The Awful Secret

Glossary

ABJURER

A criminal or accused person who sought sanctuary in a church and then elected to ‘abjure the realm of England for ever’ to avoid being hanged, by confessing to the coroner. He had up to forty days sanctuary, then had to proceed on foot, dressed in sackcloth and carrying a wooden cross, to a port nominated by the coroner and take the first ship available. If there was a delay, he had to wade out up to his knees at every tide, to show his willingness to leave.

ALBIGENSIAN HERESY

See Cathars.

AMERCEMENT

An arbitrary fine imposed on a person or community by a law officer, for some breach of the complex regulations of the law. Where imposed by a coroner, he would record the amercement, but the collection of the money would be ordered by the king’s justices when they visited at the Eyre of Assize (qv).

APPROVER

An accused person who attempted to obtain mercy by implicating his accomplices, as in the modern ‘turning Queen’s evidence’. He had to confess to the coroner, then challenge his accomplices to trial by battle; if he won, he was freed.

ARCHDEACON

A senior cathedral priest, assistant to the Bishop. There were four in the diocese of Devon and Cornwall, one responsible for Exeter.

ASSART

A new piece of arable land, cut from the forest to enlarge the cultivated area of a manor.

ATTACHMENT

An order made by a law officer, including a coroner, to ensure that a person, whether suspect or witness, appeared at a court hearing. It resembled bail or a surety, distraining upon a person’s goods or money, which would be forfeit if he failed to appear.

AVENTAIL

A chain-mail armoured hood, similar to a balaclava, attached to the edge of the helmet and tucked into the neck of the hauberk (qv).

BAILEY

The outer enclosure of an early Norman ‘motte and bailey’ castle. An artificial mound was built and a wooden tower erected on top – the ‘donjon’ (qv), later called a ‘keep’. Around the base, usually asymmetrically, a ditch and stockade demarcated the bailey, in which a hall and other buildings for living quarters, stables, kitchens, etc were erected, the donjon being used in times of siege. Later, more complex castles had inner and outer bailies, such as Exeter’s Rougemont.

BAILIFF

Overseer of a manor or estate, directing the farming and administrative work. He might also investigate manorial disputes and crimes and hold the manor court. He would have reeves (qv) under him, and himself be responsible to the lord’s steward or seneschal (qv).

BALDRIC

A diagonal leather strap over the right shoulder of a Norman knight or soldier, to suspend his sword on the left hip.

BARON

Any major landowner, especially those powerful enough to have political influence. Often at loggerheads with the king, many barons, especially the Marcher Lords along the Welsh border, ran almost independent kingdoms.

BURGESS

A freeman of substance in a town or borough, usually a merchant or craftsman. A group of burgesses ran the town administration and elected two Portreeves (qv) as their leaders, later replaced by a mayor.

CANON

A priestly member of the Chapter of a cathedral, also known as a ‘prebendary’, as they received their income from a prebend, a grant of land or a pension. Exeter had twenty-four canons, most of whom lived near the cathedral, though unlike the majority of other cathedrals, the canons were paid a small salary and had a daily allowance of bread, candles etc. Many employed junior priests (vicars and secondaries) to carry out some of their duties.

CATHARS

People of south-western France in the 11th–13th centuries, who professed a ‘gnostic’ type of Christianity, also known as the Albigensian heresy, as they were centred around the town of Albi. They professed free-will and thought all material things were the produce of evil. They fell foul of the Roman Church and though the Templars seemed to have some sympathy with them, they were ruthlessly exterminated by the Inquisition on the orders of Pope Innocent III in the 13th century.

CHAPTER

The administrative body of a cathedral, composed of the canons (Prebendaries). They met daily to conduct business in the Chapter House, so called because a chapter of the Gospels was read before each meeting.

COG

A crude building material made from clay, dung, ferns etc, supported between a wooden framework.

COMMANDERY

The main Templar establishment in a country, such as at Paris or the New Temple in London, now used by the legal profession. It would be headed by a Master, the Grand Master being at Acre in the Holy Land, until expelled by the Saracen onslaught, when he moved to Cyprus. Lesser Templar establishments elsewhere in a country were called Preceptories.

CONSTABLE

Had several meanings, but here refers to the military commander of a castle, sometimes called a ‘castellan’. In royal castles, such as Exeter’s Rougemont, he was appointed by the king, to keep him independent of powerful local barons. On a lower plane, in towns and some manors, a constable was a law enforcer assisting the bailiff or burgesses.

