The urban-based middle class between the wealthy aristocracy and the working class.
Associations of artisans and merchants intended to protect and promote affairs of common interest.
An arrangement in which vassals were protected and maintained by their lords, usually through the granting of fiefs, and required to serve under them in war.
A term initiated by William I to designate feudal vassals who held lands in return for service and loyalty to the king.
A trade network of allied ports along the North Sea and Baltic coasts, founded in 1256.
The law of the church.
A representative assembly in England that, by the fourteenth century, was composed of great lords (both lay and ecclesiastical) and representatives from two other groups: shire knights and town burgesses.
An economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.
The act or ceremony of crowning a sovereign.
The native, common spoken language of a particular region.
The period 1378-1417, marked by divided papal allegiances in Latin Christendom.
Those countries professing Christian beliefs under the primacy of the pope.
.png){kind=icon}