History key terms

The monarchy as an institution, including its powers, rights, lands and revenues, rather than simply the individual king.

A wetland region in eastern England which, in the eleventh century, contained marshes, waterways and islands of higher ground.

A landowning member of the Anglo-Saxon nobility, below an earl in rank.

Anglo-Saxon landholding nobles below earls in rank; they exercised local influence and provided military service.

Political groups supporting greater social and economic equality, including social democrats and communists in Germany.

The study of God, religious beliefs and religious teachings.

Public money used to help poorer Athenians pay for attendance at theatrical festivals.

Galen’s approach to treatment: use qualities opposite to those associated with the humour believed to be causing illness.

The belief that health depended on balancing four bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile.

A person paid to recover stolen property and sometimes deliver suspected thieves to the authorities.

A Viking assembly where free men discussed laws, settled disputes and made decisions.

The allegation that elements within South Africa’s security establishment secretly encouraged political violence to weaken the ANC and disrupt the transition.

A supporting frame used to hold a fractured leg steady and prevent complications caused by movement.

The policy associated with Laud and Strafford of strengthening royal authority through efficient, centralised administration and uncompromising enforcement.

Attempts to make people adopt officially approved beliefs and reject competing ideas, using education, pressure and punishment.

An enslaved person at the bottom of Viking society, without the freedom of a farmer or landowner.

An Athenian historian and general who wrote the History of the Peloponnesian War, an account of the conflict between Athens and Sparta which also investigates earlier Greek history.

A building whose main supporting structure is a framework of wooden posts and beams.

A portable dwelling made from hides stretched over wooden poles, used by many nomadic Plains peoples.

A payment to the Church of one-tenth of agricultural produce.

A group of ten adult men responsible for monitoring one another’s behaviour and bringing members accused of crimes to court.

The part of the 1964 US Civil Rights Act that prohibited employment discrimination on grounds including sex, covering hiring and promotion.

A small group of related families that formed the basic unit of Lakota society.

The Aztec rain god, believed to provide essential rainfall but also to send destructive weather.

An Aztec ruler who also commanded military campaigns.

The people of independent Tlaxcala, longstanding enemies of the Mexica who allied with Cortés after initially fighting his forces in 1519.

A charge paid to use a route, crossing or trading facility.

The political grouping that opposed exclusion and defended hereditary succession and royal authority.

A member or supporter of the political grouping that emerged during the succession crisis of 1679–1681, opposing James’s exclusion and defending hereditary succession and royal authority.

A system in which the ruling regime seeks to control political life and wider society, suppressing independent organisations and opposition.