: red
Roundel: sphere
Sable: black
Tierce: A third part of a shield (background), usually a band down the left-hand side
Vair: variegated furs (ermine, squirrel, etc)
HOUSECARLS
The elite troops of the Anglo-Saxon kings, following their establishment by King Cnut in 1016, in the Danish tradition. Cnut brought his own personal troops to supplement the English fyrd (citizen army) when he succeeded to the throne following the death of Edmund Ironside.
JIHAD
Jihad is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word translates as a noun meaning ‘struggle’. Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently as the expression ‘striving in the way of God’. A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is mujahideen. Jihad is an important religious duty for Muslims. A minority among the Sunni scholars sometimes refer to this duty as the sixth pillar of Islam, though it occupies no such official status. In Shi’a Islam, however, Jihad is one of the Ten Practices of the Religion. In western societies the term jihad is often translated by non-Muslims as ‘holy war’. Muslim authors
tend to reject such an approach, stressing non-militant connotations of the word.
KIPCHAK BOW
A recurve-style bow used throughout Asia Minor in the Middle Ages. Like a Turkish bow, it got its name from the Kipchak tribe who, as the Golden Horde, ruled the western part of the Mongol Empire until the thirteenth century.
KIRTLE
A kirtle is a long tunic-like dress worn by women in the Middle Ages into the baroque period. The kirtle was typically worn over a chemise or smock and under a formal outer garment or gown.
LAMPREY
Sometimes also called lamprey eels, lampreys are an eel-like order of jawless vertebrates, characterized by a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth. The common name ‘lamprey’ is derived from lampetra, which translated from Latin means ‘stone licker’ (lambere ‘to lick’ + petra ‘stone’).
LEINE
The leine is a unisex smock of Celtic peoples, not unlike a Roman toga. The word means ‘shirt’ and early descriptions from the fifth to the twelfth centuries talk of a long smock-like linen garment, ankle-length or knee-length, either sleeveless or with straight sleeves.
LEVUNIUM, BATTLE OF
A decisive battle on 29 April 1091, when the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I defeated the army of his rivals, the Pechenegs, a semi-nomadic people from the Central Asian Steppes, thus removing their long-term threat to the Empire.
LODESTONE
A lodestone is a naturally magnetized piece of the mineral magnetite. Ancient people first discovered the property of magnetism in lodestone. Pieces of lodestone, suspended so they could turn, were the first magnetic compasses and their importance to early navigation is indicated by the name lodestone, which in Middle English means ‘course stone’ or ‘leading stone’. One of the first references to lodestone’s magnetic properties is by Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus who, in the sixth century bc, is credited by the Ancient Greeks with discovering lodestone’s attraction to iron and other lodestones.
LUMPHANAN, BATTLE OF
Lumphanan is a village twenty-five miles from Aberdeen in Scotland and is the site of a battle in 1057, where Malcolm III of Scotland defeated Macbeth of Scotland.
MANTICORE
A Persian legendary creature similar to the Egyptian sphinx (which is female). It has the body of a (male) red or golden lion, a human head with three rows of sharp teeth and a trumpet-like voice. Other aspects of the creature vary from story to story. It may be horned, winged, or both. The tail is that of either a dragon or a scorpion, and it may shoot poisonous spines or arrows. Sometimes it is portrayed as a hunter armed with a bow. It may have come into European mythology in Roman times or as a result of the First Crusade.
MANTLE
A mantle (from mantellum, the Latin term for a cloak) is a long, loose cape-like cloak for outdoor protection worn by men and women from the twelfth to the sixteenth century.
MIDDEN
A domestic waste and sewage dump for a village or burgh. A word of Scandinavian origin, it is still in use in Scotland and the English Pennines.
MOS MILITUM
A code of knightly ethics, loosely based on the ancient noble tradition of the Roman aristocracy and the influence of Islamic ethics, such as those of the Futuwwa, which appeared in the late eleventh century and formed the basis of the values of the Age of Chivalry.
NOBILISSIMUS
From the Latin nobilissimus (most noble). Originally a title given to close relatives of the Emperor, during the Comneni period the title was awarded to officials and foreign dignitaries.
OUBLIETTE
From the French, meaning ‘forgotten place’ it was a form of dungeon which was accessible only from a hole in a high ceiling. The word comes from the same root as the French oublier (to forget), as it was used for those prisoners that captors wished to forget.
OUTREMER
From the French outremer (overseas), it was a generic name given to the Crusader States established after the First Crusade: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and especially the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The name equates to the ‘Levant’ of the Renaissance. The term was, in general, used to refer to any land ‘overseas’; for example, Louis IV of France was called Louis d’Outremer as he was raised in England. The modern term outremer (spelled with a hyphen) is used for the overseas departments and territories of France (Départements d’outremer).
PAPIAS
The great concierge of the imperial palaces of Byzantium, responsible for the opening and closing of the palace gates each day.
