Dauntless by Tamara Leigh
AGE OF CONQUEST GLOSSARY
ANDREDESWALD: forest that covered areas of Sussex and Surrey in England
ANGLO-SAXON: people of the Angles (Denmark) and Saxons (northern Germany) of which the population of 11th century England was mostly comprised
BLIAUT: medieval gown
BRAIES: men’s underwear
CASTELLAN: commander of a castle
CHAUSSES: men’s close-fitting leg coverings
CHEMISE: loose-fitting undergarment or nightdress
CHEVALIER: a knight of France
COIF: hood-shaped cap made of cloth or chain mail
DEMESNE: home and adjoining lands held by a lord
DONJON: tower at center of a castle serving as a lord’s living area
DOTTER: meaning “daughter”; attached to a woman’s name to identify her by whose daughter she is
EMBRASURE: opening in a wall often used by archers
FEALTY: tenant or vassal’s sworn loyalty to a lord
FORTNIGHT: two weeks
FREE MAN: person not a slave or serf
GARDEROBE: enclosed toilet
GIRDLE: belt worn upon which purses or weaponry might be attached
HILT: grip or handle of a sword or dagger
HOUSECARLE: elite warrior who was a lord’s personal bodyguard
KNAVE: dishonest or unprincipled man
LEAGUE: equivalent to approximately three miles
LIEGE: superior or lord
MAIL: garments of armor made of linked metal rings
MISCREANT: badly behaving person
MISSIVE: letter
MOAT: defensive ditch, dry or filled with water
MORROW: tomorrow; the next day
MOTTE: mound of earth
NITHING: derogatory term for someone without honor
NOBLE: one of high birth
NORMAN: people whose origins lay in Normandy on the continent
NORMANDY: principality of northern France founded in the early tenth century by the viking Rollo
PARCHMENT: treated animal skin used for writing
PELL: used for combat training, a vertical post set in the ground against which a sword was beat
PIKE: long wooden shaft with a sharp steel or iron head
POLTROON: utter coward
POMMEL: counterbalance weight at the end of a sword hilt or a knob located at the fore of a saddle
PORTCULLIS: metal or wood gate lowered to block a passage
POSTERN GATE: rear door in a wall, often concealed to allow occupants to arrive and depart inconspicuously
QUINTAIN: post used for lance training to which a dummy and sandbag are attached; the latter swings around and hits the unsuccessful tilter
SALLY PORT: small hidden entrance and exit in a fortification
SAXON: Germanic people, many of whom conquered and settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries
SENNIGHT: one week
SHIRE: division of land; England was divided into earldoms, next shires, then hundreds
THANE: in Anglo-Saxon England, a member of the nobility or landed aristocracy who owed military and administrative duty to an overlord, above all the king; owned at least five hides of land
TRENCHER: large piece of stale bread used as a bowl for food
VASSAL: one who holds land from a lord and owes fealty