seen. The title ‘Earl Marshal of England’, an honour now held by the Dukes of Norfolk, originates from his name.
A now extinct breed of dog, thought to be the ancestor of large modern breeds, such as mastiffs. They were used to hunt large animals, including bears and boar, and as guard dogs.
The Maltese cross, also known as the Amalfi cross, is the symbol associated with the Knights Hospitaller (the Knights of Malta) and with the island of Malta.
The House of Anjou, usually referred to simply as the Angevins, was a noble family of Frankish origin that emerged as the rulers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of England in the twelfth century.
Through the marriage of Geoffrey of Anjou to the Empress Matilda, the family achieved control of England and Normandy, and the marriage of Geoffrey’s son Henry II (Curtmantle) to Eleanor of Aquitaine expanded the family’s holdings into what was later termed the Angevin Empire.
After King John lost the Angevins’ continental territory, along with Anjou itself, to the Capetians (Kings of France), in 1204, the family became known as the House of Plantagenet, adopting Geoffrey’s nickname, and ruled England until the reign of Richard II, after which the succession was disputed by two cadet branches, the House of Lancaster and the House of York.
Although Richard the Lionheart’s army in the Third Crusade is usually referred to as the ‘English’ army, it was in fact an Angevin army and would have contained many more from south of the Channel than from north of it.
The capture of the great fortress of Antioch was vital to the success of the First Crusade – without control of Antioch, the crusaders could not have moved on to Jerusalem. The siege lasted for seven and a half months, and conditions for the crusaders were often worse than for those inside the city. Located in the valley of the Orontes, in mountainous country, the city itself was on the valley floor, with the almost impregnable citadel high in the mountains above. Antioch finally fell on 9 February 1098.
Apoplexy was the word used for centuries to describe sudden loss of consciousness and death. Strokes and heart attacks would often have been described as apoplexy in the past.
An arbalest (or arbelist) is one who shoots a crossbow. The term can also be applied to the bow itself. An arbalest was much larger than earlier crossbows and had greater tensile strength, giving it a greater force. The strongest windlass-pulled arbalests could be accurate up to 300 yards. A skilled arbalest could shoot two bolts per minute. Arbalest is a medieval French corruption from the Roman name
The Artuqid dynasty was a Turcoman dynasty that ruled in Eastern Anatolia, Northern Syria and Northern Iraq in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
The origins of the Order of Assassins can be traced back to around 1080. The order’s first Grandmaster, Hassan-i Sabbah, was a passionate devotee of Isma’ili beliefs. Because of the unrest in the Holy Land caused by the Crusades, Hassan-i Sabbah found himself not only fighting other Muslims, but also the invading Christian forces.
The name ‘Assassins’ may have come from the Arabic
An astrolabe, from the Greek
Atabeg, Atabek or Atabey, the equivalent of a prince, is an hereditary title of nobility of Turkic origin, indicating the lord of a region or province, usually subordinate to a monarch.
The Anglo-Saxon name for the heir to the throne. Interestingly, the name ‘Clito’ – as in William Clito, the son of Robert, Duke of Normandy, and claimant to the English throne – was a Latin version of the same thing. The Germanic form was ‘Adelin’ – as in William Adelin, the son of King Henry I (Beauclerc) and heir to the throne, who drowned in 1120.
Attar of roses, or rose oil, is a fragrant oil distilled from fresh petals of the rose family. Rose oils are a valuable ingredient of fine perfumes, liqueurs, scenting ointments and toilet preparations.
See ‘motte and bailey’.
The earliest printed version of ‘The Ballad of Robyn of Hode’ appeared sometime after 1492, called a ‘Gest of Robyn Hode’, a printed version of an old ballad which told of the bravado of heroic outlaws who fought for the oppressed and downtrodden. The earliest handwritten version is called ‘Robin Hood and the Monk’. It is preserved in manuscript form at Cambridge University. Written around 1450, it contains many of the elements still associated with the legend. Several historians argue that at least part of the folklore associated with the story of Robin Hood may have been inspired by the deeds of Hereward of Bourne (also known as ‘The Wake’).
A gold coin from the Byzantine Empire.
Blackletter, also known as Gothic script or Gothic minuscule, was a script used throughout western Europe from approximately 1100 until well into the seventeenth century. Blackletter is sometimes called Old English.
Bloody flux is the old name for dysentery, an inflammatory disorder of the intestine. It results in severe diarrhoea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces, with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery is often fatal.
A bodkin is a type of arrowhead, a squared metal spike used extensively during the Middle Ages. The name comes from the Old English word
Bolton Priory flourished until the early fourteenth century, when Scottish raiders caused serious structural damage to the priory, resulting in the temporary abandonment of the site. Building work was still going on when the Dissolution of the Monasteries resulted in the termination of the priory in 1539. The east end remains in ruins. The nave of the abbey church was in use as a parish church from about 1170 onwards. It survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries and is still used to this day.
Braies are a type of pantaloon worn in the Middle Ages. In the later Middle Ages they were used exclusively as undergarments. Braies generally hung to the knees or mid-calf, resembling what are today called shorts. They
