A Magical Medieval City Guide (DnD Other)/Glossary

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Acre: 43,560 sq. feet or a roughly 210 ft. by 210 ft. square.

Advocate: Lawyer.

Alchemist: Those creating alchemical substances.

Alienation: The act of separating land from the feudal system; typically by giving land to organizations rather than individuals. Also when individuals sell allods to other parties.

Allod: Land held without feudal obligation, owned outright.

Allodial lord: The lord who holds a piece of land without feudal obligation; the "owner" of the land.

Almoner: The personal who distributes alms to the poor, usually employed by lords and ladies.

Alms: Gifts to the poor including food, clothes, coin, and other goods.

Amercement: Fines for infringement of laws.

Apprentice: Those learning a trade or profession.

Architects: Those who design buildings and structures and oversee construction.

Astrologer: Those who practice divination through the stars, planetary cycles, and other such things.

Banker: Those who make money from lending money to others, or who hold money secure for a fee.

Bachelor knight: A knight without land supported by grants from his lord.

Barber: Personal grooms, as well as blood letters, surgeons, dentists, and general "medical" man.

Bather: People who run baths or the attendants inside baths.

Beadle: Manorial manager that collects seed at harvest for next year's crop.

Benefice: A collection of land, rights, buildings, and/or communities given by a lord to his vassal, providing the vassal's material support, in exchange for military service and counsel.

Bleacher: Those who bleach cloth and other textiles.

Bowyer: People who make bows.

Body servant: A lord's personal servant who attend to his body, i.e. dressing, hair, bathing, cleaning, etc.

Burgher: A citizen of a city; a freeman who is a member of a guild.

Bushel: A unit of dry volume, roughly 4 pecks (2150.42 cubic inches) or 35.239 liters.

Buttery: Where wine and other drinks are stored, typically next to the kitchen.

Canon law: Ecclesiastical law; law which applies to clergy when they break the law or when a law is broken against them.

Capon: A castrated male chicken.

Caravaner: Those who outfit and run caravans.

Carpenter: construction workers who mainly work in wood.

Castle-guard: A form of military service in which a vassal garrisons a castle for a set period of time every year.

Ceremony of Commendation: The ritual where a vassal swears fealty to a lord and receives a benefice.

Chandler: Those who make and sell candles, lanterns, torches, wax, pitch, and soap.

Charter: A legal document stating a town's or city's legal status and rights; issued by the town lord or the king.

Chattel: Movable property, usually referring to animals or slaves.

Chevage: A manorial fee for living or living off the manor.

Chevauchee: A raid upon another lord's resources.

Chicanery: Edging a plow into another man's strips in the field; a fine worthy offense.

Circuit judge: A traveling royal justice, usually traveling a set annual route.

Clergy member: ordained member of a religion or church.

Cobbler: People who make shoes.

Compurgation: Where the defendant swears they are not guilty.

Cooper: People who make barrels.

Copyist: Those who copy text and books, also known as clerks and used as notaries.

Cotter: A jack of all trades on the manor, usually a peasant who does not own any land in the village except their home.

Curtain wall: The outer wall of a fortification or city; usually made of stone and as thick as 25-30 feet.

Cutler: Those who make knives and other cutlery.

Dairy seller: Those who sell milk and cheese.

Demesne: Synonymous with "domain." Distiller: Those who make hard liquor.

Doctor, licensed: Those who tend to medical needs, with some official training.

Doctor, unlicensed: Those who tend to medical needs, without official training.

Dowry: A payment upon marriage, usually by the bride's family to the groom or groom's family.

Draper: People who sell cloth.

Dye maker: Those who make dyes and dye cloth, also known as dyers.

Ell: A measurement for cloth or wool, around 45 inches.

Eminent domain: The land that a lord personally manages.

Enfeoff: To provide a fief to a vassal.

Engineers: Those who design structures and large objects, and oversee construction; under an architect.

