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The Tudors Wiki - Tudors Glossary Category: History and Culture > Medieval terms Date & country: 29/04/2011, UK Words: 145

Act of Attainder
In English legality, a person condemned for a serious crime such as treason could be declared "attainted", i.e. 'stained' by the court, thus depriving him/her of all civil rights such as owning property or willing it to his/her family. The property of the condemned was thus forfeit to the King as well as any titles and privileges, i.e. wardships, incomes, etc. Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, M...

Act of Succession (1534)
Passed in 1534, the Act validated the marriage of Henry and Anne, declared their offspring heirs to the throne, and effectively excluded Mary from the succession. The Act was required to be sworn to by the taking of an Oath supporting the provisions of the Act including Henry's supremacy over the Church in England. It was the refusal to take this Oath that resulted in Thomas More, John Fisher, Pr...

Almoner
a church official whose duty it was to distribute charity (alms) Thomas Wolsey had once been Henry VIII's almoner, that is, he oversaw the distribution of alms on his behalf.

Amiss
wrong, strange, incorrect

Anon
at once, immediately, straight away

Apothecary
An Apothecary dispensed medicines derived from herbs, plants and roots. The apothecary was a less expensive alternative to a physician in Tudor times and was often the only source of medical care for the poor; he was usually a priest or friar.

Arras
A tapestry wall hanging

Bard
a poet or singer. A term of contempt among the Scots, who considered them to be itinerant troublemakers, but a term of great respect among the Welsh.

Bawdes
pimps

Betroth
to promise to wed. A phonetic variation of "by truth". See also "troth" and "plight"

Bible
book

Bodkin
a dagger; also a long pin or needle-shaped instrument for fastening clothing or pinning up hair.

Boggard, latrine, garderobe
a privy

Bonaire
cheerful and pleasant; it was a part of a wife's vows to promise to be "bonaire and buxom in bed and at board"

Bord
dinner table

Boss
a fat woman

Botcher
a mender of old clothes

Buxom
obedient, lively, yielding

Cake
loaf of bread

Carl
a fellow

Carpet-Knight
a contemptuous term for a knight whose achievements belong to the carpet of a lady's boudoir rather than the field of battle

Changeling
a half-witted person. Also, in European folklore, a faery or troll child that is left in the place of a human child taken. At first, the changeling looks just like the taken child, but gradually, its true (nonhuman) nature becomes apparent.

Chapman
a merchant

Clenchpoop
a contemptuous term for a lout or clown

Close Stool
a cabinet with a seat and cover that held a chamber pot. A gentleman of the privy chamber attended the king when he answered the call of nature on his close stool.

Closet
As in The King's Closet, or The Queen's Closet - a small room used as a private chapel or prayer-room. Henry VIII married Jane Seymour in The Queen's Closet at Whitehall Palace.

Cloth of estate
a canopy made of cloth that hung above and behind a person of importance or nobility and royalty.

Cockshut time
twilight

Cod
a bag

Codpiece
an inverted triangular piece of material sewn into the hose around a man's groin and held closed by string ties. Later it would become padded and boned and over sized and used to carry a small weapon or jewels. (hence the term "family jewels").

Cod's-head
a stupid fellow, a block head

Consubstantiation
Consubstantiation is the (usually Protestant) belief that the bread and wine of Communion are spiritually the body and blood of Christ, yet are still literally only bread and wine. Contrast this with Transubstantiation.

Cornet
long piece of black material which hung down the back from a headdress/hood.

Court holy-water
a proverbial phrase for flattery in fine words without deeds

Coxcomb
a fool's cap

Daffysh
foolish

Dagonet
a foolish young knight

Dalliance
a flirtation

Dame
mother

Derrick
a hangman

Diego
common name for a Spaniard

Dispensation
An exemption granted from a rule or obligation. In the case of Katharine of Aragon and Henry the exemption from the Biblical prohibition on marriage between a brother-in-law and a sister- in-law was granted by Pope Julius II.