CORONER

A senior law officer in a county, second only to the sheriff (qv). First established in September 1194, though there are a few mentions of the coroner in earlier times. Three knights and one clerk were recruited in every county, to carry out a wide range of legal duties. The name comes from custos placitorum coronae, meaning ‘Keeper of the Pleas of the Crown’, as he recorded all serious crimes, deaths and legal events for the King’s Justices.

COVER-CHIEF

Head-dress of a Norman lady, more correctly called a couvrechef. To Saxons it was called a ‘head-rail’ and consisted of a linen cloth held in place by a band around the forehead, the lower edge hanging down over the back and bosom.

CROFT

A small area of land around a village house (toft) for vegetables and a few livestock, used by the occupant (cottar) who was either a freeman (socman) or a bondsman (villein or serf).

CUIRASS

A short tunic, originally of thick, boiled leather but later of chain-mail or plate metal, to protect the chest in battle.

CURIA REGIS

The King’s Court or Council, his tenants-in-chief, composed of the most senior barons and churchmen, who offered advice and devised national policy. From this developed the great Offices of State, especially the courts.

CURRAGH

A Gaelic word for a boat of similar construction to a Welsh coracle, but dinghy-shaped instead of round. Though flimsily constructed of tarred hide stretched over thin wooden frames, it was used extensively for voyages as far afield as Brittany.

DEODAND

Literally ‘a gift from God’, it was the forfeiture of anything that had caused a death, such as a sword, a cart or even a mill-wheel. It might be confiscated by the coroner and sold for the Crown, but was sometimes given to the deceased’s family as compensation for the death.

DESTRIER

A war-horse, a large animal strong enough to carry an armoured knight. When firearms made armour obsolete, destriers became draught-animals, from whom carthorses are descended. Previously, ploughing and carting was carried out by oxen.

DONJON

The fortified tower on the motte in early Norman castles. Originally of wood, it was later replaced by masonry. The later word ‘dungeon’, meaning a prison cell, came from the lowest chamber in the donjon, where prisoners were incarcerated.

EYRE

A sitting of the Kings’ Judges, introduced by Henry II in 1166, which moved around the country in circuits. There were two types, the ‘Justices in Eyre’, the forerunner of the Assizes (now Crown Courts), which was supposed to visit frequently to try serious cases; and the General Eyre, which came at long intervals to scrutinise the administration of each county.

FIRST FINDER

The first person to discover the corpse of a slain person had to rouse the four nearest households and raise the ‘hue and cry’ to give chase to the culprit. Then the bailiff had to be notified and then the coroner. Failure to do so resulted in amercement (qv) by the coroner.

HAUBERK

Also called a ‘byrnie’, this was a chain-mail tunic with long sleeves, to protect the wearer from neck to calf. The skirt was slit to allow him to ride a horse. A metal plate was often secured over the front of the chest to further protect the heart.

HIDE

A medieval measure of land, which varied from place to place, but was usually 120 acres at the time of the Domesday survey, but later quoted at anything between 30 and 80 acres. A hide was supposed to be enough to support a family and was divided into four ‘virgates’. Another land measure was the ‘carucate’, about 100 acres, the area one ox team could plough in a season.

HONOUR

A holding of land by a lord from the King, a baron or the church. It might be a large estate or a single manor and many honours consisted of numerous, separate holdings spread over many counties. A manor might be one village or several, under the same lord, but some villages were split between different lords.

HUNDRED

An administrative sub-division of a county, originally supposed to consist of a hundred settlements.

JURY

Unlike modern juries, who must be totally impartial, having no prior knowledge of the case, medieval juries included witnesses, local people who were obliged to gather to tell what they knew about a crime or dispute. The coroner’s jury was supposed to be all the males over the age of twelve from the four nearest villages, though this was usually a practical impossibility.

JUSTICIAR

One of the King’s Chief Ministers in Norman times. In the reign of Richard I, the most effective was Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was his military second-in-command at the Third Crusade, before he returned home during the Lionheart’s imprisonment in Austria and Germany, to raise money for his ransom. Richard made him Chief Justiciar and Hubert virtually ruled the country after Richard’s permanent departure from England in May 1194, only two months after returning from captivity.

KIRTLE

A woman’s gown, worn to the ankles, with long sleeves, wide at the wrists, though fashions constantly changed. The kirtle was worn over a chemise, the only undergarment.

KNARR

An early medieval merchant ship, generally like a Viking longship, but much broader in the beam. It was partly decked with a single hold, mast and sail.

MANOR REEVE

A foreman appointed in every village, either elected by villagers or by the manorial lord. He oversaw the daily farm work and though illiterate like the vast majority of the population, he would keep records of crop rotation, harvest yields, tithes, etc, by means of his memory and notches on tally sticks.