Engravers: Those who engrave, including metal and wooden items.

Entertainment: The right of lords to stay at their vassal's manors all expenses paid.

Entry fee: A fee paid by inheritors, people entering and advancing in guilds, and other social entrances.

Escheat: A fee paid by inheritors for assuming vassalage for land.

Eyre court: A royal court that audits other sources of justice for jurisdictional infringement.

Fallow: Cultivated arable land that is not currently growing crops.

Fencing: Purchasing or selling illegal goods for resale.

Fief: A division of land given in a benefice by a lord to his vassal.

Fishmonger: Those who sell fish.

Fletcher: Those who make arrows.

Foddercorn: Feed for animals.

Forest law: Law prohibiting hunting by anyone other than the lord.

Fulling: A method of treating wool, involving washing and extracting the nap.

Fuller: Those who treat wool and prepare it for weavers.

Furlong: A rectangular plot for farming divided into strips; all the strips in a furlong grow the same crops.

Furrier: Those who sell and repair animal fur.

Garderobe: The toilet; the loo; the water closet.

Gentry: The lowest level of landed society.

Girdler: Those who make girdles and belts.

Glass Maker: Those who make glass.

Glazier: Those who set glass, which involves cutting, coloring, and layering.

Gleaning: Cleaning the field after harvest, a job usually given to the young, old, and poor as a form of charity.

Glove Maker: Those who make gloves, also known as glovers.

Goldsmith: Smiths who work with gold.

Granger: Manorial worker who protects the stored grain in the barn from theft. Grocer: Those who sell fruits, vegetables, and sometimes dry goods.

Groom: Those who tend to horses and stables, also known as ostlers.

Ground rent: A set amount of money paid by the city to the town lord.

Guides/tout: Those who act as guides to newcomers of the city.

Haberdasher: Those who sell men's clothing and accessories.

Hallmote: The manorial court.

Harrowing: Breaking clods in the fields in preparation for soil aeration and seeding.

Harvest boon: A feast provided by a lord for his peasants performing labor at harvest time.

Hayward: Manorial manager who impounds stray animals and tends to livestock.

Herbalist: Those who make herbal concoctions, also known as apothecaries.

Historian: Those who record events.

Holding the head of the king: An actual duty where a person holds the king's head in their lap, used in traveling.

Household: Those people and places a lord supports, including staff, advisors, visitors, and their entourage.

Household knight: A landless knight who serves the lord's household, usually with the promise of land in the future; maintained by his lord.

Illuminator: Those who draw and paint illustrations in writings.

Infeudation: A vassal being lord over someone else; your vassal making someone else his vassal.

Investiture: Placing, ratifying, or selecting a candidate for a position.

Jongleur: Those who entertain through juggling, acrobatics, music, and recitation.

Journeymen: People practicing a trade or profession; members of a guild above apprentices, below masters.

Judge: Those who preside over courts.

Laborer: Those who perform manual labor without a craft or profession to speak of.

Launderer: Those who wash clothes and other textiles.

Legerwite: A fine for females having sex outside of marriage.

Maleficium: Harm done to a person or property through magic.

Mason: Those who build most in stone or brick.

Mercenary: Swords for hire; those who fight or do service for coin.

Mendicant: Members of landless monastic orders or wandering unaffiliated monks.

Mercer: People dealing in expensive fabrics.

Midwife: Those who help at birthing.

Miller: Those who run mills.

Minstrel: Those who entertain through music and singing.

Moneychanger: Those who exchange currency and coin.

Mortmain: Choosing a representative's life to signal relief payment to the lord; commonly used with vassals that are organizations and long-lived races.

Nobility: A landed-social class, above gentry, below royalty.

One year's gain: One year's profit.

Pannage: Taking pigs to feed in the forest in autumn.

Pantler: One who supervises the pantry.

Pantry: Storage room for bread and other dry goods.

Peddler: Street sellers without a store or workshop.

