AQA GCSE History key terms

Soldiers who fight on horseback.

An agreement to stop fighting; it does not necessarily settle the underlying political disputes.

Remaining unmarried and abstaining from sexual relationships, as required of clergy under Church rules.

The examination and restriction of material by authorities before it can be communicated to the public.

A formal expression of disapproval by an organisation. The US Senate censured Joseph McCarthy in December 1954.

A pit used to collect sewage and other waste.

A royal official who headed the chancery, which produced royal documents and used the king’s Great Seal to authenticate them.

A document granting specified rights or privileges, such as permission for a town to hold a market.

A nineteenth-century movement that campaigned for the six political reforms set out in the People’s Charter.

A form of slavery in which the law treats enslaved people as property.

The Bolshevik secret police, established in December 1917 to combat counter-revolution and used to arrest, imprison and execute suspected opponents.

The treatment of cancer using drugs that kill cancer cells or slow their growth.

A chemical whose vapour was used as a general anaesthetic. James Simpson demonstrated its anaesthetic effects in 1847.

A bacterial disease usually spread through water or food contaminated with infected human faeces. Severe diarrhoea can cause fatal dehydration.

A court exercising the Church’s legal authority, separate from ordinary secular courts.

The US Central Intelligence Agency, which gathers intelligence and carries out secret operations overseas.

The movement of blood around the body, driven by the heart.

A voyage all the way around the world.

Deliberately breaking a law or refusing to obey an official requirement as a form of protest.

Freedoms such as freedom of speech, conscience, assembly and association, which protect people’s ability to express beliefs and organise.

Rights protecting people's equal treatment and participation in society, including access to education, employment and voting.

A war between opposing groups within the same country.

A person who argues that they have a right to a position, such as the throne.

Four parliamentary acts passed between 1661 and 1665 to enforce Anglican conformity and restrict religious dissent.

People holding religious offices in the Church, including priests and bishops.

An employment arrangement requiring workers to belong to a particular trade union.

A reformed Benedictine order associated with the monastery of Cluny in France and introduced into England under Norman rule.