MARK

A sum of money, though not an actual coin, as only pennies were in use. A mark was two-thirds of a pound, or thirteen shillings and fourpence (now equal to sixty-six decimal pence).

MOTTE

The artificial mound on which the wooden donjon (qv) was erected in early Norman castles, surrounded by the bailey (qv). An excellent Devon example is at Totnes.

MUTILATION

A common punishment for all kinds of offence, as a lesser alternative to hanging. Removal of a hand was the most frequent, but feet, tongues, ears and noses were also cut off, as well as blinding and castration.

ORDEAL

There were many types of legal Ordeal, supposed to be a test of guilt or innocence, such as walking over nine red-hot ploughshares, picking a stone from a barrel of boiling water or molten lead or being submerged in water. The ‘Ordeal of the Bier’ was to detect a murderer by making a suspect touch the bier on which the corpse laid, when the fatal wounds would begin to bleed again. This is mentioned by Shakespeare in Richard III, Act One.

OUTLAW

Literally, anyone outside the law, usually escaped prisoners or sanctuary seekers. They usually took refuge in the forests and lived by banditry, as in the tales of Robin Hood. Highway robbers were sometimes called ‘trail bastons’. Outlaws ceased to exist as legal persons and were considered ‘as the wolf’s head’, as they could be killed on sight by anyone, who could claim a bounty if they took the severed head to the sheriff or coroner.

OUTREMER

The four Christian kingdoms in the Levant at the time of the Crusades, including the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

PHTHISIS

Tuberculosis, rife in medieval times.

PORTREEVE

One of the two senior burgesses in a township, elected by the others as leaders. They were superseded by a mayor, the first mayor of Exeter being elected in 1208.

PRECENTOR

A senior canon in a cathedral, responsible for organising the religious services, singing etc.

PRECEPTORY

A Templar establishment (see Commandery).

PRESENTMENT OF ENGLISHRY

Following the 1066 Conquest, many Normans were covertly killed by aggrieved Saxons, so the law decreed that anyone found dead from unnatural causes was presumed to be a Norman, and the community was heavily punished by the ‘murdrum’ fine, unless they could prove that the deceased was Saxon. This was done before the coroner by male members of the family. This continued for several centuries, as a good source of revenue for the Treasury, even though it became meaningless so long after the Conquest, due to intermarriage.

SCILLY ISLES

A group of islands off Land’s End, noted for pirates in the Middle Ages. In 1208, over 100 pirates were hanged there at Tresco.

SECONDARY

A young priest, junior to a vicar (qv), who may also be an assistant to a canon (qv).

SERGEANT

Also spelt ‘serjeant’, has several meanings. A senior-man-at-arms, or a law officer in early times, below a bailiff in a town; also the squire of a Templar Knight, who wore brown or black.

SHERIFF

The ‘shire-reeve’, the King’s representative in each county, responsible for law and order and the collection of taxes. There was great corruption amongst sheriffs, and it was a much-sought-after appointment, large sums being paid for the post, due to the many opportunities for embezzlement.

SENESCHAL

See Steward.

SOCMAN

A freeman, as opposed to a bondsman. The latter consisted of villiens, serfs and slaves in descending order of servitude in the feudal system.

STEWARD

The senior servant of a lord, also called a seneschal. It could be a highly prestigious and responsible post, especially in a great house. The Stuart dynasty derived their name from being stewards.

SUMPTER HORSE

A pack animal, used for carrying loads rather than riding.

SURCOAT

Also called a ‘super-tunic’, it was worn over the tunic or over armour, where it protected the wearer from the sun on the metal and provided a site for heraldic emblems. The most famous was the white surcoat of the Knights Templar, with the characteristic broad red Cross.

TRAIL-BASTON

A highway robber, an outlaw (qv) who usually worked with a gang.

TUNIC

The main garment for a man, pulled over the head to reach the knee or calf. A linen shirt might be worn underneath and a cloak or mantle over it. The skirt was slit for riding a horse.

UNDERCROFT

The lowest level of a fortified building. The entrance to the rest of the structure was on the floor above, isolated from the undercroft, which might be partly below ground level. Removable wooden stairs prevented attackers from reaching the main entrance above.

VICAR

A priest employed by a more senior cleric, such as a canon (qv) to carry out some of his religious duties, especially attending the numerous services in the cathedral. Often called a vicar-choral, from his participation in chanted services.

WATTLE & DAUB

A common medieval building technique, where clay or plaster is applied over a woven framework of hazel withies.