Core Vocab Y12

Question 1

Acts of Attainder

Answer 1

A declaration that a landowner was guilty of rebelling against the monarch, thus losing land and titles.

Question 2

Bastard Feudalism

Answer 2

An abuse of power by the most wealthy nobles in which they rewarded their retainers.

Question 3

Bonds and recognisances

Answer 3

A legal document used by Henry VII which bound individuals to remain loyal to him to avoid the obligation of financial penalties.

Question 4

Chancery

Answer 4

The main court of equity in the kingdom

Question 5

Chantry

Answer 5

Chapels where Masses took place to pray for the souls of the dead.

Question 6

Chamber

Answer 6

The private areas of Court; also a key department for the efficient collection of royal revenue.

Question 7

Common rights

Answer 7

Denotes the legal right of tenants to use common land, for example keeping animals; the exact nature of these rights varied from place to place.

Question 8

Council Learned

Answer 8

Offshoot of the Great Council, used by Henry VII, to oversee the close administration of King’s revenue.

Question 9

Courtier

Answer 9

A person who attends a royal court as a companion or advisor to a monarch.

Question 10

Diocese

Answer 10

An area under the pastoral care of a bishop in the Christian Church

Question 11

Duchy of Lancaster

Answer 11

A significant body of property, mostly but not exclusively situated in Lancashire., which personally belonged to the king but was formally the territory of the Duke of Lancaster.

Question 12

Enclosure

Answer 12

Public land that is fenced off by major land owners, often for the rearing of sheep.

Question 13

Erastian

Answer 13

The view that the State should have authority over the Church.

Question 14

Extraordinary revenue

Answer 14

Money raised by the king from additional sources or one-off payments in times of emergency (parliamentary rants, clerical taxes).

Question 15

Feudal aid

Answer 15

A right by which the Crown could impose tax on their tenants for the knighting of the eldest son, the marriage of the eldest daughter or to ransom a lord.

Question 16

Fifteenths and tenths

Answer 16

Standard form of taxation, calculated in the fourteenth century, paid by towns and boroughs to the Crown

Question 17

Gentry

Answer 17

People with considerable social status, below the nobility (Knights, major land owners, courtly connections, considerable income.

Question 18

Guilds and confraternities

Answer 18

Voluntary associations of individuals created to promote works of Christian charity or devotion.

Question 19

Hanseatic League

Answer 19

A group of free cities originating in the thirteenth century, which came together to form a commercial union with the intention of controlling trade in the Baltic Sea; the league dominated commercial activity in northern Europe from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century.

Question 20

Heresy

Answer 20

The denial of / non-belief in key teachings of the Church.

Question 21

Holy Roman Empire

Answer 21

Loose federation of 300 states in and around modern day Germany. Elected Emperors. Dominated by the Habsburg dynasty.

Question 22

Household government

Answer 22

Medieval system of governance where the head of a household, invariably an adult male, had authority over the property, mobility and labour of everyone living on his land.

Question 23

Humanism

Answer 23

Renaissance development focused on purifying Christianity in line with original Latin and Greek texts.

Question 24

Iconoclasm

Answer 24

The rejection or destruction of images associated with the Catholic faith.

Question 25

Intercursus Malus

Answer 25

Trade agreement from 1506; this treaty never became fully operative and by the following year trading relationships had been restored on the basis of the Intercursus Magnus.

Question 26

Intercursus Magnus

Answer 26

The major commercial treaty between England and the Duchy of Burgundy which restored normal trading links between the two.

Question 27

Laity

Answer 27

Refers collectively to those who were neither priests nor members of a religious order.

Question 28

Letters Patent

Answer 28

Legal instruments issued by the monarch in the exercise of his or her prerogative powers.

Question 29

Lord Chamberlain

Answer 29

Also known as the Chamberlain, an experienced nobleman and member of the King’s Council, and a personal friend of the king; he had administrative and political duties, often speaking for the monarch in an official capacity, and was also responsible for organising court ceremonies.

Question 30

Marriage-by-proxy

Answer 30

A proxy marriage is one in which one or both of the individuals being united is not physically present, usually being represented instead by another person.

Question 31

Monastery

Answer 31

A key Catholic institution, they were places of communal worship where monks lived and worked.

Question 32

Nobility

Answer 32

Highest social status based on land ownership and power (Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Baron).

Question 33

Oxford Reformers

Answer 33

Men such as Grocyn, Linacre and Colet who were among the first English scholars to adopt humanist ideas and approaches.

Question 34

Papal Legate

Answer 34

Position of control over the English Church, superior to that of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Question 35

Patronage

Answer 35

When privilege or status is granted to an individual by someone in authority as a reward for loyalty e.g. the monarch granting a peerage.

Question 36

Praemunire

Answer 36

A parliamentary statute enacted in 1393 to prevent papal interference in the rights of the Crown to make appointments to Church office.

Question 37

Prerogative rights

Answer 37

The rights / decisions that a monarch can make on their own without having to consult parliament.

Question 38

Privy Chamber

Answer 38

The most private area of the court where the close personal servants have direct access to the monarch.

Question 39

Purgatory

Answer 39

A Catholic belief in the existence of s state in which the souls of the dead were purged before they could enter heaven.

Question 40

Reformation

Answer 40

A sixteenth century movement opposing the Catholic Church.

Question 41

Renaissance

Answer 41

A cultural and intellectual movement, beginning in Italy, which emphasised a revival of classical learning and the arts.

Question 42

Retaining

Answer 42

A practice by which powerful nobles recruited knights and gentlemen to serve them directly – this often meant military service.

Question 43

Submission of the Clergy

Answer 43

The formal surrender of the Church’s independent law-making function.

Question 44

Subsidy

Answer 44

Historically, a grant issued by Parliament to the sovereign for state needs.

Question 45

Synod

Answer 45

A Church council that in this context would exist outside the official Church hierarchy.

Question 46

Tonnage and poundage

Answer 46

The right to raise revenue for the whole reign from imports and exports

Question 47

Transubstantiation

Answer 47

Catholic belief that the bread and wine changed into the body and blood of Christ when consecrated at Mass.