Doublet
a tight-fitting jacket

Doxy
a vagabond's mistress

Duckies
breasts; Henry in one of his letters to Anne Boleyn refers to her "pretty duckies"

Dutch Widow
a prostitute

Farthingale
a hoop worn beneath the skirt. Also referred to as Verdingales.

Favors
Ladies of court sometimes gave knights "favors," usually a scarf or a ribbon, during jousting. It demonstrated that the lady's luck, or favor, was with him.

Fealty
fidelity, loyalty, and faithfulness

Fingle-fangle
a trifle

Flat cap
a London citizen

Foolscap
a type of paper, originally watermarked by a jester's cap

Fopdoodle
a simpleton

Forepart:
that piece of the underskirt that is revealed through the inverted V opening in the front of the Kirtle.

Galliard
quick and lively, also the name of a dance done in triple time

Gay
bright

Gentil, or gentle
Noble, refined. Now often "genteel"

Girdle
belt

Good fellow
a thief

Goodly
gladly

Gorebelly
fat paunch

Hap
chance or fortune. By chance (mayhap), by good fortune (hap'ly, now 'happily')

Harlot
rascal, buffoon, jester; servant. Related to the word varlet.

Hench boy
a page

Hochepot
a mixture, referring originally to a soup or stew. This is where we get the modern term "hodgepodge"

Hose
clothing for the legs and loins

Impertinent
Irrelevant. The sense of irreverent, or rudely bold, isn't seen until 1681.

Incubus
An incubus is a male evil spirit that copulates with women in their sleep. See also succubus. Modern theories for the origins of this belief often cite a medieval "preoccupation" with sin (and sex) and the need the "explain" sexual dreams or nocturnal emissions.

Indulgences
a remittance of time in purgatory for imperfect contrition of venial ( less serious) sins in Roman Catholic doctrine. This could be accomplished by prayers to God for the soul of a deceased person, or Masses or good works offered on behalf of the soul of a deceased person, one of the reasons that people left bequests to abbeys or churches for prayers or masses for their souls.

Infante (masc.)
Spanish word for for the child of a monarch. Princess/prince; Katharine of Aragon was an Infanta of Aragon and Castile

Ire
anger, irritability, the deadly sin of wrath

Jangler
chatterer, loud talker, teller of dirty stories

Jangles
gossip

Jape
to jest or joke

Jerkin
a jacket worn over the doublet

Jigmaker
a ballad writer

Jobbernowl
a jocular term for the head, usually connoting stupidity

Jointure
an arrangement usually concluded during marriage negotiations whereby a man set aside property to be used for the support of his wife after his death. Many women had to fight for their jointures after the deaths of their husbands. Mary Howard was said to hold a grudge against her father, the Duke of Norfolk, for failing to defend her jointure with the King after the death of her husband, Henry's ...

Joust
one to one combat

Jousting
A Medieval/Renaissance amusement where two men on horseback charge at each other with lances. For each hit, a point is awarded, and if a player was unseated, his opponent won the game.

Kill-cow
a butcher, a murderous fellow, a great fighter

Kim-kam
crooked, perverse

Kirtle
consisted of a bodice and skirt sewn together and fell in ample folds which trailed on the ground.

Knacker
a harness maker

Leche, or leech
physician, healer

List
to please, wish, or desire; to want (see Thomas Wyatt Poetry page -" who list to hunt") from the sense of list = tilting or leaning toward

Luxury
lechery

Maidenhead
virginity

Mayhap
maybe, perhaps

Mead
An alcoholic drink made from fermented honey

Methinks
Another way to say "I think."

Mummery
a performance of Mummers (masked or costumed merrymakers/actors)

New Learning, the
Humanism; the study of the ancient writers on every aspect of life spread throughout Europe by the invention of the printing press making such studies available to more of the population. Both Queen Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn were patrons of the New Learning.

Oratory
a chapel

Papal Bull
a decree from the Pope

Paramour
mistress, concubine

Partlet
a high necked chemise

Physick/phisik
a medicine, especially a purgative

Plight
pledge or promise. This meaning is now used only in the archaic "I plight thee my troth." ('I pledge you my vow' or 'I give you my promise')

Poke
bag, sack ( "pig in a poke")