Perfumer: Those who make or sell perfumes.

Plasterer: Those who plaster walls in construction.

Porter: Those who carry things.

Pottage: A porridge made from boiled grains and oats; a daily staple for most peasants.

Professor: Those who teach adult students for a living.

Purse maker: Those who make purses and pouches.

Rat catcher: Those hired to catch rats to keep disease down.

Relief: The feudal incident allowing lords to charge one year's gain as an entry fee on the potential inheritor of a fief.

Ridge-and-furrow: The pattern of growth on the fields, with grain grown on the ridge and peas, beans, and vetch in the furrow.

Roofer: Those who construct and repair roofs; slaters with slate roofs, thatchers with thatch roofs.

Saddler and spurrier: Those who make saddles, spurs, bits, bridles, saddle blankets, and other riding equipment.

Sage/scholar: Those who knowledgeable in specific areas.

Satirist: Those who write satire, usually political stabs at personalities of the day.

Scutage: A payment in exchange for serving military service to a lord.

Serf: An unfree peasant, legally and socially tied to his lord's land.

Sheepfold: Collecting the village sheep's manure to fertilize the lord's holdings in the fields; collected by penning or by having the sheep graze on the lord's land.

Silversmith: Smiths that work with silver.

Skinner: Those who skin animals.

Slate: A type of stone used for tiling and roofing due to its cleavage.

Slater: One who makes and repairs slate roofs.

Slaver: Those who sell slaves.

Slave: Cheap labor ☺.

Species: Minted coin.

Staple: Crops grown for feeding people and selling the surplus, typically barley, beans, peas, vetch, wheat, and sometimes rye.

Subinfeudation: When lordship and vassalage intermingle over and over, creating a web of complex social and legal relationships in feudal society.

Suzerain: A vassal's lord's lord.

Tailor: Those who make and repair clothes.

Tallage: A manorial tax paid by all the lord's tenants.

Tanner: Those who treat leather for leather workers.

Taxidermist: Those who preserve and stuff dead animals.

Teacher: Those who educate children.

Thatch: Reeds dried and bound together; used in roofing and highly flammable.

Thatcher: One who repairs and makes thatch roofs.

Thieves: Those who make money through illegal activity.

Three-field rotation: A method of farming to keep the soil fruitful; where one field is fallow, one field grows winter wheat, and one field goes spring crops.

Tiler: Those who make and/or place tile.

Tinker: Those who fix brass and other metal items.

Town crier: Those who announce the news.

Town lord: The lord whose land a town or city lies on.

Tun: a large cask used to hold wine.

Undertaker: Those who tend to the dead.

Utile domain: Land used to acquire (enfeoff) vassals.

Vestment maker: Those who make holy clothing for religions and churches.

Vetch: legumes, planted in the spring planting in the furrow.

Villein: An unfree peasant, legally and socially tied to their lord's land.

Vintner: Those who make wine.

Virgate: A measurement of land; anywhere from 18-32 acres.

Wattle-and-daub: Wattle-and-daub is a row of upright stakes with the spaces between woven through with small pieces of wood or thatch. On both sides of the wall, the wattle is daubed with clay, earth, plaster or mortar and smoothed. The wall is usually plastered and then whitewashed.

Warehouser: Those who run warehouses.

Watercarrier: Those who carry and transport water.

Weaponsmith: Those who craft weapons.

Weaver: Those who make cloth.

Wetnurse: Those who feed babies.

Wheelwright: Those who make wheels, carts, and wagons.

Winter wheat: Wheat (sometimes rye) planted in October and harvested in August.

Woad: A plant in the mustard family that yields blue dye, or the blue dye itself.

Woodcarver: Those who carve and make things out of wood, including tools, dishes/utensils, and specialized goods.

Woodseller: Those who sell wood (raw or cut) and charcoal.

Yeomen: Free peasants who owned their land outright (allodially).

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