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

Poppet
a little doll; this is also where we get the word "puppet"

Potage
soup

Praemunire
In England a charge of appealing to a foreign power, e.g. the Pope for matters in England that were under the King's jurisdiction. Henry used the charge and the threat of this charge to abrogate the English clergy's loyalty to the Pope after he asserted his supremacy over the Church of England.

Precontract
a previous contract, esp. one which bars the making of another, as, formerly, a betrothal, which in the Tudor era was as binding as marriage.

Private
Not open to the public. Both Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard were granted "private" executions inside the walls of the Tower of London complex. There were still, from various estimates, between several hundred to several thousand witnesses to their deaths, but common people and foreigners (like ambassadors) were kept out.

Privy Chamber
Private apartment

Privy/privee
in private, discreet, secretive

Purgatory
In Roman Catholic doctrine, a place of temporary punishment (as distinct from hell) where less serious (venial) unconfessed sins or imperfect contrition (being sorry not for the offense, but for fear of punishment) are expiated and the soul purified before entering heaven

Qualm
Meant "plague", from the original sense of death and destruction. Meaning had softened to "feeling of faintness" by 1530, and "unease or doubt" by 1553. "Scruple of conscience" doesn't show up until 1649.

Quit
free

Quoth
said

Reformation
An attempt begun by Martin Luther in 1517 to reform the abuses that were rife within the Roman Catholic Church and ending in separation of several reform groups from the Catholic Church; the basis of Protestantism.

Revelry
delight, pleasure

Ribaldry
coarse jesting

Rood
crucifix; often people would take an oath 'by the rood'.

Sad
Serious or sober

Salic Law
a law originating with the Salian Franks that excluded females from ruling a kingdom in their own right, among other rules affecting female inheritance. Oddly enough, England did not have that law, but the English people were distrustful of queens regnant, thus Henry's desperate quest for a male heir. In Spain, Salic law applied in Ferdinand's Aragon, but in Isabella's Castile, women could, as ...

Sanguine
in health: too much blood, in personality: ardent or hopeful

Secret
Henry VIII was said to have married several of his wives "secretly". This simply meant it wasn't announced to the public ahead of time, not that they were being sneaky or deceptive.

Silly
weak or deserving of pity

Simony
the sale of Church positions

Sire
father

Sobre, or sober
serious, grave

Sojourn
remain

Sooth/ soothly
truth, truly

Sorely
very

Strange
Back in Tudor times, it meant "not the usual" rather than "odd". When Queen Jane first became ill after Edward's birth, she had chills from her fever and severe gastrointestinal distress. Her ladies were accused of "letting her take cold and letting her eat strange foods", by which they meant letting Jane eat rich foods that were not her usual fare.

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

Sumptuary Laws
Laws which governed what each class could or could not wear and only persons of a certain rank could wear velvet or silk. Sumptuary laws are defined as "Laws made for the purpose of restraining luxury or extravagance, particularly against inordinate expenditures in the matter of apparel, food, furniture, etc." These laws dictated what color and type of clothing, furs, fabrics, and trims were all...

Sweating sickness
a virulent disease characterized by alternating bouts of cold chills and fever accompanied by excessive sweating and often resulting in death. The Sweat occurred in several epidemics between 1485 and 1551. Henry's older brother Arthur may have died of The Sweat. Henry lived in terror of it and fled the city whenever The Sweat emerged. Anne and George Boleyn became ill with it but survived. Anne'...

Swive
A Tudor-era slang term meaning to have sexual intercourse, and is related to the word "swivel", unsurprisingly.

Te Deum
To you O God (Latin) - sung in church

Tempest
storm

Tilting
see "jousting"

Tiltyard
Area where jousting took place.

Transubstantiation
Transubstantiation is the (usually Catholic) belief that the bread and wine of Communion become literally as well as spiritually the body and blood of Christ. Contrast this with Consubstantiation.

Trencher
a plate or bowl made of hard, stale bread

Troth
A phonetic variant of "truth", it's a promise, pledge, or vow.

Usury
Money lending with exorbitant, often illegally high rates of interest tacked on.

Varlet
Servant or attendant to a knight (related to the word 'vassal'). Meant rascal or rogue by 1550.

Vassal
a young man-servant, or squire, from 1300s sense of "a tenant who swears fealty to a lord."

Wardship
care and protection of a ward ; the right to the custody of an infant heir of a feudal tenant and of the heir's property. Wardships were valuable prizes bestowed by the king, upon deserving courtiers, e.g. Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, the boon companion of Henry VIII was granted the wardship of Catherine Willoughby, the daughter of Katharine of Aragon's Spanish lady in waiting, Maria de Sal...

Wench
girl or maid, female servant

Whelp
dog or a pup

Yeoman
free born servant