The European Middle Ages Vocabulary

Germanic people who spread from the Rhine into the Roman Empire in the 4th century.

• Franks

• Celts

• Saxons

• Goths

French-German-Italian Empire begun by Charlemagne

• Austro-Hungarian Empire

• Ottoman Empire

• British Empire

• Holy Roman Empire

king of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor

• Augustus

• Charlemagne

• Constantine

• Henry VIII

Landowner, "landlord"

• ruler

• proprietor

• lord

• tenant

a piece of land held under the feudal system

• Manor

• Estate

• Tenure

• fief

a person holding a fief

• Monarch

• Knight

• vassal

• Steward

originally a person of noble birth trained to arms and chivalry

• knight

• Monarch

• Warrior

• Squire

a person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord

• Peasant

• Slave

• serf (Middle Ages)

• Vassal

the landed estate of a lord (including the house on it)

• Mansion

• Castle

• manor

• Homestead

any of the more or less continuous military expeditions in the 11-13th centuries when Christian powers of Europe tried to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims

• crusade

• Expedition

• Pilgrimage

• Conquest