PECTORAL CROSS
A pectoral cross or pectorale, from the Latin pectoralis (of the chest) is a cross that is worn on the chest, usually suspended from the neck by a cord or chain. In ancient times pectoral crosses were worn by both clergy and laity, but during the Middle Ages the pectoral cross came to be indicative of high ecclesiastical status and only worn by bishops and abbots. Unlike abbots, abbesses did not carry a crozier, but were allowed to wear pectoral crosses.
PENNON
A small streamer-like flag, flown at the top of a knight’s lance to signify his status. It would have a combination of one, two or three colours to identify him, his origins or the lord he served.
PENNYROYAL
Pennyroyal is a plant in the mint family Lamiaceae. The leaves of the European pennyroyal Mentha pulegium (also called Squaw Mint, Mosquito Plant and Pudding Grass) exhibit a very strong fragrance similar to spearmint when crushed. Pennyroyal is a traditional culinary herb, folk remedy and abortifacient (a substance that induces abortion).
PHRYGIAN CAP
The Phrygian cap is a soft conical cap with the top pulled forward, associated in antiquity with the inhabitants of Phrygia, a region of central Anatolia. In the Roman Empire, it came to signify freedom and the pursuit of liberty, probably through a confusion with the pileus, the felt cap of emancipated slaves of ancient Rome. The Phrygian cap is sometimes called a liberty cap.
PIKE
A pike is a pole weapon. It is a long, sometimes very long (even up to five metres and beyond) thrusting spear used extensively by infantry. Unlike many similar weapons, the pike is not intended to be thrown, but is a defensive weapon, especially against cavalry. Pikes were used by the armies of Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great and regularly in European warfare from the early Middle Ages until around 1700, wielded by foot soldiers deployed in close order. They were also common in the armies of Asia.
PIPE ROLLS
Sometimes called the Great Rolls, they are a collection of financial records maintained by the English Exchequer or Treasury. The earliest date from the twelfth century, and the series extends, mostly complete, from then until 1833. They form the oldest continuous series of records kept by the English government, covering a span of about 700 years.
PUGIO
Shorter than the gladius – the standard heavy, stocky sword of the Roman army – the pugio was a side-arm, a weapon of last resort, a tool of assassination and often a highly decorated status symbol for senior army officers and members of the equestrian class.
PUTRID FEVER
One of the many names – others include slow/camp/ship/jail fever (it flourishes in overcrowded human environments) – for epidemic typhus. The name comes from the Greek typhos (hazy), describing the state of mind of those affected. Symptoms include severe headache, a sustained high fever, cough, rash, severe muscle pain, chills, falling blood pressure, stupor, sensitivity to light, as well as delirium. During the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 bc) Athens suffered a devastating epidemic, known as the ‘Plague of Athens’, which killed, among others, Pericles. The plague returned twice more, in 429 bc and in the winter of 427/6 bc. Epidemic typhus is thought to have been the cause in each case.
PYX
A pyx or pix, from the Latin pyxis (box-wood receptacle) is a small round container used in the Catholic, Old Catholic and Anglican Churches to carry the consecrated Host (Eucharist) to the sick or to those otherwise unable to come to a church in order to receive Holy Communion.
QAADI
Also known as qadi, qaadee, qazi, kazi or kadi, is a judge ruling in accordance with Islamic religious law (sharia) appointed by the ruler of a Muslim country. Because Islam makes no distinction between religious and secular domains, qadis traditionally have jurisdiction over all legal matters involving Muslims. The judgement of a qadi must be based on the prevailing consensus of the Islamic scholars.
QUARREL
A quarrel or bolt is the term for the ammunition used in a crossbow. The name is derived from the French carré (square), referring to the fact that they typically have square heads. Although their length varies, they are shorter than longbow arrows.
RELIQUARY
A reliquary is a container for relics. These may be the physical remains of saints, for example, bones, pieces of clothing, or some object associated with saints or other religious figures. Often elaborately carved wooden boxes with decorated or gem-encrusted clasps, or made from brass or even gold, they can be among the most precious artefacts of the Middle Ages.
SEAX
A short, stabbing sword, sometimes as short as a dagger. Seax is an Old English term for ‘knife’. The term is used particularly for the fighting knife typical of the Germanic peoples and especially the Saxons, whose tribal name derives from the weapon during the Early Middle Ages. In heraldry, the seax is a curved sword with a notched blade, appearing, for example, in the coats of arms of Essex and the former Middlesex.
SENLAC RIDGE, BATTLE OF
The original name for what is now known as the Battle of Hastings in 1066 between the Norman army of William, Duke of Normandy, and the English army of Harold, King of England. Victory for William led to a Norman dynasty on the English throne and a dramatic new course for English and British history. A few miles north of Hastings on England’s south coast, Senlac Ridge was originally known in English as Santlache (Sandy Stream), which the Normans changed into Sanguelac (Blood Lake) and which was then shortened to Senlac. Senlac Ridge, also called Senlac Hill, was approximately 275 feet (84 metres) above sea level, before the top of the ridge was levelled off to create Battle Abbey.
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